Talking About God

Have we subtly forgotten how to talk about God?

There is a well worn analogy about boiling a frog. It goes: "The best way to boil a frog is to put it in a pot of lukewarm water and slowly turn up the heat such that the frog doesn't even notice it is being cooked alive." I am unsure if you have ever eaten boiled frog, but I haven't. Still the analogy can be helpful for describing our inability to perceive changes that are slowly happening around us. One such subtle change was described by religious scholar Jonathan Merritt last fall. 

Merritt's opinion piece from the New York Times focused upon the gradual decline of spiritual conversations and even positive words associated with Christianity over the past few centuries. The article is well worth a read, especially if you are a lay or ordained leader who has recently bumped up against a language barrier between the churched and the unchurched. Even more specifically if you are preaching on the Second Sunday in Lent (or listening to a sermon preached this coming Sunday) Merritt's words are useful. This is because the readings this week possess a theme of talking to or about God in innovative ways that still connect with the eternal changelessness of God--something we in our current age need, at least according to Merritt's assessment. So, let's look at this Sunday's lessons and how in this Lenten Season we might discover new ways of speaking to our neighbors about the transformed life that comes from knowing God.   

The First Lesson comes from Genesis 15:1-12,17-18 and tells of the Word of the Lord coming to Abram (who will later be known as Abraham) in various visions. Abram who was struggling with the reality that he might not have any children--a big deal in any era--worried about his legacy and lack of progeny. God though had other plans than Abram dying childless. In truth, God knew already that Abram would be the father of not only many children, but also many nations and religions. What is linguistically striking though is how the author of Genesis describes God in this passage.

Observe the different ways in which God is described: God is the Word of the Lord, God is a smoking pot floating between carcasses, God is focused upon righteousness (a fancy way of saying a right relationship), God is generous, God uses the natural world and visions to communicate God's points, and God even makes a covenant (that is an agreement or contract) with a lowly, nomadic, and worried human being. In this story so many things pop up that feel uncanny or odd, but it is the bit pertaining to the covenant that bears breaking down. Let's take a closer look.

God made a promise to Abram that his children would have their own land and the way God made this promise was to both remind Abram of previous faithfulness and to say that if God did not do what God promised, God would be split in two like the animals that had been sacrificed by Abram. WHOA! The ramifications of this sort of personal promise from God cannot be overstated. Think about this: the Creator of the entire Cosmos made a promise to a human that if God did not fulfill God's Word, then God would be held responsible by being split in half! In our age people often personify God in ways that describe God as being far off, vindictive, or unable to connect personally with humans, but this passage describes God as anything other than that! God is faithful, vulnerable, and intimate, and God will use strange ways to prove that truth.

In the Psalm the song-writer depicts God as light and salvation, a fair beauty, and, a shelter. In times of strife, such as our own violence-driven age, Psalm 27 might appear absurd. What about those who are not saved from death? What about those who are not sheltered from conflict? What about those who perish in war? These questions though might not creatively address the issue at hand either in the Psalm or in our lives and how we speak about God. We or others may face awful trials and tribulations or even die a terrible death, and if this occurs it does not mean that our lives are not precious in God's sight. Rather, this depiction of God, like so many others throughout Scripture, are best taken in a multitude of ways or layers, not just literally. What does emerge from this passage is that God will hold safe our souls no matter what! How shall we respond? Our response naturally is thankfulness! How might we speak more generously about all the internal blessings we receive? How can we talk in new ways of God blessing us even during the challenges in life?

In the Gospel lesson, we find Jesus (the Christ or the Incarnate God) speak of himself as a hen gathering her brood. If you have a solely masculine view of God you might think this is uncanny or uncomfortable, but this beautiful, nurturing, and feminine depiction of God in the Bible is not unique. God, seen as a woman searching for her lost coin, occurs elsewhere in Luke. Authors in the Hebrew Bible consistently personified wisdom using the female form. In our day, many describe the movement of the Spirit using female pronouns. And, this way of talking about God is not only helpful, but it is needed now just like how Christ Jesus saw the need to speak it in that day! 

Unfortunately 2,000 years after Jesus walked the earth, many may still have a hard time imagining God as anyone other than an old, white man with a long flowing white beard. If we think back to the original day of these Scriptures being written these verses would have been outside the norm, but they still depicted the truth about who God is... nurturing like a mother hen, persistent like a poor widow, and present/transcendent like wisdom. We in God's Church must keep searching to find new ways that depict the eternal truth about who God is. To do this we have to diligently guard against racism, sexism, homophobia, and other discrimination that a few voices within the Church catholic keep perpetually shouting.

When corrupt politicians, greedy televangelist, and fear-minded neighbors use Christianity to peddle their own agendas, the rest of us cannot shrink back and let them hog the microphone. We are called to tell the truth about who God is. God does not correspond to our concepts of male, female, transgendered, or any other gender that is apparent at human birth. And yet, all are made in the image of God. We in the Church then are called to make sure that everyone can see themselves in the face of God! To do this God calls us to speak up about who God truly is--faithful, loving, embracing, steadfast, eternal, healing, reconciling, self-sacrificing, peaceful, wise, graceful, generous! These characteristics transcend our human analogs to gender, sexuality, or other aspects of our humanity, and yet they are present across the diverse faces of humanity. So as we continue to share the truth of who God is may we find creative, innovative, and still scripturally-connected and tradition-tested ways that help both those who call church home and those who have been disenfranchised because of extremist Christians.