Once a month, I offer an alternative service in my church parish hall aimed at our young children. Last Sunday, we focused on Jesus' parable of the Lost Coin. I had ten quarters. Nine of them were at the "altar" (a parish hall table in this service) and one was hidden in the room. It didn't take long for my young detectives to find it. When they did, I underlined the point--if you do bad things, God loves you enough to be happy when God has you back.
Brandon, a ten-year-old theologian, posed an interesting point: "If you do bad things too much, God won't trust you anymore."
Does God trust us? The anthropomorphized God of the Bible has good reason NOT to.
"OK, you two: I'm giving you every single thing you need to be completely happy. Just don't touch this one tree I'm putting here in the middle of the garden. Remember, I'm trusting you!"
"David, I'm raising you up as king over Israel, and I expect you to be wise and just. So don't do anything stupid, like killing somebody so you can steal his wife. I'm trusting you here!"
"I'm sending my beloved Son to live as one you. I expect you to listen to him, follow him, and honor him as the Messiah. I hope I can trust you."
"I'm boiling down all those commandments into just two: love me, love other people like you love yourself. That's pretty simple, isn't it? I'll trust you to do those two simple things."
I don't know about you, but I think God would be crazy to trust us humans. But can God love us, even if we aren't very trustworthy? I hope so.
We human beings seem to find ways of putting ourselves and our wants and desires first. We can always rationalize doing what WE want to do. With the possible exception of a few great saints (and I kind of wonder about them, to be honest), we haven't done a very good job of earning God's trust.
So, my friend Brandon, you're right. God has good reason not to trust us, because we do bad things. It's a good thing God loves us. We don't have to earn that.
Does God trust us? The anthropomorphized God of the Bible has good reason NOT to.
"OK, you two: I'm giving you every single thing you need to be completely happy. Just don't touch this one tree I'm putting here in the middle of the garden. Remember, I'm trusting you!"
"David, I'm raising you up as king over Israel, and I expect you to be wise and just. So don't do anything stupid, like killing somebody so you can steal his wife. I'm trusting you here!"
"I'm sending my beloved Son to live as one you. I expect you to listen to him, follow him, and honor him as the Messiah. I hope I can trust you."
"I'm boiling down all those commandments into just two: love me, love other people like you love yourself. That's pretty simple, isn't it? I'll trust you to do those two simple things."
I don't know about you, but I think God would be crazy to trust us humans. But can God love us, even if we aren't very trustworthy? I hope so.
We human beings seem to find ways of putting ourselves and our wants and desires first. We can always rationalize doing what WE want to do. With the possible exception of a few great saints (and I kind of wonder about them, to be honest), we haven't done a very good job of earning God's trust.
So, my friend Brandon, you're right. God has good reason not to trust us, because we do bad things. It's a good thing God loves us. We don't have to earn that.
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