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Chapter 1

What is God About?

What is God about? What is Gods purpose in the world? We hear the question asked in many ways, especially in the boundary situations of life. he wonder of birth leads us to wonder about the meanin! of life and our purpose in it. When a baby is born, people speak of how much she resembles other relati"es, wonderin! if she has any other characteristics and !ifts of the relati"e she resembles. Where do our !ifts, talents, and abilities come from? Are they like our hei!ht and hair color? #s the baby $are we% placed here with a specific task or role? #f that is true, then what is the task or role for the baby, or for that matter, for us? When someone dies, the comments before and after the funeral touch on the issue of purpose in life and death. &God lo"ed him so much, 'e brou!ht him home.( &)nly the !ood die youn!.( &God needed another an!el.( & here is *ust so much we do not understand( $but we+d like to%. &#t was *ust her time to !o,( or &'e went lon! before his time.( &,arents should not ha"e to bury their child.( A youn! colle!e student whose hard-

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drinkin! friend died of alcohol poisonin! asks, &Why did God take him at such an early a!e?( We ask these questions when. we wonder why we are here. we wonder about our call or our purpose in life / what we are here to do. What !ifts do we ha"e? What are we supposed to do with our life? we mar"el at bein! lo"ed, or at how we feel when we are &in lo"e.( We ask them when we wonder at the beauty or the intricate order of the world. we wonder why !ood people suffer / or why bad people do not, in our opinion, suffer enou!h. we wonder about the de"astation brou!ht by an earthquake in 'aiti, a hurricane in 0ew )rleans, or a tsunami in 1apan. Are these instances of Gods hand workin! in the world? #f so, is God punishin! those who suffer? )r are these e"ents impersonal? Are they punishment? Are they peda!o!ical? 2hould we learn somethin! from bein! touched by a hurricanes destruction? What is God up to? What is Gods purpose in the world? Can we understand more of it? #f we can, what do we do about it? #s there a call there for us? hese questions sound like &head( questions, but they really sprin! from the heart. hey e3press some of our most deeply held "alues and some of our most deeply held fears. hey e3press wonder at the uncertainty of life, and fear that our own li"es are finally meanin!less. We must seek answers with both our heads and our hearts. 'ebrew and Christian 2criptures answer these questions with the phrase &the

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4in!dom of God.( he Gospeller 5atthew uses & he 4in!dom of 'ea"en( to mean the same thin!. 5odern authors, sensiti"e to !ender issues, prefer &rei!n of God.( # will use the latter unless specifically referrin! to the usa!e of the Gospel writers. 6et us look at the rei!n of God in 2cripture to understand how it describes Gods purpose or o"erall plan in the world. The Reign of God Come, my friends, 'Tis not too late to seek a newer world. --Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Ulysses #n traditional rites for the 'oly 7ucharist $5ass, 'oly Communion, the 6ords 2upper%, the openin! call and response has to do with the rei!n of God, called the name used in the 2ynoptic Gospels. hat call and response is. 6eader. &8lessed be God. 9ather, 2on, and 'oly 2pirit(

Con!re!ation. &And blessed be 'is :sic; 4in!dom, now and fore"er. Amen.(1 hose two lines state the churchs mission, but we often say the words without attention or thou!ht. 'ow many re!ular church!oers can say what the 4in!dom of God is, or what it means to bless God or Gods kin!dom? #f we cannot describe it in our own words, what do we mean when we say it? #f we do not know what it means, how can we possibly &work, pray, and !i"e for the spread of the kin!dom of God.(< 1esus whole ministry was about the rei!n of God. All his parables, healin! actions, and nature miracles were intended to con"ey facets of the rei!n of God as a potential future earthly reality, and to in"ite his followers to be!in to li"e in the rei!n of

1 <

The Book of Common Prayer, =>>. The Book of Common Prayer, ?>@.

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God immediately so that it would become a reality. he youn! church continued in 1esus ministry. 6uke wrote his Gospel to show that 1esus preached, tau!ht, and healed under the power and !uidance of the 'oly 2pirit. 'e wrote the Acts of the Apostles to show that the early church also preached, tau!ht, and healed under the power and !uidance of the 'oly 2pirit, carryin! on precisely the ministry of 1esus. 8ut the early church carried out 1esus ministry under the oppressi"e rule of Aome. Bntil the fourth century, the church was ille!al, and was constantly under threat lest it appear to be !ainin! political or e"en military power. What do we do while we wait for Gods reign? 5any writers ha"e written about the comin! rei!n of God in ways that !i"es humans a passi"e role. hey write that God will brin! in 'is 4in!dom in 'is own time, and we humans are simply to wait and pray. In contrast, in words attributed to 2t. heresa of A"ila, Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours, yours are the eyes through whi h Christ's om!assion is to look out to the earth, yours are the feet by whi h "e is to go about doing good and yours are the hands by whi h "e is to bless us now.# #n order for the rei!n of God to come in its fullness, it is necessary for humans / you and me / to act. herefore we who walk the Way of Christ need to ima!ine, think, plan, and act so as to brin! it about.

There is a similar and possibly more familiar poem by Annie Johnson Flint titled "God Has No = Hands" which begins "God has no hands but our hands to do his wor today!"

Edwards/Living in Two Worlds The Bible makes (better) sense

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)ne of the benefits of studyin! the rei!n of God from a faith-based point of "iew, askin! what ones call is, is that the 8ible soon be!ins to make more sense. Aeadin! 2cripture can be intimidatin! and confusin!. #t is a collection of disparate ancient te3ts, translated from different lan!ua!es into 7n!lish, but reflectin! the mores of ancient and unfamiliar cultures. o read it with a sin!le point of "iew, such as the rei!n of God, illuminates the whole of the 8ible and makes readin! it more pleasant and profitable. #t also makes the rei!n of God much more compellin! and the call to act on behalf of Gods cause in the world more ur!ent. here has been a !reat deal of misunderstandin! about the idea of hea"en in the 0ew estament. 2ince 5atthew referred to the rei!n God as the $ingdom of "ea%en, many ha"e interpreted the Gospel in the followin! way. if we are !ood in this life, we !o to some otherworldly place called hea%en, otherwise we !o to an equally otherworldly place called hell. 8oth hea%en and hell are places whose e3istence is a matter of personal belief. his "iew is at odds with the account in the Gospels. 1esus e"idently learned the concept of the rei!n of God from the 1ewish tradition, and from his cousin 1ohn, he borrowed his initial teachin!, with its immediacy. Cthe 4in!dom of God is at handD repent and be sa"ed.CE #n the followin! chapters, we will spell out in more detail what the rei!n of God is, and what relation it has to 1esus ministry. We will see that a 8iblical understandin! of the rei!n of God is much more e3citin! and more challen!in! than simply li"in! a !ood enou!h life to &!o to 'ea"en when you die.( 2ome may ar!ue that the idea of a kin! or a kin!dom is irrele"ant to the postE 5ark 1.1>D 5atthew =.<D 5atthew E.1F with "ariations.

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5odern world. 8ut riddin! oursel"es entirely of the idea of monarchy discards some important characteristics of the rei!n of God. #n an ancient kin!dom, the monarchs will is law. he idea of )ne Will is important theolo!ically. An earthly monarch may not ha"e the peoples best interests at heart, but God as monarch does, in a specific sense to be discussed later. #n a world which has e3perience sin, people rebel a!ainst Gods rei!n e"en when it is presumably in their best interest. #n the rei!n of God, e"eryones will is "oluntarily ali!ned with God+s will. We know that God lo"es us, and so we can lo"e and trust God, as certain rare bene"olent and competent kin!s ha"e recei"ed the lo"e and trust of their people. But the nature of the reign of God is only hinted at in the Gospels he Gospels are like an #mpressionist paintin! of the rei!n of God. here you ha"e hints and !limpses of the rei!n of God. in the parables of 1esus, in the healin!s and nature miracles, and in the other teachin!s and sayin!s of 1esus. o approach a "ision of the rei!n of God that is specific enou!h to act upon, we need more than an impression, howe"er inspirin! that may be. We need a specific pro*ect, a concrete, realistic, possible future. Imagining Two Worlds #n the film A%atar&, 1ames Cameron brilliantly ima!ines the world of A%atar and creates that world on film. #t shows humans tra"ellin! to the world of A%atar and returnin! to the e"eryday world $of the future% that they had left. he people in the film li"ed in two worlds, and so, in their ima!ination, did those who "iewed the film. 8ecause of the importance of the rei!n of God, would it not be interestin! to create a film that showed humans li"in! in the e"eryday world and, at the same time, the
> Cameron, 1ames, A%atar.

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world of the rei!n of God? Would it stimulate the ima!ination of those who "iewed it, similar to the way in which Camerons film allowed its "iewers, e"en for weeks after "iewin! it, to li"e in the two worlds of his film? What would the world of the rei!n of God look like in such a film? Would there be streets of !old? Would 1esus return in person? Would there be stories in the rei!n of God? #f so, there must be linear time as we know it, not *ust &all times at once,( for a world without stories is literally unima!inable. 9urther thou!ht re"eals the difficulty of describin! the rei!n of God in film. With no sickness, no death, no po"erty, and no conflict, such a world is so forei!n to our world that we cannot ima!e it. Without the stories of the Gospels for illumination, we would be hard put to ima!ine the rei!n of God. ,erhaps it is not simply our failure of ima!ination. Could it be that we are not !i"en the whole picture at once? ,erhaps we are !i"en only the ne3t step that we are in"ited to take in order that we won+t outrun our headli!hts. And perhaps we are each !i"en our piece of the rei!n of God in order that it be a communal enterprise, both in "isionin! it and in li"in! in it. #t is clear from 2cripture that the rei!n of God belon!s to the community, rather than to any indi"idual. 6et us continue our speculation based on the &perhapses( of the pre"ious para!raph. What is a world?! 'ou ha%e to be loyal to a dream ountry rather than to the one to whi h you wake u! e%ery morning. - Aichard Aorty What is a world? # choose this ima!e because much of the popular discussion of

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reli!ion seems to re!ard reli!ions as simply collections of beliefs, so to choose a reli!ion is merely to chan!e a few beliefs. 8elon!in! to a reli!ious tradition is much more than that, and much deeperD it is to li"e with one foot in a whole world, a world of "alues and traditions and stories, and with the other in the e"eryday world. 6i"in! in with one foot in another world, Aortys &dream country,( !i"es us the possibility of bein! transformed into a person able to li"e in the other world more than this world. We could cite a number of possible ways to describe a world. We could look simply at whate"er thin!s people think are important, shared "alues, rituals, shared lan!ua!e $God created the world by utterin! a Word%, or stories, basic myths that e3press the "alues in time throu!h "i"id characters. 9or the purposes of this book, # choose to look at the myths that shape a world. Aeli!ious scholars speak of myths, stories in e"ery reli!ion that carry the transcendent truths of that reli!ion, without *ud!in! the factual, historical, truth or falsity of these stories. Amon! the myths of Christianity are stories of 1esus birth, *ourney into 7!ypt, healin!, feedin! and nature miracles, parables, and his crucifi3ion and resurrection. hese are not independent of the culture in which they take place, but is much in them addresses the an3ieties and fears of people in any place and time, or they would not still be told. hey tell important truths about the world in which we li"e. As poet 5uriel Aukeyser writes, & he uni"erse is made up of stories, not atoms.(

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Aabbis Arthur Waskow and ,hyllis )cean 8erman be!in their book (reedom )ourneys*, humorously but truly, Passo%er + # ,ore -uestions .. /f a Pharaoh fell in the 0ed 1ea but nobody told the story, did it truthfully ha!!en2 + 3o. 4. /f no Pharaoh fell in the 0ed 1ea, but we told the story for #,555 years, did it truthfully ha!!en2 + 'es. #. /s it still ha!!ening2 +'es. The story is what matters. The truth is in the story. 6%en though the ar heologists re!ort they an find no e%iden e that the 67odus and the 85-year trek in the 9ilderness a tually, !hysi ally, ha!!ened the way the Bible des ribes it, the story matters. What are the two worlds? We li"e in two worlds. he first is what we think of as the e"eryday world. #t is the world we read about in newspapers, the world of war and rumors of war, the world of lar!e corporations, hi!h unemployment. #t is a system that demands more and more of us and rewards us less and less, a world in which the wealthy are obscenely wealthy compared with the poor and are steadily becomin! wealthier while the poor become poorer. #t is a world in which we are usin! natural resources at such a rate that essential ones will be !one durin! the lifetime of our own children, and in which the air, earth, and water are filled with carcino!ens. #t is a world described by many as soon becomin! uninhabitable, due in part to our own abuse of the en"ironment. #t is difficult to describe the world in which we li"e without o"erstatin! or soundin! paranoid. #t is a mi3ture. on the one hand, it is a world dyin! of misplaced trust in false !ods, desperately lonely, desperately seekin! si!nificance throu!h insi!nificant
@ Waskow and 8erman, (reedom )ourneys, 3".

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pastimes, aware of its dyin! but unable to do anythin! to pre"ent itD and on the other, a world in which there are people who do kind and lo"in! acts in this world, showin! God+s works. 8ut their "alues and actions are not the norm, especially when compared to the actions of the dominant institutions. 9or the dominant institutions / financial, economic, military, and political / their workin! myths are about the power of "iolence, power, and ultimately death. )ne such myth is the #ncredible 'ulk myth. #t is per"asi"e in American culture. #n the G series & he #ncredible 'ulk,( Hr. Ha"id 8anner is a mild-mannered, pleasant man until some &e"il( person crosses his line, then he swells into a monster, his muscles bul!e until his shirt rips off his body, and he wreaks *ustice $re"en!e% on the malefactor. 5any people hold such a philosophy of life. &# am a !ood person until someone crosses my personal space or moral lineD then look out.( )ur "ersion in terms of forei!n relations is that we are willin! to try diplomacy until it fails, half-e3pectin! it to fail, and then $and sometimes before then% we mo"e directly to "iolence. We li"e in a world in which many people attribute ultimate si!nificance to the &principalities and powers,( namely the economic, political, and reli!ious systems. 9or them, money, political and military power, the trappin!s of reli!ion. he second world is what 1esus called the 4in!dom of God or, in our terms, the rei!n of God. #t is the world as it would be if e"eryone "oluntarily and !ladly accepted God as kin! and lo"ed each other and the world about them with the same lo"e with which God lo"es them and the world. We learn about this world throu!h the stories in the 'ebrew 2criptures and the Gospels and reflections in other 0ew estament books. 'ebrew 2criptures $Christians

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call it the )ld estament, but, in respect of 1ewish perspecti"es, we stay with the term more acceptable to them% tell of the lon!in! for the rei!n of God, usually heralded by &the day of the 6ord.( 1esus announces &the 4in!dom $or rei!n% of God is at hand.( 'is whole ministry / his healin!s and nature miracles, parables, and other sayin!s all witness to that fact, describe what the rei!n of God looks like in its fullness, and in"ite and challen!e his hearers to be!in to li"e in the rei!n of God immediately. 2omethin! in these stories resonates within us, touches a deep chord of lon!in! for such a world, likely combined with an equally deep skepticism about the possibility of realiIin! it in this world. he reality, thou!h, is that that is the world God created for us to inhabit, rather than this one. 0o wonder we lon! to see it come &on earth, as it is in hea"en.( his book is about these two worlds, how to understand them, what the relation between them is, and how we mi!ht act to take the ne3t step toward fully realiIin! the rei!n of God. The problem of "uffering Alon! with the rei!n of God, we need to address the problem of sufferin!, or the closely related problem of e"il. his is a central question to any inquiry into Gods purpose for the world. Hoes God send sufferin!? #s God e"il? Alternati"ely, does sufferin! come from somewhere $someone% other than God? #f God sends sufferin!, is it purposi"e? #s it to teach, to punish, to show that God is powerful and we are not? Hoes it ha"e a more bene"olent purpose? he answers to these questions are important, not only for our understandin! of Gods purpose, but for our understandin! of Gods nature and our heartfelt relation with God. hey impin!e on our understandin! of Gods bene"olence and Gods lo"e.

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here are writers who claim two "ery different understandin!s of God, one the &God of the )ld estament( and the other the &God of the 0ew estament.( he )ld estament understandin! of God is presented as a stern law-!i"er and *ud!e, while the 0ew estament understandin! of God is a lo"in!, bene"olent God. his is a misreadin! of 2cripture. he most-often used ad*ecti"e in the )ld estament to describe God is the 'ebrew word hesed, usually translated as &faithful lo"in!-kindness.( We ha"e one God and God is lo"in!, faithful, and kind. #f anythin!, this obser"ation / that e"en the )ld estament understandin! of God is &faithful lo"in!-kindness( -- makes the question of sufferin! e"en more poi!nant. $ o those who reply to the pre"ious sentences with, &Jes, butK.,( we will discuss the problem of e"il and sufferin! at len!th in chapter E.% We do ha"e different understandin!s of God from time to time. #t may be an o"erstatement, but as a culture we ha"e the ima!e of God we need at the time. 4aren Armstron!s A "istory of :od tracks these ima!es throu!h time, and 1arosla" ,elikans )esus through the Centuries does a similar *ob of placin! ima!es of 1esus in historical conte3t. #inding $urpose from Beha%ior #n the followin!, we will infer Gods purpose from Gods actions as recorded in the 8ible, in 'ebrew scripture and especially in the life and work of 1esus Christ. 'umans ha"e speculated on the nature and purposes of !ods from the be!innin! of time. With the birth of monotheism, the question simplifies. What is the one God about? What is God doin!? 'ow can we understand God+s intentions leadin! to the actions recorded in 2cripture and e3perienced by humans? When we were children, our questions about God and God+s purposes were often

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met with the response, &Jou cannot understand GodD you simply ha"e to accept what+s happenin! to you in faith that God knows best.( 9or adults, thou!h, it is not so easy. We really want to understand how the world works, and many of us who ha"e not bou!ht completely into the 5odernist pint of "iew want to know how it works in terms of God+s plan or purpose or intention. 5any of the early modern scientists pursued science as a way of &thinkin! the thou!hts of God.( 5ore recently some scientists decided they did not need GodD they could understand the world without in"okin! its creator. #n doin! this, as 'uston 2mith has pointed out,F they !i"e up the ability to understand "alues, remote causes $purposes%, qualities, and the meanin! of life. We may want to know in order to !et the ed!e on e"eryone else. )r we may want to know in order to put our efforts behind God+s cause in the world and we need to know what God is doin! in order to fall in behind or alon!side God / or e"en to oppose Gods will. 7ither way, the question seems important. We will take the Christian and 'ebrew 8ible as a dependable record of Gods acti"ity. #t describes a number of Gods actions in the world from the conte3t of near 7astern culture of the time of its writers. #rom beha%ior to purpose & ' (aution #t is easy to understand a persons beha"ior if you know her purpose, but the re"erse is not true. 5ystery stories are often about someones actions that point toward an unknown or suspect purpose. hink about the re"erse problem, that of findin! someones purpose from obser"in! his actions. 2uppose you ha"e the opportunity to watch a persons actions o"er a period of
F 2mith, 9hy 0eligion ,atters.

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time, say a few hours. 'e is in a kitchen in his apartment. 'e has some meat and some "e!etables on the counter, and has been measurin! these in!redients and spices into a pot, sometimes stoppin! to brown the meat or to cook what is in the pot. Jou can smell what he is cookin! and you can see what it is the pot. 'is purpose is e"idently to make soup. hat is his immediate purpose, but what is he makin! soup for? #s he ha"in! company in, or makin! soup for himself to eat all week, or tryin! to establish a relationship with the attracti"e woman down the hall by offerin! her soup? Jou can see from this simple e3ample that tryin! to infer someones remote purpose from watchin! their beha"ior is problematic. #f we watch someones beha"ior for a time, we may try to infer his purpose in carryin! out the beha"ior we obser"e. 2ometimes her immediate purpose is clear $makin! soup%, but remote purposes are often obscure $why is he makin! soup?%. A further problem with inferrin! someones purpose from his or her actions is they are not uniquely related. Hifferent people may ha"e different reasons or purposes, but perform the same beha"ior as seen by an obser"er. 8y obser"in! a person+s actions o"er time, one may come closer to an understandin! of the persons intent, but the persons intention is ne"er uniquely determined from his or her actions. What we can hope for is a description of the persons intention that is not unique, but which does not conflict with hisLher actions o"er time. Another person may propose a different intention or set of intentionsD if they also do not conflict with the persons actions o"er time, they are an equally !ood con*ecture of the actors intentions. he process of inferrin! intention from actions is similar to bein! !i"en a board with a number of nails dri"en into it at random positions. #ma!ine we are !i"en a ball of

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yarn and are told the nails outline a pictureD our task is to thread the yarn between the nails to outline the picture. 2ince the nails are dri"en at random positions, many pictures are possibleD all are correct solutions to the task assi!nment. 2o, e"en thou!h there is no claim that this speculation yields the solution to the problem of e"il and sufferin! e"en a non-unique solution may be helpful to the understandin!. )f course, in the case of the actions of God and especially of 1esus, the nails are presumably not dri"en in random positions, but the problem of uniqueness still remains. 6et us e3plore the rei!n of God further.