How should we understand what God is? Part 2

How should we understand what God is?

Part 2: We can have a relationship with God

Despite God’s holiness, we are able to encounter him. Although he is completely beyond our understanding in terms of fully comprehending him, we are able to meet God, relate to him, and hold within us just an inkling of his reality. Yet even the merest inkling of God’s infinite reality stretches us way beyond our capacity to grasp the fullness of who he is – but not beyond the capacity to know that we have met him, or to love him, or to know that he loves us. In the most stupendous mystery of all, this God – as he is conceived to be in the majesty of his perfection – loves and cares for us. Both these dimensions of the truth about God are what impresses us so much: both who he is, in his infinite, eternal goodness, and that such a person should care for us. Perhaps only a being like God could care for us in the way he does. God is completely unchallengeable. Nothing can ever diminish his abilities; he will never fail to be himself; and such is the healing purity of his nature that anything that comes into contact with God is healed; he is never tainted. This God wants us to know him and to love him. He makes himself known in many different ways, and calls out to us. He wants us to be whole, and he wants us to know him. In this way he honours his loving intention in creating us. As he did not need us, he created us in order for us to know the joy of being alive, and therefore, he wants us to share our lives with him in order that we can fulfil his intention in making us: that we should be fully alive.

Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy. Part 2

Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy

Part 2

Father, I am afraid.

Afraid that the systems I depend on will break down. That chaos will engulf us. That even if I hold my nerve, and do the right thing, that others will not.

Do not be afraid. You are explaining to me the importance of faith; how important it is to believe that good will win through; how important it is for you to keep faith and be a person of integrity – even if all else betray the trust that has been given to them. Remember where you began – your people: wandering the plains, huddled in caves against the icy chill. You have not done too badly. You have to keep striving. The situation is much more hopeful than you think. And I am with you, and I told you to live in hope. So, keep playing your part, and call on others to join you, and trust that many will – and don’t be dismayed by those who don’t. You cannot control others, but you can be true to yourself no matter what. One good person can make all the difference – and be a rallying call to others.

A note to readers

A note to readers

For many of my posts, I have adopted a format which I particularly like, which is to have a theological or philosophical reflection, which is an extended piece of thinking, published in several parts, and then, alongside each part is a more devotional piece which is in some way prompted by, or is a commentary on, the reflective piece.

However, my next series of posts has these two dimensions of theological reflection and devotional writing, but they don’t have any particular connection. I’m simply aware that I’m posting my most in-depth reflection so far, and for those who aren’t particularly drawn to theological philosophising, I thought a series of devotional pieces might be a welcome diversion.

How should we understand what God is? Part 1

How should we understand what God is?

God is the voice I create in my head.

Overview

This long – long – theological reflection – coming in 9 parts – considers who God is from two points of view: the traditional one and a possible new understanding that God is a voice we create in our own minds. I personally consider that the traditional one is perfectly valid, but, of course, I’m aware of the challenges to belief in God in the modern age. So, I will consider what I think is a valid reason to believe in God, even within a secular, atheistic understanding of reality.

The different sections are:-

  1. The nature of God as traditionally understood
  2. 3 reasons why belief in God developed:-
    • Religious experience of God
    • As an explanatory device
    • Through philosophical exploration

Including an acknowledgement that modern ideas might undermine them, leaving belief in God as simply a psychological effect in our own minds

3) A modern defence of believing in God even within a framework of understanding that God is “just in our own minds”.

Part 1: God as he is understood to be

Traditionally:

God is a spiritual being who is the ultimate source of reality. Everything that exists, exists because God does. He is the creator. He is a personal being – not an impersonal force, such as electricity; he has a will; He is perfect in his moral nature. He is completely self-sufficient, in that he needs nothing to be complete because he is already complete. He experiences absolute fulfilment in himself. However, as a person, he has the capacity for relationship, and the essence of his nature is love. As a personal agent, he has the ability to act, and so, out of love, he has created other beings. We presume his intention is out of love – in order to be true to himself – so that others can also appreciate what it is to exist. However, God is also holy, which, in essence, means that he is completely unlike anything else and contains within himself absolute goodness, purity, truth and love – and every other good quality, to infinite and absolute degree.

Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy. Part 1

Fear not for I bring you tidings of great joy

An exploration of, and reflection on, fear. The title is drawn from the message of the angel to the shepherds in the Nativity story. It’s long – in 7 parts! I reckon I must have a lot of fear to consider. Each part begins with a fear of something, and then considers God speaking to us. I fear you’re in for a long haul if you stick with this, but I hope it will be uplifting.

Part 1

Father, I am afraid.

Afraid of what might happen. Of losing what I have. Of people hurting me. And worst of all, hurting those I love.

Do not be afraid. You cannot be invincible and invulnerable. It is not possible; even to dream of it is just a fantasy. If you want to live, you have to be open to being hurt. Did I not teach you this when I opened wide my arms for you? Life is a risk; you have to accept that everything may indeed be taken from you. Loss hurts only to the degree that you love, and you do want to love, don’t you? I cannot protect you fully; I can only guide you. I do promise to stick by you, no matter what. Even if all others desert you, I will stand by you. I cannot stop your heart being broken; I made it that way. It is meant to break, as a sign to you and to others that what you hold dear is more precious to you than life itself. I can only promise to weep with you, and hold you while you weep. And though your heart will never mend to be what it was, the very wound you’ve suffered will become more precious to you than life itself. And I know the bitter injustice of it, and this drives the hurt so much deeper. I cannot answer this now, but I go out into the darkness to howl my rage. I can do no more than this and I am God. To live is to hope, and that is what I give you. The message of Christmas is that I am with you. I gave myself to you completely, and that is also the sign that I will always give myself for you- to the very end of the age. And after that, only I know – but the hope that I give you stretches over that void of unknowing.

If Adam had not fallen. Part 5

If Adam had not fallen

Part 5: I mustn’t just complain; I must seek help

I’m aware that I’m complaining about falling when the simple fact is that human beings fall. My complaint is that human nature isn’t good enough. Therefore, I mustn’t think that the answer is that I will try harder than Adam, and I will succeed where he failed. I’m not saying that trying isn’t important. Any of us who are unhappy about ourselves – and we really ought to see this as unhappiness at the way people suffer because of our failings – should commit to changing. And the best, in fact, the only, thing we can do is seek help. Adam teaches us that our fallibility will trip us up from time to time, and our weaknesses will prove too strong for us. If our glory is that we want to be better people, our responsibility is to do something about it. The greatest resource we have to help us is our awareness of the presence of God. It is by tuning into his will, and tapping into the gifts of God’s Spirit that we find hope of remedying our situation, relieving suffering and finding peace of mind.

I must not just complain; I must seek help

I must not just complain; I must seek help

My sorrow overflows from deep wells of regret until I find my rest in you, but I will never take a complaint onto my lips for my mouth is full of joy. Though my sins are ever before me, my eyes are fixed on you. As your servant says, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has never overcome it”. I see your light and I come to you. Dwelling among us, you have shown us the Father’s grace and truth, bestowing on us grace upon grace. We did not know what to do, but now we do. Bitterly aware of our suffering, we had no remedy, till you made known your grace and truth – and gave him to us. For no principle was strong enough; even the most inspiring vision did not suffice, but you made love incarnate, and presented us with a person. “Now you see. Follow him”. In his company, he who is nearest to the Father’s heart, we can abide by his side. There is a redeemer, and we can turn to him. Hope and peace are open to us.

If Adam had not fallen. Part 4

If Adam had not fallen

Part 4: Yes, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

It is this deep regret that makes the issue of “If Adam had not fallen” so intense, so pressing, so important for the life that we live together in society.

Of course, I must “get real”. The whole point about being human is that we have that nature which means we will fall. But if we just accept this, and form an accommodation with a compromised nature, then we will sink into a lack of awareness that we could be other. For if the fact that we fall is the disgrace of humanity, the awareness that we have done so is our glory. It is only this knowledge of and acceptance of the fact that we could have done better that drives our striving to be better. Acknowledging that Adam has fallen, recognising that I am not as I could be, is the vision that gives hope of redemption. It is this vision that is so important, and holding on to it is why I keep focussed on that fundamental issue of being human: if Adam had not fallen. He has. How are we to pick ourselves up?

Yes, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Yes, we are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Some say God is an illusion, a fantasy that tricks us into believing in heaven and surrendering our one chance of life. But I say that God is the vision that transforms life. Even if this life is all there is, I don’t want to settle for earthbound joys – even though they fill the human heart to overflowing. In the presence of God, in his company, a spiritual life bursts into being that cannot exist without him. Humanism is a profound philosophy of life, and I understand the appeal of standing on our own two feet. But even this does not lift us up to the heights that God does. It is in our relationship with him that we let go of our old selves and find a new self, re-imagined in his image.

So, I do not want to settle for even the best that humankind can offer; I want to accept the gifts of God’s grace. And then, like God, I can walk in the gutter, where we have fallen to, and try not to fight over the crumbs that are left, but as he stooped down to lift me up, so I can hold out my hand to others.

If Adam had not fallen. Part 3

If Adam had not fallen

Part 3: I am not just wallowing on the ground; I want to get up

I am not as I could be. I am not as I should be. Of course, I am a conventionally good person. Some might pick out particular strong points and describe me as exceptionally kind and gentle. But I could have been so much more. That is now all in the past. It’s a regret I cannot now put right. And I could still be so much more. What is so painful is the realisation that I need not have fallen. I face the temptation, and I know that a person of good character would not fall into it. Yet somehow the temptation always catches me unawares. If my guard was up, I could have dismissed the course of action as unworthy of me, but somehow, I am always recognising this in retrospect – even though I saw clearly at the time that I should not do it. But falling happens so quickly, and it is so easy to do it. Even when I have absolute clarity that the temptation is an illusion, that it will not really satisfy at all, somehow, I still fall into it – almost as though I need to remind myself, “Yes, that was a mistake”. I don’t believe I am being unnecessarily hard on myself. I am so angry that I – like Adam, like all of us – fall – when it need not have happened. This is the greatest regret: I fell, but I didn’t have to. What sort of person would I be if I had not fallen? What kind of person could I become now if I could learn not to fall? What would have been the effect on those around me? How can I help those around me now?