"According to Minear, we try escape God by….
1. Idolatry
Making our own gods according to our own image and likeness. One of the basic urges of idolatry is man’s desire to initiate his own relationship to God and thereby control God. “Man worships idols precisely because of his ability to see them, to know them, to have power over them. But he can never observe God in the same way in which he can reflect on the beauty and power of his idol.” In becoming idolaters, we try diminish the power and presence of God in our lives, minimize his impact on us. It’s an ancient dodge.
2. Vacating the arena
Attempting to leave the arena of engagement and become a spectator, thereby trying to reverse the roles God becomes the actor and we become the critical observer. We try to become “investigators of God’s claims.” But this attempt to escape is futile because God cannot (and will not) simply be observed by us. He can only be truly known by existential involvement. Key knowledge is denied to the detached observer in precisely those questions that are the most decisive in determining his destiny. Besides, a person cannot forgive themselves of their own sins, or even keep death away. God cannot be dodged by these means. “Existential concern expels speculative detachment.”
3. Simply trying to hide
But in reality there is nowhere to hide. When God invade our lives he forces us out of our corners and into the arena. And besides we cannot hide from God anyway, for as the Psalmist writes, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps.139:7). We carry the issues deep within us. No human can fully evade the issue of God.
4. Through religiosity
We try to escape God by attempting to “...preserve mementoes of God’s former visits in ritual and law, to idolize these, to substitute legal observance and cultic sacrifice for ‘knowledge of God…The religious person is also inclined to speak of God in the third person, albeit with apparent reverence, and thus to remove himself from the magnetic field of divine compulsions. Man can forget God in the very act of speaking of him.” Religion is one of the biggest cop-outs known to the human. It objectifies God and thus seeks to control him.
5. Building compartments and allowing only a partial rule by God
The dodger in this way consents to God’s authority in the area where that seems desirable, but at the same time tries to maintain his autonomy in other areas. “But God does not respect these man-made fences. Man’s total existence is known by him. When he speaks, he claims total sovereignty.”
6. Creating false dualisms
Trying to erect walls between the sacred and the secular and confining God to the sacred realm. But there is no such concept of ‘religion’ in the Scriptures “…for there is no experience which as such can be defined as religious, and no experience which lies outside of the divine radius. [But] God does not call man to endorse a religion, but to view all life religiously, i.e., in its relation to God.”
7. Trying to draw a line between flesh and spirit, between physical and spiritual reality
But the biblical God is the Creator of both body and spirit. In every personal encounter he forces us to participate as a unit. He does not draw the false line between flesh and spirit and deal with one in isolation. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
8. Trying to draw false distinctions between private and public life
We try to distinguish between events of significance to the individual and those having social impact. But in a real way, “…every event is social because it takes place within the web of personal relations and involves, in however small a compass, issues of ultimate concern.”
In tacking these attempts to hide, the biblical writers “…fight against any false separation of sacred from the secular, against any reduction in the territory under divine rule.” And as disciples, we are called, not to escape from God, but to fully engage him, to actually become like him. We are the people of the way of Jesus, and as Stussen and Gushee point out, when this way “…is thinned down, marginalized or avoided, then churches and Christians lose their antibodies against infection by secular ideologies that manipulate Christians into serving some other lord. We fear precisely that kind of idolatry now.”"
1 comment:
"Challenging sermons?"
Blessed is the man, indeed,
Who in this life can find;
A purpose that can fill his days,
And goals to fill his mind!
The world is filled with little men
Content with where they are;
Not knowing joys success can bring,
No will to go that far!
Yet, in this world there is a need,
For men to lead the rest
To rise above the "average" life,
By giving of their best!
Would you be one, who dares to try,
When challenged by the task;
To rise to heights you've never seen,
Or is that too much to ask?
This is your day--a world to win
Great purpose to achieve;
Accept the challenge of your goals
And in yourself, believe!
You will be proud of what you've done,
When at the close of day;
You look back on your battles won,
Content, you came this way!
Good on yer Bruce!
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