1 John 3:1 says “How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!"
Not only does God adopt us as his kids, but he lavishes his love on us. God has been really speaking to me about this outlandish love he has for all of us. “Lavish” – that isn’t just a birthday party your folks throw for you with a clown and a pony, but one at Disneyworld, with Mickey passing out balloons, all the Princesses there, and Justin Bieber on hand for entertainment.
It’s the sort of love that embarrasses you when you see others displaying it in public. Brennan Manning (Souvenirs of Solitude, p. 31) says that God is so crazy in love with us that he “can scarcely bear to be without us.” I wonder if He is not like a teenager in love, who sends SMS’s to his beloved every few minutes – but we don’t get them because we haven’t paid for the text package, or have disabled “Holy Spirit tweets” or are just too busy to listen.
You might think I am exaggerating. Look at the scandalous things that God does – things that if he did today, we might question his sanity, or judgment or dedication to the overall plan.
1. Jesus washes his disciples’ feet. They certainly were taken back by this. Here is the CEO stooping to wash his servants’ feet! In Mali, I am “Monsieur le Directeur” and can hardly carry my own suitcase without causing scandal among our staff, as it is so unfitting for me to do that. What Jesus does for his disciples is SCANDOULOUS.
2. Brennan Manning gives the example of the Woman Caught in Adultery. Jesus absolves her sins BEFORE SHE EVEN ASKS and then sends her on her way. He doesn’t ask her a lot of questions to make sure she understands the gospel, or get her checked into a half-way house, or make her jump through hoops. If we were with him, we’d be looking for some sort of assurances this woman would not be out on the streets again tonight, but he just lets her go, with the injunction to “go and sin no more.” As if!
“Why doesn’t this God of ours display some taste and discretion in dealing with us?” (Manning, p. 33) His love isn’t dignified. It’s messy.
3. Then there is the Parable of the Prodigal Son/Loving Father (Luke 15). Again, we have a person of authority, an elderly father, dropping everything and running across the fields to his son, the one who totally dissed him. Does he even listen to the son’s apology? Nope, again there are really no hoops to jump through.
“You’re back. I’ve missed you like mad. Here are the keys to the mansion, an executive VP position in the company, a new Ipad and a Lexus. Let’s Party.”
Now if it were me, I’d want the son to prove he was serious, let him work his way back up in the family enterprise, maybe put him back in his old job for a while.
But NOT GOD.
4. God announces his son's birth, not in the Coliseum in Rome, but to a bunch of outcasts: shepherds in Podunk, Judea.
5. He chooses his closest companions – not from the elite soldiers, or learned people or skilled artisans - but from fishermen and tax collectors and uneducated folks.
6. Is this only a New Testament thing? No, from Day One, we have God being messy. He kills animals to cover Adam and Eve’s nakedness and shame. Killing animals is messy and had to REALLY hurt God as these were the first creatures EVER to lose their lives.
7. The OT God does all sorts of “coloring outside the lines” by doing things like picking the younger son to bless: Jacob, not Esau.
8. Then there is David, who falls so royally, by committing adultery and then killing his lover’s husband. Okay, we might be up for God forgiving this person if they were really, really sorry. (He was). But certainly he should be removed from ministry and his bestselling Psalm CDs pulled from the Christian bookstores. “Let’s take him out of power circles. He can come to church and all but not have any real future role.”
Not with God. David stays on as King, and is called a man after God’s own heart. He even gets “a lasting dynasty” which includes Jesus.
9. Finally, there is Rahab, the prostitute. I was reading this story yesterday in Joshua 2. What’s up with this story? How did the spies end up at HER house, which was after all, a house of prostitution? Was this their cover? The king assumed they were her clients. Certainly would not look good in the next newsletter.
Obviously, God’s sovereignty was at work to protect the spies. But if God is being sovereign, why not choose a less messy way, involving someone respectable and something more dignified than a prostitute?
All I can figure is that God’s plan also included rehabilitation for Rahab who recognizes God for God in all this and ends up with a place of honor in society, a lasting place in history and a lineage that includes: Boaz, David, and Jesus.
If someone with a track record like God was sitting on your church’s elder board or the board of your non-profit or company, I imagine most of you would be looking for a way to replace him with someone more sensible and dignified. The good news is that He is the Chairman of the Board and has a lifetime post and can override our votes.
This love that we are so stingy in doling out only to respectable folks who meet certain criteria for advancing our ends, well, our Chairman is crazy and messy and undignified and will LAVISH that love on you and me and everyone else, regardless of how it looks.
And aren't you glad he does?
I'd always wondered too about the spies' choice of lodging. That was certainly outside of the box thinking. Good reminder that, when we pray for direction, we need to be open for God to answer unconventionally. But are we really ready for "unconventional"?
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