images of God

Over the Good Friday/Easter weekend I was thinking about the images we have of God and Jesus. Most of us, at least not until the book The Shack came out really had an image of the Holy Spirit. I wonder how often our images of God have become idols that allow us to keep God small so we can do our own thing and not feel as guilty as we need to, guilty enough to do the repentance thing and actually allow the Holy Spirit to change us, transform us into who we are called to be.
I wrestle with this. I read about the 'Ancient of Days' in Daniel and am filled with awe and wonder at the image we're given of this patriarch who is dressed in clothing white as snow and hair white like wool. His throne is even more amazing as it flames with fire and its wheels are all blazing with fire. Then there's that river of fire that flows out from in front of him and I go, "Wow! so cool!" This is an image of power, but as I embrace this image of God, I pass over who God is besides just a powerful eastern patriarch, that he's also like a mother hen, that he's an artist and a physician, the king and judge, but also father and friend. When I embrace an image of God I tend to make him less; more my size, someone I can handle and shape in my own image.
God tells us not to make idols and I wonder if our images of God or Jesus become mental idols. This is dangerous because our image of who God is shapes how we interpret Scripture and how we live with others. Look at how thinking about Jesus as a handsome man with blondish hair and blue eyes made, and makes, it easier to justify such evils as apartheid or anti-Semitism. Seeing God as a kindly father figure with white hair and a bit of a paunch allows us to believe that God would never really punish us for doing something wrong, after-all, his job is to forgive us right? Would this kind of a fatherly-like God really want us to carry a cross and experience suffering? This then gives us permission that when anything causes us pain, we can do almost anything to numb the pain, or to run away from the things that hurt and are hard, instead of learning how to handle these things with wisdom, grace, perseverance, and so learn character and what it means to be more like Jesus in suffering and pain.
The remedy to using images of God as a way to keep him small is to read all of the Bible, not just the parts that make us feel good or tell us what we want to hear. It means really listening to everything that Jesus taught, not just the blessings parts, but also the 'carry your cross' and 'forgiving' parts. As you fill your mind with all the images of God the Bible reveals to us, you will learn that God is always much bigger, more complex, and less tame than you could ever have imagined. It will give you the freedom to simply trust is a really big God who, for some reason way beyond our comprehension, chose to have a relationship with us.
Learn to rest in the mystery of God and life will become richer and more awe-inspiring that you could ever have thought before.

no other gods

The past few weeks for me has all been about looking ahead to the Good Friday and Easter weekend and all the extra things that go on; an extra worship service tonight, church pot-luck breakfast on Sunday (it's at 9 if you want to come!), and the whole focus on Jesus, death and resurrection and new life. Even those who seldom set foot in a church, or think about God, find it hard to not notice all this focus on Jesus. Some may even find their way into a church on Sunday because it seems the thing to do, but they come to worship God as only one of the many other gods they are following.

I wonder if on Easter, rather than focusing on the stone rolled away, we should be focusing on having no other gods before Yahweh. We have a big tendency to create gods; we so often take God's blessings and turn them into Baals. The old gods such as Thor, Zeus, Aphrodite, Freya have faded away, or at least their names have faded away except in the Marvel comics and Agents of Shield, but the power they represent is still here. We tend to make gods out of everything; eros, money, pleasure, fun, food, beauty, and the list goes on. You might protest that there really aren't other gods and say it's unfair for me to accuse you of worshipping other gods, and yes, I'll agree that other gods don't exist, that the Thors and Baals don’t really exist, but our yearning for prosperity, passionate love, power and strife still do exist today and all too often these things grab our hearts and desires more than God.

The Bible calls for you to make a choice for only one God and to worship him alone. It has to be a radical choice; it’s not both-and, but either-or. You can't choose God and continue to worship whatever else you've been chasing after. As Jesus says, “You can't have two masters.”

One thing that strikes me in the Bible is how often the people of God renewed their covenant with God. It seems as if this needs to be done regularly for our sake so that we can make our choice over again, reinforcing it each time in our hearts and lives.

Choosing God means loving God. The Jews regularly recited the Shema, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God will all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might.” This love is emotional, something you experience in your heart for in our love we are responding to God’s love toward us. We understand more clearly what love toward God really is when we see love as a choice. To love God means you stick with your choice. This is about faithfulness to God where nothing is allowed to come between you and God. Jesus later on tells us that love means that we keep his commandments; that we live in the way he has told us to live.

Following Jesus, embracing the Christian faith comes down to worshipping God with an undivided heart; there is no “God and ...” in your hearts; you serve and follow God alone. 
So maybe this Easter we should be covenant renewing; challenging each other to have only one God, and not a god we make, but approaching the God who loved us so much he sent his Son to die and make our promises to love him alone again as God renewed his promises to us through Jesus. Just a thought.