GWPR-10 LOVE IS THE BEGINNING (AND END!)

 LOVE IS THE BEGINNING (AND END!)

OF THEOLOGY

if it does not look like Jesus, then it is a distortion!

“love is the beginning of theology”

(and, end, as far as that goes!) 

What does this mean?  Basically, any view of God, that does not begin and end with the basic and all-encompassing virtue of love, is off-base and ill-conceived.  Surely, one must strive for balance in his conceptions of the Divine.  And, one must not ignore uncomfortable and/or difficult passages; but, a paradigm that makes out God to be something other than the basic visual aid, Jesus, is wrong.

Consider the concept of “Prime Directive” in the Star Trek story-line.  The over-all principle, by which all other decisions are controlled, is the thing called the “Prime Directive”.  When one elevates some other principle, or some other “attribute” of God, to the same level as the statement, “God is Love”, then error and darkness are sure to follow, IMHO.  Not sovereignty, not holiness, not omnipotence, not omniscience, not anything else.

I see this confusion and consternation in the “C-plan” theology.  When one does not understand that the love of God is “universal” and “unfathomable”, then such follows.  Alas, the “A-plan” has its shortcomings also.  When one does not understand that the love of God is “unconditional” and un-merited”, then one begins to fall into agony and anxiety.

I am suggesting the B-plan,  that beholds the blood of the Beloved that bought us back from beelezebub!  And, just look at the beauty of the Babe, the beckoning of the only-Begotten, the benevolent author and object of our belief, our blessed betrothed.  In other words, let’s focus on Jesus!  He is our best picture of God.  All the verbose and convoluted rhetoric of theologicacademia either falls defeated before Him, or kneels confirmed by this Man.  If your picture of God does not look like Jesus, then it is distorted; it is as simple as that.

Remember the old  Stealers Wheel, "Stuck In The Middle With You"?!  One should be careful about sitting in the middle of the road;  it can be dangerous, indeed! (or, maybe that should be p-u dead skunk?!)

I suppose that one can see whatever he wants to see?!  Some saw in Jesus a demon-possessed delusional (or, so they had deceived/convinced themselves).  Some saw in Jesus a man with mighty works and unfathomable wisdom; but, they knew not what to make of him.  Simon Peter came to confess, “you are the Christ, the Son of the living God!”

A popular mantra, seen on jewelry and for VBS  themes, and lots of other places is “WWJD”.  That is not all bad.  Really, how best other to make decisions and form conclusions?!  But, I have had this “tetragrammatron” used to manipulate me into someone else’s preconceived notion of proper behavior.  They challenged my decision about something with the dreaded “WWJD” and expected me to immediately agree with them and acquiesce.  I ruined the ruse when I responded, “yeah, what WOULD Jesus do?”  The only correct answer was obvious -- what they wanted!!  I do not think we had the same picture of Jesus (nor God, nor godliness, nor a number of things!)

This is what I see in Jesus, repeatedly – a friend of sinners, who attracted the outcasts, but exasperated the religious.  He would eat with sinners and was a friend of tax collectors and prostitutes.  Oh, to be sure, he was “holy, holy, holy”; but not “holier-than-thou”.  He would turn away the rage-filled, hypocritical, crowd of stone bearing critics with his simple comment previewing a glimpse other-worldly wisdom; but, in the next breath, forgiving and kind in his tone, challenge the “pawn” in this theological tilting, to move away from the enslavement of sin.  Time after time, scoundrels, outcasts, rejects, lost souls of all stripes, saw in his smile and in his warm eyes, acceptance and forgiveness.

Somehow, we cannot be satisfied with the “B-plan” and must categorize, systematize, and theologize away this Lamb of God and make a god that fits our paradigm.  The “A-plan” people nervously create some sort of anagram almighty,  jigsaw-puzzle jove,  that the quick and determined can satisfy.  On the other hand, the “C-plan” people eruditely conceive of a capricious calculator, a lottery lord that the undeserving chosen can glorify.  Neither picture fits the visual-aid, the man from Nazareth, IMHO.  Neither of the two plan-man/man-plan groups will recognize and/or acknowledge these over-simplified caricatures.  They will whine, “you do not understand (me, or God)”.  But, I can see Jesus, when all is said and done, hanging on the aged cross, blood running down, beseeching heaven to forgive the ignorant masses below.  THIS IS JESUS!!  “for God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whosoever believes…” 

 

Oh, sweet  Jesus, “open my eyes, that I may see, visions of love thou hast for me…”

(be strong and stick to the middle of the road!!)