God's Not For You

First off:  A Caveat.  I mean no disrespect to the musicians who wrote, or the worship pastors who choose these songs.  You have a high calling of ushering us into the Presence of the Almighty, and I trust that you are holier than I am. 

That said, I have noticed, in the past few years, a trend in worship music to include, and indeed even focus on the phrase, “God is for you, or us.” One song even goes on to say, “He is on our side.”

Now, you might be thinking, “Heck yeah, God is for us.  Just look at all He’s done for us.”  Well, I know.  God does love us.  I cannot overstate this.  His love, His forgiveness are unfathomably deep toward us.  And he is “for us” if by that you mean that He is “for us” becoming like Christ.  But that’s not exactly what, I think, we are saying when we sing that God is  “For us” or, “on our side.”  And I’ll tell you what I think Scripture tells us on the subject. 

First, let’s go to the story of Joshua (Joshua 5:13-15). If God was ever “for” anyone, surely it was the Israelites.   He sees a man approaching the camp, and he calls out, “Are you for us, or for our enemies?” The man says, “Neither!  But as the commander of the armies of the Lord, I come.” Wait!  That must be one of those pesky Biblical typos- right.  (Note: This is sarcasm, and I do not believe the Bible to contain any typos.)  Shouldn’t that read, “I’m so totally for you.  And as the commander of the armies of the Lord, I come.”?  Nope.  Because, in essence, he’s saying.  I’m not for you.  I’m not for your enemies.  I’m for God.  And if you had any sense at all, so would you be. 

Ok, hop with me to the book of Job.  Job is a tricky book.  I don’t pretend to get it.  But this is what I think I understand:  Job keeps saying that even though he did NOTHING to deserve it, God is against him.  Then all his friends keep telling him that he must have done some bad stuff for God to be so against him.  (But in truth, Job really has done nothing wrong, and God is not against him, though He has removed His blessings from his life.)  Then God shows up and in essence responds: Are you kidding me?  I am God.  I am frickin God. Your side?!  I’M GOD!  Oh, and you’d better pray for these losers, or I’m going to kill them for maligning your name. 

In both stories, God is not on their side, even though they are super holy men who are doing exactly what God has asked of them. 

Perhaps you are thinking, yes, but in the NT, in Romans 8: 28 to be exact, doesn’t it say, “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”  Well, yes, indeed, how very astute of you. But I believe that this verse is in the broad sense that I mentioned earlier.  God does work all things our for our eventual good.  Many times, we do not see that lovely twist of the story on this earth, though.  So, please, hope in that glorious promise, that God does not waste our pain.  God, being good, works all things according to His nature for the ultimate good.  Not exactly what I’m thinking when I say that someone is for me, though.

But is there anything wrong with saying that God is for us?  Well, I think it is dangerous for one reason.  It inverts our position with God’s.  It is a way to mentally haul our scrawny haunches onto His glorious throne, and have Him offer His services to us.  This is a ridiculous picture.  Because though he is a good King, He is most assuredly King.  And we will never be that.  God doesn’t have to align Himself to our plans.  We need to be on His side, jump into what He’s doing.  Break our lives over what breaks His heart.  Know Him enough to even know what His side looks like.

So, if we find ourselves awkwardly disagreeing with a worship song, what to do?  Nip out for a potty break?  Sing along anyway?  Pretend to sing?  Write a long blogpost, link it to facebook, and hope your worship leader reads it?  

Bethany

Tell Our Story Again

Marissa and I were discussing the Seder meal yesterday and if it’s appropriate for Christians to celebrate. A book she had read was of the option that it is offensive but I think it’s important. These ancient stories and rituals that we observe, especially during Holy Week, are relevant to us because they help us remember that these are OUR stories. God didn’t act once a long time ago and roll over and go back to sleep. He is alive and active in this world and in his people.

WE were slaves in Egypt.

Many years ago I attended a “real” Seder run by straight up Rabbis and everything. Obviously there was no overt Christian slant in an authentic Jewish Seder, even though they were kind and gracious enough to ask the Jesus people there how we interpreted it. My favorite part of the evening was sitting in the Rabbi’s living room and going around and speaking of what we had been released from that year. It was a powerful time of testimony and rejoicing.

We all begin our story as slaves in our own special Egypts. Our bondage may be to addiction, or crippling self-doubt, or even something as pernicious as un-forgiveness. God is continually setting us free. He is battling the tiny gods we cling to, proving them worthless, and leading us through the waters into becoming a new people, a holy priesthood.

Today is Good Friday and that is our story too.

WE are the mob. WE killed Christ.

Last Sunday we hailed the coming King with palm branches and shouts of Hosanna. It’s about time God fixed things, we thought. Look at this world! It’s dangerous, it’s broken, riddled with disease, poverty, crime, injustice. Why does God let bad things happen to good people? Why doesn’t he come and save us?  Hosanna to the Conquering King! The Son of David should show up to overthrow our oppressors and make us important again.

Except Jesus isn’t the king we want. He’s not about violent revolution, or Making America Great Again, or giving us a desperately sought sense of security. Rome was in charge when he was born and still in charge when he left. The Promised King of Israel did absolutely nothing to stop the Romans from paving over the temple and slaughtering everyone in sight in 70 A.D.

Some king, we think. This king doesn’t meet our expectations so we, in our fickle humanity, reject him and look for a better one. A politician can get elected in a landslide and a year later tank in the polls. That is who we are. Get rid of this Jesus and we’ll find a new one, a better one, who will do what we want.

Crucify him. Crucify him.

We aren’t only slaves in Egypt, we’re also evil and depraved. We lynched God.

Jesus isn’t the king we want, he’s the king we need.

He’s not looking for the next step up. Jesus is all about the next step down. He who was rich became poor; the Almighty of Heaven became a regular man, walking around in our painful, dying skin and bones. He ate with the hated and shunned, he took the rabbi-school dropouts under his wing and made them his crew. He showed us how to live in freedom, how to BE the holy people of God.

Our story could have ended at the cross, as it has ended for so many would-be revolutionaries and saviors, in violence and death. But, as Tony Campolo proclaims, that was Friday. Sunday’s a coming!

Death no longer has the final word. Love wins. Jesus is the king we need. The king who overthrows, not governments or invaders, but the power of Death itself. We try so hard to make God tiny and predictable like our nice Egyptian gods, but when the Lamb is slain and the Firstborn die, the seas split and we can walk right out of slavery and into adoption.

WE are the children of God.

Easter is our story too. Just as everything is looking bleak and hopeless, God comes to us. Jesus is alive! We are forgiven!

These stories are important – not because they happened, but because they happen. The Kingdom has come AND it’s coming. Redemption’s work is done AND it continues.

Maybe right now you are feeling hopeless, weighed down by life, overwhelmed by the world. Lift up your head. Love is coming. Easter is almost here again; New Life is bursting forth to kick evil in the teeth. Hope is born once more.

Welcome to the story, friend.