February 28, 2007
Some thoughts following Monday night’s Book Club Meeting
It’s really nice to know who you are, and last night at Redeemer’s Book Club discussion, it was finally pointed out to me that I am a post-modern Traditionalist. Oh, you’d like a translation? I think being a post-modern Traditionalist means I’m all about the relationship, and that I find real expression of the relationship I have with the Holy Trinity through more traditional forms of worship. That being said, how does all this post-modern stuff this play out?
Where I come from, and I expect where you come from as well, being in a relationship means participating in a two-way conversation…there’s definitely two involved in the deal. When it comes to our everyday lives, we have a host of different relationships – relationships with our families, with our friends, with the neighbors, with the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker. And we tend these relationships if we want them to flourish. If we want our spouse to love us, we speak lovingly to them and respect their points of view; if we want our children to have a positive relationship with us, we don’t belittle them or mock them or make them feel unnecessary; if we want a decent relationship with our neighbors or with the people with whom we do business we are civil and respectful and when we borrow the snow blower we return it in one piece and when we get a bill, we pay it on time. Maintaining decent relationships with others really does involve investing a great deal of sweat equity – really does involve a great deal of maintenance – heavy maintenance. We can’t neglect others; we can’t put others on the back shelf; we can’t pretend they don’t exist…not if we want to maintain any sort of decent, respectful relationship with them…not if we want to remain connected to them.
Why then do we often think things are different when it comes to God? Why do we think we can neglect prayer, neglect worship, neglect reading God’s Holy Word, neglect visiting his House on a regular basis, neglect eating and drinking at his Holy Table and yet maintain any kind of viable relationship with the Lord? It seems as though our culture has relegated our Holy and Powerful God to the role of sponge Bob…without the hard edges. From the Master of the Universe, our twenty-first century popular culture God has morphed into a being capable of absorbing all, and yet somehow continually bouncing back with a ready smile and the desire to slap us on our collective backs, forgiving and forgetting our sins (if we even acknowledge that we have them), just as we have managed to forgive ourselves for forgetting the reality of God. What kind of a relationship is that? Not one that’s built to last!
One-sided relationships don’t last – and that’s a fact. Eventually your spouse stops asking you how they look when all you can do is criticize; eventually your children don’t come home for a visit when all you can do is pick at their hair or their clothing or their career choices; eventually your friends stop calling of you don’t return their calls; eventually your neighbors and the people with whom you trade turn on the ‘closed’ sign when they see you coming if all you can do is take advantage. There is a limit to all relationships.
Does that include any relationship with God? Well yes…and no. I know that God forgives us for all the foolish and all the malicious mistakes we make, but I also know that we have to repent of them – that is admit them and with God’s help try to amend them. And to do that, we have to be in a relationship with God. You see it comes full circle – God wants us to be in relationship with him…he is both soft and loving in that regard. But God is also demanding – he demands our full attention. We must tend our relationship with him. I think it was Saint Augustine who said something along the lines of: “We love God because He first loved us.” Given that is true and it is - for we could only fear the unlovable – we reciprocate that love through tending to our relationship with God and our relationship with all of his creation in an intentional fashion. We need to pay attention to our relationship with God – keep it close, keep it sacred. What better time to do that then during this very Holy Lent? What better time for me and for you to renew our relationship with the one who loves us best? Because in the end it’s all about love…our loving, two-way relationship with the God who created and saved and sustains us all.
Yea, there’s no doubt about it – the members of the Book Club have me pegged…I’m a post-modern Traditionalist. It’s great to be known!
Some thoughts following Monday night’s Book Club Meeting
It’s really nice to know who you are, and last night at Redeemer’s Book Club discussion, it was finally pointed out to me that I am a post-modern Traditionalist. Oh, you’d like a translation? I think being a post-modern Traditionalist means I’m all about the relationship, and that I find real expression of the relationship I have with the Holy Trinity through more traditional forms of worship. That being said, how does all this post-modern stuff this play out?
Where I come from, and I expect where you come from as well, being in a relationship means participating in a two-way conversation…there’s definitely two involved in the deal. When it comes to our everyday lives, we have a host of different relationships – relationships with our families, with our friends, with the neighbors, with the butcher and the baker and the candlestick maker. And we tend these relationships if we want them to flourish. If we want our spouse to love us, we speak lovingly to them and respect their points of view; if we want our children to have a positive relationship with us, we don’t belittle them or mock them or make them feel unnecessary; if we want a decent relationship with our neighbors or with the people with whom we do business we are civil and respectful and when we borrow the snow blower we return it in one piece and when we get a bill, we pay it on time. Maintaining decent relationships with others really does involve investing a great deal of sweat equity – really does involve a great deal of maintenance – heavy maintenance. We can’t neglect others; we can’t put others on the back shelf; we can’t pretend they don’t exist…not if we want to maintain any sort of decent, respectful relationship with them…not if we want to remain connected to them.
Why then do we often think things are different when it comes to God? Why do we think we can neglect prayer, neglect worship, neglect reading God’s Holy Word, neglect visiting his House on a regular basis, neglect eating and drinking at his Holy Table and yet maintain any kind of viable relationship with the Lord? It seems as though our culture has relegated our Holy and Powerful God to the role of sponge Bob…without the hard edges. From the Master of the Universe, our twenty-first century popular culture God has morphed into a being capable of absorbing all, and yet somehow continually bouncing back with a ready smile and the desire to slap us on our collective backs, forgiving and forgetting our sins (if we even acknowledge that we have them), just as we have managed to forgive ourselves for forgetting the reality of God. What kind of a relationship is that? Not one that’s built to last!
One-sided relationships don’t last – and that’s a fact. Eventually your spouse stops asking you how they look when all you can do is criticize; eventually your children don’t come home for a visit when all you can do is pick at their hair or their clothing or their career choices; eventually your friends stop calling of you don’t return their calls; eventually your neighbors and the people with whom you trade turn on the ‘closed’ sign when they see you coming if all you can do is take advantage. There is a limit to all relationships.
Does that include any relationship with God? Well yes…and no. I know that God forgives us for all the foolish and all the malicious mistakes we make, but I also know that we have to repent of them – that is admit them and with God’s help try to amend them. And to do that, we have to be in a relationship with God. You see it comes full circle – God wants us to be in relationship with him…he is both soft and loving in that regard. But God is also demanding – he demands our full attention. We must tend our relationship with him. I think it was Saint Augustine who said something along the lines of: “We love God because He first loved us.” Given that is true and it is - for we could only fear the unlovable – we reciprocate that love through tending to our relationship with God and our relationship with all of his creation in an intentional fashion. We need to pay attention to our relationship with God – keep it close, keep it sacred. What better time to do that then during this very Holy Lent? What better time for me and for you to renew our relationship with the one who loves us best? Because in the end it’s all about love…our loving, two-way relationship with the God who created and saved and sustains us all.
Yea, there’s no doubt about it – the members of the Book Club have me pegged…I’m a post-modern Traditionalist. It’s great to be known!
posted by Pastor Susan Montgomery | 6:58 AM
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