Morality and Marriage, Media and Madness
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.”
Two alternatives, that further explicate this theme are: “Let your name be kept holy,” and, “Let your name be treated with reverence.”
It would be a poor theology that thought God kept his name holy by dint of our prayers. God is, in his triune and essential being, majestically holy, separate, and other. No proofs required, no case to state – “I Am who I Am.” What is being said in the Lord’s Prayer is we are to treat God’s name with reverence and fear; we are to make his name holy in our demeanour, intentions and behaviour.
The record of the nation of Israel, is that they constantly blasphemed God’s name by their rejection of his word and his prophets. It was this appeal to the history of Israel that so enraged the crowd that they stoned Stephen, in furious rejection of his message, ironically fulfilling the very thing he told them they were guilty of. Paul, despite his love and heartache for God’s people, concurred, saying he would longer go to Israel, according to the flesh, but to the Gentiles. God’s name was made unholy by Israel, it was mocked, and made to look like just another failed deity in the history of gods.
I fear we do no better at times. God’s name is held in contempt by the nations when they see, for instance, the public and publicised morality of God’s church, the way we so easily divorce one another, and the way Christians employ social media to eviscerate each other.
To public morality -
Holiness is, for all intents and purposes, seen in moral conduct communicated by scripture. Paul never unhooked being in Christ, and all the undeserved benefits of his atonement, from morality, from holiness, by the which God’s name is hallowed. One leads to the other. Jesus is the truth; he incarnated God’s will for humankind’s flourishing as His image bearers – of which holiness is integral.
Moral declension is inevitable in the West, where rights and feelings have trumped truth, but this is meant to be juxtaposed by God’s church showing a different and better way, one not inspired by the moral turpitude of so many Western philosophers. Holiness is outworked, for us, in a moral light, and this in turn makes God’s name holy to the world. Not only so, but it also makes for better adjusted lives and healthier communities.
The collapse of the moral integrity of numerous leaders mocks the holiness of God’s name. There are reasons for it, and lest we are quick to judge nobody is exempt from temptation, but for a ravenous press and unbelieving world it only confirms their worst suspicions about God’s church.
To marriage, or more to the point, divorce -
The Protestant world believes in two sacraments: water baptism and the Eucharist (Lord’s Supper). The Catholic community maintains there are seven, of which one is marriage. Because of a sacrament view of marriage, they are (on paper) much less likely to sanction divorce.
A sacrament, being a signifier and means of grace, elevates marriage into another zone altogether from being merely a social contract. If marriage is a picture of Jesus and his church, which Paul stated it is, then our propensity for divorce is a serious breach of the holiness and will of God. We are tearing apart an image of the profound connection and commitment between Jesus and his bride and doing so with supposed impunity. We err.
Between Moses, Jesus and Paul there are a few exceptions that allow or even necessitate divorce, but these biblical exceptions which admit to humankind’s fallen state, are still that - exceptions. Our latitude with divorce has extended the list far beyond the words of Jesus or Paul. I fear we have become reflective of the age we live in, and not the holiness of God.
Wherever we make happiness the goal of our faith we are bound for failure, and ironically, unhappiness.
To our use of social media -
It is staggering the way we have raced into the gladiatorial arena pitting Christian against Christian. The vitriol served in God’s name does not serve God’s name. It only serves the unforgiveness and bitterness of people who now suppose they have a voice to expose, shame and denigrate other believers, all in the name of truth. We don’t need an emperor to give the thumbs up or down as we are happily dispatching each other. The only people this brings joy to is an already sceptical world, watching from their seats in the arena, no doubt both appalled and amused by the gladiatorial blood being spilt by Christians with Christians.
Polemical and satirical use of social media may be acceptable, but they require a good deal more grace and intelligence than the average post manifests.
Do we ever stop and consider that we are fuelling unbelief, worse, a disinterest in Jesus Christ and his saving message, by our infighting? It has long been said that civilisations collapse as much from the inside as from external forces. Our enemy is not our brother or sister in Christ.
So, don’t hit send, as what you send says at least as much about you as the person/s you are wishing to castigate and vilify, which things we call, holding to account.
“Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name.”