As a faith tradition, Christianity is historically monotheistic, yet most Christians, if they’re honest, actually have two Gods.
One, is the orthodox God of the Bible… We’ll call Him Sunday God.
Sunday God is the Creator of the universe. He speaks things into being. He holds life and death in the palm of His hands.
Sunday God is the God who performs miracles; parting seas, and healing lepers, and multiplying meals, and walking waves, and calming waves.
Sunday God raises the dead.
Sunday God fills his people with His Holy Spirit, enabling them to endure all things.
Sunday God is sovereign; (an ancient Hebrew term, basically meaning He kicks keester, and takes names, and He does it all day, forever).
The big problem for so many Christians, is that Sunday God only seems to hang out in church buildings on the weekends (and sometimes Wednesday nights).
We show-up and sing to that God.
We pray to that God.
We “Amen” powerful, passionate preaching about that God.
We celebrate that God… for an hour, (90 minutes tops, if the sermon is really dragging or the band won’t stop).
And as soon as that’s over, we pull the ol’ switcheroo as we walk through the parking lot on the way to Cracker Barrel.
For the rest of the week, we trade massive, omnipotent, unflinching Sunday God for a God who’s pretty much a pushover; a 98-pound weakling, who would get sand kicked in His face on the beach; a God who is scared, and powerless, and perpetually hiding: Wimpy God.
We can see Christians serving Wimpy God in lots of small, seemingly insignificant ways: when they get all-riled up about the devilish dangers of Harry Potter or Halloween, or when they warn about the hidden Hindu agenda in local Yoga classes (yes, I actually heard this on the radio), or when they overreact to some extremist talk show host telling them the sky is falling because their kids can’t say “Jesus” in the corporate prayer, prior to the obviously sacred, holy gathering known as a high school football game.
Certainly “God” can handle these things, right?
Shouldn’t He be able to overcome rap lyrics, and violent video games, and gay T.V. characters, and politicians; and the million other issues I hear Christians screaming about, and running from, and publicly gnashing their teeth over?
I know Sunday God can.
You see, Sunday God creates His people with purpose. His presence goes with them as they live. His Spirit gives them wisdom and power and discernment. He promises every hair on their heads is known and numbered. Their destinations are secure in the hands of Sunday God.
If Sunday God is for them who can be against them?
It’s just too bad that Sunday God is stuck in the church building for 5 or 6 days, waiting for the next worship service to start so that He can be useful again.
Meanwhile, we’re left here in the trenches of messy, difficult, every day with nothing but Wimpy God.
Wimpy God is pretty high maintenance, too. He needs us to protect Him; to picket and protest and complain and boycott and abstain. Actually, we often end up spending so much time and energy sticking-up for Wimpy God, that we don’t have any time to actually lovingly proclaim the Gospel.
And the truth is, we rarely share the Good News, simply because we don’t really have any.
After all, why would we want to make people aware of the deep need they have of giving their lives and hearts to a Wimpy God?
By the same token; when looking at the fear, paranoia, isolation, and defeatism that is rampant in the Church, why would anyone outside of it want to trust their lives with such an unreliable, impotent deity; one that yields such lousy fruit in the lives of the faithful?
There’s only one way we’re gonna fix this mess and give people a spirituality worth seeking: Let Sunday God out of the building, for good. He deserves more hours.
If Christians allow Sunday God (the all-powerful, Super-sized, uber-loving God of the Bible) loose in their routine, unchoreographed, ordinary; they will find fear will start to scatter like roaches when the light comes on. Their lives will be marked; not by worry, and hand-wringing, and complaining, and finger-pointing—but by secure faith, confident boldness, extravagant love; and yes—even unrestrained joy.
If Sunday God gets let out, then the menacing “World outside”, will not be a frightening place to be separated from and kept walled-away, but one we enter and alter; not by protests and petitions, but by lives meaningfully and measurably transformed; leaking compassion, and forgiveness, and love like a saturated sponge.
When Sunday God shows-up, Wimpy God will run for His life.
Don’t wait until Sunday to call upon Him.
