God Doesn't Care
I hear people say, "God won't let you down." But we know from experience that he does. He will stand you up at the street corner. He will ignore your prayer, allow you to screw up and to completely embarrass yourself. Jesus explicitly said that we would experience trouble in the world, that we would be ill treated and killed for being his friend. 11 of the 12 Apostles were murdered for honouring Jesus - counting Paul as an Apostle that makes 12 out of 12. If you're counting on life going smoothly, don't look to God.
If you watch bank adverts with a critical eye you will realize that they all offer you the same thing, precisely nothing, wrapped up with fancy ribbons. They have no vested interest in your happiness. They only need to lure you into the net so they can use and abuse you and spit you out when you're no more use to them. You will find individuals and branches more or less helpful but its not they who are making the real money.
A documentary was recently aired on the BBC about a recent report by the Catholic Church concerning paedophile priests in Donegal. The upshot of it is that the church, despite their confession of wrongdoing and failure and a commitment to ensuring it doesn't happen again, will not fully admit their responsibility or dereliction of duty. You cannot trust an established institution to do the right thing because of its survival instinct. In the same way we have a well founded mistrust of politicians. How, they say, can you tell if a politician is lying? Answer: his lips move. Its the nature of things.
There is a general air of disillusion around at the moment. The people who apparently knew what they were doing with our money have turned out to be well groomed gamblers and pickpockets. The success of Labour in the recent council elections is generally regarded as a backlash against the coalition rather than an endorsement of Ed Moribund. But we shouldn't be surprised. What has been dissed is an illusion after all. Why would we suppose that the government has our best interests at heart or that our money is safe with men in dark grey suits or that the institutional church is a bastion of honesty and integrity?
Read the Bible and you will see that God upholds his glory jealously. He demands that no one will share it with him and woe betide anyone who presumes to do so. He asks that we worship him with everything we have to the exclusion of all others. His will be done, his name honoured, his purposes fulfilled and for this we are to lay down our lives. God declares his love for us but he doesn't have the vested interest of the young lover who will do anything to win the woman he desires. God is God and he will be no less so if we reject him. He has no superior and so cannot be judged. If God says black is white, it is.
Its not difficult to see that a God who will defend himself so vigorously would create a universe in which its creatures and human societies would have the same instinct. Indeed, we are told that we are made in God's image. We are all demigods and don't we know it. Even babies demand their parent's full attention and, "don't think you will have a life while I need you to care for me." But its because God has no vested interest that he will leave you crying, soiled and hungry until he deems it the right time to intervene. The bottom line: God will let you down if it makes sense to him. We could possibly conclude that there is suffering in this world because God doesn't care.
But we can't blame God. Can the pot say to the potter, "I don't like how you made me." Can a selfish son place demands on the father, his own flesh? We are ungrateful children making unreasonable demands on our parent not seeing ourselves in him. But Jesus says, "If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!" As a child I rarely had sweets while some of my friends had them all the time. My 'evil' parents denied my personal pleasures in order to save up for holidays and Christmas. How much more will my Father in heaven let me down when my heart is breaking in order to save me for heaven and eternity.
Its good that God doesn't care about some of the things I care about. Nor is he concerned about some of the things I'm concerned about. Jesus didn't say, "I won't let you down" he said, "I will never leave nor forsake you." The difference between God and all other beings and institutions is that he has absolute integrity. He is always right and true to his purpose. He isn't swayed by your emotions though he has compassion and cares for you more than a mother, her child. You are always on God's radar and you can always call him father. Don't have illusions about God and you will not be disillusioned.
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