Several years back, N. T. Wright, who is now a world class New Testament scholar and a bishop in the Church of England, was a young chaplain at a university. His responsibility was to care for the spiritual wellbeing of all the students at the college.
Pretty often, He’d encounter students that (knowingly) weren’t real interested in talking to the chaplain. And they’d figure they’d get rid of him for their four years there by simply telling him right off the bat, “I don’t believe in God.” But he wouldn’t let them off the hook so easily. Instead, he’d respond, “Well, Which God don’t you believe in?” And that usually took them by surprise enough that they’d stop to think about the subject for a moment. Then they’d usually describe the God they didn’t believe in – almost always an bad-tempered, white-bearded grump who sat up on a cloud and hurled thunderbolts at anyone who seemed like they might be having too much fun. Wright would listen politely to their distorted description of God and then respond, “Well, I don’t believe in that god either!!”
And he would then use that opportunity to engage the student into a deeper conversation about who God really is… and who God is not. Who we believe God is makes a big difference. It makes a difference who we believe God is. And it makes an even bigger difference who God really is!
That’s why we’re taking time to tackle the question, “What do Christians believe about God” in our worship today. It’s the first in our “Back to Basics” sermon series. During the months of July and August, we’ll be going back to the basics of the Christian faith, exploring what it is we believe about foundational topics like God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the Church, and we’ll talk about United Methodist beliefs and practices.
You know, whether we’re brand new to something or even if we’re seasoned pros, we often just really benefit from revisiting the basic, foundational issues from time to time.
Most of you know I went with 20 others from our church to Biloxi, Mississippi his last week for their third mission trip to rebuild homes damaged by Hurricane Katrina. While there, we did basic home repairs for two families.
Now, at one time, I knew the basic construction procedures down pat. You see, I was on staff at a home repair project for four summers. By my final year, I was the Center Director, meaning I had ultimate responsibility for all the home repair work done in an entire county during the summer. With nine or ten home repair projects being worked on simultaneously, I could be overseeing work on replacing a roof, hanging drywall, installing new windows, laying a vinyl floor, constructing a handicap accessibility ramp, installing a septic tank, and residing a house – all at the same time! And, we often were doing repairs on old, decaying mobile homes or on self-built homes that involved all sorts of, well, “creative” construction? I had to know the construction basics backwards and forwards so I could teach them to other people, would know that our repairs would meet our high standards, pass government inspection, and hold up so that people stayed warm, safe, and dry and gave our ministry a good reputation in the community.
But, you know, the last time I was on staff was almost 10 years ago, and “ well “ I’m afraid I’ve gotten a little rusty on a lot of those construction basics. So, as I was getting ready for the mission trip, I thought “maybe I’d better brush up on those basics.” So, I pulled the ol’ construction manual off the shelf, dusted it off a bit, and started sorting through it, focusing on the sections I thought we might be using on this Biloxi mission trip. I needed to simply revisit the basics, remind myself of the core construction principles involved, and refresh my knowledge and skills. And, you know, I went out to the work site feeling far more prepared to be a productive member of the mission trip team this past week! By going back to basics, I had a strong foundation on which I could build, quite literally.
We are going “back to basics” with this sermon series for the same reason, to refresh our knowledge of the core beliefs of the Christian faith. But we’re not simply filling our heads with knowledge about Christian beliefs. We’re also building the foundation on which our faith stands.
Jesus talked once about the importance of not only listening and believing his words, but also acting on those words. Jesus said, “I will show you what someone is like who comes to me, hears my words, and acts on them. That one is like a man building a house, who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock; when a flood arose, the river burst against that house but could not shake it, because it had been well built. But the one who hears and does not act is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. When the river burst against it, immediately it fell, and great was the ruin of that house.”
Jesus knew the importance of building a house on a rock-solid foundation so that the house would be strong. Just so, when we build our faith on a strong foundation, our faith will be strong as well. Over the next couple months, we will form that strong foundation, brick by brick, as we explore what Christians believe about God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, the church, sin and salvation, the sacraments, and other topics that are at the heart of Christianity.
As the first brick in our rock-solid foundation, we’ll start with the obvious starting place, “What do Christians believe about God?”
Some people have mistaken views of God. There are people who view God as a cosmic policeman, while others treat God as their personal butler. Some people turn to God as the one who can fix all our problems, and some view God as a benign, sweet, if almost senile, grandfather.
I met a man in Biloxi who believed that God sent Hurricane Katrina to punish people for turning away from God and get people to fear God again. Now, I don’t personally believe that God ever acts so indiscriminately and destructively just to scare people into being faithful, but I do hope that God has used the opportunity to draw some people to him. The image of a wrathful God who destroys and creates widespread pain and fear is not one I believe in, but I do happen to believe that God is an opportunist and will use every chance available to draw people into his arms and bring good things out of evil circumstances.
No matter what, it’s important for us to know what we believe about God, and it’s just as important to know what we don’t believe about God.
But the truth about God is not found in our opinions about God, is it? The real question is: Who does the Christian faith say God is? Who is God really?
And it’s hard to talk about this because, we just intuitively know that, no matter what you say when you talk about God, all your words are going to fall short.
There’s an old story from India about five blind men who were walking along a road one day when they came upon an elephant. Being blind, they had obviously never seen what an elephant looked like, and nobody had ever tried to describe an elephant for them. So they had to figure it out for themselves.
So, the first blind man felt the elephant’s trunk and promptly told the others, “This elephant is like a very large snake, wriggling with strong muscles!”
The second blind man felt the elephant’s tusk and said, “An elephant is nothing like a snake! It is like a spear, long and pointed at the end!”
The third blind man felt a leg and disagreed with the first two men: “How can you possibly saw an elephant is anything like a snake or like a spear! It is like the trunk of a tree, thick and solid!”
The fourth blind man felt the tail and argued with the others, “You must be out of your mind! An elephant isn’t like a snake, spear, or tree trunk. It is much smaller than any of those things, for I am holding the elephant in my hand. It is very much like a rope.”
The fifth man felt the side of the elephant’s body and said, “All of you are wrong! An elephant is like a brick wall, flat and unmovable.”
And so they began to argue and fight over what an elephant is really like.
So, which of the blind men was right? Which of the blind men was wrong?
Of course, they were all right. And of course, they were all wrong. One part of an elephant is like a spear, but that doesn’t describe the entire elephant. One part of an elephant is like a tree trunk, but that doesn’t describe the entire elephant. One part of an elephant is like a rope, but that doesn’t describe the entire elephant.
They all had an experience of the elephant that they were sure was right. And so they shared what they knew. But the ended up arguing and disagreeing and insisting that their own description was the right one.
The irony is that if the blind men had simply worked together instead of shouting at each other, they could have shared their knowledge and come up with a fairly accurate description of the elephant. Even though they couldn’t see, they each had a specific perspective on the elephant that was important to understanding the entire elephant.
Do you ever feel like a blind man when you’re trying to understand God? You can’t quite see what you are looking at, and you’re aware that what you do know of God only captures a tiny portion of what God is truly like. And you’re aware that other people have an understanding of God that may conflict with yours, and you can’t figure out how to resolve the disagreement.
One of the things I truly love about the Church is that we don’t all see God from exactly the same perspective. When we try to understand God all by ourselves, we may start out thinking that our limited perspective of God is all there is. It’s when we gather together with our Christian brothers and sisters in the Church that we find out there’s so much more to God than just what we can see! Dick brings his perspective of God to church and Shelley brings her perspective and the rest of us all benefit as our understanding of God is expanded. Andy and Marie and Jared and Dillon bring their perspectives of God as well, and soon, we can develop a much more complete picture of God than we could by ourselves.
Likewise, the Bible could have just a single description of God or a single image of God or a single name for God. But instead, the Bible contains dozens of different images for God, each one of which captures a small portion of who God truly is. By considering these various images together, we begin to develop a better overall picture of God’s true identity.
Images we use to describe God: [Powerpoint presentation with the following descriptions of God on each slide]
Shepherd / leader – Psalm 23:1-4 – both a protector and a guide, both gentle and forceful
Hears our needs / knows our pain – Exodus 3:7-8 – a good listener, wise and compassionate, knows our needs and pays attention
Still small voice – 1 Kings 19:11-14 – mystery, we sometimes look for God ins shows of power, but often God is gentle, quiet, a voice we have to listen for to hear
Sovereign creator of all things – Psalm 8 – creative, majestic, awe-inspiring – points to a God who is himself creative, majestic…
Intimately knowledgeable about us – Psalm 139:1-7 – an intimate closeness
Loving father – John 6:43-46 – good father is a source of security, affirmation, correction and direction, guidance and forgiveness, like Jesus
Loving mother – Psalm 131:2, Isaiah 66:13 – comforter, care-giver, fierce protector,
One who searches after the lost – Luke 15:4-9 – not only waits for us to come to Him, but goes out looking, wanting to bring us into his care. Celebrates to have us near
Love – 1 John 4:7-10 – comfort, joy, - every experience we have of love is an experience of God. Even goes so far as to say that a loveless life is a godless life.
Fortress – Psalm 9:9, Psalm 18:2 – conveys strength, a foundation on which we can stand, shield, protection, a place of strength and safety.
All these images give us a piece, a glimpse of a part of God’s character, God’s identity. And there are hundreds more found in the Scriptures. Each image captures a small portion of who God truly is. By bringing this variety of images together, we begin to develop a better overall picture of God’s true identity. And to leave one out is to lose a part of God.
Now, even with all these images we don’t have a full picture of God. We still can’t fully express the mystery and fullness of God. But, based on these images we have, based on the stories and experiences and knowledge we have from the Bible and the Church, there are a few basic things that Christians affirm about Who God is.
Identity of God:
• God is one – “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.”
First and foremost, almost so central to our faith that we don’t even think to mention it most times, Christians believe that there is one true God.
Now, when Christians say that there is one God, what we are saying is that we don’t believe that anything or anyone else in the entire universe is also god. There is no other one and no other thing we worship. And although there are many other people and powers and things that will demand our trust our worship our praise and our obedience, there is only one that we will trust and worship and praise. And that is the one true God. There is only one.
We may experience that same God differently, we may understand that one God in different ways, but there is only one God. We are all seeking the same God.
When Jesus was questioned about what was the single most important law in all the commandments, Jesus responded with the commandment that appears in Deuteronomy 6:4-5: “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One. And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.”
Believing that there is one God means that our hearts and lives belong to one thing and only one thing and that one thing is the one true God. To give our hearts to anything else is to worship something that is not god at all. That’s what it means to believe that God is one.
• God is trinity – God is understood and experienced as three persons, but one God.
But Christians also have a peculiar belief about God being three-in-one. We call this belief our belief in the Trinity. The Trinity is the name we give for how we understand and experience God as three persons: as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But these three are not separate beings, but different expressions of the one same God. So, we say that God is “three-in-one.”
Our belief in the Trinity comes out of our belief that Jesus is God the Son, that Jesus prayed to God the Father, and that Jesus sent God the Holy Spirit to be with us. It is because of what Jesus taught and our experience of God as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit that we believe that God is both three and one.
Now, if that sounds confusing, you’ll be glad to know that this is one of those beliefs that even the most articulate Christians have a hard time explaining. It’s not entirely logical. It’s hard to imagine how God can be both three and one, but it is because of our experience of God as Father, and Son, and Holy Spirit that we say that God is Trinity. It’s because of what we find in the Scriptures and what Jesus taught us and what we experience in our own world that we keep that tension of God being both three and one.
We talked earlier about different images we use to describe God. One of the images sometimes used to describe the Trinity is a triangle. Just as a triangle has three sides and yet is one object, so God has three persons and yet is one being. So, when you see a picture of a triangle in the sanctuary, often that triangle is meant to be a symbol of the Trinity.
Another image I have always liked to help me understand the Trinity is the image of water. Water can exist in three forms, right? When water is a liquid, we call it water. When water is a solid, we call it ice. When water is a gas, we call it steam. It’s all the same thing, but we experience it in different ways depending on its form. It’s all water, but water can exist in three different ways.
So we believe that God is One, we believe that there is no other God in all the world and we worship only that one God.
We also believe that God is three in one, that God exists in holy relationship as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
• God is creator – God created everything, including us, and sustains us.
We also believe that God is the Creator, the Source of all that there is.
The very first words of the Bible are, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”
We believe that whatever exists in this world exists because God created it. We may debate the role of evolution in the way we were created, but we always affirm God’s guiding hand in the creation of all that is and all that we are. We are here on purpose, and that purpose is God’s.
We were created by a God that delights in creating us and chooses to continue creating this world to be what it is. Our purpose is to bring joy to our Creator and to be in relationship with him.
But our belief in God as Creator isn’t just about our belief that God Created the world, set it in motion, and stepped back. It’s not only that God was the Creator, but that God continues to Create, and give birth to new things and ideas, and continues to be present in this world as a Creative, active God.
• God is present / active in our world – God is not distant, but acts on our behalf.
And that brings us to the next belief that we learn both from the Bible and from living our lives in faith: As Christians, we believe that God is not only a God who is “out there” somewhere watching us. God is present in this world, active in this world. God is not distant and disconnected, but involved in our lives, involved in this world. God cares. God acts. God moves among us. As a creator God, God is the one who causes us “to live and move and have our being.” (Acts 17:28)
The story of the Bible is the story of God’s history with us. How God has acted in history, created the world, created a people who love and serve Him, saved his people from slavery, saved his people from exile, saved his people from sickness and death. The Bible is the lasting witness of the ways God is present and active in our world and in our lives.
I was reading somewhere this week where a person said, “one of the consistent themes of the Bible is God’s relentless activity on our behalf.” It went on to discuss how God’s laws and demands for justice and care for the weak are a result of God’s presence among us, working in our world to bring us to wholeness and make this world a place of peace and justice and healing.
We saw this presence of God most fully, most completely, most clearly in the person of Jesus Christ, who we called Emmanuel, God with Us. In Jesus, God got into human flesh and walked among us. God is always present, but in Jesus God was present in a special way. As Christians, we believe that God was not only present in Jesus Christ, but that God is always present, working to bring the world back to wholeness and unity with God at all times. God actively seeks us out. God is present and active in our world and in our lives.
As we were driving down to Biloxi last Saturday, I asked the people in my car what they think is the most important belief Christians have about God, and the first response I got was, “God is always with you, always there.” And they got excited telling me all their stories about how God has led them, guided their lives and their families to places of joy and peace and happiness. In jobs, and spouses, and illness, and struggles. The Church is a witness that God is present and active in our lives.
• God is relational – God is personal and wants to be in a relationship with us.
That’s why we also say that this God is relational. God cares about having a relationship with God’s Creation. This is a God that wants to be in a relationship with us and with all that he has created.
Part of what God is doing in the world is seeking a close relationship with each person that has fallen away from God, or who has never known God in a personal way. In Jesus, God created friendships and deep bonds of love with people, God looked into the eyes of sinners and of people in great pain and healed them by his love for them. God is always seeking that relationship. God is always inviting us closer.
God wants us to pray to God, talk to God, listen to God, be guided by God, have a personal relationship with God. Our Creator desires a relationship with us and wants to show us the way to a fulfilling, abundant life.
• God is love – More than anything else, God cares, forgives, and loves us.
All of these things I’ve been talking about point to the one quality of God that is more important than all the others. The most important identity of God is that God is Love. Everywhere in Scripture we are told that God and love are inseparable. Love is from God, God inspires love, without love you don’t have God because God is love. And anywhere love is present, God is present.
There is no stronger scriptural evidence for any quality of God than the connection between God and Love. The subject of love appears no less than 489 times in the Bible. More than anything else, as Christians, we believe that God loves us. God loves us and accepts us for what we are, with all our faults, unconditionally. No matter how bad you think you are, God still loves you. And God loves our neighbors the same way. God cares what happens to us, God forgives us when we mess up, God seeks to be close to us. Even when we feel unlovable, God loves us still.
God is love so much so that even the people we find most wicked and corrupt and detestable on this earth are still loved by God and sought by God. God loves everyone.
In all these things, it is so important that we know who God truly is because we want to worship God in truth, not some made-up idol that we create in our minds and happen to like, because when we do that we tend to make a god in our own image.
We want to pursue the one true God. To place our trust in something real and trustworthy, not something made up in our minds. So we study the Scriptures, and come together to worship and fellowship and pray and listen to one another so that we can discover the full Truth about God, and begin to become like the God who is the One True God. The Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
May that God bless your pursuit of His Truth and grant you the wisdom and knowledge of God that brings eternal life, and peace, and wholeness. Amen.
