We first recognize Him as the One who existed before we did. Second, as the One who authored our existence--the Creator. We are the creature, and we come from and find our meaning in our Creator-God. This relationship is simultaneously one of intimacy and one of separation. The act of creation is a moment of naked connectedness, but it necessarily includes a stepping-apart, else He has not created an other, but only tattooed Himself.
Thus we, blinking in the light see the great Other, our Creator, with space between us. And when the space is smaller, our joy is greater. But sin widens the gap and lessens our joy.
First, pre-existent. Second, Creator. Third, Lawgiver and Judge. Do not eat the fruit. Dying thou shalt die. Cursed is the ground for thy sake. The space between us and our Creator grows greater and greater. And as sin works against the blessings of creation, the splendid holiness of God becomes something to fear rather than dwell in. The fire of our birth threatens to consume us if we draw too near, and the separation is nearly complete.
God is holy, and we are not. God is righteous, and we are not. God is good, and we...are...not.
And yet...the love of the Creator for His creation is undiminished. What we do not know, what we cannot see, is that the widening gulf, the ever-increasing Otherness, is serving an unimaginably beautiful counter-purpose: to develop in the creature a yearning for the Creator to mirror the yearning the Creator has had for the creature since the moment they first parted.
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Throughout this story God has spoken. We read words He spoke in the act of creation--"Let there be....Let us make..." Additionally, we may imagine He spoke to the mud He shaped as we speak to the belly-button of a pregnant mother: "I will be your Father, and I will care for you, and I will never stop loving you. . ." Then after breathing life into the earth-man, He spoke blessing: "Be fruitful and multiply!" And, of course, the words of Law and Judgment already recalled above. And as the gap widened, He kept speaking, sometimes a whisper, sometimes a shout so mighty an empire would crumble. And every word--every law, prophecy, song, proverb, judgment--was precious, and beautiful, and wonderful.
Not merely in themselves, but because they carried the heart of the One who spoke them. Through them He conveyed His yearning. And His promise. "This space will not forever come between us! There is no mountain too high, no ocean too vast, that my love will not find you! I am at work to cross the gap, and in due time I will have both won your heart and set it free! We will be together, you and I!"
And even through this time perhaps the image we are using of a gap, across which God sent His words, is only partially effective in representing reality. For in truth the Creator has found numerous times and ways to draw closer to His creatures. A fire in a bush speaks to Moses, and it is not just a word from God, but God Himself whom Moses faces. Prophets, kings, shepherds and soldiers have touched, or better, been touched by God. Yet each encounter carried with it the promise of one greater, one with the power to re-create creation, to reunite the Maker and the made in ways only hoped for by Moses, David, Daniel and the rest.
In the absence of immediate encounter, the Words were treasured, as a lover stores up letters from the front. This is what God is like! And this is what we are to be like! And here is His promise that we will be united someday!
But some grew confused. Some came to believe that these Words of promise do not portend our unity with our Creator, they ARE that unity. In them, we have what life is to be had! In them we meet our God in what way He is to be met! And the promise of life was exchanged for a life of death. The hope of the Sun was replaced with satisfaction in a fire in a cave. And the Words had to be controlled, reshaped, reinterpreted, hemmed in, lest the reality of the promise burst forth and engulf those who kept the words.
* * *
Then came the moment. The promises found fulfillment in a Child, a cross, a church. The beginning of the end, the end of the beginning, God crossed the gap and now dwells not just with, but WITHIN those who accept the Promises for what they are, and the Promiser for Who He is.
And so now, if the most fundamental element of our faith is God, the second must be God in us. Creation has begun to find fulfillment in its undoing and redoing. We are new creations in Christ, but this happens not in the stepping back, as at the first, but in coming together. The gap has been crossed! We are one!! His Spirit witnesses to our spirit!
So what of the Words? Are they now to be discarded? No! Though we have direct contact with our Creator, our faculties for comprehending Him are yet developing. Through His words he still teaches us about Him. Only now, as spirit unites with Spirit, we can grasp more fully the truths therein. And new Words have been given. "Now that you have seen what the Promise really meant, you are ready to learn more! And new Words are being given. "I want you to trust me with your wayward daughter." "This church needs to open a food bank." you "I forgive you for your abortion." But the words, as always, are not valuable most of all in themselves, but because they carry the heart of our God. It is in Him, not them, that we have life and the fulfillment of the promise.
But we don't act like it. We act like our primary contact with our Creator is still the words, when it is HIM! His Spirit within us! Yes, let us study the words. Yes let us teach new believers to study the words. But let us also learn and teach to commune with God directly, in prayer, fasting, meditation, and in other ways. Let ours not be a faith in Words, but in the Speaker of the Words.
Amen.
This is so incredible!
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