My wife and I sit at a candle lit table,
the river flowing slowly and peacefully beside us, there are lanterns floating
in the night sky, it is a full moon. I
look at my wife and she says things like, “You complete me.” and “We were made for
each other.” and “You are my soul mate.”
I understand this as hyperbole, an analogy of how she feels about me and our live and love together. I respond in kind. Jesus
looks at me and says, “Before I created the sky and the stars I chose you.”
Suddenly
I begin to analyze, and study and create an entire philosophy of how it was
predestined that I came to have Jesus in my life. A titch neurotic don’t ya think? And it totally missed the point, and messes
the moment. The language of love is
hyperbole, that over the top, excessive platitudes that drives home the point
of how much we are loved. And we, so
convinced that we are not insignificant, spoil the moment.
I
have no doubt that there are those chosen from the beginning of time. Paul, in talking to those in Ephesus, talks
of how they were chosen. And I could see
that. But to take that verse and expand
it into a theology of some are chosen, some are not, I think misses the entire
point of the bible.
The
bible is a love story; God’s love for us.
It is full of romantic exaggeration and allegory. It is the profound story - our existence has
divine origins. As with all good
romances there is the tragedy of separation from our true love, the struggle to
come together, and at the end a love reunited.
We,
okay I, lose myself in the details. Did
he use this word, or did he use that word.
And in all my intelligence I am a complete and utter fool. As with all love stories, to lose myself in
the detail, is to lose sight of the entire story.
One
night Wanna and I are laying bed, and she says to me, “You are the best husband
I have ever had.”
I
focus on the, “ever had.” and ask her how many husbands she has had. She replied, “Only one, so you are also the
worst.”
But
how many times, have I focused on a specific statement, thinking that the
subtle nuance of the verse may sway the entire meaning of the story. A detective hunting for clues that God really
doesn’t love me, or loves me best.
The
story begins, where else, but at the beginning.
The story of creation, is not the record of the creation of the world,
but of our relationship to God. To argue
the factual aspect of the creation myth is to completely miss the point. You and I were meant to be in relationship to
God. He created us not as his personal fan
club, but so we and he could live in love with each other.
Then
tragedy strikes; an interloper. We are
convinced that the story, still so young, cannot possibly be true. And then we do the unthinkable. We are told that there are two things that
will spoil this paradise. You do know
that the consumption of fruit is an allegory?
Ask
anyone who has had an extramarital affair, and I am sure they will tell you
that it is the adulterous one who is the first to suffer the consequences. And so, just like the adulterous twerps we
are, we are consumed by shame, guilt, and grief. ‘The Curse’ God throws at Adam and Eve, is
not a curse, but a statement of what will come.
It is the statement of “Look at what you have done.”
Just
as with someone who has cheated on their spouse, the very fabric of that
relationship has been ruined. That is
not to say it cannot be repaired, but it will never again be like what it once
was. It would feel like separation. I have experienced that sickening feeling of
being in the same room as the one I love and knowing that we could be worlds
apart. It is the separation that my
conscience imposes. We are not kicked
out of the garden, I know the book says we are, as much as we are unable to
enjoy that existence anymore.
From
there the story is of how we try to get back into God’s good graces. Really the story is how do we come back to
him? It is us, I believe, that were
convinced that God just did not want us anymore. And we do all sorts of vile, evil, nasty
things, to prove our love to God, to appease our conscience.
Then
God does the unthinkable, he dies for us.
What more vile a thing could happen, than us killing God. And God, not in so many words, asks us, “Do
you finally have enough?”
The
story, the part you and I are living, is the prenuptial story of waiting for
the wedding. If you want something to
mess with you, think of me as a blushing bride.
We know he is coming back, and when he does it will be great.
That
is what I see when I read the bible. I
see the broad strokes. When I get into
specific verses and what do they mean and how do they impact my faith, I am
simply entertaining my obsessive compulsive nature. I remember contemplating life when I was
stoned thinking that one thought, one insight, would put it all together, it
doesn’t.
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with
all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all
your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
Somehow
I don’t think God is interested in much of the detail either. When asked by the jailers what they need to
do to be saved, Paul answered. “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is
Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be
saved.”
The
other uses we come up with for the Bible, I just wonder about. I know for me, that often it is the tired old
crap of I am right and you are wrong. They
are the arguments of those who would load us up with heavy bundles and not help
us.
I
was once in a theological argument, hard to believe I know, about one of those
kind of details. What struck me was that I could provide the
bible verses that supported both sides of the argument. Yet, the argument took us away from the
redeeming love and grace of God.
I
leave you with this.
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