What's God Got to do with it? Everything!

Have a curiosity about "your" God, and theirs!

Family, I love this scene from Alice Walker’s The Color Purple which I am quoting from Good Reads:

“Shug: More than anything God love admiration.
Celie: You saying God is vain?
Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don't notice it.
Celie: You sayin it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?
Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention... except walk?

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! The holidays are upon us, calling us to gratitude, to make reparations to Indigenous people, and to reflect theologically about our lives. Where is God in confusing times and what does God expect of us? What do we expect of God?

In this season, there are lots of conversations about the Divine and Their effect on the universe. Think Gaza/ Israel/ Hamas/ Hezbollah: What’s God got to do with land, identity, power, belonging? Immigration, borders, ICE, Indigenous History Month: What’s God got to do with the Doctrine of Discovery, Manifest Destiny, and making so-called heathens “Christian?” LGBTQIA+ humans, sexuality, and reproductive justice: Is God OK with Gay and is God OK with Trans, and what is an abomination? Is Trump the Messiah, should Christianity be taught in school; is this a Christian nation? Think about superior races and inferior genders and ask yourself, ‘What’s talk of God got to do with that?’

What’s God got to do with these upcoming holidays and how we celebrate them? Everything! How we think about God (or don’t think about God) informs how we think ourselves, the world, and the people in it.

So, what do you think? Below are some questions for conversation at dinner or on a walk.

Do you believe in God or in a Higher Power? What was your first God-moment?

For me: I fell in love with God when I was 8, when I took communion for the first time. My mother told me the bread meant God would always love me and the wine (grape juice!) meant God would never leave me. God will always love me. God will never leave me. That does not mean God is a protective shield, or an insurance policy for life-after-death. God is love. 1 John says it best. God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them. Love is the way, I believe, the truth, and the life. Jesus was love in the flesh. You and I are love made flesh. God is incarnate in the love that calls us to love our neighbors and to love our selves. I feel so blessed that I make a living talking about, writing about, preaching and teaching about God who is a comforter and a way maker, and a healer and a teacher.

What do you think about the Divine now?

I grew up Christian, raised by two African American parents who grew up in the Black Church in Mississippi. Their parents were Christians; their grandparents were Christian. Just like we all do, my folks had certain scriptures that guided their lives, and therefore guided my early life. Do unto others as would have them do unto you. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. The 23^rd Psalm. Once I had a car accident, a terrible one, and I tied that accident to having disappointed God. I did not die, so the car accident was both punishment and mercy. I went to seminary soon after that and was delighted, mesmerized, and amazed that there were conversations to have about God that could reframe my thinking. I was on fire with questions, and enjoyed the possibility that maybe some of what I had learned about God was wrong. My vocation, I came to understand, was to listen to a still-speaking God and to help others to listen as well.

How has your relationship/responsibility to others been influenced by your perception of the Divine?

My relationship with my spouse, John, is such a holy experience. He is a United Methodist retired clergy, and our life is a theological project! We are being shaped by Love, learning to Love each other better. I am Nana to two children, and John and I parent their parents with friendship, love, grace and joy. I love the beauty of creating a container for our family. I have siblings that I love deeply. We’ve lost both our parents now and as the eldest girl, I used to step in as co-madre. But I have discovered instead a responsibility to just BE with them…and to be myself, authentically. There is a deep respect and friendship in that context. God is love, I am love, I am loved, they are loved. Love is the relationship.

What feels sacred to you right now?

For me, my community at Middle Church is sacred. So is my family. Sun on my face. That I can breathe. That there is diverse web of humanity aching for peace and working toward it, and that I am part of it. That I have the honor of writing, speaking, preaching, dreaming, praying for a healed world. This is all sacred to me. God is in everything; everything is in God. This is what I have come to know. All of it is sacred.

Loves, each of us has a story about the Divine. That story/vision is important. Talk about it, listen to others talk about it. Reflect on what you deeply believe and where you have doubts and questions. You can learn a lot about your people by listening to their stories and their God story is just one of them. You can learn a lot about yourself as you engage your story about God. That story about God? It is critical to how we story everything else.

I’m preaching on Sunday at 3:00p ET, the first Sunday of Advent. Come hang out, give me a hug at Judson Memorial Church.

Big kiss, red lip.

Jacqui