The Tactics of God
Recently I was reading a Common Lectionary reading for this coming Sunday. It is about Peter, having recently confessed Christ the messiah and Son of God, getting chastized for then rebuking Jesus about Jesus' statement that he must go to Jerusalem and be crucified. No Jesus, this must not come to pass! Jesus quickly tells Peter, now seen as Satan, to get behind him.
When I hear this what really strikes me is Peter's recent profession. You see, Peter agrees with Jesus that the world needs to be redeemed and that he's just the man to do it, but he doesn't like his tactics. You see.... I think Peter saw the writing on the wall. If this is God... and this is the way he's choosing to do things... then he's probably going to tell us this is a good idea.
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Exactly. See, God's plans are long ranging. We have our own tactics, and usually they seem to us at the time to be wisdom. Only in the fulness of time do we see their shortcomings. Often violence, for instance, seems to be the answer. Yet it nearly always comes back to haunt us. We may even solve some problems... for the time being. But, ultimately, God won't be mocked. Our violence won't bring peace and our selfsih powermongering will not lead to eventual giving. We will always have to respond to one violence with another until the blood boils over, and we will always seek to accumulate more and more, telling ourselves that tommorrow we will give.
Part of the reason we love Christ so much is that he did what we all admit needs to be done; what we 'would' do if time and convenience permitted, but what we feel ourselves too weak to do. The tactics of God in the warfare of the soul.
We tend to fall into this trap a lot, even with the best of intentions. In particular, we're not open to the idea that God's logic isnt our logic - his ways are not ours. So, we keep trying to fit the square peg into the round hole just like we always have. i'm reminded once of being hired to revitalize a particular youth ministry. My mission was clear: Revitalize a failing youth program; but don't change anything. That's how we tend to think. Perhaps it's a form of insanity - trying the same processes and expecting different results. The insanity we are born with - the insanity of ignoring wisdom. Wisdom tells us that mankind has been down this road once or twice before, with far more capable hands at the helm, and the results have always been diasterous. Yet we are self-condemned by our natures to do it again and again and again ad infinitum. :-\
When I hear this what really strikes me is Peter's recent profession. You see, Peter agrees with Jesus that the world needs to be redeemed and that he's just the man to do it, but he doesn't like his tactics. You see.... I think Peter saw the writing on the wall. If this is God... and this is the way he's choosing to do things... then he's probably going to tell us this is a good idea.
...
...
Exactly. See, God's plans are long ranging. We have our own tactics, and usually they seem to us at the time to be wisdom. Only in the fulness of time do we see their shortcomings. Often violence, for instance, seems to be the answer. Yet it nearly always comes back to haunt us. We may even solve some problems... for the time being. But, ultimately, God won't be mocked. Our violence won't bring peace and our selfsih powermongering will not lead to eventual giving. We will always have to respond to one violence with another until the blood boils over, and we will always seek to accumulate more and more, telling ourselves that tommorrow we will give.
Part of the reason we love Christ so much is that he did what we all admit needs to be done; what we 'would' do if time and convenience permitted, but what we feel ourselves too weak to do. The tactics of God in the warfare of the soul.
We tend to fall into this trap a lot, even with the best of intentions. In particular, we're not open to the idea that God's logic isnt our logic - his ways are not ours. So, we keep trying to fit the square peg into the round hole just like we always have. i'm reminded once of being hired to revitalize a particular youth ministry. My mission was clear: Revitalize a failing youth program; but don't change anything. That's how we tend to think. Perhaps it's a form of insanity - trying the same processes and expecting different results. The insanity we are born with - the insanity of ignoring wisdom. Wisdom tells us that mankind has been down this road once or twice before, with far more capable hands at the helm, and the results have always been diasterous. Yet we are self-condemned by our natures to do it again and again and again ad infinitum. :-\
posted by Roland at 7:59 PM
1 Comments:
Nice blog, Ray-Ray.
;)
-M in the annex
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