God as projector; Jesus as slide

Dr. Osiek had a metaphor for Jesus she uses to understand the Jesus in the Gospel of John. Slides into a projector.

At first the projector is just a white square, but putting a slide in gives the white light box color, shape and tone. The slide gives the light meaning.

God is this flood of light. And white light has all color. Light is also a mystery in that it has both properties of a wave and a particle. Light is this which can be seen but not totally understood. So as the projector shines white light, so is God. Just as white light is incomprehensible, so is God.

But as a slide is put into the projector the white light gains meaning. The light is able to be understood and comprehended but us who are not able to fully see the white light. Likewise, Jesus is that slide for God. Jesus gives us the ability to see God in a way we would otherwise not be able to understand.

Hitler, Sucide Bomber and God

Last week I had mentioned the idea Marcia McFee writes about, Metaphor-aging. I firmly believe followers of Christ need to be creative thinkers in this world in order to make the gospel alive for people.

In an exercise with the youth the last time we did this as a group, I was asked to fill in the blank:

"God is like Hitler and/or a suicide bomber because ___________."

The only thing I could think of is this:

"God is like Hitler and/or a suicide bomber because they are all three in heaven."

This is not to say that I approve of the the actions of Hitler and/or a suicide bomber. Not at all! Rather, I think that it is not our job to condemn or send people to hell.

I note this example because, I think, this is the sort of thinking we need in the church in order to get people to wake up. I can talk theology, Jesus, and the Bible all day long, but I have come to find this is not the case for many people. There are many reasons for this but perhaps one of the reasons is because we all assume we all know what each other believes or, more likely, we are afraid we might offend someone. But I think being offended results in some of the most important change.

Hitler offended people.
Gandhi offended people.
Jesus offended people.

The question I think becomes, what is offensive to us? How are we responding to the offense?

Metaphor + Foraging = Metaphor-aging

Dr. Marcia McFee writes that worship leaders should be people who are able to find different metaphors for meaning. We should be people who forage for metaphors. We should be metaphoragers.


I am sure she would agree, but this idea is not located with just worship leaders but all people; and especially those who follow Jesus Christ - the greatest metaphorager we have come to know.


When talking of the Kingdom of God (KoG) Jesus told parables of things which he found right around him. He did not need to go to the ends of the earth to find metaphors to talk of the KoG, he was skilled enough to do create parables with that which was close at hand.


A mustard plant.
A wedding banquet.
A lost coin.
A King.
A sheep.

We practiced being metaphoragers in youth one night. We asked the youth to think of an object and then complete this sentence:

God is like ___________ because ____________.

One of the great things about this is it causes great conversation. One night the youth asked me to complete this sentence:
God is like a suicide bomber and/or Hitler because ____________.

I will post my response on next week and perhaps that will create a great conversation...