I’m not a science
fiction enthusiast. Murder mysteries are
my guilty pleasure.
While I’m not a
science fiction enthusiast, I enjoy watching the occasional episode of “Doctor Who”. Anyone who’s ever watched any episodes of “Doctor Who” would know of the Daleks,
who are Doctor Who’s enemies par excellence. The Daleks are creatures which are
part-living beings and part-machines.
They look like vacuum cleaners on steroids, and have a large gun-like
contraption where their noses should be.
The Daleks are not
merely out for world domination, but for universal domination, and are willing
and able to destroy anything that stands in their way. Whenever the Daleks are on the march, their
war cry is always the same:
“Exterminate! Exterminate!”
Sadly, many of our
neighbours think that the God we worship as Christians is a Dalek-shaped god, a
petty little small-g god whose attitude toward most of humanity is one of
condemnation. They believe that we
worship a god with an attitude of “Exterminate!
Exterminate!” toward anyone who doesn’t measure up to an impossible
standard of perfection in their behavior.
That’s one of the main reasons why you wouldn’t find some of our
neighbours in Church in a pink fit. Who
in their right mind would want to worship that sort of god?
Sadly, there are
even some Christians who worship a Dalek-shaped god. That sort of Christian makes a lot of noise
and gets a lot of attention in the media, particularly when they’re
politicians, rugby players, or other celebrities. They’re the reason why many of our neighbours
think you and I worship a Dalek-shaped god.
The worshippers of a Dalek-shaped god get a lot of attention in the
media. As a result, many people in the
community think that’s the only sort of god on offer.
However, there is
a real alternative to a Dalek-shaped god.
The alternative to a Dalek-shaped god is a Jesus-shaped God. The alternative to a god who acts like a
Dalek is a God who acts like Jesus. The
alternative to a small-g god of “Exterminate!
Exterminate!” is a big-G God who is radically inclusive, radically
compassionate, and radically loving.
This is the God of
whom Paul writes in the letter to the Galatians, … the God in whom our human
demographic differences become matters of enrichment and diversity rather than issues
of destructive divisiveness, … the God who calls forth a collection of generous
and inclusive virtues among his worshippers.
The alternative to
a Dalek-shaped god is the God whom you and I already worship.
We need to let our
neighbours in on this secret. The
alternative to a Dalek-shaped god is the God whom you and I already worship. But that won’t be easy, for three reasons.
1. The first reason is that many people who
worship a Dalek-shaped god are keen to bang on about their beliefs, while those
of us who worship a Jesus-shaped God are much more reserved about sharing our
faith. We don’t like to bang on about
religion. We’ve been taught that banging
on about religion is as much a sign of
poor taste as banging on about politics or sex, or (even worse) banging on
about money.
It’s a bit like the
way the purveyors of junk food and fast food advertise theirs wares constantly,
while the producers of healthy food rarely advertise. You’ll see a lot of ads for McDonald’s on TV,
but very few ads for broccoli. Similarly,
the purveyors of junk religion bang on about their faith, while those of us who
embrace a healthy religion often keep it to ourselves.
2. The second reason is that the notion that all
people in churches worship a god of “Exterminate! Exterminate!” is far too ingrained in our
culture. (There’s the prevailing cultural
stereotype about churches. It used to be
that the churches were full of wowsers and hypocrites. Now, we’re full of wowsers, hypocrites, and
paedophiles,) These stereotypes make it far easier for our neighbours to jump
to the comfortable conclusion that’s there’s nothing in the churches that are
relevant to their lives in any positive way.
It’s good to undermine this notion, but it won’t be easy.
3. The third reason is, if we seek to let people
in on the secret that we don’t worship a god of “Exterminate! Exterminate!”, we
run the risk of being openly critical of those who do worship such a
godlet. We’re all far too “nice” to be
fully comfortable in conflict. We’ve
often seen our faith calling us to follow the “gentle Jesus meek and mild”, the
one who wants us (dare I say it?) to be his “sunbeams”.
Many of us have
been critical of the overly argumentative Paul, even when he does come up with
some important affirmations about inclusivity, compasssion, and love. (And it’s interesting to note that in the
same letter we’ve read parts of today, Galatians, with its strong affirmation
of inclusivity, is also a letter in which, at times, we find Paul at his grumpiest.)
If we let our
neighbours in on the secret that a Jesus-shaped God is a better God to worship
than a Dalek-shaped one, we’ll come across as argumentative to those who are
committed to worshipping a Dalek-shaped god.
We’ll cop some flak. But the flak
will be worth it.
In the 1980s, Adrian
Plass wrote a series of screamingly funny books about a British congregation. One of the members of the church was a man
named Leonard Thynne, a sporadically recovering alcoholic who grew up as part
of a rigid Brethren-like sect. One
Sunday, the congregation had a visiting preacher, a monk. Leonard’s reaction to the monk’s sermon was
this: “He worships a different God to
the one I grew up learning about. His
God’s nice!”
May we enable our
neighbours to say the same thing about the God we worship.
