In a lecture I heard a couple of years ago, Dr. Margaret Mills contrasted the two main ways Christians understand grace with an illustration that has been used before in various faith traditions. She said that the two main views on grace can be seen in two mothers; one a monkey and the other a cat. Think of how each mother carries her infant. The mother monkey carries her infant on her back. The mother cat carries her infant by the scruff of the neck.
In both cases, the infant is dependent on the mother. But with the monkey, a cooperative effort is needed. The mother does most of the work, but the baby needs to make a decision, climb on the mother’s back and hang on.
Now consider the kitten. With the kitten, there is no decision, no effort and no hanging on. The kitten is just picked up and hangs there as the mother takes it where they need to go.
Baby monkey; an experience of conditional grace.
Kitten; An experience of sheer grace.
By which grace- conditional or sheer grace- are we saved?
In a way, the debate over baptism mirrors this split. The mother monkey argument: Yes, we are saved by the grace of God. Still, we have a decision to make. We have to climb on board, and then hang on and go where God leads us. Baptism marks the decision.
And then there is the Mother Cat argument: Salvation is completely a gift of God. We are sinners without hope, elected by a mysterious providence. What seems like a decision is itself an outcome of God’s grace at work within us. Baptism should mark God’s choice, not ours.
What do you think?
I won’t take sides in the debate in this column, but I do want to address one argument made against the Mother Cat view: that a choice has to be made because it is the threat of damnation that leads to God.
Scriptures do present a moral universe with a fabric within which is woven threat and consequence. Not always in our time, but in God’s time, there is judgment. The road to faith for many does begin with facing consequences. To say grace prevails does not mean that judgment is not real. As a child, I knew my parents loved me, but that didn’t keep me from being punished.
I do not, however, buy into the argument that it is only that threat woven into the fabric of the moral universe that keeps us loving and serving God. A different way of putting this argument is that the only reason we choose selflessly to love God and others is our own selfish desire to be spared damnation. That doesn’t make sense to me intellectually or personally.
In a sermon he preached at his church in Kansas City, Tom Are Jr. told of not being able to contact his father on “Father’s Day.” He tried calling, but his father didn’t answer. He left a message saying, “Happy Father’s Day. I love you and want you to know I appreciate you.” Tom knew, though, that his father probably wouldn’t hear his message. His dad forgets how to retrieve his messages. He says, “They get lost in my cell phone.” But, at least Tom tried.
He tried, but it didn’t work. When Tom woke up the next day, he saw that he had a message. Here is the message his dad left: “Well, I’m going to bed now, but I just thought I would call and wish you a Happy Father’s Day. Being a father myself, I know it’s nice to hear that. Hope your children have been good to you today. Take care. It’s dad— your dad.”
Tom said to his wife, Carol, “Dad didn’t get my message.” She said, “That’s too bad. You are definitely out of the will now.” They laughed.
And then Tom asked his congregation, “What would you think of me if I told you that the reason I would call my dad on Father’s Day is to make sure he remembered me in his will- and the reason I send him a card on his birthday and a gift certificate to the bookstore at Christmas- is because I want to be in his will?”
Personally, I would think that Tom’s love- or his professed love- for his father is really selfish. He says what he thinks he needs to say and does what he thinks his dad would want him to do, so that he will inherit money and stuff.
If love of God is not one’s motivation, can what one has even be called faith? What I pray grace works in me is to draw me ever deeper into a relationship with God where love is what claims me and directs me.
How about you?
George Anderson is the Senior Minister at Second Presbyterian Church, visit them on the web at spres.org
