Plain in the city

A plain Quaker folk singer with a Juris Doctorate in his back pocket, salt in his blood, and a set of currach oars in the closet, Ulleann Pipes under his arm, guitar on his back, Anglo Irish baggage, wandering through New York City ... in constant amaze. Statement of Faithfulness. As a member of the Quaker Bloggers Ad Hoc Committee I affirm that I will be faithful to the Book of Discipline of my Meeting 15th Street Monthly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006

What Kind of God do we need today?

Where do I hear God's voice the loudest? Certainly not in myth, huddled about the fire, talking tales to dispel the fears of the night. I once looked to the fire, now I seek the trek into the dark, eyes and ears open... senses ablaze. God's voice is in the panting cry of the leopard. What did we turn to when we were the hunted, thee and me? Venus figures, idols to fertility to make enough of us that some might survive. Roll back, roll back through the generations of time... to our foremothers, the God who replaced our young dragged away by the head by the cheetah's teeth to the pile of bones... to the communion feast with her young. then there were Gods of war, when we built walls around our fields which we guarded from each other, Gods who hurled thunderbolts and arrows... then the God of the seeded earth, the God who was killed and planted to rise in the spring.
We don't need such a God today. Jesus was a God of the seeded earth who was planted when the world of Judea was coming to an end in blood and fire, a world that would rise again some day. It is a defeatist world of all will be well, God will take care of His own when all is wasted and gone. We wont survive such a God. We need a God with a microscope and barometer. I am convinced that Yeshua would have handed a teliscope to all who use his image to cast a shadow like an eclipse over the face of God and God's works revield in science. We need a God who says, stop all this wasted effort on wars of greed excused by myth at the expense of the future. Learn, learn, learn again. We need a God who smiles at the student, furrowed brow and bitten nails laboring at her Anthro exam ( praying for thee tonight kiddo )... and says don't rely on rebirth after the apocalypse, but work together to make this world right. We need a rational God... a God of love and of learning... or we need a silent God for a dead world. Well that's me tonight.

4 Comments:

At 3:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

We don't really need a new God, but rather, people who know how to listen to God when he speaks.

AJ

 
At 5:48 PM, Blogger Lorcan said...

Well there thee is, AJ, each generation makes the God they need, and puts words in that God's mouth, rather than listening to that still small voice inside. This is what Elias Hicks meant when he said worshiping Christ instead of God, made an idol of Jesus.

A God who can be quoted is not a God worth worshiping...

Thine in the light
lor

 
At 5:51 PM, Blogger Lorcan said...

By the way, Friends, don't click on AJ's web address, it is an add. As his comment is on point I will leave the comment, though I do not appreciate spam being placed in a post. I tend to click commenters URL, to see if they have a blog worth listing in my posts. I find thy comments about God suspect in light of thy unfriendly act of spamming this blog.

 
At 4:34 AM, Blogger ash said...

Of course, for the Trinitarian among us, worshipping Christ is not idolatry, but is worshipping God. However, true Trinitarian theology tells us we ought first and foremost to worship the Father, joining in with the Son, in the power of the Spirit.

What kind of God do we need today? A God of peace, and reconciliation. A God who speaks out against injustice and evil and the suffering of man upon men.

Blessed are the Peacemakers. Blessed art thou, oh God of our Father, oh God of our Children, oh thou God of our peace.

 

Post a Comment

<< Home