09 January 2018

Is God a Minimalist?


Jesus thus reveals a God who is no discrete minimalist. Abundance is the nature of God.
- William Willimon

We live in a world that (in its modern views thanks to Freud) assumes scarcity. It holds that there isn't enough love, grace, space, time, money, or things. We make our way trying to do it (whatever "it" may be) our way, with this assumption. While the modern view is to look at the world and see no direction or pattern infused, as Christians we should see the pattern of God intertwined in everything. That is what helps us see that we are each a part of the story, which is ongoing.  There is no end to this story.

God started this story of abundance. That we may choose to receive a gift we never would or could imagine. That we may be filled with His love to the point of overflowing. We each play our role as a character in that story (I like to think of it as one chunky, wonderful old leather bound book). We provide our own twists and turns by way of our choices and actions. Some leaves of the book may become scattered by actions as a result, but God will retrieve all the scattered leaves and bind them into the book because we are all part of the story. 

We may draw lines in our world, with exclusion and scarcity., but Jesus wipes all that away in the rain that covers all of us. A rain of grace, a salvation story we are to be included in, each person, no matter who they are. The same gift is given. The purpose of such actions is to draw all things unto God. He wants us to be close to Him.

God's actions and inclusivity is not a minimalist mentality, but one of love in abundance.

...for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. He himself is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 
- Colossians 1. 16-17

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