God as Us: Blasphemy or Blessing?
Humanity has a God problem. If the God problem is solved, all other problems can be solved. The Christmas story offers the best solution to the God problem, but the Church has not told the real story to people. The traditional Christmas story about angels, shepherds, manger, star in the sky, Santa Claus and Magi from the East are certainly magical, mythical and miraculous, but also mostly manufactured. These stories make us feel festive and joyful for a day or for a season, but they don’t transform lives.
The real Christmas story contained in half a verse, in just eight words, in John 1:14 — The Word became flesh and dwelt among us — is rarely told, mostly ignored and always evaded. The theological implications and practical applications of those eight words have cosmic consequences.
Years ago, I preached a sermon titled: “God is with us, within us, around us and — as us.”
Everybody was comfortable with the first three phrases, but the last phrase — God as us — created a problem.
God with us is okay. God within us is okay. God around us is okay too. But God as us??? that is a theological bridge too far!
There was palpable theological tension during the Elders meeting after that sermon. Even though I was talking about us being small-g-gods, embedded with “divine sparks,” “divine images,” “God-in-flesh,” “temples of the Holy Spirit” etc., the elders were still nervous about my blasphemous over reach into the Divine realm. They talked about us being “fallen humans” and “wretched sinners” who are fickle, feeble, frail creatures unworthy of God, and in need of salvation.
The elders insisted that I rephrase “God as us” with “God through us” for a poster I was going to make to put in the Narthex.
I relented, to keep the peace and to keep my job. Long story. It is complicated!
People in the pews cannot comprehend the idea of God as us, because they don’t hear it from pulpits. During my years of attending church, I never heard that phrase from a pastor. But I always heard about the God in the sky sitting on a throne, a judging and punitive God who is scary, distant, and separate from humans.
People have been believing in a distant God, praising and worshiping that God for centuries, and look at the sate of the world. The planet is not a paradise although most of the planet believes in such a God.
Focusing on separation from God fosters separation from others, and separation is fertile ground for fear, hostility, rivalry, competition, abuse and exploitation of others.
Focusing on union with God, fosters union with others, which leads to co-operation, collaboration, friendship, and love.
If you really believe that the person next to you is divinity in disguise, your whole approach to that person will change. If you really believe that your neighbor is God brought to you in the form of a human being, your attitude to that person will immediately change. If you really believe that the stranger at the border is Jesus in the manger, your feelings about immigration will change.
Christmas is about the nearness of God. It is the story of God incarnating on Earth and living among us as one of us, in the flesh. Jesus and us are made of the same essence. We are cut from the same Divine cloth. So, anyone in flesh is potentially god…that is you and me, but it is very difficult for many people to comprehend or accept.
Before sending his disciples on a preaching and healing mission, Jesus says to them:
“He who receives you, receives me and he who receives me receives the One who sent me. (Mt: 10:40)
Jesus is saying that there is equivalence between you, your neighbor, Jesus, and God.
By the way, this is one of the few verses recorded in all 4 gospels, thereby pointing to the importance of equivalence between God, Jesus and us. (Mt. 10:40, Mk 9.37, Lk 10.16 and John 13.20)
I have a chaplain friend who is a staunch Baptist. He is so focused on our separation from God that he cannot see himself or others as small-g-gods. He sees himself as an instrument of God, not as god. And he is in the majority.
What is an instrument? An instrument is basically a tool. Instruments are separate from the person using the instrument. An instrument is usually used and set aside or tossed.
We are not mere instruments in the hands of God. We are part of God, not apart from God. We are co-creators with God not mere creatures. We don’t have a separate existence away from or other than that of God. Our being is contained in the Being of God. God is the Ground of our being.
Look at the scene of the last judgment in Mathew 25.
Jesus says: “Whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to me.” He didn’t say, whatever you did to the least of my brothers, you did it to my instruments. See the equivalence between Jesus and the human being you helped.
You can see the same equivalence in the conversion story of Apostle Paul. When he was knocked off his horse on the way to Damascus to persecute Christians, the voice from heaven, asked him:
“Saul, Saul why are you persecuting me? God didn’t ask: “Why are you persecuting my instruments?” Or “Why are you persecuting my followers.”? Or “Why are you persecuting Christians?” But “Why are you persecuting me?”
When you start thinking and believing that you and others around you, and all the people in the world are small-g-gods, you will see amazing things happening to you which will make your life much easier and joyful. Let me tell you a story to illustrate how this works for me.
On Monday February 19, 2018, I was stuck in the parking lot of an ALF (Assisted Living Facility) because my car battery had died. I could not put the car in Neutral, and move it out of the parking space, because the gear shift won’t move unless the engine is on. And I prayed: Jesus I need help! and guess what?
Jesus was standing outside the building, smoking a cigarette. Now you are thinking, that is a silly, simplistic view, bordering on blasphemy. Stay with me. Don’t pre-judge.
The guy taking a cigarette break was the Facility maintenance manager. I had seen him around that ALF during my many visits there to see patients. I approached him for help. He gets inside my car, opens a lid near the gear box, flips it with the screwdriver which enabled the car to move without starting the engine. He got my car out of the parting spot to be able to hook up a jumper cable.
He was Jesus for me that day, the 2nd person of the Trinity.
Then I needed somebody with a jumper cable. I called my wife Judy. She was off that day because it was President’s day and she happened to be shopping at a Walgreen’s nearby, and she came within ten minutes. As she was driving towards me, windows open, her blonde hair blowing in the wind, I said to myself: “Here is the Holy Spirit, the 3rd person of the Trinity coming to help me.”
We hooked up the batteries, and the car started. A Tires Plus garage was literally half a mile from where I was. I drive up, and a mechanic, a heavy set African American man, was standing outside the garage and, I said to myself: “Here is God the Father, the first person of the Holy Trinity going to help me.”
Being a holiday, the garage was not busy. Barely before I got out of my car, he came up and asked how he could help. I explained the problem. He checked the battery. I needed a new battery. I am thinking $150 dollars. I go inside, the guy pulls up my account, and my battery was still under warranty. Three more months left on a 36 month warranty. So I am expecting a prorated price for the new battery. He replaced it free of charge. Just $15 dollars for installation. And the whole situation of a dead battery to a new battery was resolved in 45 minutes. I was very happy.
While praying for a solution to my problem, I didn’t expect God to drop a battery from heaven, like the manna from heaven in biblical times. I was not looking above but looking around for God to show up and He came to me that day as the mechanic, the maintenance man and my wife…Father, Son and the Holy spirit.
That is my mindset. That is an example of my personality creating my personal reality. That was an experience of my state of being interacting so intimately with reality that the observer, observed and the process of observation are inseparable. More about the “observer effect,” another time.
Since humans are God-made-flesh, my transition to soul-seeing is a seamless process. I am looking for God with His eyes. I am not expecting to behold God in a burning bush, but I am trying to see god in yearning humans. I am not waiting for the Second coming of Christ at the end of times, at a specific zip code in a special country. I am diving into the human matrix where the ambient Christ who came 2000 years ago, is alive and active in the lives of every human being.
God is…as us. Believe that deeply. Lean into the divine milieu and experience life in amazing ways by listening to Jesus who said: “Is it not written in your Law, ‘I have said, you are gods’”? (John 10:34)
Question:
What are some of the theological implications and practical applications of being and seeing small-g-gods?
