This column started as a casual email chat among editorial colleagues, about the virtues of knowing other languages and cultures. Somehow, it morphed into a discussion about the relative merits of the gods of various cultures, and the way every religion felt that its god was superior to any other god or gods.
And someone asked, “Who’d want to worship an inferior god?”
The concept intrigued me. An inferior god? Why not?
After all, most criticisms levelled at religion are based on the assumption of a superior god. You can’t have a multitude of superior gods, because then they wouldn’t be superior. Therefore your deity must be superior to other gods. Which forces you to reject any claims that other religions may make. Which leads to the intolerance, bigotry, and prejudice that critics accuse religion of fostering.
A superior god has to be superior to everything. Nature. Chance. Fate. Probability. A superior god, in fact, has to be Almighty. (It feels like time to introduce capital letters.)
Belief in an Almighty God leads to some dangerous assumptions. Because God is Almighty, His will must prevail. Therefore the Agents of the Almighty’s will have the right – indeed, the obligation -- to impose God’s Will on inferior beings. Such as misguided believers in other religions. Also on other races. Other genders. And the whole natural world.
The more rigid the religion, it seems, the more this mindset applies.
Historic Christian creeds make the superiority of their God specific:
Apostles Creed: I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth….
Nicene Creed: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen…
A vulnerable messiah
The creeds also assert that God is fully revealed in Jesus. My church’s constitution declares that God “has perfectly revealed Himself in Jesus Christ…”
But I don’t see an Almighty God in Jesus. What comes through to me from reading the gospels is that if Jesus had power, he didn’t use it.
From the disciples’ perspective, it seems, he could become shining, transcendent. He could walk on water. He could heal disabilities and incurable diseases. He could pass through locked doors. He could feed thousands from nothing.
But as the story goes, Jesus himself rejected the temptation to produce food from stones, to control nations, to perform supernatural acts.
The disciples also mistakenly believed he could call down fire from heaven, as the prophet Elijah did for a giant barbecue. No doubt they believed he could have wiped out the court that judged him in a blast of flame; he could have demolished Herod’s court with an earthquake; he could have struck his executioners with a lightning bolt.
But he didn’t.
If he had power, he didn’t use it.
Does that make him powerless? Or perhaps a representative of an inferior God?
What difference might an inferior God make?
Presumably an inferior God would have to work cooperatively, rather than authoritatively. An inferior god could not, would not, enforce its will from a distance; it would have to achieve its will through the actions of its agents.
Like the disciples. And like us.
I kinda like that kind of God.
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Copyright © 2017 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
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YOUR TURN
Who would have thought that a column ostensibly about earthworms would generate this much response?
Laurna Tallman: “Delightful, Jim. Smiles and chuckles. An indelible metaphor!”
Steve Enerson: “A masterful combination of observation of minutiae, inquiry, analogy and learning. Thank you for your perspectives and the eloquence with which you convey them.”
John Shaffer: “I have not thought much about worm migration. I thought they did it to avoid water in their soil, but perhaps there is more to worm psychology than I know. It does get messy when they get on my sidewalk.”
Maggie Rogers identified with the worm: “Moving forward is difficult. I am currently under-employed at a job in retail management that I am good at and enjoy, except when I am bored by the daily sameness or my feet hurt. I apply for other jobs, but I am not sure what direction forward is for me. I don't want to have any of my previous occupations again, but I also don't know what I am interested in doing for the rest of my working life. I'm over 60, and have lots of experiences that don't add up to an obvious occupation. I keep walking out onto the road -- sometimes I get across, sometimes not, and I'm still not sure where I want to go. Sometimes I feel like the chicken and the worm!”
A few of you recognized the underlying message. George Brigham wrote, “As a minister I can relate well to your worm analogy in churches where I've worked. Occasionally I've been the head, but more often I've been the middle trying to keep the ends from pulling apart.”
Tom Watson: “Okay, all together now, one step forward, one step back... How did Einstein define insanity? Doing the same thing time after time, but expecting a different result….”
Isabel Gibson suggested, “When people can learn to value both the seekers and the butt-draggers among us -- seeing that we need both -- we'll be onto something.”
Jane Downs Wallbrown was struck by the psalm paraphrase, about “God being like ‘Nana.’ I never had one like that. One died when I was 2; I never really knew her. The other was a stereotypical New Englander...terribly reserved. We saw her so seldom yet she would barely hug us. Even when I was in college and went to visit her all by myself, she was formal and stiff.”
Janie has recently become a grandmother herself: “Personal experience aside...this bit of a psalm made me realize (what I'm beginning to understand) why it's so terrific being a grandmother. I am finding that I simply enjoy TJ no matter how she is. Think I'll keep this as a reminder of who/how I want to be with her.”
I’ll close with a poem that Boyd Wilson felt inspired to write:
This earthworm’s
worldview is a bit
smaller than mine.
But is it less valid,
valued, in the big
picture of all life?
This worm and its kind
always leave the
earth richer for
their presence.
No way can I and my
kind match that.
But I’ll die trying.
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PSALM PARAPHRASES
Oh, my, the lectionary calls for everyone’s favorite psalm – Psalm 23. I’ve done half a dozen paraphrases of this one, but this is the one that seems to have been most memorable. (It’s pure coincidence that it follows last week’s paraphrase about grandmothers.)
Mommy holds my hand;
I'm not afraid.
She takes me to school in the mornings;
She lets me play in the playgrounds and the parks;
She makes me feel good.
She shows me how to cross the streets,
because she loves me.
Even when we walk among the crowds and the cars,
I am not afraid.
If I can reach her hand or her coat,
I know she's with me,
And I'm all right.
When I fall down and I'm all covered with mud
and I come home crying,
she picks me up in her arms.
She wipes my hands, and dries my tears,
and I have to cry again,
'Cause she loves me so much.
How can anything go wrong
with that kind of Mommy near me?
I want to live the rest of my life with Mommy,
in my Mommy's home for ever'n'ever.
For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.
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YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…
• Ralph Milton most recent project, Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal -- consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
• Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
• Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
• Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
• Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” -- ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net
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TECHNICAL STUFF
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I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca
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