Flower Patterns
A child offers her father a flower to show her love for him, and the father punishes her for not following the pattern of showing love that he hid in a document. I forget whose illustration that is, but it's good. This one is mine: two children offer their father flowers. One gives a daisy, the other a violet, and he punishes them for disunity.
We would rightly say that such a father had serious problems, and his family was dysfunctional. Why, then, do we think God works that way? Why do we think he is looking for technicalities to keep us out of Heaven? After all, this is the God who sacrificed his beloved, one and only Son to save us.
My ear was blistered last night by a brother who told me, rather violently, by phone, that I and others with me have strayed away from the pattern of the early church--and are risking judgment--by having worship services that are not identical. When I challenged him to show me the pattern that he asserted existed in the Jerusalem church in Acts, he hung up. It made me sad for him, as he's missing the point of the story.
God wants our worship, not our obsessive-compulsive searches for hidden codes of conduct.
We would rightly say that such a father had serious problems, and his family was dysfunctional. Why, then, do we think God works that way? Why do we think he is looking for technicalities to keep us out of Heaven? After all, this is the God who sacrificed his beloved, one and only Son to save us.
My ear was blistered last night by a brother who told me, rather violently, by phone, that I and others with me have strayed away from the pattern of the early church--and are risking judgment--by having worship services that are not identical. When I challenged him to show me the pattern that he asserted existed in the Jerusalem church in Acts, he hung up. It made me sad for him, as he's missing the point of the story.
God wants our worship, not our obsessive-compulsive searches for hidden codes of conduct.
posted by TWD | 18:41
4 Comments:
Hey, I found your blog! I'll add you to mine and check back to read your stuff.
Without disagreeing with what you said, your post made me think of a couple of different things:
1) Who are we to judge the functionality (or lack thereof) of a Being who's ways are higher than our ways? I think a lot of times we find ourselves judging different aspects of God's character (fairness, motives, love) when really we have no right to. I know I do this a lot.
2) "God wants our worship, not our obsessive-compulsive searches for hidden codes of conduct."
He also wants our obedience. Just because the N.T. wasn't given to us as a new opportunity for Pharisaic legalism doesn't mean that it doesn't give us guidelines for our to conduct ourselves, both inside times of corporate worship and out. There should be middle ground here.
Er, that should have been "guidelines for HOW to conduct ourselves."
Luke,
Don't worry, you can disagree with what I said. Other people do. :)
You are right, we shouldn't and needn't judge God; scripture already tells us what God is like. To those who treat him lightly, he is a Terror. To those who love and seek to serve God, he is an ever present Help (Psalm 46).
What God is not is a shyster: he does not slip loopholes into scripture to trap us. More, he is not a tool for the whims of men who want to have their own way. While I agree God gives us guidance, I fear that some guidelines some have come up with are not from God. That was one of the mistakes of the Pharisees, and one we do well to be careful of.
It was at the point that I asked the brother in question to prove one of his assertions about the first century church that he hung up on me.
It makes too much sense. Well put.
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