“God is watching us. God is watching us. God is watching us from a distance.”
Bette Midler
Bette Midler
The words of songwriter, Bette Midler, reflect the perception of a generation of people who view God as a distant, disconnected being who is out of touch with His creation. Yet the searching words of Joan Osborne express dissatisfaction with such a perception and the inner longing for a more personal and relational experience of God:
“If God had a name, what would it be
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question”
And would you call it to his face
If you were faced with him in all his glory
What would you ask if you had just one question”
“What if God was one of us
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home”
Just a slob like one of us
Just a stranger on the bus
Trying to make his way home”
Our understanding or
perception of God is distorted by an incomplete image of His character that
emphasises only one aspect of His nature at the expense of the others. Such an incomplete image can only be remedied
by reshaping our thinking about God through a complete revelation, which can be
found in the person of Jesus Christ. Evidence of this is revealed in Colossians 2:9 where Paul declares that “in
Christ all the fullness of the Deity [God] lives in bodily form”. Therefore, in Jesus, God is fully revealed.
Charles Sherlock, in his
chapter “God on the Inside,” provides us with a detailed description of how
Jesus can provide a complete image of God and why this is important in shaping
our thinking about who God is:
1. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of
Life
“Christ
like spirituality entails an integrated life.”
Through
Jesus we encounter the harmony of God’s ‘grace & truth’, ‘justice &
mercy’, ‘holiness & love’.
2. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of Time
“It is thus Jesus who makes
the difference between our knowing about God’s
eternity and our coming
to share in God’s eternity.”
Through
Jesus God has entered into our existence and provides us with hope for
today
and the future.
3. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of
Matter
“From the womb, through
human life, work and relationships, even to death itself,
God is intimately
involved in all human living, through Jesus.”
Through
Jesus God shares in the limitations of our humanity.
4. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of
Love
“Jesus has made it possible
for us to pray to God as to a loving father who cares
for us.”
Through
Jesus God reveals the depth of His love for humankind.
5. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of
All
“Jesus has done all that is
needed for us to know the limitless love and life of
God.”
Through
Jesus God has overcome the limitations of humanity, so we may experience
His
divinity.
6. Jesus reveals God as the Lord of
Space
“God is God of everywhere,
not despite, but precisely because God was
somewhere.”
Through Jesus God “makes room for us” allowing us experience His presence.
7.
Jesus reveals
God as the Lord of Wisdom
“Jesus shows us the wonder
of God’s wisdom in his teaching, and in his deep
knowledge of God. Such knowledge nevertheless had its limits. These limits
reflect once more the genuine
entering into our world made by God in Christ.”
Through Jesus God has an intimate knowledge of us that allows us to
know God
personally.
8.
Jesus reveals
God as the Lord of Power
“The mighty power of God is
seen precisely in the just, loving life and death of
Jesus.”
Through Jesus God exercises his “delicate power” that both corrects and heals.
Through Jesus our understanding of God is completed
through the revelation of His divine and human natures, embodying the mystery
and transcendence of God in human form, thus enabling us to move beyond a mere
knowledge of God into an intimate relationship with God. To quote Sherlock, “God’s goodness is
not abstract. It reflects the inner
being of a God who acts – to create, to protect, to rescue. Jesus himself testifies to the goodness of
God.”
In response to Joan Osborne’s searching lyrics, God
did indeed become one of us so that we may know Him fully and fulfil the
purpose for which we were created, that is, to live in relationship with our
Creator.
