Night 3 of Alpha I found kind of disturbing. It was probably the first time during Alpha where I found myself thinking "do I really want to identify with this?", "Do I really want to be implicitly saying I'm a Xn just like the way the video says".
My thoughts started when Nicky Gumbel told a story of a Nazi death camp where a priest steps in and offers to be killed instead of a family man which the Gestapo agree to. Nicky then went on to explain that we are like the family man and Jesus is like the priest, which is all fine and dandy until you realise that God is therefore the Gestapo and that the priest died so that the family man can be friends with the Gestapo. To be fair Nicky later explains that The Gestapo and the priest are really the same person (not using this analogy) but none the less you end up with a sadomasochist God rather a Gestapo God. Both I find pretty unsatisfactory.
I've wrestled with this before in my new analogy for atonement post. My thoughts about Jesus death at the moment go something along these lines.
1. We start life outside the Garden of Eden and dislocated from God
2. The only way for that connection to renewed is for God to become human
3. As a human (Jesus) God shows us a new way of life, a life where we choose love the result of which is suffering and for Jesus is suffering on a cross.
4. The cross is where we get a new perspective on life it's the point on the journey where we think everything will end but instead in the resurrection we see a new reality. A reality where love and justice prevail and sin does not.
Of course with no one else in the group bringing up the issue of God being equated with the gestapo and the speed of my brain it meant I didn't say anything. Maybe I will next week, but maybe I won't. The whole Alpha thing seems to be working for most of the group, just not for me.
6 comments:
Yeah good thoughts man, always good to know others are grappling with the same issues I am!
What do you reckon of this quote, found it the other day, from Brian McLaren, really got me thinking
"This is, one of the huge problems is the traditional understanding of hell. Because if the cross is in line with Jesus’ teaching then—I won’t say, the only, and I certainly won’t say even the primary—but a primary meaning of the cross is that the kingdom of God doesn’t come like the kingdoms of the this world, by inflicting violence and coercing people. But that the kingdom of God comes through suffering and willing, voluntary sacrifice. But in an ironic way, the doctrine of hell basically says, no, that that’s not really true. That in the end, God gets His way through coercion and violence and intimidation and domination, just like every other kingdom does. The cross isn’t the center then. The cross is almost a distraction and false advertising for God."
Hi Digger
Mmm... good quote. I'm inclined to believe in death rather than hell and I'm trying to write a post about this issue at the moment. This (I think) kind of cleans up some of McLaren's dilemma. I will post about this in the next month or so.
'My thoughts started when Nicky Gumbel told a story of a Nazi death camp where a priest steps in and offers to be killed instead of a family man which the Gestapo agree to.'
I thought it was a sin to ask people to terminate your life early, even if that course of action would reduce the amount of suffering in the world.
Should some people in intensive care have their lives terminated early, if the place is needed for a 'family man', who would die without that intensive care?
I agree that comparing God's creation with a Nazi death camp is a telling moment from Gumbel.
Hi Steven,
I'm not sure if it's "a sin to ask people to terminate your life early" Elijah certainly asks this of God.
Re: who should have there life looked after in intensive care. I think your scenario suggests a utilitarian view of the world. Where a Xn view would often be different. A "care for the least" rather than "most good for the most people".
It was Gumbel who praised a Christian priest for taking a purely utilitarian view of which life was more valuable to society at any one time.
The family man's life was more valuable to society, inter alia, his family, so the priest asked for his life to be terminated instead.
Yes indeed it was Gumbell who praised the Xn priest, I'm sure he would say that it wasn't about being utilitarian. I wonder how palatable the story would be if the priest gave his life for a peodophile?
Post a Comment