Hand Crafted God

Scripture 

Return, O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take words with you and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all guilt; accept that which is good, and we will offer the fruit of our lips. …. We will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands. In you the orphan finds mercy.” (Hosea 14:1-3 NRSV) 

Hand Crafted God 

Some philosophers, social scientists and writers over centuries have claimed that belief in God is simply a construct of the human need for a higher power of some sort. One can’t use scientific methods to prove or disprove God so there is room for plenty of humility in this discussion (and often lacking on both sides of the equation).  

There is also plenty of room for us to consider how much we ourselves have done a lot of arts and crafts with our own pictures of God.  “God” is used to bless the Ukraine war on both sides, the Israel/Gaza conflict, or Canada’s place in past wars. If we listen to the prayers, poems and invocations at many Remembrance Day ceremonies one has to pause about who this “God” is that is being characterized.   

In a recent morning time of reflection, the prophet Hosea offered his people these words as a prayer to move back to the good and true – “We will say no more, ‘Our God,’ to the work of our hands”.  We make up our own “Gods” to our peril. His own nation was creating “Gods” of their own crafting or borrowed from their neighbours. If we believe in “God” then much caution must be exercised in the pictures we paint.  

The older I get the more I rely on the life, words, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus to shape my understanding of God. Jesus never seemed aligned to any particular cause except forgiveness, justice, mercy and faith. However, we see God or listen to God we need humility in expressing it and caution about arts and crafting our God to our causes.  

A Prayer for Today

Loving God, we call you “our God” and trust we are “your” people. Guard us from false constructs of the Divine from our own hands, minds and cultures. You came in Jesus to open our eyes, to open our hearts by his love, open our minds by his words and feed our hope in this life and the life to come by his death, resurrection and ascension. Let living your justice, mercy and truth be our picture of You…. For Jesus’ sake