June 22, 2024
Where is God?
The USA is a religion-drenched country, worshiping the flag and the foetus, and though the word ‘God/Religion’ is front and centre (God bless America, a city on a hill, the Trump phenomenon) the country itself appears Godforsaken.
Why?
Much of Christianity there is either out-dated Old Testament or modern-day Gnostic. Just imagine: The state of Louisiana has made it mandatory that all public classrooms display the Ten Commandments! No wonder, its church structure, especially the Roman Catholic wing, is a pure replica of the Old Testament High Priest/Pope ordinance, with the St. Peter church functioning as its long -gone Jerusalem temple.
And then there is the huge Southern Baptist/Pentecostal segment, and its yearning for heaven, seeing God’s creation, for whose redemption Christ died, as evil: Evil!
Where is Christ in all this?
Me, myself, I am deeply attached to the Son, Jesus the Christ, who indisputably said, (John 14: 6) I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. But the American Religion – soaked in ‘heaven’ talk and retribution– prefers a vengeful fellow up there, sees as their national objective to revert back to the God-rule, the strict enforcement of the “Thou Shalt Not” edicts, stoning those doing abortions, or are in same-sex situations just to name a few obvious examples. Jesus, on the contrary, substitutes the word “law”, with “LOVE”.
Enter the Old Testament Amos.
It reminds me of Amos, that farmer – an Old Testament fighter, relevant still today. I once made a song about him. Here are a few lines:
There once was a prophet, Amos by name,
a farmer sent out by the Lord to proclaim
that Israel, chosen from all human kin
will surely be punished for their severe sin.
They think that God will not observe what they do;
that He will not see the sins they pursue:
the widows they trample, the poor they despise,
while rich become richer through fraud and through vice.
“The noise of their music and songs God detests
He hates and abhors their religi-ous fests;
their pious assemblies they cause Him to dread:
Let Justice roll on like a river instead”.
Back to God.
A lot of people in the USA want the vengeful God to come back. Be careful what you wish! God also is the Old Testament bringer of the Flood, the destroyer of Sodom and Gomorrah, the Creator who made the ten tribes of Israel disappear without a trace.
The US Supreme Court.
Now, Supreme Court justices have become caught up in the debate about the sort of Christianity America should have. Several of them embrace the Old Testament view, including Justice Alito, who is pushing back against the declining power of Christianity as a majority religion in America, and underwrites these outdated concepts. Cadres of true believers inspired by Donald Trump, and by the religious movement that sees him as divinely ordained, are seizing the Republican party from the bottom up.
Where is God in all this?
I have this book: “The Hidden Face of God”. I bought it more than 25 years ago, and is one of my favorite ones, written by Dr. Richard Elliott Friedman, a professor of Hebrew, and Bible translator. He writes that gradually, from Genesis on, there is a transition from divine to human responsibility for life an earth. Here is a direct quote: Adam disobeys God. Abraham questions God. Jacob fights with God. Humans are confronting their creator, and they are increasing their participation in the arena of divine prerogatives.
Where is God?
Paul in his letter to his friend Timothy -1 Timothy 6: 18 – writes, “God lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see.” Yet we can be near to God. Dr. Friedman ends his remarkable book on this note: “There is some likelihood that the universe is the hidden face of God.”
It is truly remarkable that Bonhoeffer, whom Friedman quotes several times, came to the same conclusion. Dr. Sabine Dramm, in her book, “Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an introduction to his thought”, concludes, “What Bonhoeffer presents as specific to the Christian faith is the perception of God and the world as one, and the perception of life that has its wellspring in this world in God, and in turn proceeds from this world back again to God.”
Karen Armstrong in her recent book, Sacred Nature, also sees creation as divine.
Where then is God?
He is never hidden. He is all around and in us. All of life is holy. When we abuse God’s creation, we abuse GOD. I wonder whether this is the ‘sin against the Holy Spirit’, for which, says Jesus, there is no forgiveness: Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come. Matthew 12: 32.
Is God then in and all around us?