Just Enough of God to Be Miserable
I am still digesting Robert Farrar Capon’s Kingdom, Grace and Judgment. It is an interesting look at the parables of Jesus from an Episcopal priest and comes to some incredible conclusions that you wouldn’t expect. I’ll warn you it isn’t always easy reading, but the gems throughout are incredible. Here’s another:
“I am left, therefore, with the unhappy suspicion that people who are afraid the preaching of grace will encourage sin are in fact people who resent the righteousness they have forced themselves into. Having led ‘good’ lies—and worse yet, having denied themselves the pleasures of sin—they seethe inwardly at any suggestion that God may not be as hard on drug pushes and child molesters as they always thought he would be on themselves.”
He reminds me of something my father used to say when we were growing up. “Some people get just enough of God to be miserable.” They can no longer give themselves freely to the sin that entangled them, but neither do they come close enough to drink deeply from the well of life that he offers. Perhaps that is what it means to be lukewarm and why Jesus found it so distasteful. Neither sinner enough to recognize their need for him, nor godly enough to find his fullness the greatest joy in the universe.
