Closet Blown Open
I am taking another step out of the theological closet.
Here is what I confess to today:
Any imagry of God as punitive, blood thirsty and genocidal offends my spirit and I believe the very nature of the one true Creator God whose love is revealed in Jesus Christ. I have never been at peace with the violent, evil stories in Scripture that paint my Papa as a wrathful being who wiped out innocent people for the wrongdoing of others. I have tried to walk in and have even promoted the excuses and rationalizations provided for me thus far to explain the seemingly bi-polar actions of this God. But I always come back to feeling a gnawing in my gut that something isn't right about this imagry. I can no longer accept these justifcations. I have never met the God that would require/demand for his creatures - which He created in love - to be cut open and dismembered to satisfy his wrath...Much less the God whose nostrils are pleased by the scent of the burning of this flesh on an altar of violence.
This is the thesis that is devolping in my mind:
Jesus came to reveal the heart of God; a heart filled with unending (infinite, non-temporal) grace and mercy, whose justice is restorative not punishing. Christ's death revealed the depraivity of humans. In front of everyone they showcased their sick hearts by maiming and torturing the one who boldly exposed the bondage of a deadly religious system. The resurrection reveals God's ultimate power to bring restoration to the people who exchanged life-giving relationship for human structures of salvation attainment. Jesus answered this system by providing what it required. Evil, not God, was 'satisfied' by this bloodshed. God's love cannot be shut up by anything. No human or supernatural attempt to control it will ever prevail. The character of God is entrenched in everything. It will never be silenced. The rocks will cry out if humans fail to speak of what Jesus has done.
I realize that this idea may require me to up-end long held interpretation of Scripture. And I am willing to do that. As always God has provided me with resources and people to process with. People who love Jesus as much as I do, but who aren't afraid to ask and explore the same questions that I have. The Word of God existed before a single jot or tittle of the texts we call the Bible were written. It will not change or be hurt if I explore wisdom from other God-loving human beings who study these texts differently than I have. I value the canon that the Holy Spirit led the Church to put together. God has assured me that He is in those Scriptures, just not soley through the lens of the literal translation that I grew up under.
I trust that this journey will affirm much of what I have always understood about God and Scripture, but I also expect to struggle anew with other aspects. I understand that I may never fully understand.
Most importantly I understand that God loves me no matter what and that what is most important is that I love others and practice letting the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my savior from all bondage, flow through me.
Thanks be to God our Father eternal...
(AKA - Praise be the pizza's done!).
LOVE WINS.
Here is what I confess to today:
Any imagry of God as punitive, blood thirsty and genocidal offends my spirit and I believe the very nature of the one true Creator God whose love is revealed in Jesus Christ. I have never been at peace with the violent, evil stories in Scripture that paint my Papa as a wrathful being who wiped out innocent people for the wrongdoing of others. I have tried to walk in and have even promoted the excuses and rationalizations provided for me thus far to explain the seemingly bi-polar actions of this God. But I always come back to feeling a gnawing in my gut that something isn't right about this imagry. I can no longer accept these justifcations. I have never met the God that would require/demand for his creatures - which He created in love - to be cut open and dismembered to satisfy his wrath...Much less the God whose nostrils are pleased by the scent of the burning of this flesh on an altar of violence.
This is the thesis that is devolping in my mind:
Jesus came to reveal the heart of God; a heart filled with unending (infinite, non-temporal) grace and mercy, whose justice is restorative not punishing. Christ's death revealed the depraivity of humans. In front of everyone they showcased their sick hearts by maiming and torturing the one who boldly exposed the bondage of a deadly religious system. The resurrection reveals God's ultimate power to bring restoration to the people who exchanged life-giving relationship for human structures of salvation attainment. Jesus answered this system by providing what it required. Evil, not God, was 'satisfied' by this bloodshed. God's love cannot be shut up by anything. No human or supernatural attempt to control it will ever prevail. The character of God is entrenched in everything. It will never be silenced. The rocks will cry out if humans fail to speak of what Jesus has done.
I realize that this idea may require me to up-end long held interpretation of Scripture. And I am willing to do that. As always God has provided me with resources and people to process with. People who love Jesus as much as I do, but who aren't afraid to ask and explore the same questions that I have. The Word of God existed before a single jot or tittle of the texts we call the Bible were written. It will not change or be hurt if I explore wisdom from other God-loving human beings who study these texts differently than I have. I value the canon that the Holy Spirit led the Church to put together. God has assured me that He is in those Scriptures, just not soley through the lens of the literal translation that I grew up under.
I trust that this journey will affirm much of what I have always understood about God and Scripture, but I also expect to struggle anew with other aspects. I understand that I may never fully understand.
Most importantly I understand that God loves me no matter what and that what is most important is that I love others and practice letting the Spirit of Jesus Christ, my savior from all bondage, flow through me.
Thanks be to God our Father eternal...
(AKA - Praise be the pizza's done!).
LOVE WINS.
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