Thursday
Jul142016

“We Do God Now In Our Image…”

“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.

Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
—Galatians 3: 23-25



"The road to the promised land runs past Sinai. The moral law may exist to be transcended: but there is no transcending it for those who have not first admitted its claims up on them, and then tried with all their strength to meet that claim, and fairly and squarely faced the fact of their failure."
—C.S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain



“We Do God Now In Our Image…”



We do God’s Law “open-minded”,
(If we do God’s Law at all…)
Yes, we do it “more progressive”
When we heard there was no “Fall”.

We do God’s Law “Take or Leave it”…
(Flexibility’s our “thing”.)
Those “commandments”?....Simply options
Now that Evolution’s king.

Yes, we do God’s Law more fairly,
“Open-ended” (as they say).
Judgment’s just not what we’re into….
Judgment’s just not cool today.

We do God now “in our image”
While we work toward paradise.
Never jealous, never wrathful…
Self-assured (like us)…and nice.

Lord, have mercy please upon us…
We have wandered…we have strayed.
Treading in these lukewarm waters,
We have simply lost our way.

Holy Spirit, breathe upon us
Revelation from above.
Draw us through the Straits of Sinai
To the Cross of Holy Love.




H. Richard Niebuhr

“Liberal Christianity is largely a human construct; it is what happens to a revealed religion after human beings finish redecorating it to modern tastes. H. Richard Niebuhr summarized the liberal gospel: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a Cross.” – Leon J. Podles



Addendum:

Watch us tip-toe right past Sinai…
‘Round the harsh light Horeb shines.
It’s a game: “Approach-Avoidance”
It’s where Pride and Lies combine.

It’s a path we’ve fallen into,
It’s the only way we know,
And without true Revelation,
It’s the “safe” way we shall go.

Disregard, son, your schoolmaster1
Never mind those grim commands.
Follow us to Pleasure Island
Where “Proud Progress” takes her stand.

It’s the painless path we’re after…
Roundabouts just as you please!
Always paved with good intentions,
Take-your-pick-idolatries.

1“But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith. But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.”
—Galatians 3: 23-25