GETTING TO KNOW GOD

INTRODUCTION

The title of my homily is, “Getting to Know God.”

Let me try to put into words what I’d like to get at in this homily.

TWO EXPERIENCES

Have you ever had the experience of working with someone whom you picture in a certain way? You get to know them – but then surprise, you find out that the person is very different than you thought that person to be. It could be for better or for worse. And then sometimes something else happens and you get another view, another understanding of that person. And then you say, “How wrong I was both times.” Or we say, “How little we know.” Or we say, “Oh my God, I guess we never really know each other.”

I think we’ve all had that kind of an experience. The bummer could be in marriage – or with some family member. The interesting one is brothers and sisters talking about their parents – who have long gone – and one or both discover new takes on their parents – and sometimes that happens while driving or what have you a week or a month after the conversation. Go figure.
That’s the first experience. It’s happened to me at least 5 times very significantly. How wrong I was 3 out of the 5 times.

The second experience is ourselves. Sometimes someone pictures us a certain way – and we know they have no clue about who we really are. To be a priest can be very humbling – because people often lay on us understandings, personalities, qualities, expectations, descriptions, roles - instead of the person we think we know we are. That’s scary.

Or we do it to ourselves – we realize at times we really don’t know ourselves – and that can be scary as well. Hopefully we’re all growing.

NOW GOD

Now that’s ourselves or different people whom we live with or work with or who are our neighbors.

How about God? What is God like? Could we be wrong in our understanding of God? Do I have a different understanding of God now than say 10 years ago or many years ago? If I’ve changed in my perception of God, what triggered the change – the new understanding?

If I handed out to each person here, a piece of paper, and then asked you to describe God in 25 words or less, what would the descriptions sound like? Would every description be correct? Would any description be wrong?

If I also handed out to each person here another piece of paper and asked you to write out what you thought the Catholic Church teaches what God is like, or who God is, would the answers differ? Would someone simply write out the Creed? Is there a right, or better, a best answer?
And then would God respond: “You don’t know me”?

Does God cry when someone has a really wrong understanding of God? Does God cry tears of joy when someone grasps the essence of God?

TODAY’S FIRST READING

Today’s first reading from Genesis 18 – comes from some 3000 years ago. It’s from the so called “Yahwist Author” in the book of Genesis – the earliest and most primitive part of the Bible. He’s called the Yahwist, because he uses the word “Yahweh” for God. Names for God is a whole other story in the Bible.

The so called “Elohist” author – who uses “El” or “Elohim” for God – as in the endings of the names Daniel and Nathaniel and Gabriel – or Al or Allah in Arabic languages - has a perception of God as up there. God is up there – way up there – in the heavens – at a distance - creating everything from afar. “Let there be light and there was light” as in the first creation account in the Book of Genesis.

The so called “Yahwist” author on the other hand has God coming down from heaven and walking around – as in the Garden making Adam out of the mud and clay of the earth. Then Yahweh or God –realizes it’s not good that the man be alone – so he makes woman out of the man’s rib – Adam’s Rib – great ribs - great story – men ribbing women where they come from – great symbolism – and women smiling knowing they know all come from mother earth – from the womb. Then God loves to meet and walk in the Garden in the cool of evening with Adam and Eve. It looks like God doesn’t like to be alone either – and then the Yahwist author begins to explain how sin arrived and he uses a talking serpent to tempt Eve – and she eats the forbidden fruit and they are thrown out of the garden and are really separated from God. Sad story.

Well in today’s reading from Genesis 18, God is walking around again and this time the Yahwist author has God coming down to earth to check out two towns: Sodom and Gomorrah. He wants to find out if they are really as bad as they are reported to be. People have been screaming out to God to wipe out these towns.

The Yahwist author of this text pictures God as Judge – God as the Destroyer – God who can blast those who do bad and reward those who do good.

After a hurricane or an earthquake preachers who think this way say God is punishing the evil. And then those who don’t see God this way scream at those preachers. If one lives in a less earthquaky or less hurricany area of the country, they can think that we’re not as sinful as those guys in down in the gulf or in Haiti.

So people see God in different ways. How do you see God? That’s the question I’m asking today.
The title of my homily is, “Getting to Know God.”

OTHER ANSWERS

Without using the Bible, just using reason, some philosophers and schools of philosophy try to prove God’s existence by cause and effect, order, beauty, and existence.

If you use cause and effect, you simply say, “If there is a church, there has been church makers. If there is a garden outside this church, there are gardeners.” These things don’t just happen.

But what is the maker and the designer like? So some philosophers say that God is good at Math – because this world – this universe wouldn’t exist – without someone with great engineering skills.

Philosophers might then say – this God thinks big, but this creator, this first cause, this God who keeps the universe going, is also mighty mysterious. Then they speculate on the so called, “Problem of Evil” as well as the “Problem of Good.” Why do some people seem to get al the breaks and others seem to be so broken?

You might have read that several of the Founders of the United States were Deists. Several thought God created this world and then made it independent – on it’s own.

When we studied philosophy in college we were also taught the existential argument for God. That argument has always impressed and impacted me. Either a thing is keeping itself in existence by itself or by a force outside itself. Apples and oranges, rocks and ballpoint pens are not existing on their own – so something, better someone with intelligence is. That force is God.

That’s philosophy – and it’s always worth studying.

Next comes religions which give other answers – especially on what the personality of God is like.

So here is where for Jews and Christians the Bible becomes very, very sacred and very important.

The Jewish Scriptures, which Christians sometimes call, “the Old Testament,” certainly has various images and stories and perceptions of God.

I would say that there are many texts that have God zapping people – as in today’s first reading – wiping out armies and drowning all kinds of people in the big flood.

And then again there are those people who want God to zap people or who think hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, any disaster is God zapping sinners.

CHRISTIANITY
Christians turn to Christ for answers.

In today’s gospel from Luke, we have Jesus teaching us to call God Father, Abba, Pop, Dad, Daddy, a very familiar term for one’s father and then Jesus gives the basics of the Our Father, shorter here in Luke than the version from Matthew which we all use in the rosary and at every Mass.

Then Luke uses some rich imagery and says God the Father is only going to give us good things – not evil.

Then he adds, “If God seems silent, bang on his door, scream, yell, wake him up.”

In a way Jesus can be very much like the Yahwist – picturing and painting God in very basic ways - like today’s first reading when Abraham is trying to get God down from 50 just people in Sodom and Gomorrah to 10. Keep bargaining with God till you get what you want.

CONCLUSION

Enough on a hot day. More than enough for a Sunday morning homily.

What to do?

Talk to God about God. It’s called prayer – the major theme in today’s gospel. Today’s gospel has a great prayer: “Lord, teach us to pray!”

Talk to each other on each other’s perceptions and understandings of God.

Answer Jesus’ question: Who do you say I am?

Have God ask you the question: Who do you say I am?