Boxing God In

   In the church we have a division that is getting heated - "liberal" versus "conservatives". As the sides are drawn, each group gathers followers by attacking the other group with vicious accusations, mostly centered around how to read the Bible, who is God, and how to love our neighbor. 

  The problem with this this battle is that neither side really exists, because people are transient. When we try to apply a label to another human being in order to simplify our experience of them, we actually cut off any opportunity for authentic relationship. I was thinking about the labels that are applied to me the other day, and how they vary according to where I am. Even though I don't change anything about how I act or speak or think, I am labeled "liberal" at Houghton and "semi-Conservative" at Drew. Why can't I just be Michelle? When words that are supposed to be verbs in conjunction with a lot of other verbs become nouns, we loose something vital about the humanness of our identity as we box people in, making our experience with and of them shrink as we push them harder and harder to become a certain shape. 

   What is even more distressing is that we do the same thing to God, trying to shove the Divine into a box and then close of our experience of anything that doesn't fit our limited definition of the Holy. God is in relationship with us, as individuals and as community and should be treated as such. Stripped of labels and allowed to just be, God can be fully God and our view of divinity will expand. Knock down the walls and be free, friends, both in relationship to God and our wonderful neighbors.