1 September 2005

This continues a look at God and America in "A Better Hope" by Stanley Hauerwas.

There is not better indication of the Americanization of the church than the god worshiped by Christians in America. For most American Christians, the crucially important things about god are the God exists and that God's most important attribute be love. ...(Thomas) Jenkins traces the career of this god through the development of liberal and conservative theology and literary figures of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We should not be surprised that the result was a vague god vaguely worshiped or at least vaguely considered.

Let me comment first about a very important change in the word God in the above text. Notice that Hauerwas takes us from talking about God to talking about "this god." What an artful comment in and of itself. That vague god is not the God of the cross...not the God of the way of Jesus...not the God who for three days locked behind the darkness of the tomb. In some ways, all of the protests about the use of the name of God on money or in mottos is something we who follow Jesus should indeed pick up as an issue among us. But for us, it simply would be to make sure the God on the money and in the mottos would be "god" not God. The god of America is not the same God of the prophets and the Christ. This is coming from someone who always talks about the Love of God. But, I hope that when I reference that love, it is always defined by the life of the cross and the love that is self-sacrificing for the welfare of others and the love that will not let go of any of us for any reason.

Connection: Homework for the week: Listen to how the word God is used. Is it the God we see in Christ crucified and raised from the dead, or is it another god that does not and would not ever be seen following Jesus into the homes of sinners and tax collectors...and the like.

Draw us into the way of your beloved Jesus, O God. We find it too easy to follow other gods and need the power of your Spirit to keep us focused on the one who is the Christ. Amen.