Facing an unknown future: turning to the God of grace - "Turn to God - Rejoice in Hope": Unfolding the Eighth Assembly Theme

"Turn to God." This exhortation is repeated over and over again in the Jewish and Christian Scriptures -- most often at times of crisis in the life of the people of God. As the World Council of Churches prepares for its eighth assembly and the celebration of its 50th anniversary, it does so in the context of many crises throughout the world. Often these crises seem overwhelming, and the problems out of which they come insurmountable. The cry "Turn to God" is an acknowledgment of the failure of human imagination, skill, will and resources. It calls all the people of God back to the one Source of our life, and the only one able to deliver us and the world from the destructive and divisive forces of evil.

But who is this one to whom we are called to turn? To answer, "God, of course", is not enough. For the word "God" is a generic word -- one which means many different things to different people. Even among Christians there are a great many concepts and images of God. Some of them are rooted in and shaped by Scripture. Others are (usually more unconsciously) rooted in and shaped by the various cultures in which Christians live. Still others are rooted in and shaped by the differing church traditions (also shaped by culture) in which Christians today find themselves.

To turn to God is not the same as turning to our limited concepts and mental images of God. I have, for instance, had some spirited discussions with self-proclaimed atheists. After asking them to describe the God they do not believe in, I reply that I don't believe in that God either. This usually shocks them, and they insist that the images and concepts of God they are rejecting are what they learned from the church, or from certain preachers, or from Christian friends and relatives. And I believe them. For there are many concepts of God "rattling around" in Christian circles of all kinds which are very far indeed from the God revealed in the face of Jesus Christ. Usually, such concepts are limited. God is seen in a decidedly Lutheran, or Baptist, or Calvinist, or Catholic manner. Or God is imaged in the likeness of certain cultures: African, European, Asian, Native American and so on. God is also often imagined as a male, usually a bearded father god dwelling somewhere in the sky. The trouble with all of these images is that those who hold them often do so half-consciously, and even when fully aware of them, limit their concept and image of God to what is familiar or comfortable for them.

Really to listen to the call "Turn to God" demands that we as the people of God first turn inward and discern what images of God we are harbouring in our minds and hearts. Are some of them idols that need to be smashed? Are we too attached to some of them? Are we willing to admit that whatever our images are, they are woefully limited and inadequate in the face of the unfathomable Divine Mystery named God? Are we willing to allow our images and concepts of God to be challenged, stretched and changed?

This must happen if we are going to turn to God together in all our diversity as God's people. We can no longer allow the differing images we harbour of God to keep us divided, or be used as an excuse for attack or oppression. We have much to repent of in this regard. Think of the horror of Christians marching off to battle against each other during the second world war, each side claiming that God was on their side. Think of the religious imperialism which imposed white Western ideas of God, many of them not rooted in the Bible, upon those who became Christians in China, India and many other non-white, non-Western lands. Think of the oppression of women justified by taking the maleness of God literally, and using it as a reason to exclude women from using their gifts and, even worse, to abuse them.

To turn to God authentically and in a saving way, all of us who name ourselves Christians must return to the wisdom of apophatic theology which comes from the Eastern Orthodox churches, and the earliest centuries of Christian thought. This wise way insists that whatever we say or imagine about God is at best only partial. We all "see through a glass darkly", as St Paul puts it in 1 Corinthians 13. All too often, we are quick to see this as true of every other theological view but our own. But we are all very limited, fallible human beings, and our interpretations of the Scriptures which are our common heritage are also very fallible and limited, as are our concepts and images of God. When we remember the unfathomable mystery of the one in whom we all live and move and have our being, we are much less likely to be so confident about our theological assertions about the nature of God.

The image evoked by the words "in whom we live and move and have our being" is that of a baby in its mother's womb. The baby is very close to its mother -- inside her, in fact -- and yet is very limited in the ways it can apprehend her. The same is true for us who live in God's womb. We are in the dark, so to speak, like a baby in the womb. Whatever we say that is true of God is also not true. This apophatic approach allows for the essential humility which precludes the arrogant assertion of any one Christian point of view as the whole truth about God. It makes room for turning to God at this crucial time in history with a keen sense of our limitations and an eagerness to discover more of who God is from one another. It encourages us to see our differences as sources of insight rather than reasons for division.