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Who is God?
by Reverend Amber Neuroth
October 29, 2006
Jeremiah 31:7-9, Mark 10:46-52
When we first started looking at music for this service,
it was so frustrating because most of the upbeat, pop music was pretty
secular and really tough to sing as a congregation, and then the
religious music was contemporary worship praise music that has images
of God as mighty, lordly, powerful, and male! And I was having a hard
time presenting that in our worship time together. I didn’t want to
celebrate or reinforce those images of God, and I wasn’t comfortable
with my own stereotypes of the kind of Christianity and those
Christians that I associate with that kind of music. I’m probably not
the only one with those types of stereotypes, but those quick and early
judgments can limit how we experience God and how we treat other
Christians, our neighbors in the faith.
The more I thought about my stereotypes, the more I realized I wasn’t
uncomfortable with God presented as mighty or lordly; I was
uncomfortable if God is presented exclusively that way. God is strong,
majestic, and powerful, but God is also humble, quiet, and nurturing.
God has many characteristics which are stereotypically male and God has
many characteristics that are stereotypically female and God has many
characteristics that defy all stereotypes! So, how do we know what to
think? Who is God? How do we understand who God is? Could God have any
kind of traits? Well, there’s no easy answer, but we’re going to devote
some time to it today. The first step is to realize that we are the
ones who are limited when it comes to understanding God. We have
assumptions and backgrounds and stereotypes, and that’s why God’s
diversity is such a blessing to us. When we need God to quietly whisper
in our ear, God can do that, and when we need God to be shouting from
the mountaintops, God can do that. God doesn’t only have to be one way
or the other, and in the end, we really don’t fully know. I recently
read the scripture from First Corinthians at my grandmother’s memorial
service, which talked about how we see in a mirror dimly. We can’t see
the complete picture of who God is. And it’s true. We do not have all
the answers now -- only glimpses, only reflections -- but each of our
glimpses is important.
The Bible also offers us a diversity of glimpses in all of the stories.
Throughout the Bible we see God quietly calling individuals into
service and then the next minute leading armies into battle. God is
compared to everything from a widow who has lost a coin to a triumphant
general. So, one of the most important questions in the quest to know
God is “who is God to you?” When do you feel the spirit of God? We can
say “FEEL THE SPIRIT.” We’ve been saying it a lot lately, but now’s our
chance to think about it what it really means. You each should have
sheets titled, “Who is God?” and I’d like you to spend the next few
minutes exploring who God is for you. You can write down the first
words that come to your mind, describe where you think God is, or draw
pictures of what God looks like. The key is to use your creativity and
your own feelings.
Ok, you can keep working on your sheet as we continue to talk. In a few
moments, during the offering time, we’ll invite you to bring your sheet
forward to the bulletin board and pin it up, and the collection of all
your papers will be how we feel the spirit of God here at Westmoreland
as a community. We add that collection of divine experiences to the
multitude of stories in the Bible and we have a better sense of who God
is. As individuals we can catch a small glimpse, but together as a
community, we put all of our glimpses together, and we have a much
fuller picture of who God is. That’s why church and religion are so
valuable, and why they are most valuable when we share our faith
together. We can have the benefit of our individual impressions of God,
like we have drawn on our paper, and the bigger picture of all our
pictures put together. Our community hopefully challenges us to keep
from getting bogged down in our own stereotypes. We can get closer to
the great truth together.
There’s an old Hindu fable which shows what can happen when people try
to understand something like God without working together. (This is an
abbreviated version; the complete version has six blind men). Maybe
you’ve heard it before…
The Blind Men and the Elephant
A Hindu fable retold by John Godfrey Saxe
from Elephants Ancient and Modern by F.C. Sillar and R.M.
Meyler.
Note: "The Blind Men and the Elephant'' occurs in the
Udana, a Canonical Hindu Scripture.
It was four men of Indostan
To learning much inclined,
Who went to see the Elephant
(Though all of them were blind),
That each by observation
Might satisfy his mind.
The First approached the Elephant,
And happening to fall
Against his broad and sturdy side,
At once began to bawl:
`God bless me! but the Elephant
Is very like a wall!'
The Second, feeling of the tusk,
Cried, `Ho! what have we here
So very round and smooth and sharp?
To me 'tis mighty clear
This wonder of an Elephant
Is very like a spear!'
The Third reached out his eager hand,
And felt about the knee.
`What most this wondrous beast is like
Is mighty plain,' said he;
`'Tis clear enough the Elephant
Is very like a tree!'
The Fourth no sooner had begun
About the beast to grope,
Than, seizing on the swinging tail
That fell within his scope,
`I see,' said he, `the Elephant
Is very like a rope!'
And so these men of Indostan
Disputed loud and long,
Each in his own opinion
Exceeding stiff and strong,
Though each was partly in the right,
They all were in the wrong!
So, oft in theologic wars,
The disputants, I ween,
Rail on in utter ignorance
Of what each other mean,
And prate about an Elephant
Not one of them has ever seen.
So in this fable, all the blind men felt part of the elephant and
because they didn’t believe each other, they only could get part of the
picture. They only partially knew what an elephant was. None of these
blind men had the complete picture, just as we don’t have the complete
picture about God, but they sure debated about it. They couldn’t agree,
and so ultimately they were all wrong. Instead of sharing their stories
and building a bigger picture, they fought. As a community this fable
teaches us to listen to one another, and to what God may be speaking to
those around us. It also teaches us to speak up when we have a sense of
what God may be doing in our lives or in the life of our community. We
need to speak up when we feel the Spirit; we shouldn’t just keep it to
ourselves.
We can take a lesson in speaking up from the other blind man from
today, Bartimeus from the Bible story. He knew full well his
vulnerability: he knew he couldn’t see, and he knew Jesus was the one
he needed. The theme today is blindness. We see a miracle, this is the
miracle-working side of God. Jesus sees someone in need, and he helps.
He is part of the big, powerful, God. I think this must be the mighty,
mighty Jesus we sang about earlier. But there’s another side to this
story. There’s the faith of blind Bartimeus. He had the determination,
and Jesus helped the man who sought him -- the one who wanted to know
God. If we want to know God, we have to accept that we will never know
how God will show us or what God will do in our lives; we may not even
feel anything at times, but we can know and trust that God will be
there. So, today we started seeking or continued feeling, but we affirm
to God that we want to know. We want to show that we are like
Bartimeus: we want to know God, and we know that when we truly do, we
will see clearly, face to face. The fable of the blind men shows us
some of our worst potential as humans when it comes to understanding
God, but the Bible story shows our best. We are at our best when we
authentically speak up in our community and when we listen to others.
We are at our best when we recognize we want God to be a part of our
lives, and so we can almost hear God calling, like Jesus called to the
blind man, “Come to me.”
Last updated Wednesday, Februrary 29, 2008
1
Westmoreland Circle
Bethesda, MD 20816
301-229-7766
Email the church office: churchinfo@westmorelanducc.org
www.westmorelanducc.org
An
Open and Affirming Congregation
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