One of the books I read last week while I was away on Study Leave is A Generous Orthodoxy by Brian McLaren. McLaren is one of the great thinkers about the American Christian Church in the 21st Century, and boldly prophetic about where he imagines the Church to be heading in the coming years. He very intentionally avoids abstract language and describes overly-difficult theological concepts in understandable ways. I encourage you to add this book to your summer reading list!
McLaren quotes C.S. Lewis (author of many works, including the Chronicles of Narnia) on the issue of the language we use to describe God. “Language,” says Lewis, “can be a window through which one glimpses God, but never a box in which God can be contained.”
This quote struck me, because I find that our language when it comes to talking about God is so often limited; and because the language we use for God is so important. The metaphor for God that is found most in scripture, and that we use most frequently to describe God is “Father”. It is a powerful and useful metaphor, but it is also limited. If we understand and speak about God in exclusively male imagery, we ignore the other wonderful metaphors for God found throughout scripture – friend, shepherd, vinedress, wind, storm, mother, fire, water, rock. If God can only be “Father”, think how damaging this metaphor is to the faithfulness of those who have been mistreated by their human father. If we only embrace the metaphor of “Father” for God, we fail to recognize that women are also created in God’s image.
Each of the many scriptural metaphors for God can enlighten us as we seek to be faithful…but if the metaphor is taken too far, or taken in the wrong way, it can mislead people about God…or even worse, lead people away from God! I think C.S. Lewis has it right. Our language about God must always serve as a window, a window through which we can peer into the heart of God and know how we are to live.
Do we have God in a language box? If so, we need to let God out…for in truth, all our metaphors for God have never fully captured God any way, and they never will!
See you in worship this Sunday!
