God out of the Box
All human beings have beliefs about God. These
beliefs range from absolute literal beliefs in the scriptures of one’s
religion, whatever that religion may be, through mythological understandings to
agnosticism to atheism. Whatever our particular belief about God, we all put
God in a box, we all see God as smaller or different than God really is. By
keeping God small God is more comfortable, more manageable, more like us. For
those of us who are believers, the box usually limits God to our human and
therefore partial understand of God and creation. As St. Paul writes in his
first letter to the church at Corinth: “for
now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then we will see face to face. Now I
know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known.” (1
Corinthians 13:12)
On the upcoming
Feast of Pentecost, we celebrate God’s escape from the box. “When the day of Pentecost had come,
the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there
came a sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house
where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire, appeared among them, and
a tongue rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit
and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability.” Fire
can be warming and comforting. It can also be uncontrollable and dangerous.
(Acts 2:1-4) The Holy Spirit is the fire that only God controls and we are
swept up in it, to be controlled by God rather than God being controlled by us.
The fire of the Holy Spirit burns down all of our boxes. Acts Continues, “Now there were
devout Jews from every nation under heaven living in Jerusalem. And at
this sound the crowd gathered and was bewildered, because each one heard them
speaking in their own native language. Amazed and astonished, they asked,
‘Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear,
each of us, in our own native language—in our own languages we hear them
speaking about God’s deeds of power. (Acts 2:5-8)
God’s deeds of
Power, the Marvelous acts of God! Pentecost releases God’s power, Pentecost
releases us to see a larger God than we can ever imagine. The Hebrew Prophet
Joel, some 400 years before the birth of Jesus recognized this power when he
proclaimed,
