The Evangelical Universalist Forum

Child in the Midst: GMac Unspoken Sermons Discussion

Theology
#1

I’m reading through George MacDonald’s Unspoken Sermons and I thought it would be great if some of you would be interested in discussing them with me. The sermons aren’t long – most of them can be comfortably read in about 15 minutes, more or less. So . . . if any of you would be willing to discuss these with me, I’d greatly appreciate it. I remember so much better when I’ve interacted with others over the material I’m reading, and GMac has a LOT of good things to say.

His first sermon in series 1 is entitled The Child in the Midst. You can find it here: online-literature.com/george … sermons/1/ GMac begins by copying out Mark 9:33-37 and Matthew 18:3-6. Next he expends some time explaining why he believes Jesus chose, as exemplar, a wholesome and childlike child, such as perhaps one of Matthew’s children. He has a lot to say about what it means to be childlike, and why that is desirable, and why God desires it in us. I don’t want to spoil your discovery process if this sermon is new to you (or even if it’s been a while and you’re re-reading it) so I won’t say much more on the topic.

I’ve spent a lot of time in the past (before GMac existed for me) wondering what it was about the child that Jesus wanted us to imitate. My own conclusions were that we should understand our dependency on Him, trust Him, and not be too proud to receive the help of God and of our brothers and sisters. GMac takes it further than that, and points out where I (through ignoring context) missed the main point, though I did get some of the subordinate points.

What do you think? Why should we be like the child, and what would that look like?

Looking forward to hearing from you!
Cindy

#2

This should be a very good thread! I’ll get to the sermon later today; I’ve read it but I need a fresher reading.

#3

I think we should be like children in the sense of trusting God. But also have a sense of childlike wonder and joy when we are in His presence. Like when a baby sees the Christmas lights for the first time. There’s a good book out that speaks of this wonder by Ravi Zacharias:

https://ebooks-imgs.eb.sonynei.com/product/400/000/000/000/000/174/844/400000000000000174844_s4.jpg

#4

Oh, I LIKE that, Cole. Wonderful! Yes, we do get jaded and we forget to notice all the amazing things God has surrounded us with. I might have to get that book – it’s very tempting, only I have so many in the que . . . . GMac doesn’t get into the idea of childlike wonder in his sermon, but I’m sure that’s only because it didn’t fit the overall theme of the message. It definitely belongs to a wider exploration of the idea of childlikeness, imo.

#5

I love the book. It’s my favorite by him and one of my favorite overall.

#6

Great idea, Cindy :slight_smile: .

The Child in the Midst is one of my favourite Unspoken Sermons. It is one of GMac’s clearest expositions of his belief that God should be seen as a loving father, not as the judgemental tyrant the Church has so often painted him as. This concept, which underpins and informs pretty much all MacDonald’s thinking and theology, is actually soundly Biblical, as well as philosophically and emotionally satisying and appealing - as he shows in this Sermon.

Here’s one of my favourite bits:

“How terribly, then, have the theologians misrepresented God in the measures of the low and showy, not the lofty and simple humanities! Nearly all of them represent him as a great King on a grand throne, thinking how grand he is, and making it the business of his being and the end of his universe to keep up his glory, wielding the bolts of a Jupiter against them that take his name in vain. They would not allow this, but follow out what they say, and it comes much to this. Brothers, have you found our king? There he is, kissing little children and saying they are like God. There he is at table with the head of a fisherman lying on his bosom, and somewhat heavy at heart that even he, the beloved disciple, cannot yet understand him well. The simplest peasant who loves his children and his sheep were—no, not a truer, for the other is false, but—a true type of our God beside that monstrosity of a monarch.”

I confess that for a long time I was kind of afraid of God. I saw him as loving and merciful, of course. But I also saw him the way certain factions within Christianity portray him, ie as just, holy and full of righteous anger against sinners. And all too often it appeared to me that his holy anger was his defining trait - that it was somehow more important that unrepentant sinners got punished with condemnation to eternal hell as a kind of ‘default position’, as orthodoxy maintains, than that God expressed his fatherly love for his children in saving them.

I now believe this version of the ‘gospel’ to be utterly false. And not just false, but a horrid, blasphemous misrepresentation of the truth about God. Which is that the ‘default position’ is one of God’s saving love embracing everybody, despite our rebellion - despite the deliberate, wilful, persistent rebellion of those who resist or ignore that love. It is one in which God cares not a jot for his ‘glory’, for being worshipped by his creatures. These things happen, but they are not the reason God created us. He created us to know him, to love him, and to be loved by him. He desires or wills nothing that is not ultimately aimed at bringing us into a loving relationship with him. When he punishes, he does so purely to help us to realise the folly of our sinfulness, and to bring us into a position to repent of - ie turn from - our damaging behaviour.

How often at Church do we hear the message of this Sermon, that God is ‘child-like’? And wouldn’t it make Christianity so much more joyful and attractive to agnostics if we did - rather than giving them the awful news that unless they believe the right things about God he’s going to damn them forever?

Once you grasp the truth that the way to know and understand God is to know and understand Jesus - which again is profoundly Biblical - it is not such a big leap of faith to see God as child-like. And the fact that the Creator of the universe is that humble is tremendously liberating and encouraging.

What do you guys think?

J

#7

Hi Johnny - I’ve heard sermons about God coming to us a child and about the Word being wordless speaking a word to us in coming as a child. I think in types of Christianity that put PSA at their heart and see every other doctrine as subordinate to this (which s not the case with all PSA believers) then there is a problem. I remember reading a diary of a Victorian evangelical girl who wrote how she loved Christmas day because it was the one day of the year on which she did not have to meditate upon Christ bearing the punishment for her personal sins. But in the wider traditions of Christian orthodoxy this has never been the case. The Passion is one episode in the wider saving story and due space is given to contemplate the different episodes of the wider story of Redemption and Resurrection over the liturgical year. If Christ comes to us as a child then in the poetic logic of liturgy this means we must all become mothers (in a poetic sense) and tend the child with care and tender love. Meister Eckhart made this very point in one of his Christmas sermons in the fourteenth century “We are all meant to be mothers of God…for God is always needing to be born” so it’s not a new teaching. Of course we must all become childlike too :slight_smile:

love

Dick

#8

Just a quick note, and I’ll write more if I can – my connection is spotty today -20 Fahrenheit this morning. Maybe that’s why. So if you don’t hear from me more, it’s my collection.

Love, Cindy

#9

Johnny, I think the first time I read that favorite quote of yours was in one of your posts, and it captured me then and there. I was so delighted to come across it in CITM since I already considered it a dear friend. :slight_smile: Yes, that is who our Lord IS. If we could only hear sermons like this every Sunday morning, it would be worth attending any church, even though the fellowship is always a bit thin, in my experience.

Very much so! I find that unbelievers are much put off by God always troubling Himself over His glory. I did a post on glory a while back, on my blog, and I was relieved in studying the word “glory” to find that it has an alternative reading at least in the Greek, that I think is also compatible with the Hebrew word connoting heaviness or weight – which definitely applies as well and in concert. The depth of the Greek word – its origins – is apparently that the true story of a person be told (in Thayer’s, concerning the root, doxa). They even rhyme :laughing: glory:story! I may have to make a poem from that. God wants to be known, and His story is always a beautiful one and full of love. How like a child! He wants us to know Him, and when we do, we will not only love HIM, but one another dearly as well. Knowing Him is not only for the fulfillment of His desire to be known, but also for our good that we might come to Him and become like Him.

I’m afraid we’ve got things terribly out of balance when we feel the message we need to give unbelievers is that we are concerned for their safety, since being on the wrong side of our God is a very dangerous place to be. :frowning: An unpleasant place, to be sure, but I don’t think there is a dangerous side to Father. There is a side on which we are in danger of His displeasure and His loving chastisement, but not of His hatred, certainly. Hatred of sin, yes. Hatred (in an absolute sense) of His hand-wrought children AS His children, no. He is good and will always work for OUR good because of His never ending mercy and His everlasting love. :slight_smile:

Love, Cindy

Love, Cindy

#10

Dick, this is a wonderful point! You remind me that a few years ago I was meditating on the idea behind the Christmas hymn “O Little Town of Bethlehem” where it says “be born in us today.” If He is born in us, then He is born as a baby and needs to be nourished and cherished and cared for as His image grows within us. Of course it’s Father who conforms us to that image (who provides the growth), but we do get the honor and responsibility of feeding and giving drink and care to that seed of beauty that’s been sown in our hearts. Otherwise it will languish and we will see no progress in our lives. I know I need to pay more attention! :blush: Father help us to do what pleases You and to feed that which You have lovingly placed in our hearts.

Love, Cindy

#11

One of the ‘blind’ areas in my life is an inability to connect with ‘mystical’ writers. I don’t get much out of reading them.

But - and to quote LOTR again - I have learned “Quench not warm heart with cold counsel” - good advice. The body of Christ is made up of many necessary members, and I honor those parts that I don’t understand.

#12

I know what you mean about mystics Dave :confused: . I think I understand them best as map makers of the interior life of sanctification. The mystics like all pre modern people read the same scriptures but read them in a different way to us. I think as a key to the inner life they often read the Bible narratives by placing themselves and us in the picture as one of the characters - ‘Like Mary we can mother and like Herod we can kill’.