A god of love

Love without the small print

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I have a weekly commute to London.  It keeps me in touch with the general populace in this part of the world.  A populace drawn into their own personal smartphone screen.

Music.  Emails.  Instant Messaging.  Interminable Indulgent Instagram.  Social Media.  Less and less (thankfully) those intrusive “Can you hear me?” phone-calls on (what used to be called) mobile telephones.  Voice calls much less popular now keyboard and lens replaces the need for actually speaking.

And the biggest draw of these wonderful gadgets … ?

We can all look down.  We can avoid the need to pretend we are alone.  Avoid the discomfort of not making eye contact.  Avoid all the embarrassment of not having to speak to someone face-to-face (or kneecap-to-kneecap).

I remember my younger sister commuting regularly in London years ago (before smartphones). She reported how wonderful it was to see so many people praying for such extended periods. She couldn’t comprehend that closing one’s eyes when commuting in cramped spaces was simply the accepted way of avoiding eye-contact. I still chuckle remembering her face when she found out that praying wasn’t such a common occurrence in The City after all!

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My Godmother’s husband was a chatterer.  An embarrassment.
In any situation he would strike up a conversation.  Loudly.  What we (used to) think of as “The American Way”.
That genetic malady which ignores everyone else’s comfort zones … which rides roughshod over others’ expected-and-defended “personal space”.
But the odd thing was that the majority of those who suffered this intrusion seemed to enjoy the experience.
We just cringed in the background.  With a little envy.

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And as I look out and see the headlines … the (current) forensic analysis of the (another) horrific terrorist attack on London Bridge … the repeated claim of (all) government who have “allocated £xxm in additional funding” (to fix every problem raised) … the noise of right and wrong (as we reduce our planet to one giant overflowing rubbish bin) … the permanent public arena of “gladiatorial protagonists” spewed out for our entertainment in news and “social meeja” … the increasing and inextricable “looking down” and away from so much that unites us …

I wonder what other species is quite so self-absorbed.

I wonder how we have detached ourselves from who we really are.  How we made “religion” just another science.  How we made science just another “god”.  How we manage to convince ourselves that “being connected” (to this wonderful self-healing-home) is no longer relevant to us.

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Us the alpha species … the species no longer a “species” … a “species” now having outgrown itself.   Now entitled … now complacent … now detached from the very connection that gave birth to each of us … on this planet that nurtures us … that heals us simply by the sound of a breeze – the sight of all those stars – the smell of freshly cut grass – the taste of cold icy water.   These simple things that connect us – heal our restlessness – our searching – our very souls.

I wonder what other species despises its own kind so much that it chooses to look down … chooses to detach … chooses to “talk” to someone on the other side of the world (in preference to someone sitting right next to me).

Is it fear – and if so of what?  And if it isn’t fear then … what?  Arrogance?  Entitlement?  Ignorance?  That “you aren’t interesting enough” … ?

What is it that means we each choose to look down more and more?

Even church.

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That (default) looking down when “talking” to the being who is loved and loves.  The default (of “worship”) that is now the default for (“talking” to) everybody.  The default “nice smile” that is the default for everyone in every (unexciting) conversation.

I think church has a very important role to play in the world today. 

A role to encourage “looking up” as THE default.  Making eye-contact as THE default.  Finding excitement in the ordinary (that is each of us) as THE default.  Drawing ALL together as THE ONLY default. 

(because the preaching of correctness … of sin … of division salvation … of judgment salvation …. is the default of looking down)

And “the default” of looking up can only start by looking God in the eye.   By not bitching about sin all the time.  By making Love the beginning AND middle AND end of ALL conversations.  Real love.  Unconditional love.  Inclusive love.

Love without the small print of religion and “correct (rule littered) teaching”.

We need to teach THE default of looking up.

Because if the church really is “the people” …

We are ALL “the people”!

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The Good Samaritan?

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Follow-on from yesterday …

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“Perhaps that is why the “Passing By On The Other Side” parable is timeless.

When we don’t know the “other” it is easier to do or not do – to care or not care – to convince ourselves that not doing and not saying is the best response. Never admitting it is the least costly response.

“And that is why LOVE costs.“

Whether it is with a stranger or one of our own.”

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Just what is the cost of love?

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“And am I disagreeing with myself (again)?”  That is the cost of love

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See here for the full post.

Thank you –

 

Paul

An example of being “biblically correct”

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Amazon might be an easy target – but they do what the do really well most of the time.

Most of the time!

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“We had an experience with Amazon yesterday.   An item for one of our grandchildren.  Bulky to deliver and bulky to keep in the house.  But useful.  Something that chills-out Alfie when he unable to express frustration on a dial from 1-10 (as we do).  Alfie just has 10.  And Alfie “chills out” by bouncing – and with more spatial awareness than I have – enough to watch a tv programme and still not fall off the thing!  Special needs are special deeds.

Anyway, Amazon speedily delivered this item bought “Used – as good as new”.  Except it was “Used – not fit for purpose.” A huge tear in the edging cover.  Feet unable to be screwed on to the base.  And bulky.”

“Problem – what problem?”, justmebeingcurious 

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Might not look like anything even close to “biblically correct” …

Or just maybe …

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“So to the bible bit …

Seems to me that we use the bible the same way.

We don’t have the authority to overrule the bible.  No one in the organisation or hierarchy has.  But we do HAVE the authority to enforce the bible (on behalf of God).”

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Why not pop across and have a look?

Thank you –

Paul

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Love is always the answer?

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Comments under yesterday’s post (justmebeing curious)

“I don’t know how regionalized it is, but where I’m at a cage is what you described, a crate is solid on all sides, except for the door.

I had a professor who told us that (in his opinion) what Jesus meant when he said that the only way to the Father is through him that he was not saying that only Christians could go to the Father, but that only by following his teachings would get us to that goal. Thus, many of those who are not Christian, but follow Jesus’s teaching “as if by the heart”, will be with the Father, while those who call themselves Christians, but fail to follow his teachings, will stand outside watching.”
The Modern Theologian

“A “dog crate” seems to use the word “crate” to avoid using the word “cage”. Guessing that “cage” is a little too “penal” for man’s best friend (or the self-perception of “man” about his behaviour towards “best friend”).

As for the rest – I wonder more and more if we have the same “self-perception language” to “crate” (could we ever admit to “caging”) a God way bigger than any one “religion”.”
It’s for her own good

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And then Mike wrote this post: “Love Conquers All”
Extract …
“The Christian needs the Jew, the Muslim, and, yes, even the Hindu and Native American. It is only by seeing God in his Infinite Diversity that we can see God in everyone we encounter.”

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Why is it that – more and more – “Love is Always the Answer” is as complete as…

I Am

Paul

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Creating “conditional life”

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“I never asked to be born!”

The cry of an angry child.  An ungrateful child.  A child who is correct.  The child did in fact not ask to be born.  The gift of life is for the parents.  For the creators of life.  The life is their gift to themselves.

“We are having a baby!”

The news of excited parents-to-be.  Parents who have left their own parents, joined together to become one flesh.  The one joined flesh now a few cells old.

A few cells maybe destined to become someone tapping out words like this in a few decades from now.

“Haven’t you read,” he replied, “that at the beginning the Creator ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife, and the two will become one flesh’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no one separate.” Matthew 19:4-6

“I never asked to be born!”

I wonder if we have it wrong.  All this biblical stuff about who can and who cannot become one flesh.

“I never asked to be born!”

If the right to life is a sacred right – then we oblige the gift of life on those who were not invited.  We oblige those we have created with our own created “conditional life”:

“Here is your body, here is you brain, here is your soul – we gave you all of that –we have given you the gift of life!  So don’t screw it up – don’t be someone we don’t want you to be.  Have your chromosomes, your hormones, your reproductive bits all in the right place, the right shape, and the right working order.   Be attracted to the right gender or our gift will be damaged.  You will have damaged our gift to you.”

Isn’t that what we have made these verses?

For Christians who talk about all being equal, all being welcome, all being saved by grace – isn’t all “that” about the inside stuff – the character stuff – the soul stuff?  Isn’t all that NOT about the outside stuff: the colour, the size, the weight, the height, the internal organs, the external organs, the physical bits that we call a body?  Isn’t this being saved about the bits we cannot see, the bits we cannot explain, the bits we call “me”?

“I never asked to be born – and I never asked to be given “the bodily organs” of a male/female!”

For those who are born with the inside stuff of a man and the outside bits of a woman … for those who are a woman outside and a man inside … or any other combination under the rainbow …

Why do we use the bible only to endorse the bodily organs we can see, dissect, repair and replace?  Why do we not “use the bible” for the inside bits the church – and each Christian – teaches and preaches as the bit that matters?  Is not differentiating between who squirts in the “right or wrong” way no different to who has the “right or wrong” colour skin?  Is that not measuring and judging the “outside bits” – rather than the “inside bits”.

There are others verses about the outside and inside:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence.  Blind Pharisee!  First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.  Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites!  You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.  In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.”  Matthew 23:25-28

“I never asked to be born!”

Is true.

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