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I LOVE YOU IF.
And so we deceive as we have been deceived. Our unspoken, 'I'll love you if .' is interpreted by our children as, 'God loves you if .'
The twenty-something year old stumbled and weaved his way precariously across a six-lane highway in Columbus Ohio - making it to the other side more by luck than good judgement. His name was Brennan Manning, and he felt happy and secure so long as he had his pint bottle of vodka in his hip pocket. Suddenly he emerged from his alcoholic fog just long enough to spot a happy looking couple as they approached him. He tells how they were 'kissy-facing and huggy-bearing' - until they noticed Brennan.
'I'd been on a twelve-day binge,' he says. 'Unshaven, matted hair, filthy clothes, rancid with B.O. - I didn't deserve to be with decent people.' As the young couple averted their eyes and slipped past him maintaining their safe distance, Brennan was enduring the loneliest moment of his entire life.
These days, he's a respected preacher and prolific writer, but the thing that sets him apart from almost every preacher I have ever heard or read is this; he recognises that God loved him as much then in his state of disgrace as he does now in his state of grace. That's very profound, and while most of us would give some sort of intellectual assent to it, if you're anything like me, the head knowledge takes a long time to move down the 18 inches or so to become heart knowledge - but Brennan Manning is helping me.
I sometimes wonder if we can ever fully embrace that most remarkable aspect of the character of God; he loves unconditionally. But then again, his love for us is so incredible that the Bible describes it as beyond human understanding - 'it passes knowledge.' I think our up bringing has much to do with it. For example, I remember my oldest son panicking ever so slightly as he prepared for his 11+ (school exam).
In a thoughtless attempt to motivate and encourage the boy I heard myself saying, 'If you pass your 11+ we'll go to London for the weekend. We'll visit the Houses of Parliament and Madame Tussaud's. We'll eat pizzas until they come out of our ears and we'll stay in a fancy hotel.' But almost instantly as his little eyes widened in anticipation, it dawned on me what I was really saying. I was telling my boy that if he didn't pass I wouldn't take him to London and lavish my love and attention on him - and that's the cruelty of our meritocratic world system - you get what you deserve. Needless to say I quickly capitulated - 'We'll have a fantastic time in London, pass or fail,' and we did.
And so we deceive as we have been deceived. Our unspoken, 'I'll love you if .' is interpreted by our children as, 'God loves you if .' - and that is so wrong. It seems to me that men have built the church on a foundation that is indistinguishable from the hierarchical and competitive principles of Western Capitalism. Now if you and I want to adhere to Western Capitalist principles, that's fine - actually it's not, but that's for another day. But meanwhile, don't present God as one who is more inclined to approve of people because they are wealthy, respectable, religious and middle-class, than he is of people who repose at the bottom of the pile. Those are our values, not God's.
Middle-class religion can be very selective in its view of the life and ministry of Christ. It's interesting that in Jesus' first public address he quoted from Isaiah 61;
' The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is upon me, because the LORD has appointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to comfort the broken-hearted and to announce that captives will be released and prisoners will be freed .'
Who was he targeting? The poor, the broken-hearted, the captives, the prisoners, those covered in the ashes of shame, and those who mourned.
Tell me this, when did you ever see an Archbishop trekking around a dank, midnight, inner-city, engaging with social outcasts? When did you last see any church leader do that? - and if you can think of one or two, well so can I, but they are the exception rather than the rule.
How can we share the unconditional love of God if we're not prepared to show it? Raises another question, how can we show it if we don't know it? Brennan Manning knows it, and I'm still struggling to grasp it. The fact I'm trying to get my head around is that God loves the likes of me so much that he'd rather die than be without us - and he did.
Copyright Adam Harbinson © ^top |
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