Meditation for March 14

From The Rev. Peter Munson

Deuteronomy 4:15-24

 

The Invisible But Real God

 

[Moses undertook to explain the law, saying,] "Since you saw no form when the Lord spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire, take care and watch yourselves closely, so that you do not act corruptly by making an idol for yourselves, in the form of any figure - the likeness of male or female, the likeness of any animal that is on the earth, the likeness of any winged bird that flies in the air, the likeness of anything that creeps on the ground, the likeness of any fish that is in the water under the earth.  And when you look up to the heavens and see the sun, the moon, and the stars, all the host of heaven, do not be led astray and bow down to them and serve them, things that the Lord your God  has allotted to all the peoples everywhere under heaven.  But the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of his very own possession, as you are now."    (Deuteronomy 4:15-20)

 

Moses reminds the people that the created order speaks to us of the Creator, but is not to be worshiped as the Creator.  One of the big challenges or temptations in being the people of God is that we want to capture the essence of our God in some way - this God who is invisible.  We are tempted to make God in our own image, to make some kind of depiction of God.  As humans, we are tempted to say that God is like us, and when we are not careful, we fall into the trap of making God to be male (more frequent), or - less frequently - you hear talk of God being female, i.e., "the Goddess". 

 

On the other hand, just because God is invisible, it does not mean that God is not real.  Just as the Jews talked of their experience of God - Moses says, "the Lord has taken you and brought you out of the iron-smelter, out of Egypt, to become a people of His very own possession..." - we can do the same thing.  For we have very real experiences of God, too.  And I would say that one of the main ways that we grow in faith is by sharing our stories of God, just as the Jews did thousands of years ago, and still do today.  And while we were not there, in that particular time of history when Jesus walked this earth, that is part of our story of God, too.  In Jesus, the unique God-man - that is, the One who we confess as mysteriously fully God and fully man - we see a new revelation of God, God come in the flesh, for our sake and for the sake of the world.  Though we didn't walk about Galilee and down to Jerusalem with Jesus, as we read the stories, those of us who have come to faith in Christ say, "Yes, this was the Incarnation of the invisible God - Emmanuel, God with us."

 

And the Incarnate One promised that the Holy Spirit would come once He ascended into heaven, and that God, in the form of the Holy Spirit, would be within us - only a breath away.  In the Church we teach that the gift of the Holy Spirit comes at baptism.  This is again God the invisible, but nevertheless God the real.

 

"The Holy Spirit nudged me and I felt like God was saying..."

"The Holy Spirit hit me over the head with a 2x4... it was so obvious what I was supposed to do."

"Everything seemed to line up and point in the same direction, and I had a deep peace as I made that decision, a peace that felt like the peace of God."

"Only God could have brought all those circumstances together, and brought me that message in three (4? 5?) different ways, so I payed attention."

"I was praying (or, reading the Bible... going for a walk... talking to my friend) and all of a sudden in felt like God was right there with me/us."

 

These are just a few of the many ways that we can talk about our very real experience of the invisible God.  We can do so without making God in our image, without trying to "capture" God or make an image of God in ways that we are commanded not to do.  People of all eras have talked about their experience of God, have used words to describe God.  We call this theology, literally, "words about God."  You are a theologian and I am a theologian whenever we talk or write about God.  As inadequate as our words may be, realizing that God is infinite and ultimately beyond our comprehension, we still need to speak and write and pray these words, because that is what you do when you are in a relationship.

 

So keep sharing your stories of how you experience God.  Keep being a theologian.  The rest of us in the community of faith need to hear and read those stories.  We need to join our hearts to yours in prayer, as we praise God and, the very next day, lift up our questions and our concerns to God.  As we share these stories and questions and concerns with each other, we are upheld in faith, and we grow in faith.  Let us give thanks for the invisible but very real God who comes among us, and reveals Herself/Himself (see how inadequate our words are?) to us.