We often think about what God has done in history to
describe who God is. While this can be helpful, and surely is important for the
purpose of passing on the faith, I think it has given way to an overly myopic
understanding of the Gospel of the Kingdom, the essence of creation, and an
authentic understanding of the self. What I mean to get at is this – The
incarnation, the second person of the trinity becoming man, is a miracle in an
of itself. The ministry that he did for 1-3 years that the gospels of the New
Testament attest to, is miraculous. Furthermore, the willful subjugation and
acceptance of torture and death by the Divine Word Himself, is astounding. These
things are tremendous and incredible. But they tell us more about “how” God
acts and what God does more than they express “who” or “why” God is. We get
pieces, and faith gives us some room for conjecture, but we must be very very
careful in this mode, especially with regards to our ethno- and ego-centric
biases.
It is not uncommon for Christians to say things like, “God is infinite and unknowable,” and a
moment later say, “God is love.”
While scripture maintains that both statements are true, the way we receive
them is often not. We say the words, we comprehend the notions in some sense,
but it is not the reality – at least oftentimes for myself.
WE PUT GOD IN A BOX. And we like him in that box because it
gives us a feeling of control, comfort, and safety, while still affirming our
connection to something bigger than ourselves – the Ultimate. The only problem is, unless we open the box, how can
we know if the God inside is alive or dead? (Think: Schrodinger’s cat) What is
not perceived cannot be communicated – reality is collapsed. AND we prohibit
God to truly be the ultimate of our lives.
BUT, no Christian I have ever met would dare to deny that
God is the eternal, immutable, creator of all things, completely omnipotent,
omnipresent, and omniscient. How can we say such absurd, daring, and dangerous
things, and still thing we are in control?
God, as this first principle, is establishing relationship
with his creation throughout all of history, creating the world, making humans
(in his likeness!) - as an expression of his own goodness, truth, power, and
unity. If this is the case – the focus of Christmas, Easter, and our very lives
cannot be on us. We love the idea that God is for us (and he is), but we can’t
stop there. God is for us because he is good. But when we are not for God, then
WE ARE NOT BEING HUMAN. God intended for us to be in union with him since the
time of creation. He is not an object to be used. He found it pleasing, for
whatever reason, to create imperfect people with free will. He called it VERY
GOOD when he made man. Woman – the last thing we see made on the sixth day, is
the very crown jewel of all the creation, and yet we use patrimony to stifle
those who bear us in their wombs and give us life from their breasts. We have a
broken understanding of the divine order. We have a selfish understanding of
the world.
HERE is the bad syllogism that we get lost in – God made us,
we sinned, God became man to repair our sin, we’re all happy now. Do you see
the disconnect? We go from being made out of this earth (that was a formless
void only a few days prior), to breaking the ecosystem God just made. Because
we broke it and can not fix it ourselves, He humbles himself in flesh and
death. And now we think God exists FOR us? Like he exists because we need
somebody to help us out, get us out of binds, and get us the things we desire?
We have gotten too lost in the consumer mindset.
- God doesn’t exist for us; God exists. We don’t simply
exist; we exist because of Him.
- God is not another item that we buy from the store to put
in our houses.
- He is not another person to be used in another one of our
transactional relationships.
- He is to be known, loved, honored, and praised by the
people He made in His image simply because He IS.
The Cross, the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection –
these are the methods God chose, so that we could again see the reality, that
would enable us to return to our truly human selves - made in image and
likeness, by him and for him - not ourselves.
These miraculous gestures of love – the cross and empty tomb
– they magnify God, they demonstrate how he is towards us – but we must follow
the story from its beginning to its end. God begins, He is. Then, because of
him, we are. He calls us good, we fail, he intercedes, still seeing us as
valuable, we return to union, to know, love, and be happy in him. Our existence
is wasted and vain if it is for us. This is the danger in stopping after we
say, “God is for us.” God is for us, because he is for himself, and he himself is goodness
itself.
When we view the Cross wrongly, we become consumers of God.
But, simply stated, the Cross exists so that we may be consumed. We are made
for more, and that is what the miracles of the Cross and Resurrection demonstrate
for us. This can only be ascertained by starting with how God is and what God
does so that we may progress to a mere inkling about who God is. Our selfish certainty is our downfall and a perversion
of Truth.
May we remember this Easter that apart from God we are
vapor, animated dust in the wind, merely existing without a true nature,
purpose, or duty. May we remember that he is life itself.
Not a sermon, just some thoughts from a failed and failing sinner who is trying.
