Friday, April 24, 2009

What If God Was One of Us? Or at Least Hanging Out with Us...?

Today's Onion has a finely written piece about God showing up at First Presbyterian Church. You can read it here.

Typical of The Onion, the article is a great piece of satire, and it also has some inner poignancy. I can't help but wonder what it would be like if God did show up at our services one Sunday. Would God be pleased? Would God find us too informal, or too structured, or just right. I like to think we're just right, but that's because the service reflects my own informality and also my fine Lutheran piety.

What do you all think? What if God showed up at our/your church?

5 comments:

Ruth Ellen said...

She does, every Sunday. (And I'm really not just trying to be flip. That's the only way I know how to answer that question)

Donna said...

You are right, Ari, of course. It is actually a rather cynical question I've asked. Still interesting, but cynical.

Anonymous said...

I was going to say something along the same line... I think God is present every time we gather.. and more than likely when we aren't there too!! However, if a physical manifestation of God walked in the door? After everyone got up off their faces... I would love to think that God would be pleased with us.. and then would present us with a new challenge to take on because work is the one constant in being a follower of Jesus Christ..(at least this is what I have learned from my Pastor)
Niki

Ruth Ellen said...

So... I think I'm having a hard time thinking past the ways I know God is present in our worship and service (as Spirit, inspiring our song and prayer and preaching, and as the incarnate Body of Christ, the brokenness we see and seek to hold) to the actual content of the thought experiment (and the faulty Trinitarianism of the theological worldview the Onion is satirizing).

Fortuitously the question of what God thinks of our worship is totally appropriate for Sunday school so I will spare you my thoughts now.

-Ruth Ellen (who goes by Ari in some contexts)

Anonymous said...

Prebyterian? Your kidding, right? Not that I have anything against them - but they aren't exactly "relaxed" and the thought of teenagers wearing jeans at a service didn't reconcile with my experience. For the most part, the kids are shuttled off - out of site and out of mind - and this is the congregation that God chooses to visit?! Makes you think, doesn't it? But God is truly present everywhere, and always present when 2 or 3 believers are gathered. If we remembered this all the time - I wonder how we would live our lives. I am thinking a bit differently. . .Grace