Musings on the Daily Lectionary

What is God like? Surely that is one of the most basic faith questions. But answering this question is a complex task. Getting to know another human being is difficult enough. God, even more so. And much of our knowledge of God is somewhat indirect, the insights and encounters of others who have drawn close to God. For Christians, Scripture is a unique and authoritative witness that points us to God, that reveals the true nature of God, but even here we sometimes encounter aspects of the divine that seem hard to reconcile. You sometimes hear people speak of "the God of the Old Testament" and "the God of the New Testament" as though these were different being altogether.

I think this is a false dichotomy, but it does point to the real difficulty of weaving together disparate images of God into a single, coherent one. It also points to a difficulty we humans have with some of the paradoxes presented to us by God. We tend to see either/or choices when it comes to mercy or judgment, a God who loves us or God we are supposed to fear, a God who demands holiness and righteousness or a God of grace who embraces the unworthy. Yet God seems to integrate all this into Godself.

Images of God in Scripture often are focused on one side or the other of such paradoxes, but there are elements of God's nature that seem constant, that are pictured fairly uniformly throughout the Bible. Some of those are seen today in Psalm 146.
Happy are those whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD their God, who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them; who keeps faith forever; who executes justice for the oppressed; who gives food to the hungry. The LORD sets the prisoners free; the LORD opens the eyes of the blind. The LORD lifts up those who are bowed down; the LORD loves the righteous. The LORD watches over the strangers; he upholds the orphan and the widow, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin.

It seems there is a special place in God's heart for many that the world often ignores, for those the world does not value. And surely one of the ways we get to know God, that we draw closer to God, is to love, care for, and value those who are special to God.

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