image by Frida Kahlo from John Smedley Blog

1. Does the prophet seem to portray God as having human emotions? If so, why?

Does the Scripture seem to portray God as having human emotions? If so, why? (Little change of the question)

There is a quaint quotation by John Calvin addressing the distance between the immensity of God and our capacity to comprehend, at least, something of God.

"For who even of slight intelligence does not understand that, as nurses commonly do with infants, God is inclined in measure to 'lisp' in speaking to us? Thus such forms of speaking do not so much express clearly what God is like to accommodate the knowledge of him to our slight capacity. To do this, he must descend far beneath his loftiness" (Calvin, Institutes, Book 1, Chapter 13, Section 1).

The otherness of God is so immense, immeasurable and boundless. Were it not for God's deep desire to relate to us, we would merely have only our limited imaginations and speculations to understand him. Who God is, in and of God-self, in God's essence, is inconceivable. We look for God in three places: Creation, in Christ, and derivatively in Scripture.

My hunch is that God is too close to directly know him through creation or Scripture. We swim in God's boundlessness. When we lift our heads to perceive where we are and who we are with, we get mentally swallowed. So many beautiful metaphors come to mind when pondering God. God is love, truth, light, beauty, and many other things, and perhaps God's hiding in all other things. But most of all, I find God revealed in our humanity.

Our humanity, however, is best revealed in Christ, the representative human. Jesus' favourite epithet for himself was the Son of Man (the Human One). It is wonderful to worship God with metaphors from creation and life, but it is far more apt to look into God's human face, found in Jesus. Jesus of Nazareth, to be sure, but also his face that mysteriously shines in our own hearts when we allow ourselves to love and yearn to know him. Paul the Apostle says it more poetically

God, who made His light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. - 2 Corinthians 4:6

A translation from The Voice expresses it another way: “The God who spoke light into existence, saying, ‘Let light shine from the darkness,’ is the One who sets our hearts ablaze; and sheds light on the knowledge of God's glory revealed in the face of Jesus, the Anointed One.”  2 Corinthians 4:6

It is awe-inspiring to stretch our perceptions, to see God in the cosmos and luxuriate in that cosmic entanglement, as the new physics has urged us. But I am so limited by my mathematical, scientific ability that it is far better yet for me to lisp along, seeing God as the Christ. He walks among us in our Watershed candlestick, our community. He lights the way, revealing himself as reflected in each other, in the unfolding of the kingdom in our lives.

- Paul

2. Describe a time when some “tough medicine” led to your healing. Did you resist? What helped you accept it?

It struck me that the only way to resolve the verses 1-7 with 22-28 is from the context of “tough medicine”. This always sounds harsh and judge-y from the outside. But having received this tough medicine, I know it does the trick.

There’s this YouTube video someone sent out awhile ago about what our prayer to Jesus might look like. It was this guy going for coffee with Jesus and just rattling off all his self-preoccupied requests but not really having a relationship with Jesus.

When I read parts of chapter 43, I imagine Jesus looking into my life when I’m like this, missing the boat completely through a combination of willfulness and ignorance. Stepping back, I don’t want to be like this but sometimes I don’t know that I am. It takes a true friend who makes me aware so I can again turn to Jesus in an open way. It’s also called saving judgement because your hear the truth and it heals you. If you trust the speaker. And I think that’s what verses 1-7 or even up to 21 are about. Reminding Israel that God has their best interests at heart. So that when the harsh words come, they can be inclined to hear it. 

One of the times this happened for me was about 2 years ago. I was talking to Paul and Bev on the phone over lunch. I was talking about my worries about Watershed if Paul retires. Would it still have the same authenticity? We ended up talking about how my fears, stemming from a deeply-held value, made me act like my mom trying to over-control things. It was (and still is) a shock to admit this. One of impacts of that was realizing how I also value people making free choices. I needed to find a way to balance that with my value for the integrity of Watershed. It also helped me see how untrusting I was towards God. It is an ongoing process but more than less I think it’s been a healing process.

- Linda

3. Isaiah 43:1 says “I have called you by name.” Can you think of a 3 or 4 word phrase describing the name God has given you?

The notion of God calling Israel to be his witnesses strikes me as kind of an interesting paradox, given that Israel was at such a low point in exile. It’s like they would have to somehow pull themselves up by the bootstraps to even attempt to do it justice.   

I came across a song that seemed to give an inkling of bearing witness in a thought-provoking way. The song is a reflection on 9/11 and the shadow it cast, but the musician seems to bear a counter-cultural witness in such a poignant way. She reflects truthfully on what she sees - heartbreak, death, revenge, fear - but also stands in hope (symbolized in the flame carried by the statue of Liberty). In a sense, she is reminding them of who they are called to be. Maybe 'bearing witness' and ‘hearing who you are called to be' are two sides of the same coin. The song is called Land of the Living by Lucy Kaplansky.

I didn’t think of a particular memory of being called by name but the words ‘beloved’ and ‘daughter' came to mind. Also, when I think of my contributions to music at Watershed, the phrase ‘contemporary hymnodist’ is an encouraging name as well.

- Verda

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