This evening we begin a course of four sermons thinking about some of the essentials of Christian belief; God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. Tonight perhaps is the most challenging occasion because we are trying to think about God.
The recent Dawkins Institute survey asked people which of the following statements best described their personal view of God: I think of God as being whatever caused the universe; I don’t believe in God but think there may be some kind of supernatural intelligence out there; I think of God as being the laws of nature and everything in the universe; I believe in God and that Christianity is the only true way, or just one way, of knowing him.
If we had answered this survey, we might well have gone for several options at once, but of course we would have wanted to say a lot more.
So how are we to think about God – what is God? A disciple went in search of a master of wisdom to ask him a question. He found the master on the bank of a river and asked him, ‘Sir where can I find wisdom and knowledge of the truth?’ (stories like these always go the whole hog). And the master rose and led the disciple down into the river. He put his hand on the disciple’s head and gently pushed him down beneath the water. ‘Ah,’ thought the disciple, ‘this is a form of baptism – I am to be initiated into the master’s school of wisdom.’ But the master did not release the disciple but with considerable strength held him there under the water until he began to struggle for breath. ‘Help,’ thought the disciple, ‘perhaps this is not a master but a mad man.’ Just when he believed he was going to drown the master released him and he shot to the surface and drew in a great gulp of breath. ‘There,’ said the master, ‘when you want to gain wisdom and knowledge of the truth as much as you wanted that breath of air, you will be ready to begin the journey.’
Answering questions about God is not like answering questions about anything else. You cannot do research into God, you cannot set up experiments about God. You cannot prove the existence of God as you might try to prove the existence of anything else in the universe because God is not like anything else in the universe. God does not exist as anything else exists. If you try to approach the question of God as you might approach an interesting problem or an intriguing mystery you will not get very far. And if you come to God really desiring the truth you have to be very careful about what sort of truth it is you are looking for. So often we can mistake the truth of God with a personal desire to be in the right.
Belief in God is such a challenge to our minds and hearts that it makes us very vulnerable; vulnerable to uncertainty and doubt; vulnerable to those who think they know better than we do and can argue against God more articulately than we can argue for him. And so we long to be able to put God into words that will convince, arguments which will prove us right. And yet as soon as that becomes our motive we move further away from God. We have to be very careful to make sure that it is God we are looking for and trying to talk about, that it is the real God we desire.
Just think for a moment about what talking about God entails; I have said that God is not like anything else in the universe and he does not exist in the way anything else exists. And that has to be the case. If God were an item in the universe then we could ask what created or caused God. But if it is true that it is God we are talking about then nothing created or caused God. God is the ultimate origin, the uncaused cause of all that is – that’s what makes him God. Any other idea of God would be idolatry because we would be worshipping an item in the universe. God is at back of everything – that’s what makes him God.
So as we begin to talk about God we begin with the idea that God is origin and cause; God is the reason why there is anything rather than nothing. Like children we are blessed with the desire to know why and how. Why is this the case? Where does this come from? How does this happen? And science is enabling us more and more to give answers to these questions, although some of the time only scientists can understand the answer. And that perhaps ought to be just a little worrying for it puts scientists in a far greater position of power than any believer in God. Nevetheless, however far back the scientists’ answers go, even unto the moment of the big bang and the explanation of how the big bang works, the natural child in us will still ask, ‘Why?’ Why did the big bang happen, why were the circumstances set up for the big bang to happen, why is there anything rather than nothing? And then we face a choice; either we say as some philosophers and scientists have said, ‘You can’t ask that question, it doesn’t make sense.’ Or you can go on looking for other questions and more answers. Or you can say, ‘God.’ God is the point of rest at which your restless questioning can stop. God is the reason why there is something and not nothing, and therefore God is the reason why you and all your questions exist. And notice what the implication of this might be. If God is the cause of everything, if God is what makes and sustains anything that exists, God is at back of your existence. And all your questioning goes on, for want of a better word, ‘inside’ God. Does this mean then that you are God?
Clearly not; though I may be able to make a mean chocolate pudding I cannot make a universe. Though I exist because of God, it must, it seems, be the case that I am at some distance from God or rather God has in some sense withdrawn from me – left me a space to be myself and not God. So God provides the being and the template for all that is, the being and the template for you to be humanly you, and God allows you the space then to be yourself, not God but in relationship to God. And that perhaps is the first demonstration of God’s love; he takes the risk of leaving you room to be yourself.
How is that relationship with God possible? What is the appropriate expression of that relationship? And the three fold answer is communication, truthfulness and humility.
The essence of relationship is communication, not only by words, but by gestures, symbols, actions, or simply being with – silently. So we address God in prayer and worship, we speak about God, we act as we believe God wishes us to act, we wait on God in silence. But then all communication raises a question of quality and truthfulness.
Is our communication intended truly to bring us closer to the other? Or is our communication to tame or control the other, keep it at a distance, or lie to it? All these things are possible in human communication but in these ways communication is falsified; and yet in relation to one another we so often get away with falsification. In relation to God there can be no deceit. If God is the one with whom we are called to communicate then untruthfulness cannot be possible with God; un-truthfulness is the denial of communication. So we might say belief in God and prayer to God should keep us truthful with God and thence with one another.
But by experience we know how hard it is to be truthful. We know how hard it is to communicate with one another truthfully. We know how hard it is to know or say what we really mean, to understand the world about us, or to even begin to understand the truth of God. So belief in God also keeps us humble. There must always be a humility, a hesitancy, a suspicion of self in our language about God when we address other people. That is why perhaps we should not ever enter into an argument about God. We can try to speak for God, we can listen, we can try to say where we feel the other person has not understood, but always as a servant of the truth never its master.
It is time to finish and you may at this point be wondering why I have not referred at all to the Bible – that could be a question we could discuss over a cup of coffee after this service or it could be where we begin next week.
26th February 2012
Evensong
The Truth of God
Stephen Tucker