Unlearning God.

From Tony Woodlief comes something for us to think about on a Sunday.

Pondering the nature of God is essential, but it should be done with fear and trembling. We Westerners are trapped in a legalistic, contractual mindset. Many of those who led us here were hardhearted men in rebellion against Rome, yet enslaved to its juridical mentality. What can we claim to know about God, 2000 years after his Incarnation, having rejected 1500 years worth of experience and tradition, along with practically every insight taught by those who sat at the feet of the Apostles? What can we say about God? What dare we say about God?

God is love. God is a father, and a son, and a whispering ghost. God struck down nearly all of humanity in a killing flood. God nursed at the breast of a woman who freely chose to be grieved. God wept for the dead. God climbed unto a cross for his children. God is a consuming fire who will come again in power and glory and majesty.

Who then can know God by mind alone? Who will stand before him on that day and declare: This is why you have done these things, Lord, for these reasons that I have explained in my books and sermons? Who claims to discern the entire essence of God? Who sees him more than in a mirror darkly?

Intellectualize him at your peril.