Our house is for sale and as such, we are preparing to move. For the last couple of weeks I have been taking stuff that we won’t be needing right away into temporary storage. One such thing I moved recently was an art easel. It brought back memories.
My oldest daughter is a talented artist and many years ago asked me to make her this easel. After all, she was only a young teenager and had no idea how to build such a thing.
I told her that I wouldn’t build it for her.
I would rather build it with her.
Isn’t that the way all of us tend to think though? Whenever we run across a problem, or want something that we can’t have, we look to someone more powerful, more knowledgeable than us to fix it or get it for us.
We even created a god like that.
We gave him (yes, apparently he’s male) attributes like “omnipotent”. He’s above us and far removed from us and every once in a while—if we are good and if we ask enough through petitionary prayer, he will intervene and with great power and might do all sorts of stuff for us. This god can also be like a powerful CEO who picks up a phone and orders his underlings to get things done for him so that he doesn’t have to leave the comfort of his corner office and actually get his hands dirty.
I could have built an easel for my daughter, but would have missed an opportunity for relationship. Spending time with her. Turns out that my youngest daughter also joined in the fun and all three of us created a precious memory, building this easel together.
Is God powerful? Yes. But that power is in invitation for participation with the end goal of relationship. We tend to have this imagery of a God who’s power is revealed in big flashy stuff like creating the universe. God snaps his fingers and POW! The universe is made—in 6 days no less! Or maybe in the resurrection. God intercedes to bring Jesus back to life and like the CEO, sends an angel to casually toss the large, heavy stone aside so that Jesus can make His dramatic exit from the tomb.
But I think that God’s power is most dramatically revealed in the crucifixion of Jesus. This is where we see the clearest and fullest revelation of God. He does not observe suffering from a distance, but takes part in it. It’s the culmination of His entire earthly life. Chastising those in religious and political positions with coercive power, actively loving and accepting the least and lowest of society. Experiencing pain, hunger, rejection and sorrow with us. Jesus showed us the way of love. The only way to truly live. He didn’t just tell His followers to live like that either, He invited them to participate with Him. He said, follow me and do likewise.
You cannot have a relationship with a CEO type god who does things for you, but remains aloof in his world of extravagance. But you can with the one who participates with you. The one who lives life on your level and builds things with you.
The One who lives in, through and as you.
John R.W. Stott once said:
“I could never myself believe in God, if it were not for the cross. The only God I believe in is the One Nietzsche ridiculed as ‘God on the cross.’ In the real world of pain, how could one worship a God who was immune to it? I have entered many Buddhist temples in different Asian countries and stood respectfully before the statue of the Buddha, his legs crossed, arms folded, eyes closed, the ghost of a smile playing round his mouth, a remote look on his face, detached from the agonies of the world. But each time after a while I have had to turn away. And in imagination I have turned instead to that lonely, twisted, tortured figure on the cross, nails through hands and feet, back lacerated, limbs wrenched, brow bleeding from thorn-pricks, mouth dry and intolerably thirsty, plunged in Godforsaken darkness. That is the God for me! He laid aside his immunity to pain. He entered our world of flesh and blood, tears and death. He suffered for us. Our sufferings become more manageable in the light of his. There is still a question mark against human suffering, but over it we boldly stamp another mark, the cross that symbolizes divine suffering. ‘The cross of Christ is God’s only self-justification in such a world as ours.’”
What kind of world would you like God to build? Are you asking for peace, equality, restorative justice and healing in this world?
Good.
Now how will you participate with God to make these things happen?