this is early in the service tomorrow,
in my
reading this week – I read about an interview with a woman who left the church,
along with her husband. They had been pastors at a big church in the USA, he
now describes himself as an atheist, she doesn’t say, but they no longer are
part of a church. They were both pastors and Christian musicians.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-nE-zrIhKc]
In her story
of leaving the church, she used a term I had not heard before - a transactional
God.
If I pray
and go to church, or even better work for the church, God will bless me with a
good life, and children, and a wonderful partner, and …..
The idea
that if I do something for God, God will do something for me.
That image
of God, the one that said if I just prayed harder, or was more godly, then I
could have whatever I wanted – broke down for me. It doesn’t always happen that
we get what we pray for. Most of you
will already know that it doesn’t work like that - if you just prayed more, you
would be healed, relationship restored, get a job, have a child, …. is wrong
and hurtful.
The person
in the story left church, one reason I did not leave the church was because a
minister gave me a different image of God, an image of a God who sat with me in
my confusion, who held me as a grieved.
I had not
heard the term transactional God before, but it fits with some of my
experience, and I can understand why people would leave the church, and God, is
that is the only image they have of God.
I was
fortunate. Not everyone is.
God is love,
God loves us before we know it; and what ever we do, is in response to God
graciousness to us.
I no longer
see God rewarding me for praying or being a Minister or being a ‘good’
person.
I know now
that God loves me, and in response I obey God as best I can, I pray to develop
a closer relationship, to live more deeply in union with Christ.
I pray that you also know you are loved by God.
