Babies and God (KNOWING GOD)

I. INTRODUCTION

Today, I thought I would like to go back to the beginning, to the basics as we sometimes say. I want to share some thoughts with you on God, in particular, on knowing God. What babies have to do with God comes later. This may be my attempt at using suspense in sermons. There you have it.

Somehow, even hearing myself say that last phrase, ‘thoughts on God’, sounds almost – what – hollow? Inadequate? Feeble? What can we humans say about God?

II. THE WORDS FOR GOD

What is this word God? Where did it come from? Of course, those three letters are just a word in the English language, derived from Germanic languages centuries ago, where we say ‘Gott’.

We really know so little of God.  We can’t fathom how far beyond and above us in every way God is. Sometimes, when we really stop to think of who God is, it can be downright scary just to think that we should be brave enough to talk of God, to mention God’s name. That is what awe is, why we sometimes speak of an awesome God. Of course that is only a human name, as we have already said. When God gave Moses a name it was ‘I AM THAT I AM’. One noteworthy thing about this is that it is not an invention of a name. It is a combination of words that refers to the existence of someone referring to I. The second significant thing here is that it is all in the present tense. God is, no past, no future. Those are only concepts that become relevant within the framework of time. God exists beyond and above that understanding. God was before time, and will be after time has ended.

Many of you know that our Jewish brothers and sisters were so in awe of God, granted God so much respect, that they could not bear themselves to say God’s name. They didn’t feel worthy. The four letters for JHWH could be written, but without even the vowel sounds in between. This relates to the first real point I want to remind us about this morning, and which I have already been referring to, the supremacy of God. Most religions refer to a Supreme Being, an entity beyond us, usually described in terms that refer to superior knowledge, greater power, and so forth. If we accept the premise that such a being exists, ought we not to live in some fear of this God?

Now, of course, we as Christians, and even the Jews and Muslims to some extent, know that there are other aspects of God’s nature and actions that work somewhat in opposition to God being someone to only be feared. We talk of the love and grace of God. We say, quoting the Bible, that God Is Love.

III. WHERE DOES OUR KNOWLEDGE OF GOD COME FROM?

1. The Bible

But wait, we are talking about a Being who is way beyond our comprehension. How do we even know of such a Being? Well, you say, the Bible tells us so. Yes, that’s true. It does. That’s what some would call the Sunday School answer, and I don’t want to say that too derogatorily. The Bible also tells us about growing in knowledge, beyond childhood Sunday School answers, beyond milk. We should be chewing on meat, or some complex carbohydrate if we are vegetarian, a concept that wasn’t known in the society from which the Biblical originated.  

2. Religions

I think learning about what other religions say about their God, or gods, or Supreme Being can enrich our knowledge and awareness of God too. Don’t get me wrong. I am not actually saying by this that we can learn something new about God that isn’t in the Bible. I don’t think I can go so far as to say that if I believe fully what the Bible and the Church teach. However, I think our understanding of God, our appreciation of God, can be increased. After all, all truth is God’s truth, and I think all religions have some truth in them.  They were all invented by humans, and all humans have been created in the image of God, with the breath of life breathed into them by God. God’s life is in all of us.

Atheists and agnostics, as we know, question the existence of God. I think the fact that so many religions, arising in so many civilizations, believe in supreme beings or being, points to the actual existence of God. How could so many different peoples come to such similar conclusions? Why would they do so? It’s not in human nature most of the time to try and agree with one another is it? Especially when we think we have a better idea.  We may try and teach it to others, or force it on them, as has happened too often in history.  Too arrive at similar conclusions independently has to tell us something. There must be a common origin for these ideas.

I think this whole line of thought also leads us to think about creation versus evolution. If people appeared on this earth as a result of evolution, one has to ask, how many times and in how many places could this have occurred? Doesn’t it boggle the mind to think that it only occurred once? Why? The very nature of the process as its proponents teach it should say that it was, or could have been, happening all over the place. Perhaps not exactly simultaneously to be sure. And if it did happen in more than one place, in more than one time, totally randomly, why would these different people come up with similar ideas about God? Even if only one species survived, where and why did their idea about God come from?

3. Revelation

I think it’s much easier to believe that I AM THAT I AM was there at the beginning as the Bible says. I AM THAT I AM is also reported in the Bible to have made, or as we say, created, the first humans. Also, as the Bible tells it, God, right from the beginning, made humans aware that there was Someone else there beside themselves. God communicated with them.   More accurately perhaps, given what we have been saying about God so far, we should say that God let humans know that there IS Someone else there. Perhaps we should always speak about God in the present tense because God is not bound by time. 

If God created the first humans and talked with them, as the Bible describes, it’s not difficult to understand that all humans have similar ideas about God, or about Supreme Beings. There is one common origin for their concepts. It’s our knowledge about God that we as a human race gained right from that beginning revelation. For some reason though, humans turned away from God right from the beginning, and it’s never stopped. As God is quoted as saying of humanity, ‘Their hearts are continually evil’ (Gen. 6:5). God hasn’t gone away. The Great I AM hasn’t died. It’s we humans who have left God out of our lives and affairs.

Nor should it be any harder to understand that the thoughts people had about God could have changed with different peoples over time. We humans are great for disagreeing with each other, sometimes just because it’s your idea and not mine. Just as we have many different cultures and systems of government, we have many different ideas about what or who God is.

4. Personal Experience

When we speak of revelation, God showing us something about the I AM, we often refer to the past, to the record of the scriptures. We talk of those happenings in the lives of other individuals and peoples that they, whether it was the Jews in the case of the Old testament, or the Christian Church in the case of the New Testament, came together and agreed, yes this was God, appearing to us, speaking to us, acting before us or for us.

Many believers have more to go on than the past experiences of others. Some of us are convinced we ourselves have seen God in action or heard the voice of the I AM. For some this may be a deep and powerful feeling that has been noted when in prayer or study of God’s word. For others it is an event.

I believe I am in my job today because I heard and obeyed God’s voice. Some of you have heard this story. I was a college student, working at my summer job in a factory in the North of Winnipeg – ten hours a day, $1.00 an hour. Of course that was 35 years ago. Now you have to understand that before this I had never given any thought to going into medicine. That was something for rich or smart kids, not the likes of me.  A friend of the family had once mentioned it because he knew that my marks actually weren’t all that bad. I really didn’t know at the time what I was going to do when it came to career.

Anyway, a co-worker on the machine we were nailing mattress frames with got a sliver in his hand. He asked for some assistance and I helped pull it out. He expressed his appreciation and we were getting back to work when I heard in my mind: “See, you can help people. They need it. You should go into medicine”. So, here I am. I am sure some of you have similar stories to tell, and we should share them. These are the testimonies that can strengthen our faith.

You can’t argue with experience. Of course, there can be dangers in relying too much on experience. What happens to us can be seen too subjectively. That is why we need to know the Bible and what the Church says. Whatever happens to us, with us, has to measure up against these other two pillars of our faith. If not, it is suspect. Even what Jesus did and taught was scrutinized in the light of the scriptures of that day, the Old Testament, and it held up. How much more should what we experience be examined against the background of the beliefs of the Church at large, and the teachings of the Bible.

The Attributes of God

I. God is Love

So, who is this God we have been referring to. What is God like? We have already referred to God’s awesomeness, the supremacy of God as a Being.  I want to focus now on one other characteristic that the Bible gives us about God. It is, I believe, the foundation of all of the other attributes. It is Love. This should not surprise us. What do we experience as humans that is more powerful than love?

Love in the Bible

The word love is found 170 times in the Bible according to a concordance of the New Revised Standard Version. It is found 131 times in the Old Testament, but 180 times in the much shorter New Testament.

Love is a word that has several meanings in different contexts. We all have some idea of what it means. The love that I want to look at today is the ultimately the love of God. This may be something of a concept too, not just a word.

Webster defines love as “A strong affection for or attachment or devotion to a person or persons. Just to show you what great variety this word encompasses, the dictionary lists 8 definitions and applications of the word. I think it illustrates the place given God in our society that the meaning that has to do with God is given last:

                        “God’s benevolent concern for mankind {and} man’s devout attachment to God.”

Not unrelated to this is another meaning: “the feeling of benevolence and brotherhood that

people should have for one another”.

I noticed that it said, should have. I thought that rather interesting for a dictionary. I never knew dictionaries told you what ought to be. Mine is probably getting old; maybe they wouldn’t do that anymore.

This last definition of love, the one between people, sounds like the Greek word ‘phileo’. We often say this refers to ‘brotherly love’. This is where the city of Philadelphia gets its name – the love: ‘phileo’ of ‘adelphia’: brothers. Of course, nowadays, where it says brother we should add sister. Sometimes we just say ‘community’.

The definition of love that refers to God is sometimes related to the Greek ‘agape’, the pure love that has nothing to do with things physical, with sexual desire. That kind of love, as we know, was summed up in the word ‘eros’. I’m not going to spend any more time today talking about that kind of love, if indeed that is love and not simply desire or lust.

Our Experience of Love

1.  As a Baby

How do we really know what love is? Isn’t it based on our experience in life? Our first experience of love is as a baby, is it not? Think of a baby born into what we might call normal or even ideal circumstances, the situation that we believe God wants a child to be born into. This child is the product of two people who love one another: woman and man, mother and father, wife and husband. This child is the product of their creativity and love, both God-given gifts.

2.  Created for Love

Why do we want children though? Can you really give me a satisfactory answer for that? Just to carry on the family name? To have someone to look after you when you are old? I submit that the only really satisfactory answer to that is because we want someone to love, and to love us, like no one else can. Do you know why I say that? It’s fundamental.

You know that in my work I see many young people from troubled backgrounds. They haven’t known real love; at least they haven’t had enough of it to develop healthily when it comes to their emotions. You know what the young women often want? They want a baby! Why? They want someone whom they can love, and whom they believe will love them. It’s that simple. They believe a baby will fill those needs of theirs. These are needs that haven’t been met adequately in their lives. Or course, we say, that may not be a healthy circumstance into which to bring a child, and we may be right.

However, is that not really why we all want a child when it comes down to it? A child is a product of love. That’s all. It comes naturally. We don’t sit down and count the reasons why we want a child. We may sit down and consider whether we are ready, whether it’s the right time. But when we get married, children just seem to come next, in most cases. I submit that we are doing this because it’s in us. We were created to do so. What was God’s first command to the humans God created: “Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth”.

Let’s take a look at this relationship and see what it can tell us about our relationship with God. God created us because of the creative and loving spirit that is central to God’s nature. God’s heart is so full of love that God created us to shower with that love. God has put the Spirit of God into us when we were given life. We are made in the image of God. Therefore, we want to create and show love too.

Now I know some of us have not had the experience of having a family, of having our own children. We have to be sensitive to that. The world is not perfect. In a perfect world, such as may have existed if the human race had not fallen into sin, everyone would probably find a mate and have a family. But things have changed. Just because one hasn’t gotten married or had children does not make them any less loved, any less a person of value in God’s eyes. Indeed, some choose not to have children because of special callings of service, and that is totally honourable.

3.  Unconditional Love

This child, for all intents and purposes, comes into the world with a clean record. It has not yet done anything wrong, anything to spoil the relationship with its parents. There is no earning of love. We may have been preparing for its coming for a number of months, whether it is natural born or adopted. But we love our babies without question, for the most part, at least to begin with.

If one has had the experience of having a child, or even being closely involved with the life of a child that may not be one’s own, one can begin to understand what love is all about. When you hold a baby in your arms and lock eyes with it, especially if it smiles or coos back at you, when you smell that clean newborn baby smell, something happens inside you. You’re smitten. It’s love. No strings attached as we say.

4. Dependence

Again, where does this come from? I am sure God gave the baby those instinctual reflexes of wanting to look into our eyes, of responding with smiles and coos. I believe God also gave the baby that special smell. Why? The baby is helpless. It needs us. God gave it these things to help with the bonding process that is necessary if that baby is going to survive.

We too are dependent on God. God created us with something inside that also wants to connect back to God. The trouble is, it’s been our nature ever since the Garden of Eden to try and deny that. Look where it’s gotten us. We can see quite easily that a baby wouldn’t get very far without its parents, or at least a mother. How far do we get when we try and live our lives as if there is no God? We may be pretty successful in the eyes of the world, but it’s only for a time. God created us for eternity, not just for our time on earth.

5. Trust

What else does a baby or a small child do that can help us understand God. They trust us completely and implicitly, do they not? They believe we are all powerful and all knowing. They believe that we can protect them from whatever is out there, that we can supply all their needs. Again, is that not a mirror of how we view God? God is our Creator. God is all-knowing, all-powerful. God may not supply us with everything we want, but God can provide all our needs. God can be counted on.   

Conclusion

Where are we in our knowledge of God, our relationship with God? Have we looked into the eyes of God and seen and experienced the unconditional love, the trustworthiness, the dependability that is there? Have we given God our all as a child does its parent. God is our parent. God made us to be the beneficiaries of the love and generosity, the grace that are God’s attributes. God wants us to respond. God is there - for us. Are we here for God, or for ourselves. Choose you this day, Joshua when Israel was on the verge of entry into the promised land. We too can enter a promised land if we make the right choice. 

_____________________

Lorne Brandt 2001/5