Tuesday, March 19, 2024
I get irritated when clergy portray God as a person. In a sense, they’re right. God is a person. God is everything, so why not a person too? – not only a specific one, but all. What irritates me is that the religious fall short of calling a person God; but at every corner they call God a person. God gets angry; God bestows mercy; God forgives; and God blesses. In the Old Testament, God acts just like a person – sometimes throwing a tantrum, sometimes giving people the silent treatment, sometimes withholding forgiveness, and sometimes crying out in anger. But when we act out, withhold forgiveness, get vengeful, give someone the silent treatment, or lose our patience – we’re not being very God-like. I’d say we’re behaving just like God.
Christians call Jesus God. He wept, he lost his temper, he got impatient and angry, but he never said “I am Yahweh.” He said, “I and my Father are one,” not exclusively either. To clarify, he also said, “In that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Jesus was trying to describe oneness, a theory of unity. But he used the word “Father,” which is unfortunate because now the world sees God as a white-bearded man in the sky.
In Hindu traditions, if you said to someone “I am God” they would say “congratulations, you have figured it out!” But a Christian would condemn you. God said, “I am that I am.” How many times have you used the words “I am?”
I am sick; I am lonely; I am happy; and on and on. “I am” is our common bond. The entire world uses the name of God every day. Why can’t God be a person, or a person be God? Maybe she is, and she’s too busy pretending not to be.