Leaving God for GOD

Beyond Religious Notions

Aug 3, 2005

Saying For Today: Faith is best expressed when one has mustered enough faith to believe only in GOD, GOD beyond every notion, even the notions most revered among the religions.

Express faith in the Lord with all your heart
and do not lean on your own understanding.... Proverbs 3.6

Joseph Campbell, in The Power of Myth, points to a paradoxical sounding teaching of the Dominican mystic Meister Eckhart. Eckhart believed the ultimate leaving is leaving God for GOD. That sounds awkward and contradictory. But there is profound insight and mystery behind the words, and deep respect and reverence for Reality. Eckhart meant that to know God best one must forsake notions of God to embrace what transcends notions.

Human notions of God relate to the problem of God language. God language refers to human words we use to talk about the Spirit.

The Old Testament scholar Dale Patrick wrote a book entitled The Characterization of God in the Old Testament. The title intrigued me and, so, I purchased it. After reading it once it enlightened me more than ever to a truth that would startle many who speak the word God, often with unconsciously irreverant religiosity: God in the Bible is not GOD.

The One we call "God" is characterized in Scripture like all other participants in the Bible story. God is a character in the drama of the Bible story. A text and the reality it points to is never the same, even in the Scripture.

Authors create characters that in differing degrees represent the “real” persons referred to by them. This is why God is pictured differently by different texts in the Bible. In Exodus God is described as One who will punish the children and grandchildren to the fourth generation for the sins of the ancestors. In Ezekiel God is pictured as a God who will not punish a son for his father's sin. Which is correct? Both portrayals reflect the theological notions and practical intents of writers. The theology of writers and groups of editors shaped the image of God in different places of the Scripture, even as the image of God differs from church to church, theologian to theologian, and person to person. Scripture, communal faith, and personal devotion evidence our quest for the GOD beyond God.

Recently a wise and spiritual saint, who was a colleague of mine, remarked, "When students raise questions that I simply have no answer for, I point out that ultimately GOD is where my faith rests." She and I agree on this matter: To have faith in God means one does not have faith in notions of God. The contrast is bigger than most persons would likely be comfortable admitting. But to reduce our faith in GOD to human words pointing to GOD borders on blasphemy, if not committing it.

Joseph Campbell's reference to all religion being a mask of eternity is to some extent true. That does not mean there cannot be a most accurate representation of God. That does not challenge the possibility that God manifests in Jesus in a unique and historical way. It simply puts notions of GOD, even the most revered, on a level below GOD. Representations of Reality are subordinate to Absolute Reality.

Often notions of God have to tumble as an old bridge underneath the feet before a person can enjoy knowing the GOD living beyond the notions and traditions that teach the notions.

If we keep on a spiritual journey, we will be called to leave God for GOD. And we can choose to enter one of the greatest challenges, for our culture is infused with perceptions of God at every turn, perceptions that most persons do not distinguish from God. Leaving God for GOD involves struggling to get beyond those masks to intimacy with only Presence.

The "understanding" that the Proverbs writer discourages us from depending on would include our perception of GOD. I do not believe the Proverbs writer would mind our paraphrasing the text, "Trust GOD and not your notions of GOD."

Spiritual Exercise

1. Have you ever had a spiritual experience that you could not fit in any of your ideas of God? Explain.
2. How might one respect traditional means of referring to God, while seeing them as metaphors?
3. In your own words, what is GOd beyond “God”?
4. Is it possible that persons inside and outside your faith tradition mean the same God but by using different words? Explain.
5. How do you decide what is an appropriate title or name for God from one that is not?

Prayer

Spirit of Christ, let the current of your Love and Grace, ever-creating and recreating us into the perfection of your Likeness, pass through us unobstructed, radiating into the world a Light and Gentleness that draws persons to you through our words of witness and the testimony of our silence, too. Your going-before, already-at-work Grace is drawing all to your Source, therefore, let us not hinder that work through our notions and dogma. Rather, teach us the wisdom to join where Grace is already working and cooperate with Grace, that those who are lost, broken, and seeking may find, along with us, Life abundant and peace unspeakable. May we be humble and teachable enough to be led toward wholeness and perfection in consort with the persons we are loving toward transformation in Love. Let us, our God, be saved along with those we seek to share your message of salvation with, so that in seeking the salvation of others, we are seeking our own, too. Amen.

—Brian K. Wilcox

OneLife Ministries is a pastoral outreach and nurture ministry of the First United Methodist Church, Fort Meade, FL. For Spiritual Direction, Pastoral Counseling, spiritual formation workshops, Christian meditation retreats, or more information about OneLife, write Rev. Dr. Brian K. Wilcox at briankwilcox@comcast.net.