Spiritual breathing

My last seminary paper which I turned in today, was on the topic "The Biblical Spirituality of Breathing". Although the paper is longer than I would post on this blog I did want to share some of what I learned.

Both humans and God breath. The difference is God's breath does much more than the breath of humans.

Like God, humanity breaths to sustain life. If God stopped breathing, so would we. But God's breath does much more than just sustain life. Perhaps this is what is meant that humanity has a divine spark within them. We have the ability to breath but only just a spark of the way God breaths.

God's breath is found in the creation of the world (Genesis 1, 2:7 and Psalms 33:6) and in the salvation of Israel by holding back the waters of the Red Sea (Exodus 14:21 and 15:10).

To describe God as one who breathes is a statement of faith in that idols of clay, stone or iron do not have the ability to breath (Habakkuk 2:19, Psalm 135:15-18) Perhaps my favorite scripture on this aspect comes to us from Jeremiah 10:14 which states; "Everyone is stupid and without knowledge; goldsmiths are all put to shame by their idols; for their images are false, and there is no breath in them."

The breath of God also judges people as in Isaiah 11:4 and Revelation 19:15.

And of course God is prophetic in breath such as in Ezekiel 37 to the dry bones and the Risen Christ who breathes the Holy Spirit to the Disciples in John 20.

I know that humans are not God. But at the same breath I am not sure I can totally affirm that God is totally and wholly other because we are made in the image of God. I know individual humans do not have the ability to encompass all the characteristics of God's breath, though I think some individuals are able to breath fuller than others.

But my question is this, "Can the Church as a collective body, breathe with all the characteristics of God's breath?"

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?