UNCONDITIONAL LOVE
God so loved the world that he gave his
only Son.
His Son was not sent to condemn the
world, but to
save it.
John 3
God loves the world? God does not condemn
the world? God wants to save the world? You'd never know it from
the hell-fire and brimstone preaching that has come from some pulpits! If you
have listened closely to the preaching that has come from those pulpits, you
would have to conclude that God would like nothing better than to wipe us out
and start all over!
If I had not had a dramatic
conversion experience as a young priest, I might have been one of those
doomsday preachers, threatening people with eternal punishment by a get-even
God. Because of that conversion experience, I am a committed preacher of the
"good news." I believe with all my heart that God not only loves us, but loves us without condition
- no ands, ifs and buts about it - no matter what! That love is not something
we could earn no matter how good we try to be! No, it is an unexpected,
unearned, free gift from an incredibly generous God! Yes, we can reject that love and turn away from it, but God does not withhold it from us because of what we
do or fail to do. That love is always
there and free for the taking, so if we cut ourselves off from it, it is our
fault, not God's!
My conversion experience was about a
dramatic change in my perception of
God. Before my conversion, you could say that I was scared of God, that I never
felt acceptable to God, that I was always anxious and guilty about something,
that I held back and was shamed about one thing or another. I have always been a
believer and a follower, but my relationship with God was never a totally
comfortable relationship. I was a believer and I wanted to please God, but our
relationship was parental. God was the demanding father and I was the screw-up child
who wanted to be valued but felt I could never measure up.
At my conversion experience, I discovered
the truth of God's unconditional love for me and for all people. Every day
since then, I have felt that love in my bones. I live each day now with the
certain knowledge that I am loved and forgiven, in spite of my sins and
mistakes. I try to teach others about this free gift, this incredible love,
that is available to all of us - the good and bad alike. I know I am not
perfect, but I also know that that is OK, because my best is good enough for
God. In spite of my many imperfections, I do not worry at all about having to face God after death. In fact, I am totally
at peace as far as death goes! When the time comes, I know that something
better than I can imagine awaits me.
Because of my conversion experience, I
refuse to be part of the "hellfire and brimstone school of
preaching," which believes that the best way to get people to shape up,
and do the right thing, is to scare the hell out of them, by painting God as a just judge who is going to give us
exactly what we deserve - eternal punishment as payback. As far as I am concerned,
I believe that approach is not only theologically unsound, I don't believe it
works! In my 47 years of ordained ministry, I have seen many more people converted by the "good news" than all that "fire and brimstone"
ranting and raving.
Here are just a few of the things the
scriptures teach us about God.
· He looked at everything he had made
and declared it good.
· Like a shepherd he feeds his flock
and gathers the lambs in his arms.
· While we were still sinners Christ
died for us.
· It was not you who chose me. It was I
who chose you.
· This man welcomes sinners and even
eats with them.
· The good and bad alike are invited to
the feast
· All received a full days pay.
· Both sons, the prodigal and the
compliant, are loved by their father.
· I go to prepare a place for you so
that where I am, you may also be.
Pietistic, arrogant, religious
know-it-alls get on my nerves big time! They make me angry most of all because
they attempt to horde God's love and measure it out to people in little thimbles,
as if God's love was in short supply. Resembling the twisted god they believe
in, they tend to project on to the real God their own self-loathing. One of the
things that saddens me most is that I know that some young people think they
have to be bible-thumping, body-hating religious fanatics to be serious
disciples of Jesus Christ. Since many
young people can't wrap their minds around that tired old approach, many throw
the baby out with the bathwater, yawning at what they hear while dismissing
religion altogether.
How tragic it is, after God has bent
over backwards to let us know that we are loved and that he wants us to have a
full life, for so many people not to enjoy
God: not to enjoy the generous daily
blessings of God, not to enjoy the daily unfolding of his marvelous creation,
not to enjoy basking in his friendship and not to enjoy the marvelous array of
people he sends into our lives. A
personal relationship with God is supposed to be life giving, not life
draining!
Once I discovered that God loves and
accepts me, sins and all, I was able to love and accept myself, sins and all.
Once I learned to love and accept myself, sins and all, I have learned to love
and accept others, sins and all! This insight into God's love has done more than
anything to make my religion life-giving, instead of life-draining! This insight into God's love has brought God
down out of the clouds and made him a delightful companion who walks beside me as we live my life out - together!
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