In the comments someone corrected the gender bias of the prayer to "her". This post led me back to a dilemma that I've faced before: if God is truly the greatest being then shouldn't he reflect neutral gender? Obviously there are religions that believe God is completely feminine. Are those people wrong?
I can't answer that question with any conviction for anyone but myself.
Although I believe that God is beyond human comprehension, I also believe that He has revealed Himself to humanity in specific ways. Jesus said, "I am the way the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father except through me." John 14:6 God has revealed Himself to me in the form of Yahweh, the God of the Jewish tradition (i.e. the Bible), and more importantly in the form of Jesus Christ; a man, sent from God who was God and was also human. This man Jesus is "The Way" to God for me. He is the temporal link to the eternal. I see this as a divine revelation. Not the kind of revelation that wakes you up in the middle of the night, that stands at the foot of your bed with huge wings and a shining face and says "THE BIBLE IS TRUTH..."(that would be super weird, and cool, but super weird)--no, this revelation is formed in the dirt; in the rough grimy and frankly dark paths that I've often been on. It feels like a formless mass of "knowing" that refuses to defend itself in the face of science and intelligence and yet lingers in the back of my mind. It is the still small voice. It is the unreality that opposes everything I can feel and touch and yet it backs everything; it supports temporal existence. The thought of this supreme being makes everything I've ever experienced seem slightly ghostly, slightly ethereal and less solid. I dig Kierkegaard when he says that "to defend a thing is to disparage it." Hallelujah, how many times have I tried to prove the existence of God. Well, it doesn't work that way for me. There is always someone smarter who has more reasons why God shouldn't exist. Well, I have a problem with the term exist anyway, but I digress...I'm no defender of God because I don't believe He needs anyone to defend Him. I'm not even an apologist. I'm just a man with a drop of God given faith and some Calvinistic ideas.
In the attempt to grasp even an inkling of what a supreme being must be-God, creator, destroyer, avenger who rains fire and brimstone and allows human suffering, compassionate, merciful, angry, sad, happy--you get the point--one would surely cringe in terror at the realization of His awfulness. I think one reason that Jesus is to be loved is because of what he represents: an awesome God who not only created everything, but lived in His creation as a created being and was sacrificed so that those seemingly insignificant creations have way to communicate directly with the originator. Now that's a mind trip...
Praise the Lord Jesus Christ
I believe in God, the Father Almighty,
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
the Maker of heaven and earth,
and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord:
Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
born of the virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried;
He descended into hell.
The third day He arose again from the dead;
He ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
the holy catholic church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body;
and the life everlasting.
Amen.
"Christ and Children" Sadao Watanabe
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