PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: “Christ-centered or Christ-haunted?”
(By: Ron Woodrum)
Flannery O’Conner was an American writer an essayist who was an important voice in American literature. She wrote two novels, but was especially known for her short stories, reviews and commentaries. She was a Southern writer and oftern wrote in a Southern Gothic style. On one occasion, while talking about the culture of the Bible belt, stated that she thought that the South was more “Christ-haunted than Christ-centered”. That statement caused quite a stir. By it she was implying that the Southern belief system was based more in a type of fearful superstition rather than a solid faith and devotion. Since the word superstition is defined as “a belief held in spite of evidence to the contrary”, I wonder if her words are a true description of many of us, no matter what a geographic origins. Are we more “Christ-haunted or Christ-centered?” Marirlyn Meburg, in her book Boundless Love, reacted to those words with this objection, “Quite frankly…I found myself slightly offended. For heaven’s sake…of course I’m not merely Christ-Haunted. I have a solid, Christ-centered core!” But upon reflection she said, “occasionally, unconsciously, I can attach a type of superstitious thinking to my faith. For example, maybe the reason I got an unexpected check for $100.00 is that I have been reading my Bible more. Or the reason that my health problems persist is that I am not tithing. Possibly the windows in my apartment leak when it rains because I did not pray enough before I bought them and had them installed! These are not faith-based thoughts they are superstitious thoughts. They are on the same level of thinking as, If I do not walk under that ladder I will meet a handsome man that finds me adorable. Of course if I do walk under that ladder…well prepare to meet the Phantom of the Opera”. Superstituous thinking leads us to believe that if we read our Bible more, spend more time in prayer, tithe, witness, and do all kinds of other good works across the board, it will lead to “God loving us more” and “God blessing us more”. That is not Biblical thinking.
The Bible clearly teaches us that God’s love is unconditional, in spite of our sinful condition. John 3:16 says “God so loved the world”. The word world, kosmos, in the Greek N.T. was used of “the system of evil that is under the control of the evil one who opposses God at every turn”. He loved us unconditionally while a part of that system-entrenched in it. Romans 5:8 states that God demonstrated His love for us that “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us”. The Testament says that some would maybe die for a friend, but the kind of Love Christ had, to “die for us while we could not even be considered friends is the greatest love of all!” The New Testament took a word, agape, that was hardly used at all in the secular, and baptised it, and gave it the meaning of “unconditional love for someone or something that may not love you back, and seeking only the best for the object loved”. That is divine love. Love you can count on. That is love that does not love you only if you perform, but loves you the same even if you don’t. But it is the kind of love that makes you want to return that love with loving gratitude for the one that loves you that way and that much! Responding to that kind of love encourages you to read the Bible because it is a love-lettter from your Beloved. To pray more because you are spending time with the one you love and loves you. That kind of love, Paul says, “constrains us to beg the world to be reconciled to God, through His son the Lord Jesus Christ.” (II Cor. 5). That is Christ-centered faith-not Christ-haunted faith.
I love the poem by Amy Carmichael-I think it expresses the kind of faith that God intends us to have…
FLAME OF GOD
From prayer that asks that I may be
Sheltered from the winds that beat on thee
From fearing when I should aspire
From faltering when I should climb higher
From silken self O Captain free
Thy soldier would follow Thee
From subtle love of softening things
From easy choices, weakenings
Not thus are spirits fortified
Not this way went the Crucified
From all that dims Thy Calvary
O Lamb of God deliver me
Give me the Love that leads the way
The faith that nothing can dismay
The hope that no disappointments tire
The passion that will burn like fire
Let me not sink like a clod
Make me Thy Fuel, O Flame of God.
Remember: God loves us the way we are, but loves us too much to leave us that way!