I have been dealing with a lot of questions about our God to
be a God of order while there are also others who will argue that God is also a
God of spontaneity and we can’t put Him in a box and limit Him to certain rules
and order.
There are 2 biblical references where Paul refers to both of
them: 1 Cor. 14:40 NAB says “…everything must be done properly and
in order” and in 2 Cor. 3:17 NAB also says “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is
freedom.” Of course, as we know, God does not contradict Himself and
even Paul who wrote on 2 occasions addressing the same church and people does
not intend to contradict himself.
The physical laws of nature (we refer to them as natural
laws) demonstrate the order that God has caused. Ordered systems or structures
do not happen by accident, never without an intelligent cause to direct the
order. If we hold all the parts of a watch and regardless how many times
we throw them in the air, they will not fall down in order and assemble
themselves accordingly. You will need a pair of hands and the logic of a mind
to assemble it and put all the pieces into its proper place, sequence and
order.
However, as I reflect on the many attributes of God and
being a God of order is one of them, I have realized that while it is true, I
can say that it is not His highest or the most important attribute. He doesn’t
cause order because of His compulsion about perfection but He causes order as a
necessity to express His love. And so the perfect order of His creation is
about love and not about being organized.
Some few months ago, quite a number of my FB friends were
hitting “Like” left and right about a video by somebody named Jefferson
Bethke’s entitled “Why I Love Jesus but hate religion.” It stirred up a lot of
debate but obviously I have come to realize that truly a lot of us have failed
to see from the beginning that there is something wrong with the message and it
is actually harmful. I have dealt with this issue by posting several good
explanations why the video of Jefferson should not hold and I am not going to
deal with that here anymore. I am mentioning this because it has something to
do with I believe.
I believe that God has willed to leave us a Church so we can
be put into order. “When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted”
(Mt. 28:17 NAB). This happened immediately before His great commissioning and
ascension into heaven and every time I encounter this verse, I feel some kind
of relief because I know that I am not alone. That these people who have
personally witness Jesus dying on the cross and powerfully rose from the dead
as He promised will still have that window in their faith to doubt. So I can
have excuse if I doubt from time to time.
I believe Jesus fully understood our human failings and
brokenness that even after showing himself to His followers 3 days from a death
they all witnessed, we will continue to have doubts and reservations on things
we have seen and have believed. The verse ended by Christ’s commissioning the
12 apostles … “Go,
therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all
that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the end of
age.” Note that Jesus did not say… I am with you until you die
and neither He meant that the 12 will live for 2000 years or more. With
this, He perpetuates His Church as we all know that has been founded on the
apostles with the bishops as their successors.
This is the same Church, we strive to follow some order and
hierarchy as God has designed her to be the channel of His love and mercy. He
endowed with spontaneity so we can celebrate the many gifts of the Holy Spirit
in our lives and in our community. We cannot profess to love Jesus and hate the
religion and the Church that He has established. As faith is a gift, we have
received it through her.
For those who have been trained to be organized and orderly,
we will need to find the source of that compulsion. And unless otherwise, it is
motivated by our own consciousness to express the love of God that He has
allowed us to experience, then we will realize that our compulsion for order
and organization are self-serving designed to feed our emotions and ego.
It is time to realize, it is God who creates and puts
everything to order. Our role is not to create but to participate in His
creation. When we come into terms with this, then we will see that we only need
to follow the leading of His natural laws that He has given us and we will stop
fighting one another, especially those who we call brothers and sisters.
