September 30 2023
WHERE IS GOD? Some theological musings.
“The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to mankind”, says Psalm 115:16, yet, as Psalm 24 attests: The earth is the Lord and all that it contains. A contradiction? No. Compare it to that famous Rembrandt painting, The Night Watch, forever prescribed to him, but owned by the Dutch Government. There also is a saying that possession constitutes 90 percent of ownership. Yes, as owners of the earth – not stewards – we are on our own: God help us.
Another misconception: Jesus did not die to bear the load of our sins – that too – but, as John 3: 16 unequivocally tells us: Jesus died to buy back the ‘cosmos’ (all created matter) which we had acquired in a deal with the Devil. To connect Christ’s sacrifice solely with human ‘sin’, is, I believe, the ultimate cause of Climate Change. Which needs a further explanation!
Had the church seen creation as ‘holy’, as ultimately divine – because Christ’ death restored divine ownership – and acted accordingly, the current cosmic crisis, only to get worse, would not have happened.
So, where is God in all this?
Deuteronomy 32: 20 provides the answer: “I will hide my face from them,” he said, “and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children who are unfaithful.” That’s us, you, me, everybody.
Have a close look at the older Testament. In it, God slowly disengages himself from us. Look at the sequence: In the Eden Garden, God walks and talks with Adam and Eve. With the Ark, God personally instructs Noah. Abraham argues with God about the fate of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses is called God’s friend, and after that, except for some ‘voice-mails’, God basically disappears from the earthly scene: God separates himself from us and our actions, though not on a personal level.
Yes, God appears to Elijah: first causing a hurricane, but no God there; then via an earthquake, but no God there; then in an enormous fire, but no God there either; then, surprisingly, in the sound of silence: yes, complete quiet, there’s where God appears.
These three natural phenomena remind me of today: earthquakes: caused by fracking and other human actions; hurricanes increasing in strength and frequency, all human actions; forest-fires everywhere, all caused by human actions: God is absent there, but we are! Our evil actions have consequences! God is so different: He is in ‘the sound of silence’, in quiet contemplation, in personal piety, in prayer and peace.
Where is God basically?
God dwells, “in unapproachable light, whom nobody has seen or can see”. (1 Timothy 6: 16). The still influential Billy Graham, that Bible pounding-evangelist, quoted the book, little knowing what it contained. In a final interview with Larry King on CNN in 1991, Larry asked Billy, “What will happen when you die?”. The celebrated preacher answered, “Jesus will take me by the hand and bring me to God”, in direct conflict with the above text, as well as John 3: 13, Nobody has ever gone to heaven, except the one who came from there, the Son of Man.
We are earthbound, forever.
Jesus, explicitly told us: The humble will inherit the earth. J. B. Phillips translates this as: ‘those who claim little for themselves will be the earth-dwellers’.
It seems to me that, in the Hebrew part of the Scriptures, God, somehow, is different than in the Newer Testament. In the Old Testament, dominated by ‘the 10 commandments’, God is the stern judge, chastising his children. In the New Testament Jesus’ law of ‘love’, dominates: God becomes accessible only through the Son. Basically, God disappears, cedes authority. And we? We quietly mature in faith and grow in understanding, shedding our infancy because we cannot remain children forever: we simply have to grow up. Bonhoeffer, 80 years ago, mentioned “coming of age”. Curiously, this clashes with Jesus’ words, naming ‘the most important in the kingdom are those who become like children’ (Matthew 18:1-5).
“Coming of Age”, could well mean being worthy to meet Christ, who wants us to grow up, and see how we will end up. The word ‘end’ here points to being a “Teleios” person, one who keeps ‘the New Creation’ in mind, the concept Jesus mentions in Matthew 5:48, “Be perfect -teleios – as my heavenly Father is perfect”.
Where is God?
Where is God? Where is Bach? Where is Shakespeare? We know them, we love them, we see them through their legacy!
That’s also why we find God in the universe, the place God called ‘good’ seven times. Jesus did not bring religion: the church does. Jesus brought LIFE: John 10: 10: I have come that we may have life, and have it to the full.