Kierkegaard, serves as a good corrective for anyone caught in over-Americanized Christianity, in its prosperity, moralistic, or postmodern form. It also reminds us all that any endeavor of the church from "being missional" to "social activism" can become a god-less crusade in the name of God if we don't keep tabs on our heart. In the last year I have learned that when we come to the end of self and trust the sovereign God, we find ourselves expanded into a limitless God of power, who expresses that power in weakness, the weakness of the cross. Kierkegaard, pulls from his Lutheran heritage here, in reminding us, just as Luther would that the way of the Cross always appears as foolishness to the carnal mind.
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There are those who talk about God's cause, and about wanting to serve that cause. This is all very fine, but how, exactly, is this to be interpreted? The common view thinks that God has a cause in the human sense of the word, that he is some kind of advocate, interested in having his cause win and therefore eager to help the person who would serve his cause, and so forth.
If we follow this line of thinking God becomes a minor character who arrives at the embarrassing dilemma of needing human beings.
No, no! God has no cause, is no advocate in this sense. For God everything is infinitely nothing. Any second he wills it, everything, including all opposition to his cause, becomes nothing. Wanting to serve God's cause can never mean the same thing as coming to his aid. No, to serve God's cause is to face examination. If someone wants to serve his cause, it is not God who loses his balance and sublimity; no, he fixes his attention upon this volunteer -- observantly -- and sees how he conducts himself, whether he has integrity and resolve. Because God is not interested in temporal causes, because he is infinitely the conquering Lord, precisely for that reason he examines. He is quite able to accomplish his will alone.
This is why the more one is involved with God the more rigorous everything becomes. It is out of God's infinite love that he involves himself with every human being. The very fact that God permits evil people to thrive in this world is a mark of his infinite majesty. Do you not understand this frightful punishment, that God overlooks them? God's punishment is upon those he chooses to have nothing more to do with. And yet he always accomplishes what he wills.
We usually think that when we honestly want to serve God's cause, God will also help us along. Well, how? In a material way? By a successful outcome, prosperity, earthly advantage, or the like? But in that case everything gets turned around and it no longer remains God's cause but a finite endeavor. Besides, maybe I am only a cunning fellow, who really does not want to serve God but in a deceptive, pious way to cheat God to my advantage. Perhaps I even think that God is in a bind and is made happy as soon as someone volunteers to serve his cause. Utter nonsense and blasphemy! No, God is spirit -- and our task is to be transformed into spirit. But spirit is absolutely opposed to being related to God by way of temporal benefits. Such is God's sublimity -- and yet this is the infinite love of God!
Yes, infinite love, so infinite that God desires to involve himself with every human being, with every weak, foolish, carnal heart who tries to make him into a nice uncle, a really fine grandfather whom we can make good use of.
God is infinite love and for this reason has no cause. He will not suddenly overpower a person and demand that he instantly become spirit. If that were the case we would all perish. No, he handles each person gently. His is a long operation, an upbringing in love. Yes, there are times when one gasps and God strengthens with material blessings. But there is one thing God requires unconditionally at every moment -- integrity -- that one does not reverse the relationship and try to prove his relationship to God or the truth of his cause by good fortune, prosperity, and the like. God wants us to understand that material blessings are a concession to our weakness and very likely something he will withdraw at some later date to help us make true progress, not in some finite endeavor but in passing the examination.
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At the heart of the matter, there are many people who are self-deceived about being on "God's side". the moralist thinks because he is moral God is on his side. The good guys are Jesus and the moralists. The postmodern activist thinks God is on their side because their cause is God's cause. The good guys are Jesus and the hipsters with skinny jeans. The prosperity group thinks that God's cause is to bless them. They are the good guys and Jesus is on their side, the material "blessings" prove it. The gospel teaches the world is divided into two groups, all of us and Jesus. We are all bad guys and Jesus is the only good guy!
Honestly, it is human nature to want divine at horrify in our corner. In a disagreement or conflict, we all tend to desire and sometimes assume that God is on our side. No matter where the line is drawn, it is in the hearts of sinners to want to believe that God is on their side, that God has their back, that God is in their corner. what we don't realize is that no matter how rights use or just the cause, we are making God in our image. We are forgetting, God is over and above the line, hurting for both parties, and wanting all to "face examination," as the bad guys.
SK shines the light on two reoccurring problems, we all struggle with. First, we often forget Who God is and second, we often believe the lie that God needs us. First, We forget God is God, a divinity of innate greatness and absolute sovereignty. For most it is worse, they don't forget for they don't know enough to forget. Many Christians don't even know, let alone understand, the God of the bible is that kind of God. How many people understand that God is supremely powerful, the Master of the Universe, and that all that comes to pass occurs soley on the basis of His gratuitous will alone? Second, We like to think we are indispensable, nessisary, needed creatures. and so we eat the lie, God needs us. But God is independent of creation yet creation is dependent on God. To assume he needs you out of something lacking in himself is heresy. God does not need, yet he comes to the needy, because that is who he is, a gracious God. So God is not looking for volunteers to defend the faith or "come to His aid." God is not in need of our help! No, as SK points out, God is looking for those who needs him, those who are willing to "face examination," to come to the end of themselves and their supposed resources, those things they find strength in and rely on, and to "take up the cross" of Jesus. Do you think that by your good intentions God is therefore obligated to help you along? By no means. Remember, what man esteems and what God esteems are radically different things. The way of the Cross always appears as foolishness to the carnal mind.
At the heart of the prosperity group, the moralist camp in the postmodern commune stands an idol of a little God, a God who is needy and capricious. Who loves always, helps always, cares always, but never judges, those on this side of the the line, always!
Footnote
Quote From : The Kierkegaard quote is taken from Provocations, Spiritual Writings of Kierkegaard, compiled and edited by Charles E. Moore, Plough Publishing, Copyright 2002.
In Him
J. Dawson Jarrell
Yes. Just, yes.
ReplyDeleteJoni