God is Dead?

I have finally decided on what our first series of topics will be in our youth group. We are beginning with a series entitled: "God is dead." Now there are some that may think this a little bit of an odd way to begin the new year, but let me explain. BTW, if you are a PNEUMA youth member and reading this, please forget about it before the first of the series.

The idea for this series came from a seminar I attended with Tony Campolo at NYWC. The seminar was dealing with apologetics in youth ministry. His critique of the challenges from sociology is where this idea comes from. Here's the premise. The earliest humans found their need for community through tribal groups. Each of these tribal groups would have something that would make them distinct, something that would make them stand out from the crowd. As the tribes begin to interact with each other, the tribes found ways to symbolize the values and the nature of the tribe. Most often, animals were chosen to represent the tribe. On occasion, tribes would come together to form larger tribes. When this would happen the symbols, or totems, of the tribes would be combined to form a larger symbol (usually a totem pole) that would represent the values of the larger tribe, while still paying respect to the various smaller tribes that made up the larger. It was not long before these symbols of community became more than symbols, they became representative of a god in the tribe. What happens here is that the people make a god that looks exactly like them; it looks like their heritage, like their culture, etc. Sociologists would say that religion is nothing more than worship of the idealized self.

What does this have to do with anything? Well, look at the picture of Jesus at the top of the page. The ever-present white Jesus. If you are white and reading this, you probably take some comfort in seeing this picture. Why? Because Jesus looks like you. Take a look at this picture. Is this a picture of Jesus? Maybe. The point is that Jesus was not white or black. Jesus was from the middle east. All of our images of God fall short. If we look at them, I think that we will see more of the artist life in the picture than anything else. We are constantly making God into something that looks like us, something we are familiar with, something tame and civilized. It has been said that God created humans in God's image, and now humans have decided to return the favor.

The point of what I have said is this: perhaps we need to let god die. No, God as a deity will never die. However, our perceptions of God that become so real to us, that are more representative of our own lives needs to die. I want to reclaim the radical, otherness of the God of scripture. I don't want to believe that God looks like a white middle class american constantly reaching for the next rung on the ladder to success. I want to understand God for who God is, as the one that confronts and deconstructs myself into an image of otherness, an image of Christ. God forgive us for making you in our image. Today I declare the god that is one with ourselves and culture as dead. I also declare that the true God of otherness is alive and well and at work in the world around us.