Last Sunday I spoke on legalism as being dead religion that occurs when God seems distant. Unfortunately much Christianity seems to advocate just such a view. No wonder Ludovic Kennedy in Guardian Unlimited: Put away childish things today stated Every week in their churches Christians belt out in hymn after hymn that “God” is just and merciful and wise, yet also, they claim, invisible, inaccessible and silent as night. These attributes are contradictory, for if the latter are true, the former cannot be. And just where in our daily lives do we find examples of God’s mercy, wisdom and justice?
…..Do the brothers and sisters really believe they are being listened to, and have they ever paused to consider how silly to outsiders they sound and look?
I have to say that if I believed that God was that inactive then I would give up going to church and find something else to do on a Sunday morning. Fortunately as Kennedy stated such a state of affairs is contradictory, and in this much I agree with him. If God isn’t vibrant, alive, breaking in constantly in my life I want nothing to do with him.