Drawing God

Emmanuel Episcopal Church, Greenwood, Virginia
Proper 28, Year A
November 15, 2020
 
If I were to begin this sermon as I would like, I would hand out big pieces of drawing paper, markers, crayons, paint, and even glitter.  Then, I would invite you to draw a picture of God.  Some would balk claiming they do not have artistic gifts.  That is not the assignment.  Still others would jump on the task and do a stick figure something just to humor me and get to the point.  Still others would be delighted to enter into a creative exercise and would ask for extra time to cover the page.  If we were in an art studio with big tables and easels, we could have a big day together.
 
The fact is that as a teacher of An Introduction to Theology for high schoolers, I gave this assignment on the first day of class.  I took them into a big airy space and gave them all kinds of media to create.  Some took it seriously.  Some wondered what my point was.  The rest of them just played along because they knew that, as I had that I told them, I would grade them -- if only on effort. 
 
In 15 years of teaching that course, I noticed a ubiquitous and major theme.  In drawing God at the beginning of the class, most of the pictures portrayed God as an old, bearded man in a white robe.  There were varied versions of the man, gazing over the earth, and often, he was hurling thunder bolts.  It became clear to me that the image of God the drew was informed more by the Far Side comics and the Simpsons T.V. show than anything else.  This gave me the opening and the opportunity to offer the class as a way of consulting new and different sources.  If their pictures were more abstract, that gave us an opportunity to begin to put words to their perceptions.
 
Among preachers of the lectionary, this is known as Holy Scripture Sunday or Bible Sunday because the opening prayer invites us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest the holy scriptures which we say “were written for our learning.”  It is a classic prayer that expresses the way we approach the Bible as the Word of God.
 
Inevitably that leads us to interpretive problems in developing our image of God.  We have that grim first lesson from Judges where the presumption is that when the people do what God wants, they succeed, and when they do not, they founder and suffer.  Remember that the Hebrew Bible or Old Testament is a living account of how people thought of God and interpreted what was happening to them.  Their lives were precarious and they came from a context of believing that God or gods needed to be pleased and appeased.  Some of that mythology holds on even to this day.
 
When we come to the Gospel, we hear the parable of the talents.  It is an old chestnut of the faith and a popular lection for stewardship season.  If we read it as straight allegory, we are servants or slaves to a master with high expectations.  If we take what we are given and make more with it, God is pleased.  If we hoard what we are given and play it safe, we are to be left out in the dark.  Matthew is fond of the theme of weeping and gnashing of teeth.  There is a kernel of truth in here.  We do believe God as wildly generous, and we believe that our response to such generosity is to be responsive and creative in serving God.  
 
There are problems with the direct allegory style of imagining God through this lens.  It sets up God as a cruel master who expects some sort of measurable return on investment from us.  The power dynamic also implies and unequal distribution of resources according to ability.  This could lead to seeing the wealthy as more able or more blessed.  And all of this runs counter to everything Jesus preaches about the poor being mightily loved and blessed as well.
 
It is no wonder that the Far Side, Simpsons old, bearded, thunderbolt wielding God is pretty standard in folks imagination.  We need to dig deeper.  Today, I raise the possibility that, in this parable, Jesus is questioning our view of the way God works.  Jesus begins in saying that the kingdom of God had been thought about this way…. He may be saying that we have some of it right:  God is wildly generous, and hopeful for us to take what is given and thrive for God’s sake and out own.  It is also possible that Jesus is telling us that we have some of it wrong too, especially if we consider what we are given as a measure of our ability -- or our power as some translations put it.  Remember, Jesus is in the Temple and addressing the religious elites.  They are plenty hopped up on their power. Their position provides them with lots of material wealth and, they believe they have all the answers. They are trying to trap this Jesus character as misguided as he criticizes their narrow understanding of who God loves most. 
 
Remember that this is the last parable Jesus tells before he will be arrested, tried, and executed as a blasphemer and traitor.  He is about to show that God will stick with us, forgive us, and even rise to live with us no matter what.  St. Paul summarizes this, in his letter to the Thessalonians, reminding us that “we are not destined for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ who died for us… that we may live with him.”  The last word is not punishing, it is loving.  Maybe we are not so much about getting people to heaven in the future, as we are about helping them out of hell now.
 
We do need to take the Bible seriously.  We do need to mine it, meditate on it, argue with it, and pray with it to develop our picture of God.  And to do so, we need to look at it whole.  Parts of it will always be problematic.  We have reason and rational minds as gifts to use too.
 
For the final exam in An Introduction to Theology, I asked my students to draw God again and write an artist’s statement explaining the picture.  Most of what I got was expansive, imaginative, and profound.  In holding the Bible, various teachings, and the right use of reason in creative tension, we grew together.
 
The challenge of today is to consider how we are to account for what we are given all the while understanding that there is a God of grace, mercy, and forgiveness rooting for us to thrive.  As we grow in faith, our picture of God will change and develop over time and through experience.  Pull out your crayons, markers, paint, and the glitter of imagination.  Imagine God.  This is not blasphemy.  It is a creative way to seek God and a deeper relationship with God.  Have fun with it. God wants to be seen and known just as surely as God sees and knows us all as beloved creation.  We are all an unfinished masterpiece in progress.