The God of the great Israelite prophets, and the God revealed in and by Jesus, is a God of unexpected (by us) reversals. This God delights in turning our preconceptions and favorite biases on their heads. We like to imagine that those who parade around pretending as if they have it all together are the ones God favors. Not so! We tend to see those with wealth and positions of power as being on top. Not so – according to God (Luke 1:50-53). The Way offered by Jesus is the direct opposite of climbing the ladder of success. If we have God’s love, we don’t need to grasp for the prevailing societal goals.We don’t need to let ourselves be swayed by every new wave. We can find peace and happiness (even joy) by placing ourselves at the service of others (like Jesus kneeling to wash his disciples’ feet at the Last Supper) not trying to climb over each other like a litter of piglets to get ahead (wherever that is).
We human beings are not foreigners to the dynamic of reversal. It seems to have started early in our existence. In the first two chapters of the first book of the Bible, Genesis, is the wonderful teaching story of creation. In Genesis 1:27, there is the amazing statement that God makes us in the divine image and likeness. Believe it or not, when we look at one another, with eyes of love – like God does – we can see God reflected! We can see Goodness, Beauty, Gracefulness. But how quickly do we try to do unto God what God has done to us. We try to remake God according to our own image and likeness. This never goes well.
We too often reduce God to the size of our egos, or to the shape of our fears. We re-imagine God, not out of our sense of wonder or our deepest desires, but out of our shallowest childhood wishes. We try to shove God into conveniently controllable boxes that we construct. We dress God up in our clothing, yet fail to see how ridiculous this god looks – something like stuffing Goliath into an extra small tuxedo. Not a pretty sight!
And how does God respond to our foolishness? Like a wise and loving parent who knows all our silly games of make-believe. Can you imagine a divine smile? A chuckle? At times, a divine tear? God is God – beyond our imaging, beyond our futile attempts at manipulation, beyond the limits of the image and likeness we prefer to project. We don’t need to puff ourselves up all out of proportion. Let God be God. We don’t need to be.