Wednesday, March 24, 2010

okay theologs. I need your help.

Issues with Never Alone

Can I say that God departed from earth with the crucifixion?  Of course I know that God did not absolutely depart.  But God the Son did.  If he didn't, then in what sense did Immanuel happen?  If God didn't depart in some way, then we make a mockery of the incarnation.

What do you think?

I'm trying to rewrite the end of the second verse to show people that I'm not a heretic, but maybe I am...

Help me.

15 comments:

  1. It depends.

    To illustrate this exact point, a wise old minister friend once told me in relation to the phrase 'cut off from God', "There are two famous Anglican brothers, one of whom is a theologian and insists it couldn't happen, the other who is better known as a preacher who without qualification uses the language of 'cut off from God'."

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  2. I think we need to. Four emails in a fortnight is more than I can handle.

    The God departing stuff is probably not the biggest concern people have. Some have thought it is Jesus who is lost in the world - God abandoning him and all that (which is not what I wrote.)

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  3. wow - three comments all at the same time!

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  4. I think the most surprising thing with Jesus' death was that the world kept spinning. It would have not been too much for the sun to lose it's hold on the earth in protest.

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  5. Did you say God departed from the earth? You must have extra words in your lyrics than I got ;-)

    Departed from life, departed for Sheol, departed to take a brief tour of a local cemetery...the options are there. If people want to interpret the lyric as dodgy, there's not much you can do about it - it's the pain of any author to be misunderstood.

    I'd just have a form response to send in such situations. Copy, paste, send, relax!

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  6. We sang this at church on Sunday for the first time, Yay for introducing great new songs to our brothers and sisters! It's been a joy to have the words rolling around my mind this week.

    I like the offending line and think it's ok. But then I wouldn't call myself a theolog.

    Maybe just hear the gratitude for a beautiful, true and encouraging song intermingled with the questions.

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  7. Don't re-write. Sometimes its good to live with ambiguity...
    the temple, Jerusalem, Jesus - they seem to get left, by God at some point...
    Don't open the emails...

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  8. Agreed. No re-write. Stick to those guns, dudette.

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  9. How about:

    And now God makes art, God makes art...

    Or

    And now God's our heart, God's our heart.

    Or

    At the quickimart, quickimart...

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  10. And we all take part, we take part...

    Or

    comb your hair with a part, with a part

    Or

    Now the kingdom starts, now it starts

    There are millions of options. Why don't you just let people change the words to suit themselves?

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  11. And God drives go carts, drives go carts...

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  12. This is the song I racked my brain to try and remember when I first commented on this post. I knew there was a famous hymn that contained what I thought was a similar issue but was much stronger in its language than 'Now God departs'. This song lyric in 'And Can it Be' was first brought to my attention in Stott's The Cross of Christ.

    http://www.ligonier.org/blog/it-accurate-say-god-died-cross/

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