The Cursor or the Cross?

I'm working on the narrative for a special event we're having on Sunday. It's a sort of Easter celebration, but I'm trying to write something that will draw the listener into the big questions that Easter poses. Some time ago I wrote something similar and I'm just editing it at the moment. As I read the following i thought I'd share it with the wider world. If it's helpful in any way, please feel free to make use of it.

The Cursor or the Cross?

What I don't like about computers is that they do what I say not what I want. A computer computes. It doesn't think. It doesn't question. It doesn't smile, shake its monitor and say, "I know what you are tying to do. You didn't mean to hit the delete button, removing the very letters you wanted to keep. If you'd look at your screen you would see that. But since you won't and since you and I are good friends. and you leave me plugged in I'm going to give you what you need and not what you request."

Computers don't do that. Push a button and you get a response. Learn the system and get the printout. Blow the system and get ready for a long night. Computers are heartless creatures. Don't expect any compassion from your laptop. They don't call it a hard disk for nothing.

Some people have a computer theology when it comes to understanding God. Call it computerised Christianity. Push the right buttons, enter the right code, insert the correct data, and bingo, print out your own salvation. It's professional religion, you do your part and God has to do his. The problem is that God hates that sort of religion, How do we know? Jesus said so. He condemned religion by the rules, he refused to let a relationship with God be reduced to doing the "right thing".

Let me see if a simple exercise will clarify the point. How would you fill in this blank? A person is made right with God through—? How you complete the sentence is critical; it reflects the nature of your faith.

A person is made right with God through... Being good. Pay your taxes, do good, Don't drive too fast, or drink too much. Be kind and considerate. Good conduct, that's the secret.

A person is made right with God through  suffering. There's the answer. That's how to be made right with God. Suffer. Sleep on dirt floors. Stalk through dank jungles. Malaria. Poverty. Cold days, colder nights. Long vigils. Vows of chastity. Shaved heads and bare feet. The greater the pain the greater the saint.

No, no, no. The way to be made right with God is doctrine. Cross the t's and dot the i's. Dead-centre interpretation of the truth. Airtight theology which explains every mystery. The millennium simplified. Inspiration clarified. The role of women defined once for all. 

All have been taught, all have been tried, all have been demonstrated. But none are from God.

If we are saved by good works we don't need God. Weekly reminders of the do's and do nots will suffice. If by suffering, all we need is a whip and chain and a gospel of guilt. If we are saved through doctrine then let's study.

But be careful. For if you are saved by having the exact doctrine, one mistake could be fatal. If by good deeds, how will you know when you have done enough. And if we are saved by suffering how will you ever know how much suffering is required? That's the problem with computerised religion, it depends on you doing enough, knowing enough or suffering enough. It's all about what you do. 

It was the apostle Paul who first wrote the line: A person is made right with God through...
He got his training in front of a theological terminal. He was an up-and-coming religious technician trained in the ways of the Pharisees. He could answer the pickiest question and solve the most beguiling riddle. But the big question, the question Jesus asked the Pharisees in his final week, Paul couldn't answer that.

What was the question? After denouncing the hollow legalism of organised self-righteous religion, Jesus asked: "How will you escape God's judgement?"

The Pharisees had no answer. No one who tries to save themselves does–Dare you stand before God and ask him to save you because of your suffering or your sacrifice or your tears or your study? Nor do I. Nor did Paul. It took him decades to discover what he wrote in a single sentence. "A person is made right with God through faith."

How will you escape God's judgement? Through faith in God's sacrifice. It's not what you can do for him. It's what he has already done for you.