The First Church of Saint Bashor the Pharisee

Now when the Pharisee who had invited Him saw this, he spoke to himself, saying, “This Man, if He were a prophet, would know who and what manner of woman this is who is touching Him, for she is a sinner.”  Luke 7:39

Many of us were raised in churches where we were taught the terror of the law. Step one inch out of line, we were instructed, and God the Almighty would sweep His mighty stick of smiting down and blast our little hides into next week. It is little wonder that we gravitated, no - fled in terror, to our Lord Jesus, the Christ Child who came in love and forgiveness. Christmas was so much better than the usual Sunday terror that we could hardly help ourselves. A Sunday Christmas was such a disappointment because it was like we were robbed of a joyous day. Come on down to the altar, the pastor said, and we did because the mercy of Jesus was so much better than the judgment of the Father hanging over us. A few weeks later we were confused and disappointed to find the smiting stick still raised over us and to make it worse, the church had added a few more rules in a convenient handbook for us to obey lest we feel the wrath of the Lord. The First Church of Saint Bashor the Pharisee had delivered us from the world. 

If you think that I take issue with the churches of old, then you are quite correct. If I came out of years of church teaching to escape into the freedom of the world and out from under the raised hand of the God of thunder, then something was wrong in the doctrine. For God and His Son should not be separated so in the mind of the young man that he should flee from church. If the young woman flees to Jesus because the judgment of the Father is so terrifying in her mind, then she does right but for the wrong reason. The Father and the Son are not some sort of divine bad cop-good cop, but the Son is the expression of God's love in the body of a man born of woman. God's love sent to us His Son. All of the judgment and wrath we feared has been placed on the Son. And it is the Son who is the way for us to take the prodigal's journey back to the loving Father and be swept up in His embrace. 

Great is the love of the Lord our God. Amen.

Bucky