From William C. Placher’s “Narratives of a Vulnerable God”
“God has a heart. (God) can feel, and be affected. (God) is not impassible. (God) cannot be moved from outside by an extraneous power. But this does not mean that (God) is not capable of moving (God’s self). No, God is moved and stirred, yet not like ourselves in powerlessness, but in (God’s) own free power, in (God’s) innermost being.” - Karl Barth
Love and the unexpected moment can catch us into risking vulnerability almost in spite of ourselves, but God does not need to be pushed into the full consequences of living out love, for in freely loving, God is most of all who God is, most exemplifying the kind of power God has.
In many ways I suppose we teach that God can be moved…but God is actually moved to simply be God. We do not pray to manipulate God to be our kind of God…a servant of our wants and greeds. We pray that our God will be for us…the God of promise. That God always is one that demonstrates power through love for that it as Barth writes, God’s “innermost being.” That’s God! God will be loving – no pushing needed. God will love and in the utter freedom of that loving, God creates new hearts in God’s people so that we too may be free to love.
Connection: We would do well to pray for God’s loving presence in this day so that we may enter into that loving and become a part of its power within the many interactions we will face.
Lord God, take us by the hand and lead us along the pathway of the power of your love. Show us what is created within this day as your love springs to life to engage our world with compassion and loving kindness that is often unheard of in our world. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment