This festive time of the year brings with it at least one popular, yet disturbing, distorted image we might have of God. A popular Christmas song begins with a warning: You better watch out! Don’t show any of your true feelings (pout, cry shout), because Santa Claus is coming to town. This fantastical elf is all-seeing and is noting down everything about you. And, you will pay the price for any misbehavior. You are being weighed in the balance. Don’t you dare get caught lacking whatever level of comportment this Santa set as the bar for you to achieve.
This Santa is not far from an image of God that is derived from an exaggerated and literal interpretation of the Old Testament: God the ultimate Judge, ready (eager?) to punish any transgression, or to reward compliance with the law (as determined by the experts of the law). This ancient and inadequate image of God is a great tool for controlling the behavior of others, especially children – or the childlike. It relies on fear: fear of punishment, pain, banishment (excommunication), to force submission and to manage the masses.
But are we meant to grovel in fear before God? I don’t think so. Yes, God is just, and has turned the responsibility for judgment over to Jesus. Jesus is our brother, one like us in all things, except sin. He understands what we live, because he has shared our life – to the full, to the end. He gave himself over to us completely in love. We rejected his offer. He was raised from death, and continues to offer us his love. Our response, especially in how we treat the littlest and the least among us, is the basis for any judgment. We are totally loved. Freed from any divine expectations, we can become all that God fashioned us to be. How do we deal with this? Are we even aware of this?
Bottom line! God is not some morality judge, police officer, or accountant. God desires that we know, in the depth of our being, how precious and beloved we are. God invites, coaxes, our response of love for one another. Jesus is willing to cut us all kinds of slack. He left us with only one commandment: love one another as I have loved you. This is much more challenging than trying to obey a set of rules that we humans have projected onto God. Give it all you’ve got! But we do need to continually allow God to transform us through love – the greatest power in the universe.