A Risk Worth Taking

One of the courses I teach is called Gen 300.  Last week I got up on my box... I sermonized... passionately describing the God of the Bible as a God who can't help but create.  A God who exists in community - Father, Son, and Holy Spirt.  When John says that "God is Love" I believe he is saying that God exists as this trinitarian community.  Thus... creation is the outworking - the outpouring - of this love.  

But love is a risk... creating is risky.  Bringing forth life with the capacity for love is to bring forth beings with the capacity to say "no".  Parents understand this very well.  Thus... the God of the Bible took a risk - a risk he deemed worth taking.

Not everyone appreciated my perspective.  How can God risk?  Is not God omniscient?  Doesn't he know what will happen before it happens?  Excellent questions...  but they are questions that originate outside the biblical story.  We all do it... start with a philosophical proposition concerning such things as "omnipotence" and "omniscience" and read them back into the text.  But what happens if we let the text speak?  Where does the Biblical story lead?

Lately in my other classes I have been emphasizing reading the Bible as narrative.  Allowing the Biblical story to inform our doctrine.  Easier said then done... I realize.  I believe when we approach the Bible this way God speaks to us... he pulls us into the Trinitarian life... allowing us to see what he has made from his perspective.  Allowing us to experience the suffering of the cross for what it is... God's desperate search for Adam... for us.  God's willingness to enter hell itself - God forsakenness - for the sake of a people and creation he loves.  

The truth as I see it:  The biblical story proclaims the good news of a God who searches... the story of how the Divine "yes" overcomes our rebellious "no".  A God who is for His creation...

Good news indeed.