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Back issues - series 2 issues 1-5 Back issues - series 1 issues 1-9
Issue 4. Give in to the background love Issue 5. Struggling to see clearly
They asked God: "Who are you?" "Who are you?" – as a question, it’s a bit blunt to ask to somebody’s face. And yet, when it comes down to it, it’s something that we’re all very interested in: each other’s identity. Who is this person I’m talking to? How do they fit in? Is he an enemy or a friend? Is she more powerful than me or lower down the pecking order? Identity is a funny thing. It has many levels to it. I can identify myself by what job I do, where I live, whether I’m married or single, where I fit within my family, what my nationality is, what team I support, what car (if any) I drive, what music I listen to. The list could go on and on. Each of these ‘identifiers’ is just a piece of the jigsaw, identifying me as me. Sometimes our ‘identifiers’ compete for priority eg do I love being a ‘Cantabrian’ so much that I would pass up a promotion at work which took me to Auckland? Do I love being an ABBA fan so much that I distance myself from my friends who are into Eminem? Do I love being a (rich) sailor so much that I would compete against my home country in a yacht race? A good question for us to ask ourselves is: How does our identity as a Christian rank in the priority list? What I’d like to do is throw out some thoughts on this, and consider how we identify ourselves as Christians in relation to God, in relation to other Christians, and in relation to non-Christians. So expect to see a few emails on this over the next wee while (I’m aiming to send something out every couple of weeks). It’s a good topic to think about, because it’s a biggee!
"No, Groucho is not my real name. I’m breaking it
in for a friend." As we consider our identity as Christians, the best place to start would seem to be to consider it from the angle of who we are in relation to God. I was reading through the gospel of John on this subject and one of
the things that struck me was that the word NAME is used about twenty
times (Jesus said things like: ‘protect them in your name’,
‘Father glorify your name’, ‘ask in my name’). To believe
in the name of Jesus (Jn 1:12) is often seen in evangelical circles as
the defining point of what it means to be a Christian. But what does it
actually mean? Something that is helpful to me in answering this question is to think about how a name functions in our world. When we hear a name, what often comes to mind is a collection of attributes that we associate with that name (eg think of Nike , the All Blacks, James Bond). A name is like a shorthand version of everything that person/company/team is. So too with Jesus. Jesus lived a certain lifestyle; he valued some things more than others; he did some things and didn’t do other things; he made some claims about who he was and about the direction that life was heading in; and he called people to walk with him into this future. All of this is caught up like shorthand in the ‘name of Jesus’. So when the gospels call people to believe in Jesus’ name, they are inviting us to identify ourselves with everything about him by sharing in his name. It’s not like joining an indoor netball team, or becoming a member of a political party, or starting work with a company. It’s more like signing our own adoption papers, agreeing to become new and permanent members of a family. We are invited into something that fundamentally affects who we are. And so it needs to fundamentally affect how we view ourselves.
Issue 3. We belong
" I mustn’t go on singling out names. One must not be a
name-dropper, as Her Majesty remarked to me yesterday." Norman St John Stevas (1929– ) British
politician Let’s start with some trivia. Did you know that in John’s gospel the word SON occurs almost 60 times and the word FATHER occurs more than 120 times? That’s quite a lot in 21 chapters! I don’t know about you, but when I read them in the gospel I often forget that these are actually family words. The gospel is full of it. And as John 1:12 points out, it’s not just all about the ‘God-family’ relationship between Jesus and the Father; we too are invited to become members of this family of God. But exactly what sort of family are we invited into? We get an insight when Jesus prays to God in Gethsemene, calling him ‘Abba, Father’. A helpful chap called Jurgen Moltmann points out the following: In Aramaic, ‘Abba’ is baby language. It is the word children use for their original person of reference. Whether it be mother or father, the important point is the sheltering, intimate closeness on which the child's basic trust depends. So when Jesus calls God ‘Abba’ he is not emphasising the masculinity of a Father God or the sovereignty of a Lord God. The stress lies on the unheard of closeness in which he experiences the divine mystery. This ‘unheard of closeness’ becomes accessible to us because we now also belong to this family. At present we only occasionally get a fleeting taste of this tenderness. But when we have given our best shot at this life, we will be going home to be with God forever, where we will continually experience what it means to be deeply and richly loved members of God’s family. There will be a place for us at the dinner table. We don’t come in as invited guests; we come in as family - part of the furniture. We don’t need to be on our best behaviour; we just need to be us, because we have nothing to prove. We are family. What a great thing it is to belong to something like this! SO when Jesus calls us to faith, his call is for us to dare to believe that this all might just be true. That the invitation to join in really is for us (and not ‘someone else’). That we really might belong to something as big and ‘unbelievably’ good as this. And with this fragile but deep sense of belonging within us, that we might begin to grow into the family likeness. Next time I’d like to consider some of the implications of this.
Issue 4. Give in to
the background love
" To lose yourself, and not feel you’re abandoned. " Background Love" Last time I wrote, I talked about the ‘unheard of closeness’ that we can have as dearly loved members of God’s family. Rather recklessly, God has adopted us in as full family members. God thinks we are special. God tells us we belong. So what do we do with this? What difference should it make to the way
we live? I remember when I was growing up, one day my dad came home from work and pulled a couple of softball gloves out of his bag. I asked ‘who’s are those?’ and he said ‘they’re for you’. As we started to throw the ball about, I was really struck with this gift. It wasn’t Christmas or my birthday. It was just a random sign that he had been thinking about me. That he cared for me. That I was worth buying a softball glove for! It seems something small now, but at the time it made me feel special. It reminded me that I was loved. In God’s eyes, you and I are special. God thinks about us lots. We
are deeply loved (and there are plenty of 'softball gloves' on offer). So relax! You have nothing to prove to God. Don’t even try to earn your place, because you could never do it (the price tag of belonging is way too high) and it only belittles God's gift if you try to offer him something for it. Sure, be very very thankful. But just relax. And just be you. To once again steal the last
words from Mr Dobbyn’s song:
Issue 5. Struggling to see clearly
"If you don't stand for
something, you'll fall for anything." Last time I wrote, I suggested that one implication of belonging to
God’s family was that we needed to just relax as full family members. We
have nothing to prove. The gospel of Jesus is not the only ‘message of hope’ we hear in our world today. When I turn on the tv, open a magazine, walk into a shopping mall, or even when I visit some friends in their house I am bombarded with messages. The messages tell me that owning that car will make me powerful, or wearing this label of clothing will put me in amongst the hip and cool, or using that telephone company will somehow bring about world peace and feelgood harmony. And on and on. We live in a world where much is promised. The answer to all our problems can be found in acquiring an assortment of goods and services, from holiday houses to toothpaste. This is our salvation. The Promised Land is just over the horizon (ie post-purchase). You see, there is no neutral, value-free space. We literally face competing views of ‘the road to salvation’ every day (listen closely to the tv or magazine ads next time you have the chance and you’ll see what I mean). With these loud alternative messages ringing in our ears, it’s not easy to believe that God really loves and accepts me as family; that the possessions I have and my social status are of no worth when it comes to measuring true success in life; that sacrificial giving for others is somehow better than receiving. But it’s true. God goes with us into the complicated mess that we call life; he doesn’t leave us at the church door or when we close our bibles or when we say ‘amen’. God is with us. Our challenge is to find him in our everyday, and to let him guide our thinking, our deciding, our acting. To do this we need to work hard. We need the regular encouragement and inspiration of others also on the road. We need to keep the biblical stories of God’s interaction with people current in our minds and hearts. We need to ask God for eyes and ears to see and hear what is true. The alternative is that we swim with the tide out to the sea leading to nowhere. What good is it if you gain the whole world but forfeit your very life? The price of living this ‘other gospel’ is just too high.
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