| God as Boogeyman - A Response |
In “Faith Must Be Lived, Practiced” James Breckenridge shared observations and analysis regarding an old evangelism strategy that has never been appealing and has long ceased to be effective. This strategy portrays God as a sort of ‘boogeyman’ in order to instill the ‘fear of God.’ To threaten with God’s judgement in order to win others for the Christian faith is problematic because it makes those who proclaim this judgement appear as ‘better’ and as above judgement for they ‘have Jesus’ (I prefer to think that Jesus has me). The strategy is also largely ineffective because it is not persuasive in a pluralistic society in which many people don’t believe in God at all, or have created their own image of God. Besides, most biblical threats of judgement are directed at those ‘on the inside’ not those ‘on the outside’.
Thus, it won’t come as a surprise to you that I dislike columns that parade God's (the church's?, the writer's?) big stick. If God is indeed love then it is difficult to reconcile ‘God as boogeyman’ with the God on the cross who forgave those who crucified him without them even asking. Not that everything in the Bible is easy to reconcile, there is plenty of room for both the mystery of God and human experience. However, if my primary image of God is that of a wrathful God that I have to appease in order to ‘make it’, then this also carries two theological assumptions. a) It turns faith into a transaction: God will love me if and for as long as I do and say the right things. Yet the Bible says that God loves humanity precisely despite what we do and say. b) Salvation becomes mine to work out and to accomplish, it is no longer an unmerited gift, no longer grace.
The whole question of grace is a difficult one. Lutherans assert a primacy of grace (and we would like to believe that we have the theological monopoly on it). But when does grace become cheap (a term Dietrich Bonhoeffer coined)? Bonhoeffer says that cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without preaching penance, baptism without discipline, absolution without confession. That may make us feel uncomfortable but remember that most preaching is done to the faithful. I think it also resonates with what James (Breckenridge) would like all of us be concerned about: Those who are at the margins, those who are in need, not just showing up in church but worshipping God with all we are, do, have, and say. Therefore, if our faith is real, then it must be transformative. And transformative means that it is more than a mere transaction. I say all this recognizing that Christians are always a work in progress.
Our age is disenchanted with many institutions and the church is no exception. That religion is met with much prejudice is not undeserved. I don’t have a particular problem with people pointing out the faults of the church, because there are many. I personally have many faults, too. Why should the church be any different? But even when dealing with religion we do well to remember that prejudice is not fact.
That being said, I would define spirituality as our inclination, as part of our being, as an undefined longing for God, sometimes described as a ‘longing for more’. Yet beyond that, ‘spirituality’ lacks a common expression. So, when people say they are ‘spiritual but not religious’ it can mean any number of things, depending on the individual. It can well exhaust itself in admiring the sunset and have as its only purpose the gentle stroking of my own soul. Feeling spiritual does not mandate a sense of social responsibility. This, of course, is not to claim any moral superiority of people who belong to a community of faith.
Faith is more than the oral profession of a world view but a trust and a relationship with God. I believe that God is my beginning and my end and that I am the means to God ends, not God the means to my ends. God’s ends are mercy, justice, and salvation for all. The thing with the church is that it holds us accountable. You could call it something else, but it wouldn’t change the basic premise that being accountable to God means to be accountable to one another. In this the church also offers us the gift of community. Pretty much every other community I belong to I belong to because of similar age and social status. In the church we practice to be brothers and sisters with people unlike us, sometimes with people we don’t even like. We learn to emulate God in showing grace in our relationships. It sounds to me that God not only loves the world but has a sense of humour, too.
Yours,
Pastor Christoph
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| Posted by J. Christoph Reiners on Thursday, October 08, 2009 at 10:09
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