Taming God
In what is sure to be a recurring theme here, let me say a few things by way of prelude to the idea i mentioned in a previous post.
i mentioned here, that the Taming of God has had disastrous consequences.
It has been my experience, growing up as a church goer _ even in those years as a kid when i didn’t really care about God that much, but went because that’s what my family did _ that God has been tamed by the Modern Church. Or, they have tried, at least.
I suppose it’s because a wild, unpredictable and perhaps even Dangerous God is too unsettling and doesn’t fit well with the business model approach which has been applied in many churches.
But when i encounter God on His terms, in His Story, things are different.
He shows Himself as a passionate lover of His people; just read the prophets. Several times in scripture He is described as jealous.
Whatever He is, God is not tame. And that’s good, because a tame God is of no value to me, or any of us, actually.
i need a God who will track me down and rescue me from darkness. i need a king who stops at nothing to make me new and set my heart free.
Adopting a view of God as tame gives us a wrong understanding of Him and ourselves. It minimizes my spiritual adultery, because it really doesn’t matter that much if He’s really tame anyway. it allows us to be nice little boys and girls on the outside and corrupt on the inside, because there’s really nothing at stake.
But life itself is not tame and if we are to interact with it and be of any consequence, we cannot be tame either. What does the tame, nice person have to offer to the woman who is being crushed by the revelation that her husband has had an extramarital affair? What life and purpose is there to offer if God is simply another management tool to help organize our activities and keep us from doing wrong, or “bad,” things?
The God we meet in His Story is active, purposeful and caring. He sets people free from illnesses, brings them back to life and gives them purpose.
God is many things, but tame is not one of them.
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