From
Galatians 1:1-8
“Freedom!”
H,
Well,
I would not want to start that controversy but it is clear that there are many
things that are a “lie about God.” I do not mean an honest lie or a mistake
from good intentions. I mean the sort of thing that is against the nature of
God and more akin to the nature of fallen man. We are spared the stupidity of
guessing what God would do here on earth. He came down and showed us. He set us
free from the guess work of men by showing in real terms the things He truly
means and truly wants. He points to Himself in history and says “follow”. There
is no one else to follow. This is the grand act and culmination. This is Moses
and Elijah and David and, yes, Hehe, Joshua finally fulfilled in one person.
It is
not that we do not have ‘leaders’ but they are only instruments to a much
larger reality. We follow the holy Lamb of God, raised and exalted as the only
way. We lead each other in love as a community not as personality cults. The real
thing is here, the imperfect things must give way. There is too much abuse in
this system of ‘anointed’ man for it to be the perfect plan of God. It reminds
me of that time when the Israelites demanded a king when all God wanted was to
lead them Himself. His language, through the prophet Samuel, about the burdens
a king would place on them shows His heartache over a people that did not
understand the freedom He offered in terms of intimacy without barriers and with
fewer intermediaries. Are we any better? We struggle with freedom and we desire
to be chained to the coattails of others, human like ourselves, and thus to
rise and fall with their human darts at glory.
The leader
is a victim too. In being looked up to he becomes trapped by his own ego. He is
told he is to know everything so he makes up the rest. He gets strange fire and
dispels it on personal problems and personality quirks. It is soon no more than
a business transaction. He gives some supposed direction in God and he gets
glory of the vain kind, followers, sidekicks and a financial base. He can do
and undo, abuse and misuse and he is above all reproach. They follow and follow
through even scandal and eagerly await his robust replies to questions he
cannot even begin to grapple with. This is not sheep and shepherd. This is not
Christ and His church. This is wolf and sheep, as Christ himself called them. This
is not freedom. This is bondage: the abdication of personal responsibility to
personal agendas. This is not the Church. This is a church, typical and small
and lacking any real power. We might as well look for answers in magicians and
the improper reading of the stars.
Freedom
is what is offered: To be free to worship in spirit and in truth, with all our
foibles and quirks and issues and with all the growth ahead of us. It is the freedom
to talk to God, to look at Christ revealed and follow, to dwell in the companionship
of the Holy Spirit and bear the true fruit of the eternal life. It is the
freedom to receive divine love and to share it with one another as the constant
communion of a family walking home together.
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