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Liberated to Learn from Strangers

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Presentation on theme: "Liberated to Learn from Strangers"— Presentation transcript:

1 Liberated to Learn from Strangers
Ponderings on foreign gods

2 My 1st assumption “God’s ways our higher than our ways” “No one has seen God” “But will God indeed dwell on the earth? Even heaven and the highest heaven cannot contain you, much less this house that I have built!” 1 Kings 8.27 God is a mystery – beyond our imaginations, experiences, practices, and words (yet known through them)

3 True Living God Always stands behind and beyond what we put into words or what we know through our stories and culture and faith The “I” when God speaks in the Bible is not the God contained within Judeo-Christian culture, but the true, living God beyond, that the Biblical God points to

4 Idols are the problem Because “contained within” = an idol or a graven image The problem with idols are that they are a bad (way too small, lifeless) reflection of God designed to be manipulated by people (and hence used to manipulate other people) Whenever God is reduced to an idol, we must turn from the idol toward the true and living God (who is mysteriously beyond….)

5 Appropriate Idols? The only idol that God accepts is the Human, the ones “male and female, made in the image of God” Humanity, when enlivened by the Spirit, can give us a glimpse of God Jesus, the Human One (Son of Man), was a unique fulfillment of this and so, as Christians, we’re committed to his revelation/ embodiment of God

6 Humans everywhere are made in God’s image
So how could every human culture not, somewhere within it, give glimpses into the nature of God? Romans ; 2.15 Acts But also always prone to fallenness and tempted toward idolatry

7 God is a jealous god? God isn’t jealous about our learning about God elsewhere but our turning away from seeking the One Behind It All So jealousy is expressed when we turn from seeking the One Behind It All to some lifeless little idol (including the modern idols of nationalism, consumerism, and the “myth of redemptive violence”)

8 The prophetic tradition
Always critique when a people’s god gets too small Critique inside and outside boundaries (i.e. not some dishonest version of respecting others that assumes their beliefs, cultures and practices are beyond criticism – but criticism always needs to be fair criticism of us and them)

9 How might your God be too small?
How might we manipulate an idolatrous version of God if we keep God too small? How might we use an idolatrous version of God to manipulate other people if we keep God too small? Can we trust the Spirit of Jesus/Spirit of God to allow us to learn about God everywhere?


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