Reimagining God

 
 

In his book How the Bible Actually Works, author Peter Enns writes about a continual reimagining of God that is modeled for us in Scripture and essential to our daily walks as Christians:

"Whenever we say to ourselves, 'Well, that's true, but of course God is ____________,' we should pay attention to how we fill in that blank. It will tell us a lot about how we imagine God in our here and now. Even something that seems really obvious and not culturally bound at all, like 'God is love,' is loaded with all sorts of ready-made ideas about what we mean when we say the word."

As Enns demonstrates, this reimagining is evidenced repeatedly in Scripture:

  • Jesus' crucifixion was a jarring reimagining of God as the one offering a sacrifice for humanity rather than humans sacrificing to God.

  • Jesus' resurrection turned on its head cultural assumptions about political power, life after death, and the power of God -- a startling reimagining of God as both triune and one, both transcendent and human.

  • Jesus' teachings forced Paul and his followers to reimagine the religious laws and strict dietary observances that had been a part of the Jewish culture for generations, placing Jesus above the nonnegotiable commands of an Old Testament God.

Consider the complexity: Yes, God is steadfast and unchanging, and yet we -- in our humanness -- are continually called to reimagine our Creator as we seek to understand the changing contexts in which we live:

"The entire history of the Christian church is defined by moments of reimagining God to speak here and now," Enns writes. "That's what theologians do. That's what preachers do. That's what Christian pilgrims do as we journey through life." 

Yes, it can seem uncomfortable and even heretical to reimagine the God of old as if he is somehow reliant on our intellectual exercise. He is not. And yet we have a responsibility to continually move God out of the limiting boxes where we tend to hold him. Reimagining allows us to press relentlessly closer to a Christ-like understanding.

In your act of reimagining, consider these questions that Enns poses:

  • What is your hope?

  • How do you yearn for God to show up here and now?

  • What urgent thing is happening right now to you, your family, and your world?

  • What new thing will the God of old do now?

May the God of old bless your week with new imaginings!

Rev. Dr. Jennie A. Harrop