Please find below my Friday Offering. It is part 1 of a mini series, part 2 coming out on Tuesday,
As ever,
Fr Marcus
Friday Offering from Fr Marcus 16th July 2021
I just called to say ‘I love you’ Part 1
What a classic by Stevie Wonder, and what a great name he has!
It is always good to be reminded that we are loved, so much so that in my report to Albir Church Council on Wednesday I began by saying
‘The Good News is that we are loved more than we could ever imagine. Never forget that, and our response is to worship God.’
But it is one of those statements that means such a great deal, that we tend to pass over it, and get on with our business. So, let’s unpack it and see where it leads us.
Firstly let me say how much I am excited by the whole idea of us trying to describe or define the thoughts of God or the mind of Christ. They are beyond us, and at best we can get a glimpse into the depths of what we are exploring. We are searching for meaning and sometimes longing for certainty within what is the ultimate mystery. Which means, for me, that there is always so much more for us to learn and discover.
From our early years we tend to create an anthropomorphic view of God. That is we put all of our (best) human characteristics upon him, and try to describe him, and what he does in ways that we can understand. The example I have used in that sentence was the pronoun ‘He’.
We talk about his Power, or his Presence, or his Will, and we describe him as Creator, or Father, or Almighty, all knowing.
But every definition, or every description leaves us short, and sometimes we are in danger of just adding lovely human attributes to make God seem nice and cosy. An old man with a beard sitting on a cloud, or A jealous God who just tells us loads of stuff we must not do!
But thankfully we know it is not like that.
One of the consequences of all of this is that sometimes major ideas about the nature of God sound great, but most of the time they pass us by because they are too big to grasp – or they are misinterpreted to make us feel weird at best, and guilty at worst.
There was a lad in my school who used to say that ‘If you were the only person on earth Jesus would still die for you’. No he wouldn’t. We would go for a walk, anyway what did I do that was so bad!
( I sort of knew what he was trying to say, but it doesn’t translate to reality’)
So all of the above is an introduction to us trying to grasp what it means to say that God loves you more than you can ever imagine.
We will never be able to grasp the depth and beauty of it, but here are some pointers.
For me the best ‘Definition of God is from 1 John 4, 7-12
God Is Love
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.
So let me take that as our starting point God is love.
Then let us think about creation. Simply put God is pure love, and in his own mysterious way he brings about creation in order that he can love it. What else would he do with it! So, you and I exist in order that God can love us. That is why we, and everyone else, and everything else is here, so that God can love us.
There are, of course all sorts of discussions about what does ‘God creating the world’ mean.
the bible gives an account of creation in Genesis, and it is beautiful. It is not meant to be taken literally. Of course – and the ‘Days’ represent great periods of time.
There are those who dismiss creation because they believe in evolution, but for me, they sit perfectly together. The world, the universe and everything in it emerges over a huge amount of time, and there is a sense of order and balance that allows it to work.
For me, a helpful phrase in all if this is ‘God is the source of our being.’
I remember watching a post mortem when I worked in the hospital. The whole human body was taken apart bit by bit. Brain, heart, lungs, kidneys, spleen, liver etc etc. You try and convince me that the wonder of life, let alone the incredible nature of the mind just happened by accident!
The next theory of creation revolves around the question ‘From what?’
Because the only thing that ‘is’ was God, he had to get the stuff of creation from somewhere. So he either created Ex nihilo, which means he created from nothing, or he created from that which already was, namely himself. I sit firmly in the second camp, and believe that God is the source of all creation in every sense. You and I were brought about by love and from love, in order to be loved. How great is that!
We will go on next week with part 2 and try and grasp what this means.
Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.
As ever,
Fr Marcus