Pocket-God

 

“Your problem is that you think you can keep God in your back pocket..!”  I’ve never forgotten that comment.  I was a rookie pastor at the time.  A church elders had asked me to come with him to confront a chap in the church about his scandalous behaviour.  We had pointed out to this man that his actions were not only offensive to others in the church and a scandal to the wider community but they were especially an offence to the Lord God who had spelled out very clearly in the Bible that this kind of behaviour was not appropriate.  All we got from the man was lots of excuses.  He talked as if God had given him a special dispensation to disobey the Ten Commandments.  That’s when my companion made his comment, about keeping God in your back pocket.

It’s a rather telling accusation.  Obviously it’s an accusation that such a person has a very small God.  You can’t fit the Creator and Sustainer of the universe in your back pocket.  It’s also an accusation that such a person has a God who is only for emergencies.  You keep him in your back pocket until you need him in a moment of crisis.

The incident reminded me a little of the tale C. S. Lewis tells in his children’s story, “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.”  The children have just heard for the first time of Aslan – the Christ-figure – in the mythical land of Narnia.  The children hear about Aslan the Lion from Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.  One of the children, Lucy, asks, “Is he safe?”  Mr. Beaver replies, “Who said anything about safe?  ‘Course he isn’t safe but he’s good... he’s not a tame lion...!”

It’s always a temptation for us human beings to try to domesticate the God of the universe.  And that happens so often.  For example, whenever people talk about ‘the man upstairs’ or when they treat Him as a kind of Santa Clause figure whose main responsibility is to give us stuff.

Today is Easter Sunday.  It’s the day when Christians remember an event that shook the world – literally – it was accompanied by an earthquake.  Each of the four gospels in the Bible relate certain aspects of that amazing event.  Angels rolled back the stone that sealed the entrance to the tomb in which Jesus’ body had been laid after He was judicially murdered on Good Friday.  They did that, not to let Jesus out – Jesus had already burst out of the tomb with the first rays of dawn.  They rolled the stone back to let his followers in so they could be eye-witnesses to the fact that Jesus had risen from the dead.

When the apostle Paul later talks about that event, in Romans chapter one, he comments that: Jesus “was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead.”  Easter is a demonstration of the power of God – by His resurrection Jesus Christ defeated the powers of sin, Satan and death.  It’s a power that led to transformed lives and to a church community that has existed for two thousand years.  How can you possibly keep such a God in your back pocket?  If the grave couldn’t hold Jesus then your back pocket certainly won’t.

The point is that Easter demonstrates what a mighty God we have.  Sure, we see God’s majesty and power in earthquakes, storms and in the structures of the universe.  However the Easter story of the empty tomb gives us additional evidence that there is no way we could ever domesticate the Lord God.  That has implications for the way we handle daily life.  The God who has revealed Himself in the risen Christ is not a ‘kindly old man upstairs’, He’s no Santa Clause figure who is there merely to keep us healthy and wealthy.  No!  This conqueror of sin, Satan and death demands our allegiance.  He calls us to walk through life following in His footsteps.  A tough call...?  Absolutely!  But consider the wonderful blessings he promises us as we trust in His resurrection.  He promised us a restored relationship with God as our Father and the certainty that death for us will now be an entrance into eternal glory.  If you’re wondering what Easter is all about it’s certainly not just Easter eggs and hot-cross buns.  Easter is the assurance of God’s forgiveness and a share in the resurrection life of Jesus as we trust in Him.


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