God and man

God and man

By LEON YOUNGBLOOD

The weather needed someone to comment on it, so I said, “It is hot. It is unbearably, miserably, intolerably hot, and the humidity makes it 20 times worse.”

My friend the Reverend-Brother-Doctor John H sipped his iced tea, except the ice had almost completely melted.  He mopped his forehead with his shirt sleeve, and said casually, “Hell’s hotter.”

“Yeah, but it’s a dry heat,” our friend Walter observed.

BRIAR CIRCLE

Exactly why we were sitting out under the trees midafternoon sipping limpid tea during a merciless heatwave was not entirely clear even to us.  We were waiting for a few younger persons to meet us for fishing, swimming and a cookout, and it seemed like a good idea to arrive early and loaf; but now, we were suffering.  The only consolation was, it beat working.

Walter was the uncle of a couple of the eventually-to-arrive young people.  It was his land, lake and shelter we were using, and though a heathen, he was generally an all-around good, intelligent fellow, and generally well liked.  He made his comment about hell and sat quietly for a few moments.  Then, out of the blue, he asked, “Why do you two want God, anyway?  To go to heaven, to not go to hell, to get a mansion on a street of gold?  These seem like selfish and materialistic motivations to me.”

Somewhat bemused, John and I glanced at each other.  John said, “It’s simple, Walt.  We want God because God is God.  There’s no other reason.”

Walt apparently did not expect this answer.  He could understand heavenly mansions, and earthly material “blessings”; he could not understand having a Judeo-Christian faith without expecting to get something out of it.  He challenged us on this point, in fact.  “So—you would follow God if there was no heaven or hell?  You’d want God even if there was no reward of some sort?”

“If we knew Him as God, yes,” John answered.  “If it was an idol, a god with a lower-case ‘g’, we wouldn’t.  It goes back to the first Commandment: ‘I am the Lord your God.  You shall have no other gods before Me.’  Any other reason for wanting God other than because He is God is idolatrous.

“But Walt, regarding any ‘pie in the sky’ motivations: if a child is born to a loving father, doesn’t the child share in what the father has?  Won’t the father give his children food, clothes, toys, beds, and other things they need?  I admit this is a weak illustration.  There are plenty of bad fathers, but if God’s children receive gifts and blessings—well, what’s wrong with that?”

“It seems like God is an absentee father, though.  And worse, he’s a father who doesn’t care whether his children suffer or not.”

“That’s a point well taken.  That’s how it seems, maybe; but believe it or not, God Himself suffered for our sakes, and still suffers.  Walt, are you an out-and-out atheist, or an agnostic?”

“Oh, merely agnostic, I guess.  I was born this way.”

“Of course,” John said.  “We all were.  That’s why the Bible says, ‘You must be born again.’”

We have to stop here.  This will be continued next week, if interest warrants.

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