MY CONTENTION (6)

But it's all coming apart!

Freedom in Christ means that any human being can find their origin, purpose and destiny, and live a full and abundant life, fully immersed in all that Jesus has accomplished for us.  But...

 

And this is the third ‘but’: it’s all coming apart.  And it is no wonder, since it is now and always has been, an illusion; a dose of opium so we don’t have to think about things too much or so we can escape the madness all around us.  So let me express this ‘but’ as a “what if” scenario: what if all the religious ideas of heaven and hell (and their numerous variations) and what happens to us when we die, are all wrong?

It seems to me that this lies at the crux – the nub – of all our religion.  And our central problem – our central mania – is hubris: actions of excessive pride and self-confidence.  We know it all and we must be in control – of both this life and what we perceive follows this life when we die.  All manner of theories that we are prepared to die and to kill for have taken over our collective consciousness and driven us to maniacally evangelise the world with our pet theories.  “Listen to me, I’m telling you the truth, do this and you will burn in hell; do that and you will go to heaven or paradise or to a better reincarnation.”

I learned a long time ago that the relationship God wants us to have with Him is a living and present relationship that is about life now; any life beyond that – which we know almost nothing about – is coincidental.  I learned to stop focusing on what happens when I die and focus fully on what happens while I’m alive as I live as a son of God my Father (as He promised in Jesus) and as a living continuation of my elder brother Jesus, in this life, here and now.  Look at this idea we seem to have either neglected, forgotten or never understood: “For both He who sanctifies [Jesus] and those who are sanctified are all from one Father; for which reason He is not ashamed to call them brothers.” (Hebrews 2:11)

Freedom isn’t ours simply because we want it – as much religion encourages us to believe – but it is a gift of God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) when in repentance and faith, we lay down our lives so we can take them up again as sons and daughters of God.  Religion tells you otherwise, but Jesus and his disciples and apostles surely are the ones we ought to be consulting, not some go-between in the form of a priest or mediator.  And this is especially applicable to Christians since it’s a part of the bible so many have come to reverence and even worship.

Our bibles say quite explicitly and quite clearly “there is one mediator between God and man: the man Christ Jesus; who gave himself as a ransom for all, the testimony at the proper time.” [Paul to his disciple Timothy in his first letter, chapter 2]  Yet we insist that we will burn if we get too close to God, so we need another mediator in the form of a go-between like a priest.  Our idea seems to be, ‘I’m not good enough or ‘holy’ enough to be in the presence of God, so I seek a hired holy-man to do that bit for me, on my behalf’.  In this view, God must communicate with me only via the go-between, a position that God Himself explicitly counters in the scriptures.  Sadly, the priests and pastors are more than happy to go along with this separation of people into clergy and laity; holy and earthly; sacred and secular.

Jesus himself went further.  Referring to the Scribes and Pharisees of his day, Jesus had this to say in Matthew 23:

They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men.  But do not be called Rabbi; for One is your Teacher, and you are all brothers.  Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.  Do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, that is, Christ.  But the greatest among you shall be your servant.  Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

Do we take any notice?  Not much.  But we do insist (another example of our hubris) that we know it all and we know what’s best for us.  We call a man Pope, Papa, Holy Father when our true Holy Father is God Himself.  We call a local priest Father in direct disobedience to Jesus yet still call ourselves Christians.  We call ‘pastors’ the equivalent of Jewish rabbis (teachers) and leaders (fully in the face of Jesus saying not to) while insisting we are doing nothing wrong.

It’s quite clear to me we couldn’t care much less for either Jesus or his first apostles.  We care little for the bible we claim to revere when it says something we don’t like or something contrary to our favoured view.  We care little for God our Father who, our entire lives, has been trying to get our attention long enough for us to realise our folly – to no avail.  Yet as soon as something goes badly wrong, we’re on the horn yelling at God or cursing Jesus for not doing what we expected them to do.  There’s that hubris again.

Another principle from the New Testament says you reap what you sow.  The explanation for most of what happens in our daily lives as humans here on earth is this principle.  Apostle Paul wrote it in his letter to the Galatians in the first century AD: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, this he will also reap.  For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.”  Mock and reject all you like; you will reap what you sow – mocking and rejection.

We don’t have to believe any of it.  God is not – as many humans are and have been – holding a sword to our throats with the threat, ‘believe or die’.  That is one of man’s favourite concepts of God, formulated to excuse our hubris.  The truth is, God is a Father, doing what good fathers do: urging and pleading but not breaching the sovereignty He has planted in us by overriding our will.  That’s why, in that earlier paragraph I noted the theologians’ point that the good news of freedom in Christ brings us to the situation where the new life in Christ means liberty from the dominion of corrupt desires, so that we do by the free impulse of the soul what the will of God requires.  We are one with Him; in tune with Him.

 

Even as a human father, my relationship with my daughters means that, at times, they intuitively know my will and, “by free impulse of the soul” do my will without even realising that’s what’s happening.  And at no point in their adult lives have I sought to impose my will on theirs.  I respect their own sovereignty as created human beings too much for that.  It’s all in the relationship – that particular and unique relationship of Father.  And the profound beauty of the Father God relationship is: 1) it never dies – that’s one of the main reasons we don’t need a go-between; and 2) it does not in any way depend on our having a good earthly father relationship – in fact, God makes a particular point of being father to the fatherless.

Let me say it again: it’s all in the relationship.  I love the printed T-short that says, “No Religion; Just a Relationship”.  O how I wish we could all be brave enough to give away our opium of religion and replace it with the pure mountain air of a one-on-one, face-to-face relationship with God our Father in Jesus Christ by the power and wisdom of the Holy Spirit.

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