October 18, 2009
Dear People Whom God Loves,
RELIGION IN A NEW CULTURE II
I think we start out thinking of God as a great being up in the sky. It probably was necessary that we start out like that. Our image was likely of someone like us human beings but being all powerful and all good. We would then imagine that God would do things much as we do but with infinite power.
This, of course, would make us wonder why God doesn’t stop things like thousands of children starving and other disasters. With this image of God, there is no credible answer to this dilemma. We might say that God’s ways are mysterious-and that is true-but, at the same time, it is hard to think of God as all powerful and all good.
The image of God as personal is valuable and we don’t want to lose that. However, then we tend to think of God as not only personal, but as a superhuman person.
I think it is helpful to realize that “knowing” and “loving” doesn’t have to mean knowing and loving as humans do.
Since God is spirit-no body, no form, no shape-we need to look more deeply.
The scripture tell us that God is Love. This is not the same as saying God loves us. To be God means to be love. Love is spirit: no body, no form, no shape. We humans express love in physical ways-and this is essential for us-but love is not physical. Love is spirit and at the same time, it is real. It is the deepest reality we know.
God is Love. We will continue to explore this.
Smile, God Loves You
Father Clay
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