God in the second person
Recently a Baptist minister in North Carolina got into some trouble for allegedly telling members who did not vote for George Bush to repent or move on (or words to that effect). Today I read that a Lutheran pastor in Denmark was reinstated to the pulpit after being suspended for announcing he did not believe in God.
Seems to me there are plenty of people who view God as "other" or transcendent, or even doubt his existence at all. When they mention God, he is completely third person, so far away, so distant. I'm not really thinking about agnostics, or those who sincerely struggle with faith. That's one thing. But to be a minister, a pastor, called to lead others and to declare God is not existent, I just don't get it. Wouldn't that faith, or lack thereof, lead one to a little bit different vocation?
And of course America is not exempt from it's share of fundamentalists who speak for God in the first person. When I lived in Orlando years back, I remember Pat Robertson saying God would punish us with a hurricane because Disney celebrated gay days and we had gay pride flags in the city. Who can forget Randall Terry? And of course Fred Phelps in Kansas, protesting at funerals of gays with signs declaring "God hates fags." They speak for God?
Seems to me there is a place somewhere for seeking God in the second person. Where one doesn't banish God to the purgatory of non existence and smugly claim to know in fact there is no God. Just how does one know that? Where we are not afraid to say we are related to God, instead of avoiding all mention of him like he's our embarrassing, drunken Uncle Sal.
Yet in this place we don't pretend we are God, or mold him into our own image. A place where we don't follow our polarizing passions and declare anyone with a different opinion to be ungodly.
Wouldn't it be grand to seek God for who he is, neither jumping to the conclusion that he is not (since of course we know all) nor jumping to whims that since I met him once I can speak for him. Wouldn't it be better if we take the time to listen, to listen for God even in the people we don't agree with? Hear what the doubters or agnostics say? Try to understand Taoists, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, or those few that are in between.
"Lord, help me to not dismiss you and relegate you to a dusty bookshelf like an old high school yearbook. Help me not to only remember you like a distant memory of a love I once lost. Yet help me not to think we are so familiar, so close that I can wear your clothes and miserably attempt to walk in your shoes. Lord, help me to seek you, to sit with you, to share my pain and life, and most of all, to listen. And help me to listen to your voice and see your eyes in new places I never knew you could be."
Seems to me there are plenty of people who view God as "other" or transcendent, or even doubt his existence at all. When they mention God, he is completely third person, so far away, so distant. I'm not really thinking about agnostics, or those who sincerely struggle with faith. That's one thing. But to be a minister, a pastor, called to lead others and to declare God is not existent, I just don't get it. Wouldn't that faith, or lack thereof, lead one to a little bit different vocation?
And of course America is not exempt from it's share of fundamentalists who speak for God in the first person. When I lived in Orlando years back, I remember Pat Robertson saying God would punish us with a hurricane because Disney celebrated gay days and we had gay pride flags in the city. Who can forget Randall Terry? And of course Fred Phelps in Kansas, protesting at funerals of gays with signs declaring "God hates fags." They speak for God?
Seems to me there is a place somewhere for seeking God in the second person. Where one doesn't banish God to the purgatory of non existence and smugly claim to know in fact there is no God. Just how does one know that? Where we are not afraid to say we are related to God, instead of avoiding all mention of him like he's our embarrassing, drunken Uncle Sal.
Yet in this place we don't pretend we are God, or mold him into our own image. A place where we don't follow our polarizing passions and declare anyone with a different opinion to be ungodly.
Wouldn't it be grand to seek God for who he is, neither jumping to the conclusion that he is not (since of course we know all) nor jumping to whims that since I met him once I can speak for him. Wouldn't it be better if we take the time to listen, to listen for God even in the people we don't agree with? Hear what the doubters or agnostics say? Try to understand Taoists, Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, Democrats, Republicans, or those few that are in between.
"Lord, help me to not dismiss you and relegate you to a dusty bookshelf like an old high school yearbook. Help me not to only remember you like a distant memory of a love I once lost. Yet help me not to think we are so familiar, so close that I can wear your clothes and miserably attempt to walk in your shoes. Lord, help me to seek you, to sit with you, to share my pain and life, and most of all, to listen. And help me to listen to your voice and see your eyes in new places I never knew you could be."
posted by Jeff at
9:10 PM
