What if God was one of us?

I find interesting theology in strange places sometimes. I recently heard this song again.  I thought - It's about as much a Christmas song as I can think of.

If God had a name, what would it be

And would you call it to his face

If you were faced with him in all his glory

What would you ask if you had just one question

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

If God had a face what would it look like

And would you want to see

If seeing meant that you would have to believe

In things like heaven and in jesus and the saints and all the prophets

And yeah yeah god is great yeah yeah god is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

He's trying to make his way home

Back up to heaven all alone

Nobody calling on the phone

Except for the pope maybe in rome

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good

yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

What if God was one of us

Just a slob like one of us

Just a stranger on the bus

Trying to make his way home

Just trying to make his way home

Like a holy rolling stone

Back up to heaven all alone

Just trying to make his way home

Nobody calling on the phone

Except for the pope maybe in Rome

(what if God was one of us – Joan Osborne)

The theology of this song is actually not as bad as some might think. Now before some of you run out and buy rope, hear me out. It raises some pretty valid and important questions for us. Questions that the world is trying to answer – and others claim to know those answers.

The questions:

If God had a name, what would it be, and would you call it to his face?

Scripture tells us in Matt 25 that there will be a day, when you and I – along with all the nations of the earth– will stand before His glorious throne.

Old Testament names of God:

El, Elohim, El Shadddai, Adonai, Jehovah, Jehovah-Jireh (provider), Jehovah Rophe (healer), Jehovah- Nissi (our banner), Jehovah-M’Kaddesh (Who Santifies) Jehovah-Shalom (peace). Shepherd, judge, Father, First and Last Immanuel,

New Testament: Kurios (Lord), Christos, (the Christ), Theos (God), Word (Logos), Almighty, I am, Messiah, Alpha and Omega, Father, Son, Holy Spirit

This is not a complete list. One list I saw documented 99 names of God!  All these names! What is God’s name? It’s what caused the Hebrews to use the name YHWH and refuse to use the vowels, for God’s name couldn’t even be written.  Many names used, yet God in the OT and Jesus in the NT reaffirms “The Lord your God is One Lord”

God’s name was often because a direct divine encounter and experience – where God met a dire need or revealed Himself in a powerful way.

When you encounter God, what will be His name: Saviour, healer, provider, Lord, Prince of Peace, LORD, Holy, Lamb of God, and Father?  What do you need God's name to be? Forgiver, purifier, hope, help, healer, friend?

What a great question. If God had a name, would you call it to his face?

Many will call God a name to his face, (LORD LORD) and he will say depart from me I never knew you. Others will be mystified when God says to them ‘well done my faithful servant.” Many of the names that God will be called on that day, He will not recognize as His own.

He is One Lord, One God – Jesus, name above all names, beautiful Saviour, glorious Lord, Emmanuel, God is with us, Blessed redeemer, Living word.

If you were faced with him in all his glory, what would you ask him if you had just one question?

For Nicodemus, when he hears Jesus proclaim “You must be born again, His question was, “How is this possible?”

For John the Baptist, when he was waiting for his execution asked “Are you the Messiah we’ve been expecting, or should we keep looking for someone else?

For the Pharisee, they asked “Who is this man think he is, God?”

For the People “who is this guy that even the demons listen?”

For the High Council (they had two) “Tell us, are you the Messiah?” “So, you’re claiming to be the Son of God?”

The Rich young rule “What must I do to be saved?”

The man with Leprosy “Are you willing to heal me”

In the story of the sheep and Goats, the question was

Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink, or a stranger and show you hospitality?

For Pilate – his question “What is truth?”

Satan even had a question of sorts. “If you’re the Son of God – prove it” – it’s more of challenge statement than a question.

Jesus posed a number of his own questions, but the one we all must answer is “Who do you say I am?”

Again, as with the name of God the “one” question is driven so much by personal experience and need. As you look deep into your life – what might your question be? It maybe so personal that you simply cannot say it out loud – Maybe your question is why…. or how? It maybe in our pain that we too ask “When did we see you…I need to see you…

God is not afraid of our questions. He already knows what they are, and that we don’t have all the answers – I am full of questions – in my own journey some of those are deep, personal questions such as,
“Do you know me?” – “Can you love me?” -- Can you forgive me” ‘Will you save me – from myself.

If God had a face what would it look like and would you want to see if seeing meant that you would have to believe In things like heaven and in Jesus and the saints and all the prophets.

What an intense question. We know that Moses couldn’t even look on God’s face – he only saw His back and his face shone so much it scared the people and he had to cover it up.  When God passed the cave that Elijah was hiding in, he came as a gentle whisper, yet Elijah could not look and wrapped his face in his cloak.  When humanity finally saw the face of God, it came in the form of baby and that face would be beaten, bloodied, pierced with a crown of thrones because people did not see what they wanted to see. They couldn’t believe or accept that this could be the face of God. 

When Philip asked Jesus to show him the face of the father Jesus replied “Don’t you know me Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time – anyone who has seen me, has seen the Father?”

Would you want to see if seeing meant you had to believe in things like heaven and Jesus and saints and prophets –

 Wow. I think perhaps this is more profound and relevant than we want to believe. What is the cost of ‘seeing’, again, we’re back to the Rich young ruler and his unwillingness to pay the cost of belief? This is the barrier for so many – they might like the idea of God – even of going to heaven – what they don’t like is the call to discipleship, holiness, purity, righteousness, forgiveness, generosity, sacrifice that comes with it.

What if God was one of us, just a slob like one of us? Just a stranger on the bus, trying to make his way home, back up to heaven all alone?

The NLT says in Jn 1:14 “So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only son”.

Romans 8:16-17 “The Spirit testifies to our spirit, that we are the children of God; and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ…

Philippians 2:7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness

Well, is that ‘slobby’ enough for us? When this song come out, I remember some of the controversies around it -- this line drove ‘us’ Christian crazy… it reduced God, in that insinuated that the God she was talking about was god is us – Perhaps, but maybe its not that simple.

Martin Bruber, a controversial Jewish Philosopher in Germany at the time of Hitler proposed the idea of the “I-Thou” encounter. It goes something like this.

A person sitting next to a complete stranger on a park bench enters into an "I-Thou" encounter with the stranger merely by the recognition that each has being. . This recognition of “I” and then “thou” opens the pathway to the discover of God. It’s more complex then this, but, it’s the jist.

Detrick Bonhoeffer, a contemporary and Christian Theologian turns this “I-Thou” encounter around. He said that rather than us encountering God through the other, we encounter the other, through God, more specifically, Christ.

It’s an important distinction. Joan Osborne (song author)– long with Martin Bruber suggest we encounter the divine through the imperfect meditorial and broken relation of humanity – this is like trying see an image through shattered glass – we’re going to catch some glimpses, certainly we’re going see images of the Divine of God, but its fractured and distorted.

For Bonhoeffer, we are to see humanity, through the perfect image of Christ. This means that our image of the other, as seen through the perfection of Christ, is restorative, we are able to see the other as being created in the image of God – rather than God being created in the image of ourselves.

When we taken on Jesus, our vision changes “Be now my Vision, O Lord of my heart…” – How we see the ‘slob like one us’ is altered dramatically. You see, Jesus in fact did not become a ‘slob’ like one us. He didn’t come to ‘come down to our level’. He came in order to raises us up to God’s original design and purpose. The ‘slob’ part came through sin – Jesus came to show us who we really are, who we were created to be – Sons and daughters of God, created in his image. He came to reveal to us ‘who we will be’ (1 John 3:2)

Her questions are not completely crazy or unbiblical – Jesus says things like

“Love your neigbour as yourself….”

“Whenever you have done this on the least of these my brother or sisters you have done this unto me”

“You are children of God…”

We, ARE “like” God – for God himself created us that we. We are like God because we have been created in His image “Let us make man in our Image.” I am like my earthly father, but that doesn’t mean I am my father. We are made by our Father in Heaven, it doesn't mean we are Him. It would seem that there is divinity within the slob sitting next to you on the bus – or in the face that reflects back to you in the mirror. You are special – he/she is special in all creation in that.

(Rom 8: 31 What, then, shall we say in response to this? If God is for us, who can be against us? 32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things? 33 Who will bring any charge against those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. 34 Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at the right hand of God and is also interceding for us.

The whole point of Christ, cross, salvation, God’s desire that none would perish, but all would have eternal life is because in you, in me, in the persons we are called to support, is the image – a spark of the divine. Theologians and song writers are divided about what this spark means or is, -- but, its there – it maybe only as the gospel writers Matthew describes “a smolder wick” – that awaits the ignition of the Holy Spirit’s breath, but it’s there. All of us are making our way home – with each breath and heart beat, we draw closer – the tragedy is not all will make it home – The difficult reality is although many are making their way home, only few will find the door.

That’s what makes seeing the other through Christ so important. – We see in the other what the rest of the world does not, cannot see – it changes our perspective on what’s important, and what is valuable and how we engage in and with life itself.

Back to heaven all alone – So many, too many in this world feel, believe they are, really are, alone. We can change that, we need to change that. It is the calling of all those who would be followers of Christ to find the lonely one and help them find their way home.

Can we see the divinity in the other? Not that we see God through them, but that we see them through God – that can we see that God’s spark in them.

Nobody calling on the phone, Except for the pope maybe in Rome

How much talking to God do we really do? Let’s exclude, talking about God, and listening about God– let’s remove the singing and worship parts, Let’s set aside the 1 hour we might attend on Sunday - How much time do we actually spend talking with God. Most often the kind of phone calls He gets is our crisis ones. Even in those we spend much more time talking than listening.

And yeah yeah God is great yeah yeah God is good yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

Anyway, I was just thinking

Neil

P.S. Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night