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| "You created my innermost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb" (Psalm 139:13) - an example of God's powerful attention to detail |
The Irish comedian Dave Allen used to end his shows with the
pay-off line “May your god go with you”. He wasn’t implying that there are many
actual gods but rather suggesting that each person fashions an image of God
according to personal taste. He was partly right.
“No-one has ever seen God,” John 1:18 reminds us, before
claiming that Jesus has made God known. Because God is unseen he is beyond our
imagination, and human imagination can run riot. We need a framework of
understanding if our faith and life is to be authentically Christian, and not a
pick and mix bag of hopeful ideas or a caricature which is easy for others to
dismiss.
The ancient Nicene Creed based on New Testament teaching, provides
such a framework which we shall explore here over the next few months.
One God…the Almighty
Almost every people group in history has had a “faith” in
supernatural powers; most have believed in many gods. The ancient Jews were an
exception. They believed in one supreme God (although they struggled to
maintain it; neighbouring religions with many gods offered great attractions).
So they had to be reminded regularly that “I am the first and the last, apart
from me there is no God” (Isaiah 44:6) and that home-made “idols” were worse
than useless.
“Almighty” means all-powerful, an important encouragement
for the struggles of daily life. It is illustrated in the Bible by two major
events. At the Exodus God assisted a down-trodden group of people to escape
slavery and begin a nation through whom he planned to show his purposes to the
world. (Unfortunately, they didn’t always live up to their calling.)
And secondly in the life, teaching, death and resurrection
of Jesus Christ God demonstrated his power by opening up a new way for human
beings to relate to God personally. But as powerful as God is, he is not a
bully; he never forces his ways on anyone. He is not an uninvited meddler in or
manipulator of human affairs. He does not automatically snuff out suffering and
evil. Instead he waits for us to willingly associate ourselves with him. Loving
power is also patient. Pope John Paul once said that “There is one source of
power that is stronger than every disappointment, bitterness or ingrained
mistrust, and that power is Jesus Christ, who brought forgiveness and
reconciliation to the world.”
The Father
Dave Allen’s line was marginally better than the catchphrase
of Star Wars: “May the force be with
you”. God is personal, not a force. A force cannot love or choose, but a person
can. “God so loved the world that he gave…” (John 3:16); a blind force cannot
love or willingly give, but a person can. A force cannot communicate with
people, but a person can. Human language is limited, though. “Person” is the
nearest we can get to describing one who is (in C.S. Lewis’ words) “beyond
personality”. We faintly reflect God’s personality; we have not projected ours
onto him.
Generally, God is described as “he”. But God has no gender. We
have no word in English to describe personality that isn’t gender-specific. Jesus
taught his followers to regard God as a caring “Father”, with whom they could
have a real personal relationship. “Father” is used because God sows the seed
from which everything else – our life and personality included – springs. Not
surprisingly, you will find places in the Bible where God displays what we
would call “feminine” characteristics as well.
It’s not God’s fault that some people have used this as an
excuse for excessive male dominance in the world, instead of developing and
valuing the gender partnership which God intended when he created human beings.
Maker of all
Interpreters of Charles Darwin (and some Christians) have a
lot to answer for because of the confusion they have created by pitting
“science” against “religion”. The Christian doctrine of creation simply claims
that everything that exists owes its origin to God. It is a statement of faith
which can neither be proved nor disproved. The alternative to divine creation
is blind chance. Many find “chance” unbelievable when faced with the complexity
of sub-atomic particles and microscopic organisms, living, thinking humans and
the rhythmic patterns of the planets.
For example, no-one knows how many stars like the sun exist
in our galaxy, the Milky Way; estimates vary from 100 to 300 billion. And the
Milky Way is only one of maybe 200 billion galaxies in the universe. At the
other end of the scale, if all your veins and blood vessels were lain end to
end they would stretch for 60,000 miles. And every second your body makes 17
million new red blood cells.
You can’t prove that God exists from observing our amazingly
complex universe. But if you accept that God does exist, then examples like
this from the natural world provide one picture of what he is like: powerful
enough to set stars in space, yet caring enough to give attention to tiny
details on earth.
Biblical poets don’t worry about how God fashioned
everything. The account of origins in Genesis is more about the nature of God
than the method of creation. Bible writers simply reckon that if God is powerful
enough to oversee all that exists, then he’s powerful enough to see us through
the troubles we face in life.
Think and talk
1. What do these
passages tell us about the power of God compared with the impotence of human
fabrications: Isaiah 40:9-31; 44:6-20?
2. A “god” is what we
put our hope and trust in. What today might take the central place of God in
our approach to life? (See 1 Timothy 6:17,18 for one example.)
3. How might these “feminine”
characteristics of God help us to view God without a gender emphasis:
Deuteronomy 32:10,11,18; Psalm 57:1; 131:1-3; Isaiah 40:11; 49:5,15; 66:12-13;
Matthew 23:37?
4. Why do you think
some people feel more comfortable viewing God as a force rather than as a
person?
5. What can we learn
from these passages about God’s generosity? Psalm 104:10-18; Matthew 20:1-16;
Luke 11:11-13; Acts 14:16-17; 1 Timothy 6:17?
6. What do these
verses tell us about God’s presence with us? Psalm 139:1-12; Isaiah 57:15-16;
Jeremiah 23:23-24; John 14:15-20; Acts 17:26-28.
©Derek Williams 2015
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