Brian’s Reflection: Sat/Sun, Dec 6/7, 2008


Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God.
Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she
has served her term, that her penalty is paid, that she
has received from the Lord's hand double for all her sins.

- Isaiah 40 (from the Readings for Advent II)


If God were the litigious sort, She would spend her whole life at suing for libel. (Which would, at least, be a very focused Life.) Why “God” works the way He does I have no idea. It seems self-defeating to me, if not self-abusive. But I suppose that there is some Mystery here that I don’t – and never will perhaps? – understand?

Might it have something to do with the Mystery of Vulnerability?? God seems constantly to be willing and choosing to put Herself at the mercy of human beings. Human beings “make God in their own image” - and God doesn’t fight back! And boy, do human beings take advantage of it! Attributing all sorts of things to God - appalling things, like anger, murder, tyranny, meanness, revenge, hate, vindictiveness, partisanship ….. the list is horrifying. At least to me – though alas, there seem to be a lot of people these days who “take to” such a God. This is the God of Terrorism in all its forms.

But. Vulnerability indeed has a great Mystery to it. I think I’ve seen into it. Vulnerability eventually touches a heart seeking Love. And then you see what “God” is really about. Comfort. Tenderness. Compassion. Heartbreak. Anguish. We human beings create all our own pain and suffering. God has nothing to do with it. And in our venality, we try to co-opt God, make God an accomplice. But God won’t play the game. God gives up Her Life, won’t fight back on our terms. Eventually, any human heart longing for Love sees the true God, instead of the One we concoct.

Hear the message, O People. Comfort. Freedom. For every sin, God has poured out double of Love. Can we not live in this enormous generosity??

Brian+