God Has OCD
God has OCD
Do we really understand the enormity of what God has done in Christ? Without the human race lifting a finger..God has simply dropped all the rules and regulations and laws and requirements we always thought were necessary to get God to accept us. God has just flatly ended the whole game in Jesus and niftily blanket pardoned the human race. This is audacious and is outside our understanding of what a proper God would do. Robert Farrar Capon (from whom I have lifted these ideas almost verbatim) calls this God a crook. Why? Because He really operates outside the normal range of human values. He did not wait for us to straighten out our ways, in fact, in some ways our brutality toward each other seems to be increasing (Khmer Rouge,Rhwanda). . He didn't give us a "You do this and I'll do that for you" task. No; while we were completely ignoring the Creator (or uncaused cause), He simply made us His blameless children. He dropped all the accusations against us, all of our sordid Historys, all of our empty promises down the great hole of Jesus's death. Then as a sign of this blanket pardon, this new day for the human race, He entered History and let us kill Him!
When we killed Him He didn't lift a finger to stop us. We whipped Him, beat Him, stripped Him, mocked Him and He simply said "Father forgive them" (and He did ). This was the flagpole that God planted on the earth for all generations to see. This unforgettable mysterious story stands in history to confound
Who is this guy? Remember the great line from the 70's movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Butch asks Cassidy about the guys who keep relentlessly chasing them and never give up? He said "WHO ARE THESE GUYS?? "
Who is this person who chases the human race and never gives up? Jesus used to tell these little cartoon stories that are often misunderstood, that give us insight into this strange person. One of my favorites is about a poor little old lady ( what a strange God figure!) who lives alone and loses a coin. She relentlessly turns the house upside down looking for this lost coin. She sweeps everywhere looking for it till she fimds it. God basically has an OCD personality to seek His lost coin(s); us.
Another even stranger story Jesus told was of a lonely shepard who tends a flock of 100 sheep and notices one is missing. He immedietly leaves the 99 (to the wolves?) to find the one. I think this again is OCD behavior. This creator being simply cannot get us out of His system and acts against His own best intersts to find us.
Now if I was a normal Christian this is the part where I would say "OK now that you know all this, get your act together and straighten up and get right with this God. But the fact of the matter is you don't have to lift a finger. I hope that bothers you. It bothers me. Surely there is something I can contribute to this relationship of acceptance. Surely I can con this fella into liking me.
But the fact of the matter is if we ignore this good news, its still true. He has accepted you and made you His child. He will never stop looking for you, Like the Butch Cassidy movie, if you climb a mountain, hide behind a rock, or even jump in the sea, He is right there holding you.
Do we really understand the enormity of what God has done in Christ? Without the human race lifting a finger..God has simply dropped all the rules and regulations and laws and requirements we always thought were necessary to get God to accept us. God has just flatly ended the whole game in Jesus and niftily blanket pardoned the human race. This is audacious and is outside our understanding of what a proper God would do. Robert Farrar Capon (from whom I have lifted these ideas almost verbatim) calls this God a crook. Why? Because He really operates outside the normal range of human values. He did not wait for us to straighten out our ways, in fact, in some ways our brutality toward each other seems to be increasing (Khmer Rouge,Rhwanda). . He didn't give us a "You do this and I'll do that for you" task. No; while we were completely ignoring the Creator (or uncaused cause), He simply made us His blameless children. He dropped all the accusations against us, all of our sordid Historys, all of our empty promises down the great hole of Jesus's death. Then as a sign of this blanket pardon, this new day for the human race, He entered History and let us kill Him!
When we killed Him He didn't lift a finger to stop us. We whipped Him, beat Him, stripped Him, mocked Him and He simply said "Father forgive them" (and He did ). This was the flagpole that God planted on the earth for all generations to see. This unforgettable mysterious story stands in history to confound
Who is this guy? Remember the great line from the 70's movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, when Butch asks Cassidy about the guys who keep relentlessly chasing them and never give up? He said "WHO ARE THESE GUYS?? "
Who is this person who chases the human race and never gives up? Jesus used to tell these little cartoon stories that are often misunderstood, that give us insight into this strange person. One of my favorites is about a poor little old lady ( what a strange God figure!) who lives alone and loses a coin. She relentlessly turns the house upside down looking for this lost coin. She sweeps everywhere looking for it till she fimds it. God basically has an OCD personality to seek His lost coin(s); us.
Another even stranger story Jesus told was of a lonely shepard who tends a flock of 100 sheep and notices one is missing. He immedietly leaves the 99 (to the wolves?) to find the one. I think this again is OCD behavior. This creator being simply cannot get us out of His system and acts against His own best intersts to find us.
Now if I was a normal Christian this is the part where I would say "OK now that you know all this, get your act together and straighten up and get right with this God. But the fact of the matter is you don't have to lift a finger. I hope that bothers you. It bothers me. Surely there is something I can contribute to this relationship of acceptance. Surely I can con this fella into liking me.
But the fact of the matter is if we ignore this good news, its still true. He has accepted you and made you His child. He will never stop looking for you, Like the Butch Cassidy movie, if you climb a mountain, hide behind a rock, or even jump in the sea, He is right there holding you.
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