Step In & Follow Up!
This past Sunday, we kicked off our new winter series called “Step In: Taking In the Message of Christ”, all about “taking in” the big ideas of Christian faith so that we can believe – and live – differently. We started with perhaps the biggest idea of all – God, and the biggest question:
Who is God?
It’s important to ask that question that way (who is God?), rather than the other way it could be asked (what is God?). God is a who – more than a what. That is to say,
God is a “person”.
Now God isn’t a person in the same way that you or I are persons; God is a little different than that. But as God is a person, God is personal.
There’s a great temptation, however, to make God a what, rather than a who… to make God impersonal – kind of like “the Force” in Star Wars or “the Universe” in quasi-mystical thinking. When we make God a what rather than a who, we can sometimes even say ‘correct’ things – we can be close, but we can also miss the point entirely.
For instance, there’s a temptation to make God “the ground of being” or “being itself”. God is those things, in a way, but the way that God is those things is as a personal God who creates being, sustains being, and gives being.
There’s a temptation to make God a “principle” – like goodness, like truth, like life, like light, or even, like love (God IS love – listen to Sunday’s sermon if you missed it!). God IS these things – don’t get me wrong, but God is them in the only way that God can be them: as a person.
We can see this throughout the Old Testament, but nowhere is this more clear then when we look at Jesus. In the Gospels – especially John’s Gospel – Jesus is presented as God in person. So Jesus is
life, in person;
light, in person;
truth, in person;
love, in person.
Jesus is God’s Word – in person. Jesus simply IS what God wanted to say to us. It’s how we can only really and truly know God at all: because God has told us in person – in and through Jesus. The Old Testament looks forward to him, while the New Testament looks back at him – and the Spirit brings him to us today, or rather, brings us into relationship with God.
If your head is spinning, I get it.
That’s why, during this series, we’re going to be doing Wednesday night follow up sessions called “Step In & Follow Up” – to go deeper into these big ideas. Our first one is tonight from 7-8:30PM in the Kraft Room (come in the driveway entrance/office door).