This week we are heading into "The Death of God" Theology in our AFL journey. I wanted to go back to last years posts and see what inspired me about "The Death of God" idea. I found my April Fools Day Post. It wasn't so much about the "Death of God" as it was about the death of some perceptions of "God" that I wanted to talk about. Here's the post:
AL Post 2022 Day 31: The Death of God as Father and Mother
Almost a year later, I get to see how much my perspective has changed. Strangely, not much. I still see the whole gender thing as a balance issue: making "God" in our image. But the more I spend immersed in history lessons of Christianity, I understand more now that maybe perceptions is all we have. Billions of humans have billions of perceptions. There seemed to be a need over recordable history to find the right way to understand that which in reality can never be understood. But not for a lack of trying. And then there are the wars and persecutions that arise from all those perceptions and all that need to be right.
Maybe its a pipe dream, but what would this world look like if it didn't matter what someone else thought or believed? What if we didn't need to have others on the same page as us or even in the same book. What if we could all be a library, still sharing space with our own expressions and perspectives?
What if Christians could share Jesus like they pass along their love of chocolate. Maybe others would like our favourite flavour of chocolate... so we give them a taste and then they can decide.
"Mmmm... I like Lindor dark chocolate. Thanks for introducing me to it. I think I might pick some up on my next shopping trip."
And maybe they won't like our brand...
"Mmmm... Not bad, but my favourite is still Hershey's Hugs. But thank you for the Lindor experience. I hope you enjoy."
What is the response? Can we still share space? What if Christian Evangelism stopped at the introduction and didn't add things like shame, hell and condemnation in the mix. It's no better than saying that every other brand of chocolate out there is laced with Strychnine. I'm not saying that Jesus is irrelevant in our world and in our culture. But in the early accounts of Jesus, he didn't seem all that motivated about convincing the world that he was the only good "chocolate" around. He seemed to be more about his little community. It looks like it was his followers that needed him to be "the be all and end all".
Is it "God" that needs to die... or just our need to be right about our perception of "God". Maybe "God" has a place in the world and doesn't need dying. For some people, there is not other way to look at the world than through the "God" lens. So why take that away from them?
Right now, at this juncture of my life, I don't eat much chocolate. It's a sugar thing. I have arthritis, and sugar is bad for arthritis. So I gave up my regular consumption of chocolate. I miss it and I don't miss it. There may come days when I take a bite or two, but the days are probably over when it is my regular source of pleasure. I will still buy chocolate for my family because I know they like it. Life is hard... sometimes we just have to find ways to make it feel better. Some need religion, some need chocolate, some need both, some don't need either. But maybe we can still sit at the same table and enjoy each other while we nibble on what tastes good for us.
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