Who is God?

 

July 2022

If you were to ask me, “who/what is God?” I am not sure what I would/should answer. Very unsatisfactory. The words I know too often meet with ears that cannot understand. Creator of the Universe, Savior of mankind, The Great Designer– which one would you pick? “What about that Old Testament God? The one who keeps ordering everyone’s deaths, the warrior and punisher?” Sovereign Lord with all rights over us, the Grand Potter who can smash his pottery whenever it displeases him. “What type of God allows children to be killed in their school, or cancer, or rape – you pick the badness, why would a loving God allow any of that? What type of God is that?” God of free will, God who allows us to make our own choices?

Most often my opportunity to address those questions comes in my senior English class where we talk about worldviews and begin with Theism, specifically Christian Monotheism and its impact on Western Civilization. Of course, we proceed from there, as many have deemed theism a failure and have searched for meaning via other avenues, most specifically science.  Once Theism is defined and discussed (and usually dismissed by the majority), it continues to haunt the students all year. So we veer back to it and try to answer their questions.

Christianity is so misunderstood, thanks in no small part to Christians. My students see Christianity as a rigid, judgmental religion that demands much and is lived ineptly. Christians really have to be pretty empty minded to follow such rot. And God? Well, if there is a God, why is the world in the mess it is in? Jesus? Good teacher, perhaps. None of the stories, history, are really even known. Easter is totally foreign beyond candy and pastels.

Sometimes I sit there and feel totally overwhelmed by the enormity of their lack. Where to even begin? And, being that I am in school teaching a class, how much dare I? I correct the blatant errors – Christianity is the cause of all the wars in history, wrong. Most recently, America is a Christian country where the majority of people living here are Christian and keep telling those of us who don’t believe how to live our lives. Wrong again. I asked them, knowing the answer, how many of them were Christians, or had been raised in a Christian home, or had multiple friends who were Christians in Christians homes?  Well, they didn’t know any, or many, certainly none of them. So? Had they not heard of the squeaky wheel? The Christians they hear in the political realm are not the majority, just the loudest.

Over time I’ve come to believe that the best answer is me. And I don’t mean that egotistically. Once they know I am a believer in God and Jesus (and sometimes it takes all year to discover that – someone has to ask), then my life, my person, what they know of me comes into view. Do I match their stereotype? I try hard not to. They should know I am not empty headed. I value thinking and observation and ideas. They should also know I try not to be judgmental of them (although that is one of my issues), and love and accept them for who they are. I had a student ask if I was a Christian, followed by did I believe that God destroyed Sodom to kill all the gay people? Loaded question, because this student is gay. But what an opportunity to talk. (God destroyed Sodom because the people of Sodom were full of all manner of evil. Sin. And the Bible teaches that we are all sinners. Sin is missing the mark, and the mark can be represented, in part, by the 10 Commandments. The Commandments are a packaged deal, break one, break them all. So maybe I’ve never murdered anyone, or stolen anything from my neighbor, but certainly I have been jealous and I have a lot of gods in my life. The student then said, “well no one could keep all that”. And I said, ”precisely”. That is the point. We are unable to meet the mark. And that’s where Jesus comes in. And I left it at that).

 Given the opportunity, I challenge those who are seeking to read the Bible for themselves. Start with the New Testament and read the Gospels. Jesus said, “if you’ve seen me, you’ve seen the Father.” Jesus is the perfect visual of Who and What God is. Those who take up the challenge are often surprised by what they find. Jesus is surprising. But wasn’t he just a man?  A man who claimed to be God – I often bring in C S Lewis’ line about “Liar, Lunatic or Lord.” Jesus can’t be a good teacher and crazy, or lying. So they have to reckon with that. Jesus really is the very best answer to whom God is, acceptance, grace, forgiveness, and then there is the sacrifice part.  Our need met by God. Why would God do that? That’s the real question.

 

July 2023

The same student this past year had another profound insight. I had asked, regarding the character Pip in Great Expectations, “What did he really want?” And they came up with the usual, and I pushed them to go deeper. He wanted to be loved, to be accepted for who he is. He wanted to like himself. But he was asking that of the people around him, who so often failed him. I asked the class “what do you really want?” They agreed they wanted the same, basic things. I asked if it was ever possible to fully achieve that? And this student said, “only if there really is a God.”