Dan 7:9-10, 13-14; Rev. 1:4b-8; Jn. 18:33-37]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
Last June, an undergraduate student at the Faculty for Protestant Theology and Studies of Religion in Brussels handed in her Bachelor dissertation entitled Enquête: ‘Het Godsbeeld’, Survey: The Perception of God.
Through a series of multiple choice questions in an online questionnaire, Marian, our Bachelor student asked her interviewees which images or definitions of God they agreed with. These included amongst others prepositions like ‘God is xyz’, an image of a Hindu deity, an icon of the Virgin and Child, a photo of a plant shooting up through concrete, etc.
One of the very surprising results of the questionnaire was that many people, including those who had been raised without a particular religion and those who defined themselves as non-religious, still saw God as the old man with the white beard in the sky.
The Ancient mentioned in our reading from Daniel this morning apparently doesn’t have a white beard but he does have white hair.
This begs the question: how do we perceive God?
Who or what do we think God is?
What image of God goes around in our heads, and is that the image we share with others?
Who among you is familiar with the image of Christ, as a humble man riding on a donkey?
Or the stoic man looking out from the icon but not really looking at you.
Or the child Jesus with blonde curly hair and blue eyes.
Or the suffering Servant, bleeding, his body cramped up, his facial expressions distorted.
Or the many modern works of art offering new and exciting interpretations, new ways of thinking and imagining and wondering: who or what is God?
For centuries Jesus has also been depicted as the Pantokrator, the Ruler of the Universe, the King who will come again to judge the living and the dead -as we professes in the Creed- and his Kingdom will have no end.
And today is Christ the King Sunday, or Eternity Sunday as it’s called in many churches.
Christ will return.
For many Christians that’s a fearful thought, it really scares them.
In many cases unscrupulous preachers exploit this fear to relieve people of their money.
A religion of fear because of the idea that God is a bitter, vengeful deity whose favourite pastime is to judge and condemn people.
It’s fire and brimstone Christianity.
To be honest, reading through some of the books of the Bible, like for instance Daniel and Revelation, we can’t blame people for getting that impression, now can we.
That’s why cherrypicking and red lettering our favourite Bible passages can be misleading, because this way we only get part of the narrative, part of the information, only part of the image, like an incomplete puzzle.
That image seems in stark contrast from the God who told Moses: “yahveh, I am.”
In other words, God defines Himself as be-ing. God is the very essence of existence as well as the very reason for existence.
God want us all to know that living, happening, existing is why we’re all here.
God is love, and that’s why we’re all here.
Now, how about that as an image of God to share with the World!
The living God, the God of life, that’s how God likes to be known.
God is Father, Son, Spirit,
God is a Judge,
God is a Ruler,
God is a Saviour,
God is Lord, Lord over time and space,
God is man, God incarnate,
God is a King, as we celebrate today,
and so on.
These are all very important aspects, very important details about God we should remember and honour.
But it’s good to remind ourselves that the starting point with God, the perception of Him God would like us all to come back to each time, is to think of Him first of all as life and love.
So, next time one of those doom and gloom preachers tells you to think of God as a vengeful, spiteful deity, dealing out judgement seemingly at random, just tell them that that’s not the whole picture, because God is concerned about us, so He warns us and corrects us, because He loves us and wants us to lead happy, fulfilled and wholesome lives.
It would be interesting to see how they react to that.
So, what perception, which idea do people have of God, because of us, God’s people?
A fire and brimstone judge?
A sweet blue eyed toddler?
A Saviour, literally empty of blood and water, hanging on an instrument of execution?
A King, but one who knows what it’s like not to be a king, to be humble, financially poor, yet rich as a human being.
How do our lives, our Christian lives show the God we worship?
After all, we were created in God’s image.
This means taking responsibility and portraying God in a World that needs to be reminded of its right to exist.
The feast of Christ the King has many sides to it:
the return of a loved one,
the end of days as we know it,
judgement, but a judgement in fairness and love,
a look back at the year, remembrance, Advent is just around the corner,
the redemption of all of Creation,
the reign of a King who has known hardship, the reign of a King who wants nothing but the best for all his subjects, a King riding on a donkey,
etc.
Marian, our undergraduate student got a 17/20 for her dissertation, a magna cum laude, and she was awarded her Bachelors degree in Protestant Theology.
Her thesis has piqued a lot of interest at the university, and hopefully there will be a follow up.
How do we perceive God, and how do others perceive Him because of us, despite of us even?
Today opens up a glimpse, gives us some idea, and at the same time a whole array of possibilities.
And the peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.