Who Is God?

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Now Jesus himself was and is a joyous, creative person. He does not allow us to continue thinking of our Father who fills and overflows space as a morose and miserable monarch, a frustrated and petty parent, or a policeman on prowl. One cannot think of God in such ways while confronting Jesus' declaration, "He that has seen me has seen the Father." —Dallas Willard

Who Is God?

In the past, God spoke to our ancestors in many times and many ways. But in these final days, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him. The Son is the light of God's glory and the imprint of God's being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. (Hebrews 1:1-3a)

"What you worship as unknown, I now proclaim to you. God, who made the world and everything in it, is Lord of heaven and earth. He doesn't live in temples made with human hands. Nor is God served by human hands, as though he needed something, since he is the one who gives life, breath, and everything else. From one person God created every human nation to live on the whole earth, having determined their appointed times and the boundaries of their lands.... In fact, God isn't far away from any of us. In God we live, move, and exist. As some of your own poets said, 'We are his offspring.'" (Acts 17:23b-28)

She waited near where I was greeting people as they left the service of worship, and when most had left the sanctuary, she came up to me, shook my hand, and said, "Can you tell me more about God?" I soon discovered that her name was Anna and she was twelve years old. Her question was sincere; she really did want an answer.

I suggested we sit down and talk about her question while her parents waited for her in the area just outside the sanctuary. Racing through my mind were other questions. What had I said or failed to say in the sermon that prompted the question? What was missing in the liturgy, or present in the liturgy, that prompted the question? Had she raised the question in other places and at other times? What was her experience in confirmation class or Sunday school or in her home? One thing was clear: She was looking for guidance, direction, truth, light, and understanding, and she was looking to me to provide it.

In the brief time we had, I attempted to tell her of the God who is always beyond our ability to fully understand, who is greater in every way than anything we can imagine or comprehend, and who loves us always and in greater depth than we can describe. Since the One who created all things is always beyond us, we look to Jesus to see who God is and what this mighty and loving God is like.

Soon we moved toward where her parents were waiting, and I learned that they were supportive of their daughter's quest and grateful that her questions were taken seriously.

This conversation with Anna took place more than forty years ago, and it still informs and shapes my thinking and my living. Who is God? It is a question each one of us answers every day. Everyone reading these words, no matter your age or circumstance in life, follows someone or something. Each of us has our own image of God as personal and present, or absent and beyond us. Or we have some principle or practice that guides our thoughts and our actions.

We Name Our Gods

We may name God with our words, or we may choose to remain silent. But either way, each of us names our God by our actions—by how we choose to live. All of us live according to some principles we have adopted as our way of living. We may have thought carefully before making a decision about whom or what would guide our lives; or we may have pulled in behind someone else whose lifestyle, rhetoric, or reward system appealed to us or matched our hopes or prejudice; or we simply may have followed the path of least resistance and drifted to our present condition of following that path without question. But no one really escapes answering the question Who is God? Even agnostics and atheists follow some person, some value, some principle, some thing, or some overarching goal that determines the direction of their lives. They, as some of us who claim to believe in Jesus and the God he called Abba, may choose to remain silent. But their lives, like ours, betray the one who determines the direction of their lives. All of us give witness to the god or God who leads us and whom we follow.

You may remember the book Your God Is Too Small, by J. B. Phillips. As I look at my own ministry that began nearly sixty years ago, I am forced to admit that, far too often, I and the people I have led have been content with a god too small to be of any real consequence.

Far too often we are content with a god too small to be Creator of all that exists. We are content with our own form of a "tribal god" that belongs to us rather than a God who belongs to no one but who gives love, grace, and blessing to everyone.

Far too often we are content with a god too tame and domesticated to shake us to the very roots of our being and send us out of worship trembling in awe and amazement, clearly headed in a radical and countercultural direction.

Far too often we are content with a god who offers a band-aid for our wounded souls rather than the God of radical mercy, justice, and love—who forgives our sins and wipes them away just as soon as we offer that same forgiveness to those who may have wronged us; who not only forgives our sins but also heals our wounded souls, mends our broken relationships, and sends us on our way full of hope, confidence, trust, and strength to transform the world by living in the kingdom of God already being formed "on earth as it is in heaven."

Far too often we are content with proclaiming and following a god who is too unexciting to capture the minds and hearts of a world seeking healing for its deepest wounds, peace for its incessant wars, direction for its future, and companionship for its deep loneliness.

Far too often we are content to follow a god we can order around, insisting that our will be done and hiding from the truth of the gospel that teaches so clearly that what we pray for in the prayer Jesus taught is what we must practice in our daily lives. Unfortunately, "your kingdom come" is not a slogan or sound bite that has much appeal; so we choose to follow a god of our own making rather than the God revealed in the Scriptures, the Creation, and the life of Jesus.

Far too often we forget and need to be reminded by ancient and contemporary prophets that this loving God is a just God:

The God of love is also the God of justice. The two are related, for in the Bible justice is the social form of love. Thus the God of love is not simply "nice" but has an edge, a passion for justice. God loves everybody and everything.... To take the God of love and justice seriously means to take justice seriously and to be aware that prolonged injustice has consequences."

Far too often we do not hear the simple call of Jesus, "Follow me," and we become lost in following lesser gods. We know that consistently and faithfully teaching and...