-
-
Is Jesus like Victor Meldrew?
By Alan Rose on Fri 05th Aug 2011
I’ll let you into a secret - most of the time I love being a Christian, but there are times when I feel conflicted about it
It’s usually the times when some strand of the church is seemingly on a mission to present God as an unholy cross between Ebenezer Scrooge and Victor Meldrew, or gathering crowds under false pretences and then ‘whacking’ them with the gospel (“Come and watch the world cup with us…right, it’s half time; repent you ‘orrible lot!”)
For the record, the God of the bible is outrageously, scandalously generous.
“You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145)
“In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17)
God feeds, keeps and sustains all things in generous, faithful love. And then, as if that wasn’t enough…
“He who did not spare his only son…how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8)
It appears that God is very much into giving his very best, not a shabby, half-done, worn out and decrepit offering. The God of the bible doesn’t offer the ‘fag-end’ of his resources or love, but the greatest, truest and richest of what he has, culminating in Jesus, his perfect son.
Why, oh why then, must we make the faithful creator and sustainer of the world out to be a belligerent old miser?
It did my heart good this week to see the church that I belong to serving around fifty kids for a week in the craziest, messiest, noisiest and most exciting ways you could imagine. It did my soul good to know that the same people who gave up that whole week to dress up as pirates and laugh, dance and entertain those kids had contributed to an enormous sum of money that had enabled us as a church to host them. Most of all it did me good to know that this was all a profound evidence of the presence and activity of God’s spirit, because where deep generosity, servanthood and overflowing joy exist, you can be sure that Jesus is at work.About the author / Alan Rose
Alan is married to Susanna and moved to York from Brighton in 2008 when Alan joined the staff at City Church. Alan is passionate about God, Susanna, guitars, golf and curry (in that order)!
Is Jesus like Victor Meldrew?I’ll let you into a secret - most of the time I love being a Christian, but there are times when I feel conflicted about it
It’s usually the times when some strand of the church is seemingly on a mission to present God as an unholy cross between Ebenezer Scrooge and Victor Meldrew, or gathering crowds under false pretences and then ‘whacking’ them with the gospel (“Come and watch the world cup with us…right, it’s half time; repent you ‘orrible lot!”)
For the record, the God of the bible is outrageously, scandalously generous.
“You open your hand; you satisfy the desire of every living thing.” (Psalm 145)
“In him we live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17)
God feeds, keeps and sustains all things in generous, faithful love. And then, as if that wasn’t enough…
“He who did not spare his only son…how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?” (Romans 8)
It appears that God is very much into giving his very best, not a shabby, half-done, worn out and decrepit offering. The God of the bible doesn’t offer the ‘fag-end’ of his resources or love, but the greatest, truest and richest of what he has, culminating in Jesus, his perfect son.
Why, oh why then, must we make the faithful creator and sustainer of the world out to be a belligerent old miser?
It did my heart good this week to see the church that I belong to serving around fifty kids for a week in the craziest, messiest, noisiest and most exciting ways you could imagine. It did my soul good to know that the same people who gave up that whole week to dress up as pirates and laugh, dance and entertain those kids had contributed to an enormous sum of money that had enabled us as a church to host them. Most of all it did me good to know that this was all a profound evidence of the presence and activity of God’s spirit, because where deep generosity, servanthood and overflowing joy exist, you can be sure that Jesus is at work.
Write a comment
Sign in with your facebook account by clicking the button below to leave a comment.
-
1-310x219._thumbjpeg)