Back in 2009 I had a post that explored the idea that while Jesus learned the trade of carpentry, he did not use many carpentry metaphors when talking about the kingdom of God.  

After further reflection on this idea more thoughts have been stewing in my brain.  

Not only did Jesus not use much carpentry language he also did not use much fishing language to talk about the kingdom of God.  It is interesting to me that Jesus did not use much insider language with his parables.  

Jesus used a lot of farming metaphors, wedding metaphors and even the occasional sheep metaphor.  These are the images that the followers of Jesus, the crowd that surrounded Jesus, could understand because it was their world - their images.  

I can understand how the disciples never seemed to "get it" even though they were with Jesus all the time.  

He was using language that was rooted in the life experience of the non-believer and the crowd.  He did not spend much time trying to appease or create insider language with just himself and the twelve.  

Is this not a way to consider the mission of the church?  

Too often we gather on Sunday morning expecting the same things that we who attend, understand and "get". We use insider language and even are fearful to change things because we might "upset" the most faithful members.  So we continue to do what we do in order that those who are in the church can be comforted and those who are not in the church can continue to feel like church is, at best, weird.  

What would it look like to take a model that we might find in the way of Jesus?  What if we created a church that was so concerned about connecting with those outside the church that those in the church would even be willing to "not get it" like the twelve disciples.  

Do you get or understand Jesus, or are you like the disciples and continually scratch your head wondering what the heck this Jesus guy is teaching and saying?  

Self Limiting

In the United States we talk about freedom of speech as a value we ought to uphold.  Which is why even when there are people protesting and saying hateful things at funerals for fallen soldiers, even if we disagree with their content, we allow this hateful speech to happen because we hold the freedom of speech to be a greater value.  


And the thing to remember is we have the ability to shut down and stop public speech.  The police can arrest and shut down demonstrations and use different forces to silence even the most hateful speech.  


But we do not.  


And even though we allow it to happen does not make you or I supporters of the hateful speech.  No rather, we uphold a greater value - the freedom of speech - and thus we must allow even hateful language to exist or that would threaten the future of the greater value of the freedom of speech.  


We are self-limiting when it comes to issues like this.  We have the ability, but we self-limit in order to uphold a greater value or idea.  


Likewise, I affirm that God is self limiting.  


God has the ability to stop evil from happening.  Yet God does not.  This does not make God evil, rather it points out that God upholds a greater value.  God could intervene and stop killing, and that would save a life but that would also threaten the future of the value of freedom and free will.  So God self limits, even though God is not in favor of people killing people.  


As a Christian I do not have to go far into the Bible to see an example of God self limiting.  


The greatest disclosure of God I know is in the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus.  Contrary to what many of my fellow Christians believe and teach, the greatest disclosure of God is not the Bible or Paul - it is Jesus.


As the greatest disclosure of God that we know, God chose to self limit and take the form of a human being.  God is God, yet God took the form of a very limited human being.  That is rather self limiting.  


Paul puts it this way in Philippians "Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death — even death on a cross."

God is one who self limits.  God upholds greater values which in one way make God seem rather harsh or disconnected or not loving or not graceful or just plain evil.  Likewise, when the police allow hate speech to happen at a funeral, some might think that police must be harsh/disconnected/not loving/graceless/evil because they allow the speech to happen.  This is a misunderstanding of the role and function of the police.  


The police are there to uphold a greater value - the freedom of speech.


God is not harsh/disconnected/not loving/graceless/evil because God allows evil to exist.  


God upholds greater values which means that God self limits God's actions.  


So the question naturally becomes - what are the greater values that God upholds?  Perhaps that is a question to address here more deeply...

In case you have not heard of Gungor - now you have

Lyrics:

God is not a man
God is not a white man
God is not a man sitting on a cloud

God cannot be bought
God will not be boxed in
God will not be owned by religion

But God is love, God is love, and He loves everyone
God is love, God is love, and He loves everyone

God is not a man
God is not an old man
God does not belong to Republicans
God is not a flag
Not even American
And God does not depend on a government

But God is good, God is good, and He loves everyone
God is good, God is good, and He loves everyone

Atheists and Charlatans and Communists and Lesbians
And even old Pat Robertson, oh God He loves us all
Catholic or Protestant, Terrorist or President
Everybody, everybody, love, love, love, love, love

Oh, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Yeah, I say God is love, God is love, and He loves everyone
La la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la
Stop the hating, please just stop the hating now cause God is love
Oh, whoa, la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la la




Lyrics:

There is a song for my family
Outside the walls of Sunday
Morning from some within.
This is a song to confess our sins,
Lay it all out, and try to begin again.
To hope again.

Please forgive our ignorance
In looking down on you
Please forgive our selfishness
For hiding in our pews while the world bleeds
While the world needs us to be what we should be

This is a song for my family who
Just can't believe in the Jesus that you've seen on Sunday morning.

This is a song for the cynical saints.
The burned out and hopeless.
The ones that we've cast away.
I feel your pain.

Please forgive the wastefulness of all that we could be
But don't forget, there more than this
Her beauty still exists
His bride is still alive
His bride is still alive

This is a song for my family inside
The walls of a Sunday morning.
Be what you should be.