Say Hi to "God"

I have a friend whose mother is dating God.  Maybe I should explain.  My friend's mother has had a relationship, for the past 10 years or so, with a person that claims to be "God".  The exact nature of the Godly deity to which my friend's mother ascribes is not known to me - neither is the level of dysfunction that is involved in the relationship.  Though obviously, it is considerable.  This dating relationship with God, of course, raises a whole host of related follow-up questions.  If you are on a date with God, who pays?  What are the implications of breaking up with God?  Each time I talk to my friend, I say, "Oh, and remember to say Hi to God for me."  My friend always replies, "I will say Hi to God for you, is there anything you want to ask Him?"

There is another friend of mine who is in an ongoing debate with me about whether Jesus is actually God.  This friend has recently written me a series of very animated, angry, screed-like emails about how wrong I am in claiming that Jesus is, in fact, God.  No amount of redirecting my friend to the Apostles Creed, "Fully Human/Fully God" can assuage my friend's strong convictions that Jesus was simply a teacher.  I think he is still attending Highlands, but just barely.

The purpose for this blog is simply to illustrate how confused and misdirected our world often is about the true nature of God - today.  While we theologians and pastors can spend hours at a time debating the nuances of how, exactly, does the nature of atonement in Christ work, everyday people continue to be completely confused about what and who God is (ie: God can't be dated, Jesus is God).  The basics of our faith should not be lost in the theological shuffle irrelevant nuance about God (postmillenialism, suprasurlapsarianism...).  In my faith community, people still need just the basics.

All for now,

GB