"In the beginning God ..." (Gen 1:1)
The Bible opens with God as the subject who acts in the course of history. God creates. God talks. God walks. God interjects. God intervenes. God protects. God leads. God corrects. God disciplines. God comes. God heals. God turns water into wine. God teaches. God eats. God raises another from the dead. God loves. God dies. God rises. God ascends. God empowers. God works.
God, God, God. The Bible starts out with God as the subject. With the turning of each page, we read how the story unfolds with God as the primary actor. If we don't get this about the Bible's way of talking about God, it would be like watching Hamlet without a Hamlet, Forest Gump without anyone actually playing Forest Gump, or reading a DC Justice League comic without Superman. The story would be totally different in its very nature.
A different kind of story is exactly that many have experienced. When we go to church, God far too often not at the center. Instead, the message is primarily about what we as humans can and cannot do in order to keep God happy. Or we are told what we can and cannot do to have a better life. Or we discover what we can do to make the world a better place. Instead of God being the primary actor on the world stage, we have been told that we are the lead actors. The story of God turns into the story of "me."
It is very easy to change the story from God to me. Even when we proclaim God's glory in worship, our world and the way we do life in our world is shaped by a secular imagination. In other words, we have learned to live as if God is not active. As a result, we go through day-to-day existence as if we are the lead actors on the stage of life. I can go through an entire day as if I am in control of making my life happen the way that I want it to. We search for the right formula to make life work so that we can get the kind of results what we want. It's something like a + b + c = the good life. And of course, I am in control of a + b + c.
While the choices we make matter, none of us are the lead actor in the story of creation. God is at work in the world, creating and recreating life, doing far more than what we can do in our a + b + c perspective of trying to make life work. God still acts. God still comes. God still intervenes. God still works miracles. We just don't see it.
In the midst of our world where the sense of divine presence has been squeezed out, we need to let the lead actor shape our imagination. "In the beginning, God ..." initiates the story and he does not exit to leave us on our own:
It is very easy to change the story from God to me. Even when we proclaim God's glory in worship, our world and the way we do life in our world is shaped by a secular imagination. In other words, we have learned to live as if God is not active. As a result, we go through day-to-day existence as if we are the lead actors on the stage of life. I can go through an entire day as if I am in control of making my life happen the way that I want it to. We search for the right formula to make life work so that we can get the kind of results what we want. It's something like a + b + c = the good life. And of course, I am in control of a + b + c.
While the choices we make matter, none of us are the lead actor in the story of creation. God is at work in the world, creating and recreating life, doing far more than what we can do in our a + b + c perspective of trying to make life work. God still acts. God still comes. God still intervenes. God still works miracles. We just don't see it.
In the midst of our world where the sense of divine presence has been squeezed out, we need to let the lead actor shape our imagination. "In the beginning, God ..." initiates the story and he does not exit to leave us on our own:
Today, in the midst of our life, God ...
Today, as you go to work, God ...
Today, as you interact with family, God ...
Today, as you struggle, God ...
Today, as you win, God ...
This action of God does not occur the way we expect or we want. We tend to look at surface events and wonder where God is. Why is God not fixing the war between the Russia and the Ukraine? Why do we still see so much racism, misogyny, and inequality? Why are people just so downright horrible? Where is God acting in all of this?
Today, as you go to work, God ...
Today, as you interact with family, God ...
Today, as you struggle, God ...
Today, as you win, God ...
This action of God does not occur the way we expect or we want. We tend to look at surface events and wonder where God is. Why is God not fixing the war between the Russia and the Ukraine? Why do we still see so much racism, misogyny, and inequality? Why are people just so downright horrible? Where is God acting in all of this?
This is the radical difference between the way God acts and the way humans typically act. We identify the ways that we can do things that make a change in a direct way. This is the a + b + c approach. I do things to make something happen like a billiard ball hitting another ball into the hole. If someone hurts you, I want to jump in and fix it and I want the other person to know what they did. Not only that I want them to admit that they were wrong, even if I have to force them to do so. This has been the source of many wars throughout history.
God acts in love, which means that God acts through relationship. He wants good to happen and he hates it when people are hurting the people. But he cannot make people change. He cannot force them to be loving. Love only comes about through love, and this takes a lot longer than I prefer.
God is the primary actor on the stage of life, and this action is the slow movement of love. This is what begins with God. And ultimately, it ends with God. Love is the only thing that will remain. It's the only thing that matters, even on the stage of life where love is covered up by the pursuit of power and control. Love will always endure, and it's the only way that God acts to bring about the good and beautiful in the world.
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