Infinitely Stranger
Originally scheduled for
September 11
Life is infinitely stranger than anything which the mind of man
could invent.
Sherlock Holmes,
A Case of Identity
It is a common accusation against Christians: we are accused of
creating God after our own image. But as Holmes tells us, our minds
are not crazy enough to invent the truth. In fact, we know exactly
how human beings invent God. Here are some examples:
·
There
is the merciless God – the furious God who is out to get you for
everything you have ever done.
·
There
is a loving grandfather God — the one who wants to see you having a
good time, and certainly wouldn't invent anything like hell. Mister
nice guy, that's the loving grandfather God.
·
The
most common invented God is the cosmic bean counter — the God who
counts of your sins and then concept of good deeds. If your good
deeds outweigh your sins, you get to go to heaven. So no matter what
you've done, just do something good and you'll balance it out.
The test is this: suppose you got to write the story of the
universe. You might imagine yourself to be a noble and
self-sacrificing God, but can you imagine sacrificing your son? Your
only son? I can't either.
So what would you do at the time of the crucifixion? Remember, if
you are God you have the power to start all over again. You can just
re-create the whole mess and avoid those pesky humans this time
around. Indeed, if you are writing the story you have no obligation
to create the universe in the first place. Think of all the work,
the mess, and then the sacrifice that you would avoid.
Life is indeed infinitely stranger than anything which we could
invent. Think of it: the God of the universe, the creator, he who
spoke and the worlds began comes down to this little planet to walk
among his creation. You might do that; but if you did you would
certainly walk among us as a wise, noble sage dispensing advice.
After all of your good little advice tidbits were written down, you
would get back in your flying saucer and leave.
But God didn't do that. He comes in the flesh and dies in the
flesh. It was not a noble death, it was the death of a common
criminal — a disgrace. He did that out of his great love for us.
That is what we celebrate at communion. We celebrate the sacrifice,
we celebrate his coming, we celebrate his death as our atonement —
until he comes again.
