The language of personal Christian commitment is important and highly revealing. In cc's years in student Evangelicalism, phrases such as ‘I’ve become a Christian’ or ‘I’ve committed my life to Christ’ or ‘I’ve prayed a prayer of commitment’ or ‘I’ve opened the door and let Him in’ or the reverse ‘I’ve kicked Him out’ were the common currency.
Your curate has noticed that recently ‘I fell in love with Jesus’ has become an increasingly fashionable way of describing a conversion experience. To be fair, this phrase seems to be mainly used by ladies. But no doubt men will start jumping on the bandwagon before too long.
These changing fashions in the language of conversion have caused cc to reflect on his own Christian commitment. Your curate is deeply wayward and inclined to wickedness, so what he needs from God is not a cuddle but a divine King who will rule him.
He needs a King to rebuke him for being stupid and slow to understand the Scriptures; for being of little faith; to kick him up the backside when he is spiritually slothful; to tell him to use less acid in his blog posts (thankfully his godly pal Anglican Mainstream's Canon Dr Christopher Sugden performs that ministry of moderation upon your curate). Ultimately, cc needs a King who has the divine authority to forgive his manifold sins and wickedness.
By God’s amazing grace, your curate and indeed every Christian has such a divine King in the Lord Jesus and where would any of us be without Him?
When cc wants a cuddle, he can ask his wife for one. What he needs from his King is kingly rule and no king worth his crown wants to be crooned at from the foot of his throne in the idiom of the modern pop song.
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Would you be open to a Kingly cuddle every now and then?
ReplyDeleteI'm up for the occasional pat on the back. But the real prize is the 'Well done, good and faithful servant'.
ReplyDeleteEvery blessing,
cc
Hmmmm.
ReplyDeleteIn an earlier post you spoke out against public school favouring of Oxbridge training colleges. Is it a bit ironic to so fear that bête noire of the English public schoolboy - emotional engagement and relational intimacy?
If 'your maker is your husband' (Is.54:5) and 'as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you' (Is.62:5) then would it not be sinful to resist his overtures of passionate emotional love?
Our human experiences of love and intimacy, e.g. in marriage, are the image - intended to point to something greater, not lesser.
"I did this...I did that..."
ReplyDeleteSurely salvation is about Jesus' initiative at least as much as ours?
At a Churches Together Lent study Course I went to a year ago, one of the leaders in the Methodist Church, told us about a Christian Club she helped to run during the dinner breaks at the school she worked at. At one meeting they had a guest in, who amongst other things told the Children that they we are all sinners and that unless they personally realised this and asked Jesus to come into their lives and save them they would go to hell. The teacher was very upset and angry about this and thought it entirely inappropriate as many of the children attending were quite vulnerable and came to the club purely as a refuge from the rough and tumble of the school yard. She felt all it did was to unnecessarily frighten delicate children who had suffered enough in the school yard and the last thing they needed was to be spooked in their safe haven.
ReplyDeletePerhaps she was right to feel this way in this case, but the story gave me a fresh perspective on the way that many within the West see Church. ie as a club for those seeking refuge from the rough and tumble world. If this was truly what the Church was then how mean would it be if some in the club started to frighten other club members with talk of eternal damnation and fire and brimstone just because they are breaking rules written down in a 2000 year old book criticised by amongst others David Attenborough a man of impeccable manners who would be kind and affirming at any Wimps refuge.