Dear Friends,
A couple of weeks ago, I was preaching on how we understand God. A wonderful Presbyterian minister,
John Buchanon, shared the following thoughts regarding his understanding of God:
Why believe in God? That is all any of us can do finally. Make our witness, tell our story, stammer
our praise, remember and treasure and rest in a sense of being loved and cared for by the one who created us and all things,
the one who breathed life into us, from whom we came, in whom we live and move and have our being, and to whom we return.
What do Christians believe about God? Obviously, there is
no single answer to that question. But relying on my own reading of scripture, theology, and literature and my own experience,
this is what one Christian believes: That there is one God: not a Jewish God, a Christian God, a Muslim, Buddhist, or Hindu
God, but one God who created all of us, loves all of us, and is with all of us, always and forever
That God is the creator of all that is: "Let there be light"-the elemental word calls into
being everything that is and it is good, all of it. That God is not remote, off somewhere in the universe on a heavenly throne,
occasionally intervening in human affairs, but God is here, involved in the world and human life, always present, an energy
for good, a creative force for beauty and justice and peace
That God rejoices in us as a parent rejoices in a beloved child and weeps when we suffer, weeps in disappointment,
weeps when we fall short of our potential and promise, particularly when we hate and hurt.
That God is love and when we are touched in love, by love, we are touched by God, whether in cradling
a newborn, rocking a toddler in our laps, embracing a beloved, a friend, holding a sick and frightened dear one; to be touched
in love is to experience God.
That God comes to us in the best of us: the most glorious music we produce, the most beautiful
art, most exquisite science, most demanding physical and athletic achievement, most heroic courage
Finally that God has come to us in the life of the man, Jesus of Nazareth: that he is the Christ,
the Son of God, the lens through which we can see as much of God as any of us will ever see until we meet God face to face;
it is what makes us Christians-not in an exclusive, arrogant way that insists that everybody else is wrong and condemned to
hell but simply our confession that in Jesus Christ, God dwelt among us to show us who God is and who God created us to be.
As our lives move in different directions this Summer, I
encourage you to consider who you are as God's child.
Peace,
