I came across this article while preparing a sermon. Thought I might shed some light on the discussion we have been having about finding the gospel lived out in different places. It is a bit lengthy but worth the read.
They are a Stiff-Necked People (Exod. 32: 9-10)
by Kosuke Koyama (the John D.Rockefeller, Jr., Professor of Ecumenics and World Christianity at Union Theology Seminary in New York City). This article appeared in the Christian Century, August 30-September 6, 1989, p. 779. Slightly edited for length.
And the Lord said to Moses, "I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people; now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them" [Exod. 32: 9-10].
This is remarkable! God is criticizing God’s own people! But the God of the Bible criticizes God’s own people. If Israel is stiff-necked, God declares it so. This God has a universal vista. "You shall not show partiality; and you shall not take a bribe. for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and subverts the cause of the righteous" (Deut. 16:19). The God who does not take bribes is a universal, impartial and just God.
This God troubles us about the American flag, so frequently placed near church altars. The biblical God is deeply concerned about the well-being of people of all nations. God’s universality must be demonstrated in the church of Christ whose concern is human salvation. Any nation that symbolically claims special favor is attempting to bribe and domesticate the universal God. God cannot be bribed. We only bribe ourselves, damaging our spiritual and intellectual integrity in the process. When we bribe ourselves we become self-righteous.
Because God is not partial (Rom. 2:10) , God is especially concerned about those who go to bed without a cloak (Duet. 24:13) If God were partial, God would treat everyone with geometrical sameness. The impartiality of God can be applied to all people of all nations. "I have seen the Americans (or Germans, Japanese or Indonesians . . .) , and behold, they are a stiff-necked people." The saying may also be applied to religions. This universal God of the Bible could say, "I have seen Christians (or Buddhists, Hindus or Muslims . . .), and behold, they are a stiff-necked people." This God may say something outrageous, such as, "I have seen the afflictions of the Palestinians who are in Israel. I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Israelites" (see Exod. 3:7,8; also Amos 9:7).
Humanity can benefit from studying the "failures" of Israel.. Through Israel’s failures -- stiff-neckedness -- -we can come to know the reality of human history and the nature of the universal God. When a people is stiff-necked, what should God do with them? "Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them." But Moses intercedes with God. He admonishes God. "And the Lord repented of the evil which he thought to do to his people" (Exod. 32:14).
This is an astounding development in the narrative of the golden calf. God’s sincerity is completely free from bias and prejudice. It is awe-inspiringly universal. When God repents God reveals something of the mystery of our salvation. God becomes vulnerable because of God’s intense love for humanity. (How seldom do politicians and theologians repent!) That God "repents" means God’s love overwhelms God’s justice. It is never that God’s justice is overcome by injustice. God’s mind is agitated: "My mind is turning over inside me. My emotions are agitated altogether" (Hos. 11:8 [Anchor Bible]) Yet God’s love refuses to be frustrated and defeated: "What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness, and go after the one which is lost, until he finds it?" (Luke 15:4)
God’s love makes God scandalous. The Pharisees and the scribes murmured, "This man receives sinners and eats with them" (Luke 15:2). This is a picture of the salvific truth of God’s "repentance." Personal relationship -- loving relationship -- is of central importance to this universal God. Therefore God is impassioned. "I, the Lord your God, am an impassioned god" (Exod. 20:5). God is neither absolute (without relationship) nor relative (settling for 99 sheep!) "God is love" (I John 4:8)
It is this God, universal because impartial, and vulnerable because passionately loving, who leads us to say: "The sacrifice acceptable to God is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise" (Ps. 5 1:17). When we say this from the heart, we are healed of our stiff-neckedness.
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label God. Show all posts
Friday, June 27, 2008
Friday, December 7, 2007
The Ineffability of God
From Saint Augustine – Confessions: Book 1 (Chapter 4)
What, therefore, is my God?
Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent;
most merciful and most just;
most secret and most truly present;
most beautiful and most strong;
stable, yet not supported;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new,
yet bringing old age upon the proud, and they know it not;
always working, ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
He does love, but without passion;
He is jealous, yet free from care;
He is angry, yet remains serene.
He recovers what he has never really lost.
He owes humans nothing,
yet pays out to them as if in debt to His creation.
Yet, O my God, my life, my holy Joy,
what is this that I have said?
What can any man say when he speaks of You?
But woe to them that keep silence—
since even those who say most are dumb.
Some things just cannot be described with words. Such is the case with God. There is an ineffable (indescribable) quality to God. As one professor continually reminded us, “All language about God is metaphorical.” We cannot properly describe God. Our brains are not big enough. Words cannot properly capture God. Words fail, falter, and crack under the pressure of trying to describe God. And strangely enough, though we cannot capture God with our language, he still desires for us to attempt it.
Most of us have an image of God that is valid, but it is not full. It is very simplistic like “God is great. God is good. Thank you God for this food.” The problem is that we don’t do any further searching and investigating. We stay with this view without delving into the mysterious reality that God is bigger than we have ever imagined. God cannot be possessed. God is unknown. God is a mystery. And yet, God but wants to be made known.
“It is the glory of God to conceal things but the glory of kings to search them out.” Proverbs 25:2
To really come into contact with God, we have search him out. At some point we will have to wrestle with Him. Not physically like Jacob, but mentally and spiritually. Part of wrestling with God is the possibility of breaking something. As you really consider the mystery God it might shatter your simplistic, preconceived notions and understandings about who God is. God cannot be possessed, but he can be struggled with. And in the struggle, we go deep into the mystery of God’s character and what he is doing in this world. Because though we can never fully grasp God, he gives us clues and hints along the way. Meister Eckhart put it this way: “God is like a person who clears his throat while hiding and so gives himself away.”
Isaiah 55:6-9 encourages us to,
“Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God is Mysterious but not unsearchable. We should be completely blown away by who God is. This is the God of the universe we are talking about. Who can create with a word. Destroy with a word. But we should not for that reason stop the search. Part of growing in faith involves the exercise of wrestling with the mysteries of God – not necessarily solve them but to come to a better understanding of them. And by doing so reflect God’s mysteries to this world. You cannot proclaim or make known the mystery unless you yourself have discovered it. It is obviously not obvious. At the same time, it is not meant to remain hidden.
"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” Matthew 13:11
The mystery of God and His kingdom has been disclosed and made available to those who seek. Let us begin to unravel the mystery of God.
What, therefore, is my God?
Most high, most excellent, most potent, most omnipotent;
most merciful and most just;
most secret and most truly present;
most beautiful and most strong;
stable, yet not supported;
unchangeable, yet changing all things;
never new, never old;
making all things new,
yet bringing old age upon the proud, and they know it not;
always working, ever at rest;
gathering, yet needing nothing;
sustaining, pervading, and protecting;
creating, nourishing, and developing;
seeking, and yet possessing all things.
He does love, but without passion;
He is jealous, yet free from care;
He is angry, yet remains serene.
He recovers what he has never really lost.
He owes humans nothing,
yet pays out to them as if in debt to His creation.
Yet, O my God, my life, my holy Joy,
what is this that I have said?
What can any man say when he speaks of You?
But woe to them that keep silence—
since even those who say most are dumb.
Some things just cannot be described with words. Such is the case with God. There is an ineffable (indescribable) quality to God. As one professor continually reminded us, “All language about God is metaphorical.” We cannot properly describe God. Our brains are not big enough. Words cannot properly capture God. Words fail, falter, and crack under the pressure of trying to describe God. And strangely enough, though we cannot capture God with our language, he still desires for us to attempt it.
Most of us have an image of God that is valid, but it is not full. It is very simplistic like “God is great. God is good. Thank you God for this food.” The problem is that we don’t do any further searching and investigating. We stay with this view without delving into the mysterious reality that God is bigger than we have ever imagined. God cannot be possessed. God is unknown. God is a mystery. And yet, God but wants to be made known.
“It is the glory of God to conceal things but the glory of kings to search them out.” Proverbs 25:2
To really come into contact with God, we have search him out. At some point we will have to wrestle with Him. Not physically like Jacob, but mentally and spiritually. Part of wrestling with God is the possibility of breaking something. As you really consider the mystery God it might shatter your simplistic, preconceived notions and understandings about who God is. God cannot be possessed, but he can be struggled with. And in the struggle, we go deep into the mystery of God’s character and what he is doing in this world. Because though we can never fully grasp God, he gives us clues and hints along the way. Meister Eckhart put it this way: “God is like a person who clears his throat while hiding and so gives himself away.”
Isaiah 55:6-9 encourages us to,
“Seek the LORD while he may be found,
call upon him while he is near;
For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
nor are your ways my ways, says the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
God is Mysterious but not unsearchable. We should be completely blown away by who God is. This is the God of the universe we are talking about. Who can create with a word. Destroy with a word. But we should not for that reason stop the search. Part of growing in faith involves the exercise of wrestling with the mysteries of God – not necessarily solve them but to come to a better understanding of them. And by doing so reflect God’s mysteries to this world. You cannot proclaim or make known the mystery unless you yourself have discovered it. It is obviously not obvious. At the same time, it is not meant to remain hidden.
"The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them.” Matthew 13:11
The mystery of God and His kingdom has been disclosed and made available to those who seek. Let us begin to unravel the mystery of God.
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