The Personal God
I am sitting out on the deck of the shops on Star Island, one of the Isles of Shoals off the New Hampshire coast. The sun is warm and bright and the salty sea breeze rolls off the water and makes me feel at peace. I am thinking back to when we arrived, earlier in the day. We walked up to a small church that had been here in some form since the 1700's. There was a Unitarian service going on. (Unitarianism seems to be the religion Du Jour here in this area of New Hampshire). As they bowed low their bodies in an expression of homage to an indistinct God, the leader of the service droned on about the creator God who does not have a name but has been called many things, "God, Allah.." and so forth.
I considered all the unique things about Christianity, the gospel, and my view of God based on scripture and experience. I considered the pamphlets I had been reading on Sharia Law of Islam. I considered the hurried apostatizing of the Jehovah's Witnesses who had shown up at my door several times over the course of my life. I considered the performance-driven achievement of salvation that haunts most religions I have come to know.
I think that God is trying to communicate with people of all of these traditions, and it is good that they are listening. His peace is truly universal. His mercy is offered freely to everyone, and everyone who is truly seeking God, and not some convenient escape or product of their own psyche, finds him. Or rather, he finds them. But there is something missing from the teaching of these other religions. Something that is unique to Christianity. Christians believe that there is nothing you can do to earn salvation. It has already been given freely to you through the actions of God who came to humanity and died for it. He did this to demonstrate his inexhaustible love for us and to set us in right standing with him, so that we could enter unafraid into his presence and experience a unique relationship with him. It is the scandal of the Gospel ("Good News") that he did this for everyone because all of us are equally sinners, and so we are all in the same boat.
This is a truth that has shaped the way I think of God: that he is personal, loves me infinitely, and laid down his life for me. I still struggle with it sometimes: just how was Jesus God-incarnate? What does that mean? It is a scandalous concept (and he was brutally killed for it) because Jesus believed it and asked others to believe it too. He was either, a liar, a lunatic or the real deal, that is the choice we must make. And everyone makes it. But that just fits the personality of the God I have come to know.. that he would divest himself of his Otherness, his power, and his position and become flesh and then die for me. That is something only the Christian God would do. And, though I struggle with it, it seems to make perfect sense to me when I think of his personality. He is just that humble, that loving, that good.
But this belief does not give me a corner on the truth. To the contrary, I cannot see how the early Christians could have gotten everything right, because God is so much greater than our understanding. And it is not a basis for me to try to bring the gospel to others by presenting them with such air tight arguments that they would convert. Instead, knowledge of this love, and the constant daily filling of my bones with it, will provoke me to share love with others. This is the Gospel: love and justice for the oppressed, disillusioned rabble of sinners that is humanity. Love, plain and simple. This is what Jesus came and died for. That I could love others the way he loves me. That is the Gospel message: love. And that is what I want to share because he fills me with it so that I can give it away.
I considered all the unique things about Christianity, the gospel, and my view of God based on scripture and experience. I considered the pamphlets I had been reading on Sharia Law of Islam. I considered the hurried apostatizing of the Jehovah's Witnesses who had shown up at my door several times over the course of my life. I considered the performance-driven achievement of salvation that haunts most religions I have come to know.
I think that God is trying to communicate with people of all of these traditions, and it is good that they are listening. His peace is truly universal. His mercy is offered freely to everyone, and everyone who is truly seeking God, and not some convenient escape or product of their own psyche, finds him. Or rather, he finds them. But there is something missing from the teaching of these other religions. Something that is unique to Christianity. Christians believe that there is nothing you can do to earn salvation. It has already been given freely to you through the actions of God who came to humanity and died for it. He did this to demonstrate his inexhaustible love for us and to set us in right standing with him, so that we could enter unafraid into his presence and experience a unique relationship with him. It is the scandal of the Gospel ("Good News") that he did this for everyone because all of us are equally sinners, and so we are all in the same boat.
This is a truth that has shaped the way I think of God: that he is personal, loves me infinitely, and laid down his life for me. I still struggle with it sometimes: just how was Jesus God-incarnate? What does that mean? It is a scandalous concept (and he was brutally killed for it) because Jesus believed it and asked others to believe it too. He was either, a liar, a lunatic or the real deal, that is the choice we must make. And everyone makes it. But that just fits the personality of the God I have come to know.. that he would divest himself of his Otherness, his power, and his position and become flesh and then die for me. That is something only the Christian God would do. And, though I struggle with it, it seems to make perfect sense to me when I think of his personality. He is just that humble, that loving, that good.
But this belief does not give me a corner on the truth. To the contrary, I cannot see how the early Christians could have gotten everything right, because God is so much greater than our understanding. And it is not a basis for me to try to bring the gospel to others by presenting them with such air tight arguments that they would convert. Instead, knowledge of this love, and the constant daily filling of my bones with it, will provoke me to share love with others. This is the Gospel: love and justice for the oppressed, disillusioned rabble of sinners that is humanity. Love, plain and simple. This is what Jesus came and died for. That I could love others the way he loves me. That is the Gospel message: love. And that is what I want to share because he fills me with it so that I can give it away.
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