During the time of Deitrich Bonhoeffer (in Hitler's Germany), the German theologians were debating whether God was truly a Person or just a "force," and "energy." The Greeks knew their gods to have different "personalities," and the Egyptians knew their gods would demand accountability for the kind of life we lived upon earth -- hence, The Book of the Dead, which stipulated the conditions under which the soul would be admitted to the afterlife.
Many people today cannot relate to a personal God, but I wonder then why He has given us His Name -- Yahweh -- in addition to His title, God. Only a Person has a Name, and obviously, He intended us to call on Him by Name, not just by title, as we call on "Mr. President." Barack Obama's children call him Daddy. And Jesus, not being content with mankind's stand-off relationship with the Father, told us to call Him Daddy/ Abba.
I read once about a man who was waiting in the Jerusalem airport for a plane, when suddenly, a small child who had momentarily lost sight of his daddy called out in panic: Abba! Abba! For the first time in his life, this grown man understood the implications of Jesus telling His disciples to call God Abba!
If God is not a Person, who are we, created in His Image and Likeness? Who is it that says, I will give you rest and Who wants us, His children, to say the same to our neighbor? Who is it that will defend us in battle and feed us in the wilderness? Who is it that will lead us to green pastures and give us respose? Who is it that strengthens the weary and the disappointed? Who gives music to the heart and joy to the soul? Who is the Shield of the defenseless and the Giver of Wisdom?
Flannery O'Connor once said, If the Eucharist is just a symbol, then to hell with it!" I don't have her boldness of expression; I cannot say, If God is just a force, an energy, then......
But I want to!
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For me this is like saying if the sun isn't a solid object, then to hell with it.
ReplyDeleteWhere does this leave our search for the Divine Feminine?
Good analogy---in fact, it's perfect!
ReplyDeleteThe search for the Divine Feminine is still there, not excluded at all. If God is a Person, He includes -- and must include -- male and female, just the way He created "the human/ Adam, in Hebrew/ male and female, He created them." That is why we must come together as one, no longer divided but united.