Bumping and grinding your way to hell.

I’ve been following this guy for a while now. I’m saddened and can’t help but feel he’s missing something. Pray for Jesse.

On community, solidarity and faith.

“To proclaim the gospel is to announce the mystery of ’sonship’ and ‘brotherhood’, a mystery hidden – as Paul says – from the beginning of time and revealed now in Christ dead and resurrected. For this reason, to evangelize is to come together in ecclesia, to assemble together. Only in community can faith be lived, celebrated, and deepened, lived out through one act as fidelity to the Lord and solidarity towards all people. To accept the Word is to turn ourselves to ‘the Other’ in others. It is with them that we live the Word. Faith is not to be found in private or in intimacy; faith is the denial of the retreat into ourselves.”

- Gustavo Gutierrez, The Cambridge Companion to Liberation Theology: The task and content of liberation theology.

On sin.

“To sin is to refuse to love one’s neighbours and, therefore, the Lord himself. Sin – a breach of friendship with God and others – is according to the Bible the ultimate cause of poverty, injustice, and the oppression in which men live. In describing sin as the ultimate cause we do not in any way negate the structural reasons and the objective determinants leading to these situations. It does, however, emphasize the fact that things do not happen by chance and that behind an unjust structure there is a personal or collective will responsible – a willingness to reject God and neighbour.”

- Gustavo Gutierrez, A Theology of Liberation.

Justice and mercy, but how?

I’ve been looking at the Heidelberg Catechism for the past week or so for a paper I’m writing. For those that don’t know, it’s an old reformed catechism that takes the form of question and answer. Anyways, here’s question 11 (and answer):

Q.11
Is not God then also merciful?

A.
God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore his justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.

Here I find something I was taught in church as a child. That God is merciful, yes, but he is also just. And, because he is completely just his mercy is bound by his justice. Perhaps your not comfortable with this language of God being “bound” (neither am I), but perhaps you believe it anyway. Follow me for a second. Mercy is when you rightly deserve something and it is withheld from you. So, say for example, as a child you steal a candy bar from a shop and are caught in the act (in fact, the shopkeeper was watching you the whole time!). It could be argued, I suppose, that the shopkeeper could justly press charges against you for shoplifting or something like that. However, because the shopkeeper realizes that this child is, in fact, just a child, perhaps he would show mercy by withholding due punishment because, after all, you’re a child and learning right from wrong etc. That’s a bit what mercy is like.

Now, imagine an alternate scenario, where this shopkeeper is going through some rough times at home with his family and was in a terrible mood at work, so, instead of showing mercy he decides he is going to have you charged with shoplifting (and rightly so!). This may seem cruel and harsh, but it is just because the offense is being punished. However, in this case, justice necessarily negates mercy. It is not possible for there to be an expression of mercy here because the child is getting what they (arguably) deserve and mercy is not getting what you deserve.

Now, God is infinitely more merciful than a human shopkeeper so if we are to talk of God as merciful and just then he must be infinitely more merciful and just than any shopkeeper. However, as the above example has shown, mercy that is bound by justice is not mercy at all. Perhaps, instead, God can be both merciful and just (in fact, he is). But how can this be? This can only be so in Christ Jesus. Jesus takes on the full weight of our punishment. Everything that we deserve as a creation that has offended their Creator has been taken and placed on Christ. This has happened; past-tense. So, God is just because our offense has not gone unpunished, rather, he has taken that punishment upon himself.

As a result, God is merciful because we, the offenders, do not get what we deserve. The death and suffering that was our lot has been removed from us. Perhaps this is a way we can think of God’s mercy and justice.

Let us return for a moment to the answer given in the catechism: “God is indeed merciful, but also just; therefore his justice requires, that sin which is committed against the most high majesty of God, be also punished with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul.” If God’s good creation is punished, “with extreme, that is, with everlasting punishment of body and soul,” we could, perhaps, speak of God as just, but I’m not sure we could speak of him as merciful. In fact, the wording in the catechism, “God is indeed merciful, but also just,” suggests that justice trumps mercy, which as noted above, robs mercy of anything merciful.

God is just, yes, but not at the expense of his mercy.

Take and Eat: A Tale of Two Tree’s.

For the last few days my incredibly talented wife and I have been working on a painting. It’s acrylic and ink on canvas  entitled, ‘Take and Eat: A Tale of Two Trees.’ I’ve shown you a bit of the detail in closer shots. Any stabs at the symbolism?