Do you know what is one of the major things dividing Christians?

METAPHORS!

Way more than fifty percent of humanity does not “get” metaphors. And who are the people who most use metaphors? Theologians and philosophers.

For most people Paul Tillich’s definition of God as “The Ground of our Being” would not make any sense at all.

For some “Home” would be a better definition, but not for those whose home lives were destructive.

My personal definition would be “God is Love.” And I see Jesus is the Love of God for us fleshed out.  And for me that love would be 90% tenderness.

 But tenderness isn’t high on the list for very logical minds who see that Moral Laws are vital for us all to live safely together. And I admit it does appear to take at least a lifetime for humans to become spiritually mature enough to recognize that if everyone does what we each sometimes want to do, humanity and civilization will self-destruct. Law is our incubator, until with grace we grow from need to Love.

So, it would seem that having the Chutzpah to even try to define God says more about ourselves than God.

Jesus, as the model for spiritual growth that everyone can recognize and follow, get’s lost when we put the focus on trying to understand Jesus as God. We lose the awareness of his human pain, his struggle to accept it, his misunderstanding of his own call, his heartbreak over failing to reach his own people, his need for his friends to be there with him when he was overwhelmed, feeling abandoned even by God, and all that goes with being human like us.  But Jesus made the right choices even when sweating blood with fear of the consequences and ultimately was able to trust God because when overwhelmed, he always went to God for grace for the next challenge.

It’s hubris to think we can define God. But we can experience not only the Love of God expressed in Jesus, but see the spiritual journey fleshed out for us to follow and to recognize that the source of grace to grow from need to love is God, the same for us as it was for Jesus.