“That’s Good Enough for Me.”
I read an article recently from magazine “First Things” [March 2012, p. 66] that referred to “bourgeois religion.” This idea it defined as the kind of mind that “presumes that the feelings and behaviors of well-to-do middle-class people pretty much reflect he will of God.”
Well, I think the problem is that we dealing with “human religion” and that “bourgeois” is just another subcategory of people who shape God into their own image for their own purposes. That is, they try to use God. Well, let me be a bit more confessional: I try to use God. Multiply me by 6 or 7 billion currently, and you see the scope of the problem.
The ayatollahs certainly are busy at it, the papacy is certainly busy at it, Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen are certainly busy at it, rabbis compete for it, and the Dali Lama seems to love the celebrity as well. The quality that most sets apart the saints is that they really didn’t seek to fashion God for their purposes, but to be fashioned by Him. The Catholic Church tradition of venerating the saints, whether you approve or not, has this virtue: it focuses attention on persons who did not focus attention on themselves in their pursuit of God.
We have probably all heard the adage: God created us in His Image, and ever since, we have been busy returning the favor. How does this madness stop? How can I get “out of myself?” Jesus spoke of this process as a matter of “dying to the self” and being “born again” to the Spirit. Jesus has credibility: His life and death story is completely authentic with His words. I notice about Him that he eschewed fame, even when it chased Him. He accepted a lowly status because He wanted to present a clear and vivid picture of God undefiled by “self.”
I’m also convinced only the Son of God could do that. The rest of us could not forge that trail. He “as the first born” of God carries us in his wake. A door opened, a path was laid before us, a way was given.
A simple prayer: “God, again today, break me, and remake me. Rebirth me in your image today.”
I read an article recently from magazine “First Things” [March 2012, p. 66] that referred to “bourgeois religion.” This idea it defined as the kind of mind that “presumes that the feelings and behaviors of well-to-do middle-class people pretty much reflect he will of God.”
Well, I think the problem is that we dealing with “human religion” and that “bourgeois” is just another subcategory of people who shape God into their own image for their own purposes. That is, they try to use God. Well, let me be a bit more confessional: I try to use God. Multiply me by 6 or 7 billion currently, and you see the scope of the problem.
The ayatollahs certainly are busy at it, the papacy is certainly busy at it, Rick Warren and Joel Olsteen are certainly busy at it, rabbis compete for it, and the Dali Lama seems to love the celebrity as well. The quality that most sets apart the saints is that they really didn’t seek to fashion God for their purposes, but to be fashioned by Him. The Catholic Church tradition of venerating the saints, whether you approve or not, has this virtue: it focuses attention on persons who did not focus attention on themselves in their pursuit of God.
We have probably all heard the adage: God created us in His Image, and ever since, we have been busy returning the favor. How does this madness stop? How can I get “out of myself?” Jesus spoke of this process as a matter of “dying to the self” and being “born again” to the Spirit. Jesus has credibility: His life and death story is completely authentic with His words. I notice about Him that he eschewed fame, even when it chased Him. He accepted a lowly status because He wanted to present a clear and vivid picture of God undefiled by “self.”
I’m also convinced only the Son of God could do that. The rest of us could not forge that trail. He “as the first born” of God carries us in his wake. A door opened, a path was laid before us, a way was given.
A simple prayer: “God, again today, break me, and remake me. Rebirth me in your image today.”
The Daily Peanut 