How we view God matters.
This is not the view of plenty of people throughout the world who have abandoned any sort of talk of God what-so-ever, much less talking to God! For many, God is simply irrelevant to their daily lives and they would not contend that God matters at all. I disagree. Viewing God as someone who does not matter is still a view of God. It can look like an outright disregard for the ways of the Lord, and their actions seem to show it. How we view God matters.
There are some who believe that purity of skin equals the purity of God. White hats are good and black hats are bad. They would say that any mixing of white hats and black hats is like pouring sewage into drinking water. God is pure, so we must remain pure, they would argue. Many dark skinned communities have been crushed in very real and very harmful ways. Out of their pain and agony they cry, “How we view God matters!”
In another part of the world, a girl flinched whenever the pastor spoke about God as Father. It was the same flinch that was programmed into her by her own father, whose late night binges of violence were littered throughout her childhood. She was not mad at the pastor for speaking this way; after-all, the Bible speaks this way. But, she found so much freedom the day the same pastor talked about God as a mother hen protecting her young. To her surprise the pastor also mentioned that the word for Spirit in Greek is grammatically neutral and in Hebrew is grammatically feminine. Though she already knew that God was not the same as her father, in her heart she felt like she could finally connect with God. How we view God matters.
If you firmly believe that God cares about punishing, then you will firmly care about punishing.
If you firmly believe that God cares about forgiveness, then you will firmly care about forgiving.
If you firmly believe that God is vindictive, then you will arm yourself and find your vindication.
If you firmly believe that God is active in this world, then you will firmly find a way to be active in this world.
How we view God matters.
In the gospel of John, Jesus tried to explain exactly who God is, because he truly believed that how we view God matters. Again and again he would repeat something that sounds a lot like this, “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). “The Father is in me and I am in the Father” (John 10:38). “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father” (John 14:9).
So, according to Jesus, how should we view God? What does God look like? What image should we be drawn to and follow?
If the Bible is right and Jesus is God with us, then when we look at Jesus, we are seeing the heart and soul of God. When we listen to Jesus we are listening to the very heart and soul of God. When we allow the Spirit to move us and lead us even today, it will be in ways that look a lot like someone we know very well: Jesus. And, when we listen to what the Spirit has to say to us today, the Bible promises that the Spirit will “guide you into all the truth; for he will not speak on his own, but will speak whatever he hears.” Jesus continues to teach us that, “All that the Father has is mine. For this reason I said that he will take what is mine and declare it to you.”
All of that is to say that Jesus has told us exactly how to see God, how to view God, and how to understand God. Allow the Spirit to direct your eyes toward Jesus’ life. Allow the Spirit to direct your ears toward Jesus’ command to love. Allow the Spirit to point you toward the truth of God. When you look to Jesus and listen to Jesus you will view God in a way that truly matters. That is what the Bible says. How we view God matters.
To the children who are now guaranteed to have food throughout our community, because someone looked at Jesus, saw his love of children and also saw his feeding of the hungry, how we view God matters. Allowing the Spirit to show us Jesus matters.
To the released prisoner in our community who was told that their crime was not the end of their life, and that their sin was not the period at the end of their sentence, all because someone saw Jesus on the cross welcoming the repentant criminal into the kingdom of God, how we view God matters. Allowing the Spirit to show us Jesus matters.
To the one who has been touched by healing hands or caressed by healing words who was in pain, or confused, or ill in our community, because someone looked at Jesus, saw his healing of the sick and his welcome of the strange and outcast, how we view God matters. Allowing the Spirit to show us Jesus matters.
God is love. That is what the Bible says anyway.
If God is love, and not hate;
and if God is bread from heaven, and not an empty plate;
and if God is the rider of donkeys and not war horses;
and if God is a servant and not a war monger directing forces;
and if God is forgiveness and not a choker of breath;
and if God is resurrection and is not held down by death,
then we will know that we are a people of love, and bread, and peace,
and service, and forgiveness and a lover of the least!
God is love and not hate.
We are a people who follow love, being a people of love is our fate.
The Bible says, “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16).
I say let us then view God as love, so that through us the love of God the world cannot possibly stem.
No comments:
Post a Comment