Many people consider faith and science to be contradictions. I suppose if you define science as that which can be quantifiably analyzed, and then faith as that which cannot be quantifiably analyzed, then they are indeed contradictions. But that is a very flawed understanding. And it completely falls apart when we consider the word “theology.”
You may remember from language
classes you’ve taken that ology is a Greek word and it means the study of, or
perhaps the science of. Theology is then
the science of God. Theology is
necessarily a combination of faith and science.
The problem with the science of God
is that God is not given to be scientifically limited and studied – at least
not in the same way we could study a rock, or the way air flows over an
airplane wing.
And when we make it specifically
Christian theology, then we are indeed in muddy waters. Over and over again Christian theology ends
up with mutually exclusive answers and must answer yes to both.
That gets frustrating, but many a
Christian theologian over the ages has noted that that is indeed one of
Christianity’s greatest strengths.
Unlike other religions that seek to understand God and limit God to
human logic, Christianity recognizes the limits of human logic straight
off. It’s the classic question of if God
can do anything, can then God create a rock so heavy that God can’t lift
it? Of course what you’ve done is
invented a bind for the infinite within the finite limits of our own logic.
Today we look at God and Jesus. Just saying that is a contradiction in
logic. We say that Jesus is the fullness
of God incarnate – or becoming human.
But of course God cannot be two places at the same time – or fully two
beings at the same time.
Have you ever thought about how
strange it is that the Bible records Jesus praying? To whom is Jesus praying? Himself?
How does that work? That stumped
early Christians for a long time. Many
said that Jesus could not therefore be fully divine. He must have had some serious limits – be
like a mini-God or a partial God.
Now let’s recognize the fullness of
the situation. Among the religions of
the world – especially among ancient religions now extinct – much of Christian
claims are not unique. The ancient
Greeks had many beliefs about the gods appearing in human form. Ancient Egyptian, Greek, and Roman religions
believed in gods or a god being born into human form.
The idea of a God incarnate is not
unique to Christianity. Neither is it
unique to Christianity to say that someone is the son of God. The Romans made the same claims of their
emperors. A study of the gospel of Luke
shows that when Luke says Jesus is the Son of God he is playing on the thoughts
and themes of Roman religions.
What is unique in Christianity is
the idea of God coming to live a full lifetime in human form, having that be
God’s ultimate revelation of God’s nature, and then dying as an expression of
love. There is where Christianity stands
apart.
But, what of this relationship
between God and Jesus? Or perhaps more
specifically God as Father and Jesus?
No matter what theology leaves us in
a bind. Such a thing does not make sense
by human logic or science. And yet, that
is a major image in the Bible. It is a
major image God has used to help our understanding.
Jesus calls God “Father” and invites
us to do the same. Now no image is
perfect. If your relationship with your
father was bad, or maybe non-existent, then the image will give you problems. John’s gospel does something interesting with
that, which I want to come back to. But
the father image on the whole is very significant.
Remember in those days that children
in the family were completely dependent upon the pater familias. The father even decided if a child would
be accepted in the family or not. Children
belonged to their father. They remained
subject to his authority even as adults.
The children were dependent upon the father for food, shelter, clothing,
and all of life’s needs. In families
where children might be abandoned they depended on their father for life
itself. Also significant in all of this
is that the father gave the child status.
The father’s status was the child’s status. And the child depended upon the father for
any inheritance.
Though all of those ideas may sound
deeply patriarchal in today’s world, I hope you can see why calling God
“Father” is a good thing. We belong to
God. God definitely accepts us into the
family. God provides for us. God gives us status and identity. God gives us our inheritance of eternal
life. And in response to it all we
remain subject to God’s authority.
On the whole it is a really good
deal!
We talked about all of this not long
ago when we were reading through Mark’s gospel.
I’m not going to expand on it here.
John’s gospel, however, does something very remarkable that I do want to
expand upon.
Theologian Gail O’Day points it
out. In John’s gospel God is referred to
as “Father” about the same number of times as God is identified as “the one who
sends”. Now that’s something we don’t
think about much. We’re familiar with
the father image. We’re not too familiar
with “the one who sends” image. Let’s
let the full impact of that frequency sink in… God as the one who sends. Over and over again God is referred to as the
one who sends… sends Jesus, and also the Holy Spirit.
As Christians I think we would do
well to spend more of our time recognizing God as the one who sends.
God as sender, especially of Jesus,
reminds us of our relationship with God, or perhaps of God’s relationship with
the universe. Theology tells us that God
is bigger than the universe itself. There
is no way we can get to God. We just
can’t. So God, wanting to be close to
creation – wanting to be close to us, comes to us. In the sending of Jesus God reaches from the
infinite and into the finiteness of our own time and place. I think it is good to imagine God as one who
is reaching out with a hug rather than one sitting back with arms crossed in
judgment.
While God sending the Son is an
historical event that does not mean God reached out only once. God is Father and God is one who sends – or
One who reaches out. I believe God
reaches out to us over and over again.
God doesn’t reach out to us once and then quit. No, it is repeatedly. God does not give up.
I think every person at some time or
another, or perhaps very frequently, feels like God is distant. We want to feel God but just can’t. Why this is so I can’t explain. What is true though is that God will continue
to reach out over and over again. If you
can’t feel God now, don’t worry. Just as
often as John’s Gospel calls God “Father” John’s Gospel also calls God the one
who sends. God will be reaching out to
you again. We can live secure in that.
God as the one who sends Jesus I
think is also the one who sends us.
After all, being a Christian is not just being reached out to. It is being sent out. We also reach out into the world around
us. We reach out to those we like and
those we don’t like. We do it repeatedly
too. We do it when it is easy. And we do it when it is hard. After all, God did not give up on humanity as
humanity became increasingly complex and messy.
Think about most of the people Jesus associated with. They were the “sinners” and tax collectors
and outcasts. Don’t get the image in
your mind that as soon as they felt the love of Jesus they reformed their ways
and became upstanding citizens. No,
their messiness and brokenness continued.
But Jesus stayed with them. The
same goes for God with us. And therefore
the same goes for us with others.
God as Father and Son is an
impossible combination, but it is true.
The Father sends Jesus to us. And
we are sent out as well. That is an
uncertain adventure. It is certainly
less certain than staying put. But it is
God’s way of reconciling us and the world.
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