God’s Law?

I believe that the purpose of God’s law is to reveal to us as humans, just how impossible it is as well as ridiculous. I believe that God desires relationship soooo badly, that the trinity (Father, Jesus and Holy Spirit) have this gorgeous, pure, loving relationship that they ache for us to be apart of but we are the ones who like our rules, we like our rituals, we want to be on the RIGHT path. In all of our internal, subcontious religiosity we display these rights and rituals by using God’s ‘will’ to disguise our indecisiveness as people, we make God out in our own image to be small with fickle emotions that is kind one second and extremely pissed off the next.

Why do we do this? Why don’t we just allow our spirit to keep in step with God’s spirit? I think it may be because relationship can be tougher than rules, than frameworks and the nice cozy boxes we set up for ourselves. Doesn’t this negate the powerfulness of Christ when we do this? I mean, Jesus beat death, when he died and rose again it was obliterated and redemption was made accessible by EVERYONE, not just some…the ones who follow the rules. Forget that stuff. This amazing God who lives in inapproachable light, laughs in the face of death and doesn’t exist outside of community has welcomed us in and yet we continue to say we’d rather keep to our routines. ‘Lather, rinse, repeat’ as my friend and pastor, Andrew, mentioned this morning. What’s that Coldplay song? Death and all his friends: “No I don’t want to battle from beginning to end, no I don’t want a cycle of recycled revenge, I don’t want to follow death and all his friends.” Lets take these profound lyrics to heart and stop following fear and start walking in love.

The crazy irony of all this is that we think that by following the rules we somehow work our way to God, that somehow this trinity loves us more and stays with us when we keep on schedule, right on track, checking off our boxes; somehow we think this is easy but have you read Leviticus, it’s nuts and the law is impossible to keep. The God I know is close, not far, always. The God I know is for me not against me. The God I know thinks the best of us always, says “you are good” (Genesis 1:27-31). The God I know isn’t afraid of sin or intimidated by our mistakes; he took it on himself, that means he got close to it and beat it. Why? It harms us and that’s the reason that it’s no good because it hurts us. The God I know is always faithful with a love that is eternal and who holds everything together (check out Colossians 1:15-12). The God I know delights in us and loves us so much that freedom is what we’ve been given.

Love can’t control and manipulate but I think we as humans sometimes prefer to be programmed machines rather than free because it negates our responsibility to respond, to choose. We instead, myself included in this, act as though we have no choice as though they’ve all been made for us, but they haven’t. We get to choose. Where the spirit of God is there is freedom and the Spirit is EVERYWHERE, yet we somehow would rather build a relationship with rules than with the spirit. This also doesn’t mean that the solution is to go and break the rules (trust me my experience is story enough), breaking the rules still means we’re focused on the rules, we’re still trying to have a relationship with ritual.

As people we do weird superstitious stuff like saying that our crappy circumstances must be carma, must be what God’s will is, we blame God for our crazy beliefs. We wait for God to tell us what our next move should be as if we weren’t given a brain. I don’t mean to sound condescending but this is superstition not relationship. Could you imagine if in your relationship with your partner all you ever did was listen to what one person said? Absolutely no dialogue but rather command and control. That sounds abusive, not love.

I know God is misrepresented over and over again by us as humans but I think we should really get to know this trinity personally, on a deep level for ourselves. Sure, relationships take time and effort for them to be alive and well but they are the place where life grows.

“…your lives will produce every kind of good fruit. All the while you will grow as you learn to know God better and better.” –Colossians 1:10

What would happen if we started to believe that God is nicer than we think? What would happen if we really just meditated on how much we are loved, on how crazy God is about us? What would happen if we couldn’t help but see people as they really are in heavens eyes than in our own? I wrote this song a while ago where the bridge is:

“I’ll fight for my rights of loving you, I’ll file a petition to the world just to know you.

Being loved by you is changing this world, wasting my thoughts on you is changing this world”

I wrote this because sometimes I feel like I have to fight for my time with God, that precious time that is just us. I feel like I have to remind the stuff, the distractions and the fear around me that I have a right to love, that I will protest for this right to relationship, that I will file a petition that says I want to know God intimately no matter what. This may sound a bit extreme, this may sound nuts to you, but I want to be known for my love with God and our friendship. I don’t care if this is strange because it’s beautiful, as Aqualung would sing.

One of the questions that was posed to a bunch of us in our community at High Park church this morning was “Is life surprising you or has your God become predicable?

This was challenging to me as I pondered it. Anyone who knows me well knows that it’s very difficult to surprise me. I usually just tell them what I want and make sure that it’s all set up with no problems. I’m constantly asking tons of questions and wanting to know what’s going on behind my back. I asked God what that was all about this morning. It was timely because I am heading off to England in a couple weeks and most of the trip is pure mystery. God had told me that on this adventure I had to leave room for surprise so I’ve only planned it partly. The answer to my question this morning was that it’s tough to leave room for surprise because ‘to surprise someone and have it work out well, they have to trust that what will be given will be good.’ I think that if your anything like me, we’re afraid at times of being surprised with tragedy rather than beauty; expecting bad not a joyful expectation of good. So, we get accustomed to predictable so that we wont be disappointed. I think we need to trust that God is in love with us and has the best…more than we do, and if you’re anything like I was once, not believing in anything, ask your heart why? Perhaps you’ll find the decision was made by fear and not by love. We have to trust in something and if it’s not love then it’s fear.

Leunig “When I talk to you”—A cartoonist talks to God

There are only two feelings.

Love and Fear.

There are only two activities.

Love and Fear.

There are only two motives, two procedures,

Two frameworks, two results.

Love and Fear.

Love and Fear.