Sunday, September 6, 2009

Complex God means complex "answers"

On one level we recognize and proclaim a God who is beyond all understanding, not able to be reduced to one idea or concept. yet at the same time we say "no I don't think this passage means that, it means this" or "God wants us to focus on this, not that" or "that's not as important as this." In reality that kind of thinking is reductionist and comes out of scarcity thinking. It's the idea that if someone buys into your passion then they can't buy into mine. If the church, for example, focuses on Evangelism it will loose time energy and focus on social justice. If my denomination has it right then yours or nondenominational churches must be wrong. This kind of thinking ignores the God who is both justice and grace, creator and Redeemer, transcendent and yet intimate. When we say no to someone or some idea, we may be saying no to the greatness and complexity of God. One idea I like is that perhaps God uses the diversity of denominations not so that they'll fight each other over who has more of a handle on the Truth, but so that each can do something slightly different, meet slightly different needs, and express slightly different parts of an amazing complex God!

1 comment:

  1. Amen! Anyone wanting to read more about what Jennifer is talking about here can check out JOhn Franke's book: The Maifold Witness of Truth.

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