Christ Haunted

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned it before in my blog posts, but I host a book club at BookPeople on the last Monday of every month.

I mention this for a couple of reasons. First, to invite any of you Austinites who have ever wanted to be a part of an interesting and diverse book club group to come and join this one. We've gone from Phillip Roth to Cormac McCarthy to Margaret Atwood to Simon Winchester. It's always a ton of fun, some of the most fascinating conversation I have in any given month.

Secondly, because the topic of this last month's discussion is the basis for this blog.

Our selection for May was Flannery O'Connor's Wiseblood. It is a favorite of mine, one I've probably read 10 times, at least. O'Connor was almost as devout a southerner as she was a Christian and this combination made for some of the richest writing to come out of America in the 20th century.

Wiseblood's main character is a young man named Hazel Motes, who has decided to renounce his Christian upbringing and form the Church Without Christ. Motes is not simply an atheist, but one who stands in direct opposition to Christ, who believes the dead ought to stay dead, and resents this One who haunts and hunts him.

It is this "Jesus as stalker" that sparked most of the discussion at our book club. One of the members asked "How is it that an author who believes in a loving God would paint Him as such a predator?"

An excellent question. I guess it depends upon what your idea of love is. For O'Connor, the love of God isn't some weak and permissive thing, it is the love of one who will not give up His beloved without a fight.

In the hopes of offering up a helpful analogy, I described what my reaction would be if my wife tried to leave me. How I would hound her and pursue her and set up camp outside wherever she was staying. Unfortunately, I think I only succeeded in convincing my book club that I am a crazed lunatic and possessive husband.

What I meant to show was just how intense Christ's love for us is. As singer/songwriter Derek Webb once wrote of Jesus "some things I love easy, and some I love to death." O'Connor's description of the book and of Motes as "Christ-haunted" is apt.

It certainly isn't as pleasant a picture as the one we are often tempted to paint. The idea of God that most people prefer is one who expects nothing and allows for anything, when who reveals Himself to be is quite different. While we want a God who desires nothing from us but refuses to let us go, who we get is just the opposite. Christ does whatever he can to get us back, even if it means his own death, but he won't force us into following him against our will. He may hound us, but he will give us up if that is what we choose.

But not without a fight. He will throw those people and circumstances into our lives that scream out his presence, hoping that we won't deny it. He will get in our way and even cause us pain, if he knows it is what is best for us. He will die a humiliating death, if that's what it takes to save us.

That's what a loving God will do. Then the question becomes for us what it was for Hazel Motes, what will we do in return?