June 18th

God does...

To my dear TFMC family,

A habit which I’ve developed over the last number of years is, when speaking of God, to not use pronouns, and to, instead, simply use God.  This has sometimes made for some awkward sentence structures, it has sometimes meant a reworking of a sentence, and when done on the fly, a lot of mental gymnastics.  I do this on purpose, because I believe God doesn’t have a pronoun.

One of the books on my book shelf is cleverly titled “God is not…” and goes on to describe and refute common images of God which aren’t supported by scripture or theology.  For example, God is not…religious, nice, ‘one of us,’ an American, or a capitalist.  A few years after initial publication a companion book was written entitled, “God does not…”  It covers, and again, rebutted, common assumptions about God’s actions, such as God being entertaining, God playing matchmaker, God hurrying, demanding blood, or curing every illness.

I often think of these two books as I reflect on images of God.  They serve, for me, as a reminder that all of our images of God have limitations.  In the final essay, the author, D. Brent Laytham, reminds us readers that God is best described as verbs.  And that all are verbs and analogies.  The way that we come to know the “I am” is through images, verbs, and analogies, which is us, humankind, trying to grasp the infinite divine.

What’s great about using verbs is that verbs are active.  They are actions.  And in using action words to describe God, for me, is a reminder that God is active.  Scripture depicts the actions of God; the doing of God.  In Genesis, God creates; makes promises (covenants); In Exodus God delivers; redeems; commands; leads.  These are the actions of God.

Looking at our word cloud from this past week, we named other verbs that reflect God.  God comforts, and cares.  God is mothering.  God is loving, and embracing.  God protects.

All these words help us to say something that is true about God, but the never are able to wholly encapsulate the entirety of God.  Just like God’s name is translated as “I am”  God’s actions, characteristics or qualities are best described as God does.  God is and God does.

Ultimately, our faith isn’t about naming how God acts, although many pastors and theologians have been tempted to do so, rather, our faith is about naming that God acts.  We worship God who is and does.  God is and doing things, sometimes we can see them, sometimes we cannot. Our faith points to God; not as distant and passive, but rather, as present and active.

Yours,

Craig Janzen Neufeld