{"id":2949,"date":"2015-04-01T08:00:09","date_gmt":"2015-04-01T00:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2021-11-26T09:59:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-26T01:59:53","slug":"125-who-is-your-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jeffangiegoh.com\/?p=2949","title":{"rendered":"125. Who Is Your God?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Let the same mind be in you that was\u00a0in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited, but emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness. And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross<\/span><\/strong>. [Philippians 2:5-8<\/span>, NRSV<\/em>]<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/a><\/span>\"\"\u00a0<\/a>\"\"<\/a><\/em><\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
[L] A common artistic depiction of God as the old man in the sky. [M]\u00a0<\/span>Ancient of Days (God as an Architect) by William Blake. [R]\u00a0Crucifixion<\/em> by Theophanes the Cretan, 16C..<\/span><\/span><\/h6>\n
A first image of God<\/strong><\/span><\/h6>\n

When asked whether their first go-to image of God is \u201can old man in the sky with a long beard\u201d, adult Christians often replied affirmatively, if a little embarrassed.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is understandable, since the prayer which Jesus taught his disciples to pray began with \u201cOur Father, who art in heaven\u2026\u201d <\/span>The elderly father walking on the clouds has got to be a pretty old gentleman with a pretty long and gray beard.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is, we may have stayed [if subconsciously] with that anthropomorphic image, which we first picked up in our early years, well into mature adulthood.<\/span><\/p>\n

We recall how two professed religious brothers from Thailand, who were our first-year theology classmates, were surprised to learn that when we prayed, the image in our heads were not the old-man-in-the-sky, but the mountains and the seas amongst which the Spirit roamed freely. <\/span>In moments of \u201cmindfulness\u201d, the recollection of God as Pure Spirit, as the Wholly Transcendent Other, thoroughly unbound or unlimited to the shape and form of a human person, causes us embarrassment. That is when we realize that our image of the <\/span>Theos<\/em> as the grand old man can be pretty \u201cjuvenile\u201d and problematic.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Even that, in fact, may be the least of our \u201cproblems\u201d in our understanding of God. Our incomprehension may actually be far deeper than we are conscious or \u201cmindful\u201d of. People in reality worship the \u201cgod\u201d of their choice, but that may not necessarily be the God as revealed in Jesus. In particular, the powerlessness of God has always been a problem for those who start their theology from the perspective of an Almighty God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Take, for instance, the Creed, in which we pray \u201cI believe in God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth\u2026\u201d God as an almighty deity is a concept not exclusive to the Christians. Any supreme deity in any religion at all has got to be \u201calmighty\u201d and \u201call-powerful\u201d to its adherents.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the one hand, this seems so \u201cabsolutely\u201d necessary and a \u201cdivine\u201d truth. For if we do not accept some kind of an all-powerful interventionist<\/em> God<\/em>, how do we comprehend the depth and breadth and the practicality of what prayer is in public and private, conversation and meditation, communal liturgy and contemplation? After all, the God of the Bible is so inherently a God of miracles, that a Christian has got to be a genuine believer in a God that causes miracles, a Lord that saves us from “impossible” and “hopeless” situations. Furthermore, a Christian believes that our God is still<\/em> in the business of miracle-making and will continue to be so. As for why miracles are made here and not there, or for this person and not that person and so on, it is something to which we have no answer, but that in no way diminishes the fact that God works miracles as and when He wishes. To believe in the Judeo-Christian God, is to believe in the One who is referred to as “The Most High,” “The Heavenly Father,” “The God of the Universe,” and “The Creator of all things seen and unseen.” In our every traditional description of God, therefore, there is no hint other than to a powerful and almighty divinity.<\/span><\/p>\n

The powerlessness of God<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And yet, the mystery of God, as we know, is often a paradox.<\/span><\/p>\n

And so, on the other hand, even as Christians speak of a God of power, they also have a real sense that God has somehow intended power to shine forth not just in sheer miracles, but even more deeply and in a more enduring way, in the kenotic<\/em> life and example of Jesus the Christ and of his disciples, especially those who live a saintly and sacrificial life, emptying themselves of all powers and pretensions to power, in imitation of their Lord. This deeper sense of the truth of God, however, is seldom consciously articulated. Regrettably, therefore, our image of God is commonly askew. Lacking in that image of power is the essential, complementary understanding of the real powerlessness of God<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

In consciousness, we realize that to preach a God who is almighty is at once problematic when six million Jews, his chosen people, died in the hands of the Nazis. And so, Elie Wiesel, a Jew who survived the Auschwitz Nazi concentration camp and went on to become a Nobel Laureate later in life, wrote the terrifying account in Night<\/em>. Struggling with the idea of an almighty God who \u201clet\u201d this holocaust happen, Wiesel concluded that God is \u201changing here from this gallows.\u201d And so J\u00fcrgen Moltmann<\/a> in his Christological study, The Crucified God<\/em>, is persuaded to speak of a God who experiences \u201cgodforsakenness\u201d. \u00a0Dorothy S\u00f6lle, too, in her Christological study, Christ the Representative<\/em>, declares an end to the traditional \u201cvertical\u201d idea of God as the all-powerful lord of history controlling the world from above and, instead, depicts Christ as one who, in God\u2019s place and as God\u2019s representative, suffers and dies with us<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

St Paul was no stranger to the immense difficulties in preaching the Crucified Christ as \u201cGood News\u201d while the people associated God with almighty powers. The cross of Christ was \u201ca stumbling block to Jews\u201d [1 Cor 1:23] who questioned God\u2019s morality.<\/span><\/p>\n