The Only God I Can See

There is one feature of God, one attribute, one continuous action that spans the entire Christian Bible all the way through to the very end.  It is something so fundamental that it may be easily overlooked. But like the cup made out of the negative space between two faces, once you see it, you’ll never miss it again.

The first place you begin to see its outline is in the story of Adam and Eve.  They sin, things are broken, and then God shows up calling out to them.  Though they had made a tear in the fabric of reality itself by being the first being to choose their own way over God’s way, God comes looking for them. There are consequences, a curse in fact, but God doesn’t ignore them or refuse to engage.  God finds them and even in the midst of their consequences provides for them. God makes clothing for their bodies that until that point had caused them no shame but were now the source of a newfound self-consciousness.

Things go from bad to worse, and God decides to press the reset button on the whole of creation, except that there’s this one person.  One faithful person.  After 40 days and nights at sea, God makes a covenant (the first covenant with a human) to be at peace with humanity instead of at war.  God hangs God’s weapon in the sky in the form of the rainbow and the story continues. 

Pretty soon we discover a new human made in the image of God named Abram.  God now makes a covenant not just with one person, but with a family.  God promises to bless this family and then marks out a profound future. God says, “I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.” (Genesis 12:3) All the people of the earth! Talk about foreshadowing!

Abram becomes Abraham and we discover that God has chosen a seriously imperfect person to bless.  He pretends that his spouse (who is supposed to be the one bearing an entire nation of people as a result of this blessing) is not his spouse so that a King can take her as one of his. That doesn’t end well.  Then a couple chapters later Abraham does it again! He doubts and bargains with God. He sends his own first-born son and the son’s mother (who is not his spouse) into the desert with almost nothing to eat or drink. This guy is not even close to the model of faithfulness, but God continues to care for him.

The family line and promise continues beyond Abraham to his grandsons who sell their youngest brother into slavery and fake his death.  God watches over that brother elevating him to the second highest position in Egypt. Through the faithfulness of God this whole, completely dysfunctional family is saved from a famine and moves to Egypt. They are thoroughly messed up, but God keeps loving them and blessing them despite their serious deficiencies. 

At this point the story fast forwards a bit.  We find out that the promise of a nation made to Abraham is fulfilled and the descendents of all of those brothers who faked the death of their youngest sibling have turned into a nation’s worth of great great great grandchildren. Though things had seemed alright with the family after the brother who had been sold into slavery rose in power, it turns out now the entire nation of people have been enslaved in Egypt.

God frees them from Egypt through a well-known murderer who ran away to escape prosecution.  Through the murderer’s leadership, God makes a covenant not with a man or a family but with this entire people.  They will be God’s people, and God will be their leader.  

Then hundreds of years pass with the people constantly rebelling against God, being punished, and God continuing to love and forgive them over and over again.  Even when they ask for a human King instead of God.  Even when this people who were freed from slavery by God begin enslaving people.  Even when they lead a massive revolution based on religious grounds and then those religious leaders become completely corrupted by political power and lose it all again.

Then Jesus shows up and pushes back on all kinds of things.  He touches people who are untouchable, he loves people who are unlovable, and forgives people who are unforgivable.  People are constantly offended because he is friends with tax collectors and prostitutes and poor people. Then there’s this point where Jesus decides to talk to his disciples about who he really is (hint:  he is the promised messiah for the descendents of that dysfunctional family).  As the venue for this revelation, he chooses a city in the most depraved region that is known for a grotto/temple where people worship another god (actually multiple gods) through sex.  Its in the shadow of that temple where one of Jesus’ disciples, well-known for having no filter, blurts out that Jesus is the messiah. This most important of moments is only witnessed by the heathens on their way to the grotto. 

Every time there is an opportunity to touch or talk to someone that the religious people would say is not welcome or is on the outside of their faith, Jesus talks and touches.  But he goes further.  He invites those people to follow him and to become his ambassadors in their cities and families. This propensity to allow absolutely anyone to feel like they are loved and valued by God ultimately pushes the powerful religious elite to orchestrate his conviction and execution.  

Of course, death can’t stop the power of Jesus and his transforming message.  He comes back from the dead, spends a little more time with all the wrong people and then gathers his disciples for one last message.  He says, “you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.” (Acts 1:8b) There’s that foreshadowing again!  The ends of the earth!  

And it happens. This good news that God loves all kinds of imperfect people spreads like a virus all over the earth.  Then in a vision of something that has not yet become reality, John of Patmos sees a new heaven and earth where there is no death or crying or pain.  And in the very last chapter we hear about all of those nations again. “The tree’s leaves are for the healing of the nations. There will no longer be any curse.” (Revelation 22:2b-3a) 

I tried to trace the contours, to highlight the right places so you can see. This God is radically, perpetually, increasingly inclusive.  From the very beginning.  God brings one person into a loving relationship with God, then one family, then one nation, on and on.  We keep seeing some group of people who someone has labeled on the outside of God’s love and discover that God has been redrawing the lines so that they are on the inside.  

We also keep seeing that for some reason humans keep trying to find new lines to draw to say that something someone does or says or is means they can’t be loved by God. They use those lines to say that those people can’t be part of God’s people and definitely not part of some holier sub-group of members or ministers. Then we watch as those walls are destroyed by a God who is constantly seeking to include more people, is constantly ignoring the human boundaries and using people who were thought to be unusable. 

The only God I can see is an inclusive God. God loves everyone. God speaks to everyone.  God blesses everyone. God wants to use everyone to make earth look more like heaven. 

That means you.  God loves you.  Whether you are powerful or weak or gay or bisexual or black or white or American or Russian or Baptist or Methodist or young or old or anything else. God loves you.

But here’s the rub.  God wants you to love the same people God loves.  That is the hard part.  That is the thing that probably offends you and will definitely offend other people.  God isn’t just inclusive, God wants you to be inclusive.  God wants you to break down the walls other people have put up and start living into God’s reality where all people are loved just as they are so that they can grow into who God wants them to be.

It is possible, but it will require a bit of revolution and a lot of broken walls. There is good news. There is a new generation on the edge of taking action.  A new generation ready to reimagine what this movement means.  And I am already excited about the bulldozers I hear beginning to come to life and head towards some of the biggest walls.  More on that later…