Pastor’s Lenten Blog 18
I was tired yesterday (road time always gets to me on the 2nd and 3rd days back), and I’m antsy today. Both of these eat into my productivity, but they do help in my reflectivity — which, I guess, is part of my job, too. Part of my job is to be a professional thinker and reflector, exploring the personal and corporate journey of Church that is theology.
Some folks think that theology is a matter of defining God. I’m not sure that God wants to be defined; God is a little too much of a slippery and ornery character for that. I like the definition of theology that my seminary professor, Clark Williamson had for it: Faith seeking Understanding. Part of understanding God is to accept, and indeed dive into, that slippery character of Him/Her — the mystery, the beauty, the dynamic, ever-changing quality that eludes definition. I guess that’s why I’m always a little suspicious of those that say that God thinks this, or God thinks that; how do they know? Scripture can be used to support any number of human prejudices.
Yet, there are some things that can be said definitively about God. God is love, God is joy, God is peace/wholeness, God is creative power. God is a pretty dynamic Divine Being, with (in my imagination, which is my creative link with the Creator) one heck of a lot of personality. My own “definition” of God is of an ornery, mysterious, passionately loving Practical Joker, with life being the journey to the next punch line.
Life sure is interesting looking at God that way.
