“Who is God?” Psalm 81: 1, 10-16

There are some basic beliefs that Christians hold and there are ways that United Methodists interpret and live into those beliefs. For the next five weeks we will be digging deeper into some of these truths and why they matter to our lives. They are things that most people in the Church will say that they “know” but there are always new things to learn and let sink into your heart. This series will be like an introduction course or refresher to the faith we share.

There isn’t really any way to ease into this series so we are just going to start off with a big topic - who is God? Today’s psalm describes God in so many ways: as our strength, our source of joy, our deliver, the one who fills us, the one who is jealous for us, and the one who satisfies us. Big promises and concepts to wrap our minds around. 

The truth is, we will never be fully able to describe who God is to us. For we only know about God what God has chosen to reveal to us. And even in the midst of those revelations, our human understanding of God is limited at best. So we craft stories and poems to try to get language around these revelations. Language to express to others who God is and what God is doing in our lives. And that is hard. There is so much to say about God, yet we don’t know even how to begin.

Think about the person you are closest to in life. Or perhaps the person you have known the longest. How would you begin to describe them to someone who has never met them? Some of us are good at describing folks that don’t know each other to one another. I have friends who have never met, but will ask me about each other when we chat, because they feel like they know them through my descriptions. But its hard to describe our whole experience with a person - it takes many conversations, many descriptions, many stories. 

As United Methodists we place an emphasis on having a personal relationship and experiences with God. We lift up the fact that its not enough to know about God, we need to know God personally. Think back to my friends - they know about each other, but they don’t know one another with the deep sense of intimacy I do. That can only emerge over time with shared experiences. So it is with God. We may be able to start out our relationship with God finding out facts and descriptions, but that relationship will remain shallow at best if we do not progress to knowing God personally, in a way that can only develop over time shared together. 

The way that we perceive our experiences with God will ultimately influence how much we trust God and can grow in our relationship. One of the questions that blocks relationships with God the most often is ‘why would God allow humans to suffer?’ Inherent in this questions are the beliefs that God is in control and is all powerful and all knowing. Yet, we seem to forget that God created humans with the capacity for free will, which means that our decisions have consequences. And sadly, other’s decisions can have unintended consequences for us. Its as the psalmist writes: “I gave them over to their stubborn hearts, to follow their own counsel”.  We seem to embrace the freewill that God has gifted us with, until something goes wrong - then we want God to be a puppet master, controlling each of our experiences. But that would not allow us to develop a relationship with God. On the other side of the coin - God didn’t just create the universe then step back, just to see what would happen. God walks with us through our suffering, if only we can perceive that Holy presence in the midst of chaos. God does not and will not leave us alone in our suffering. Additionally, as United Methodists we believe that God will redeem our suffering when a new heaven and new earth is created, as well as use it for Kingdom purposes while here on earth. God does not cause suffering, but God redeems it for us. Ultimately that is what God is doing - working through and with us to create this new Kingdom, both here on earth and beyond. We believe that God is not a far off deity, simply living in Heaven and not present in our lives. Instead we believe that God is active and moving and present with each of us. 

Another stumbling block for some people in how to describe who God is comes with naming God. We are limited in our human language in how we can talk about God, so we try to use human descriptions and names to capture what our relationship is with God. But God doesn’t make this easy, for the only name or title God gives us is “I am who I am.” Because of our discomfort with this description of God we search for other names, most often landing on “Father”, which is Biblically used. But the Bible has other ways to describe and name God as well: God of Abraham, Shepherd, Woman in Labor, Creator, Maker, Lord, Jehovah, King, Almighty. Ultimately God cannot be captured by any one of these descriptors, but at their very best they can help draw us into a deeper relationship and lead others into relationship with a Holy God as well. 

We cling to and describe most frequently the language around the parts of God we treasure most - but we need to realize and accept that this may not be true for every other Christian - and that does not make either of us wrong. For example, the last church I served was African American, some of whom survived Hurricane Katrina. They stressed the God of deliverance who accompanies us even through the darkest valleys of life. They see the God of deliverance in the Exodus story and lift that up, just like today’s Psalmist who writes, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you up out of the Land of Egypt.” But that may not be how you view God. Maybe you cling to the image of God expressed later in the psalm when it says, “I would feed you the finest of the wheat and with honey from the rock I satisfy you.” Or maybe you view God in a different way entirely. I once was told that trying to describe God was like looking through a kaleidoscope - we all are going to see different shapes and images, but they represent different parts of God, because God is so vast. 

Part of the first Article of Religion for United Methodists sums up the scriptural teachings about God by stating, “There is but one living and true God, everlasting, without body or parts, of infinite power, wisdom, and goodness; the maker and preserver of all things, both visible and invisible.” A description wide enough for us to find God in the midst of. A description narrow enough that we can be in relationship with this God. Who do you believe God to be and how is God alive and moving in your life in a way you can point out and describe to others? How is your life proclaiming the presence and power of God? How are you leading others to know who God is? Amen.