Here come da' Judge

“Whenever we can manage to love without

expectations,

calculations,

negotiations,

we are indeed in heaven.”

― Rumi

________________________

And when are loved without

expectations

calculations

negotiations

we are indeed in heaven

we call it grace

we call it

agape

The word for the day

Is justification

Its an odd little concept

It suggests that we are OK with God

not because of what we have done

but because of what the Sacred has done

this is indeed grace

kind of

but this concept makes it very clear

that this is a “get of jail” (or is that hell) free card

it implies we are still totally messed up

and totally not deserving of love

and totally NOT righteous

(which of course is basically true)

but that God

because he has satisfied his “justice” on an innocent one

and because we have done or believed or accepted the right things

is willing to overlook “all that”

I struggle with that

to me it makes God

kind of like a crooked judge

who gives a pass to all his or her cronies

while throwing the book at all the rest

I believe that I am not a perfect child of God

And I believe in grace

But

I do not see the Sacred as essentially

a harsh judge

who grudgingly

accepts us

only because his/her anger

about us not being exactly loveable

was somehow satisfied

by being taken out on another (who didn’t deserve it)

(Rohr suggests we really do misunderstand the significance of the cross)

What I do believe is that the sacred looks at me with eyes of love

And I believe that God is essentially

like a loving mother and father

who looks at her or her child

and sees them with the eyes of love

sees them as precious and wonderful

and is that child’s greatest fan

because that

is the way

God

Is

_______________________________________

My apologies to all my theologically oriented friends

 who may well find my questioning of some deeply believed

 traditional theology troubling.  But the image of God we

 put forth, if we really think about it, is often inconsistent with

 the living presence of God we saw in Christ.  And thus these

 ponderings.  I think God can deal with my questions, because I

 believe faith is about knowing God, not knowing about God,

 an not, very much at all, about doctrine.  At least I hope that is true.

I would direct you all to challenging meditation by Richard Rohr that was posted

This morning.   Blessings

Stephen

http://conta.cc/HEDlnR