“Questions about God”

A Communion Meditation by Rev. Patrice Ficken

Luke 5:1-11

Sanbornton Congregational Church, UCC

February 4, 2007

(Please do not re-print or re-use without permission of the author)

Who is God for you? If you were asked to describe – what is God like – how would you answer?

Is God like the overindulgent grandparent who takes utter delight in being in the presence of her grandchildren that no matter what they say or do it simply does not matter?

Or is God like a stingy boss– rewarding only those who are good enough, who perform, who measure up?

Is God like the mom who greets her children at the door with cookies and milk and a warm, welcome home? Or more like the parent who leaves the key under the door and says, you’re on your own for supper?

Can God be trusted or is God some kind of unpredictable uncle who shows up late for holiday parties every other year?

Who is God for you? When we pray to God, what do we expect will happen? And how do we respond when God does not answer our prayers?

William Sloan Coffin, former chaplain at Yale University, writes in his book, Letters to a Young Doubter, that he used to ask professors, “Tell me about the God you don’t believe in.” He continues, “I knew that 99 chances out of 100 I wouldn’t believe in their kind of God either.” (p. 18)

Every now and again – I think it’s a good idea to step back and take a look at – how we understand God – what our beliefs are about God, what images we carry about God – and see what they reveal about our journey of faith. (plug for discerning our faith)

Like it or not, we carry a lot of baggage about God – that we may need to jettison and clear out every now and again. Much like cleaning out our computer files or desk drawers. The images and notions we carry about God may not be serving us very well at all. As an unknown source has written,

“…It is almost typical of religious people to make idols out of their religious words. Perhaps in their quest for security, they identify their concept of God with God. When that concept is challenged, they think God is being challenged. That is why no concept of God can ever be more than a limited human construct, and personal words about God, we must learn to admit, reveal not God but our own yearning. “

We can’t say for sure what the fishermen who Jesus met thought about God but we can make some pretty good guesses. As Jewish men, they would have likely been steeped in the stories about God from Hebrew scripture: The God who intervenes in human affairs. The God who enabled their ancestors to cross the Red Sea and led them to the Promised land. The God who was exacting in demands for righteous and pure behavior ; the God who could strike down an enemy with a single blow; who tested his people in the wilderness.

The God of Israel – the God they would have understood and known – would have definitely been in the mold of a patriarch – exacting, demanding, harsh, judgmental; sometimes forgiving, sometimes loving.

And then Jesus arrived on the scene to provide new images and metaphors and understandings. Jesus puts a human face on God. Through Jesus we understand what God is like.

God is like the man who came to the fishermen who had spent a rough night at sea, casting their nets to no avail and who says to them, “try casting your nets here.” Their nets become so laden with fish they needed the help of another boat to haul in the catch. Such abundance they had never seen or experienced or even knew existed. It overwhelmed one of them so much that he dropped on his knees and said, “I am not worthy”

God is like….the guest at the wedding banquet, who could not bear to see the wine run dry, and turned the water into wine.

God is like…the healer who could see people to wholeness through words, touch, even saliva.

God is like….the father who welcomes his prodigal son home with joy.

How do we respond to these images, these invitations to experience God this way? What do we do, what do we say? Do we say, oh no – not for me! I am not worthy!? Or do we say, no – that is not who I think God is? I would rather spend my time here in this boat – day after day, casting my nets here, knowing and expecting that I will catch very few fish; knowing that not much of anything good will come my way….

Could it be…that maybe it is time to try on for size some different thoughts or images of God? To cast our nets in a different place? To believe that we too are worthy of the abundant life God wants for us and desires for us?

As Mary Daly writes: “Why indeed must “God” be a noun? Why not a verb – the most active and dynamic of all?” [Mary Daly, Beyond God the Father]

Let us pray,

Abundant and Generous God,

We call on you.

We call on you because our hands are cracked and dried and worn from hauling in too many empty nets from the sea.

We call on you because our backs ache and our patience has worn thin and we are not sure where we are – for we have been floating aimlessly in this sea for a long time.

We call on you because there are people and places and circumstances for whom we have cast our nets in deep water and have still come up empty with answers.

Hear us when we call, we pray you.

For we come in humility.

We come with incomplete knowledge and understanding.

Please forgive us.

Help us to receive at this abundant table that you have set before us – your goodness, your love, your grace.

Help us to remember who you are so we can remember who we are.

In Christ’s name, we pray.

Amen.