A HIERARCHY OF LOVE

The Chaplain prayed for the young soldier who was about to begin his first tour of duty in Afghanistan. ‘I’ll be back in three months time,’ said the young man. ‘God will watch over me.’ And sure enough, the soldier did return, unharmed and untouched by war. ‘I told you I’d be back,’ he said. ‘I knew my heavenly Father would care for me.’

Isn’t that wonderful? Actually I don’t think it is, in my view it’s drivel, and worse, it’s insensitive, sentimental drivel. How do the families of the three hundred soldiers who didn’t make it back home feel when one returns from war, safe and sound saying, ‘God cared for me’? Don’t they hear themselves also saying, ‘He didn’t care for you. I’m special’?

 

There’s something about that mindset that’s self-righteous, exclusive, it limits God’s love to a chosen few. I saw another version of it recently when I read an obituary in a popular Christian magazine; ‘On January 21 2010, in a quiet graveyard in County Cork, the mortal remains of one of God’s choicest saints were laid to rest.’ That’s the sort of statement that makes you want to go, ‘Aw, isn’t that nice,’ but it’s not nice, for it creates a hierarchy of love that doesn’t exist in God’s family. It promotes the belief that the harder we try, the more God will love us; the more we do the greater our reward, but it doesn’t work like that.

 

I’m constantly amazed at the number of Christian ‘ministries’ there are in the world, many I have worked with, many more I haven’t, and they’re all different, all with varying emphases. Some feed hungry children, some deal with ‘inner healing,’ others distribute Bibles to hostile regions of the planet. But if I were ever to launch my own ministry there’s only one I’d want to model mine on. It’s called Shiloh Place, founded by the late Jack Frost, a remarkable man whose driving passion in life was to tell of the limitless and unconditional love of the Father. It was he who taught me that the entire Christian way of life can be summed up in eight words; ‘receive the Father’s love, and pass it on.’

 

Thus the first hurdle is to receive the Father’s love, to come to the place where we recognise that there’s nothing we can do to earn it, or reduce it, or increase it. God is love, and we cuddle into him, we rest in him, allow him to embrace us, just as we are, no need to clean ourselves up first. The second hurdle isn’t a hurdle when we clear the first one, we simply pass his love on; no competition, no favourites, no performance, no lists of rules, no judging or comparing. It’s as natural as breathing; breathe in the Father’s love, breathe out the Father’s love.

 

Isn’t that amazing? And wouldn’t it solve all the problems of the world in an instant; child prostitution, human trafficking, drugs abuse, greed and poverty, the production of weapons of mass destruction and every form of exploitation. But will it ever happen? Christians believe it will in the sweet bye and bye, but it can begin today, with you, and with me.