outWORD by Matte Downey

Olympic closing ceremony, London, 2012. Banners or flags serve various purposes in our society. We see them prominently displayed in settings such as national celebrations, at borders, atop government buildings, at sporting events, and in military settings. But Banner as a name for God is a bit unexpected. YHWH Nissi is only mentioned once in the Hebrew Bible, at the end of a story which chronicles the first armed conflict of the nation of Israel. Though just a few months out of slavery, the people of Israel have had their share of troubles. They ran out of food, so God provided manna and quails. They also ran out of water, so Moses struck a rock and water came gushing out. Even so, morale is low and complaints are high. Now at Rephidim (most likely a valued oasis), they are attacked by the Amalekites, nomads in the region who are protecting what they view as their territory. Moses tells Joshua to take some men and go out and fight, then indicates that he will stand atop a hill w...

Our contexts have major implications for how we live our lives and engage with our world, that much is obvious. However, we sometimes overlook how much they inform our concepts of God. For those of us occupying the central or dominant demographic in society, we often associate God with power and truth. As a result, our theology is characterized by confidence, certainty, and an expectation that others should be accommodating. For those of us living on the margins of society, our sense of belonging stranded in ambiguity, God is seen as an advocate for the powerless. Our theology leans more toward inclusivity, and we talk less about divine holiness and righteousness and more about a God who suffers. On the margins, the priority is merciful and just action, not correct beliefs.  There are significant theological incongruences between Christians who occupy the mainstream segment of society and those who exist on the margins. The world of theology has been dominated by Western mal...

One of most prevalent names we have for God is Almighty. We find this designation appearing not only in the scriptures but in creeds. The Nicene Creed begins: “We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible…” In theological terms, we find this aspect represented by the word omnipotent (omni = in all ways, potent = powerful). All of these words refer to a being who has complete, unlimited, absolute power. This is meant to be comforting, I am sure, but think for a minute about someone having unlimited power. As George Orwell famously said, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I think we can safely say that power in itself is not a good thing. The other factor to consider here is this: what kind of relationship do we have with those in positions of power? Michael Reeves notes that if God is The Ruler, the one in charge, giving the laws, then “my relationship with him can be little better than my relationship with ...

Image from crooksandliars.com Judgment. The word sends a shiver through most people's souls, even those who proclaim to have salvation through Jesus Christ. I suppose this is because most of us immediately place ourselves in the position of the accused. To many of us, God as a Judge is not a reassuring thought. And that is strange, if you stop to think about it, because in the scriptures, the Righteous Judge is often portrayed as a very comforting figure. C.S. Lewis suggests that in the Bible we find basically two views of judgment: what he calls the Jewish view and the Christian view.[1] The Jewish view is that of a civil case where I see myself in the position of plaintiff, a person unjustly wronged (stolen from, taken advantage of, etc.). The cry is for justice. In contrast, the Christian view of judgment is that of a criminal case in which I am the accused, on trial for the wrongs I have done against God. In this case, the plea is for mercy. When we are the plaintiff, we ...

Annunciation by Francisco de Goya Image from goyapaintings.org  I was reading Luke 1 a few weeks ago, you know, the story where Gabriel the heavenly messenger brings messages of hope to the old priest, Zechariah, and then to the young girl, Mary. In both cases, women who could not technically have children were given promises that they would conceive and have a boy.  Zechariah was astonished and expressed doubt that this would be possible. He was soon given a sign that anything is possible with God. Mary was also taken aback and wondered how she could conceive a child since she had never been intimate with a man. Gabriel assured her that "Nothing will be impossible with God." Luke 1:37 RSV And this is where I stopped short in my reading. The word "with" in verse 37 jumped out at me. It was like I had never noticed it before. So I took my dusty Greek bible off the shelf and took a closer look at the verse in its original language. Here it is: ὅτι οὐκ ἀδυ...

Here is the summary of the talk I gave on Sunday, November 2, at my faith community. This week we are looking at the name of God, YHWH Sabaoth. You will remember that the word, YHWH, often pronounced Jehovah, means the Existing One and suggests the idea of "to become" or "to become known." YHWH is translated LORD in most Bibles. The most common compound name used with YHWH is Sabaoth, occurring 261 times in the Hebrew Bible. Sabaoth means hosts or armies and can refer to angel hosts, armies of heaven, and every living thing. Therefore, YHWH Sabaoth can be said to be the military name of God. It means the all-powerful ruler of the universe, the One who commands armies of heaven and will eventually defeat all enemies. All power and authority belong to YHWH Sabaoth. We find the Sabaoth name (also used together with Elohim) frequently in the writings of the prophets, especially Isaiah (84 times), Jeremiah (80 times), the short book of Haggai (14 times), Malachi (25 ...

Image from skinnyartist.com Here is a summary of the talk I gave in our faith community on Sunday, October 5. Power and jealousy: these are not really popular concepts in our culture. We have seen too much abuse of power, I suspect, and jealousy (the green-eyed monster according to Shakespeare) is something we all want to avoid. But despite the fact that these two words leave us with negative or at least mixed feelings, we find them associated with the name of God in the Hebrew Bible, so let's take a little closer look at them. Power (El Shaddai): Edward Abbey says, "Power is always dangerous. Power attracts the worst and corrupts the best." That's a pretty negative view of power. Ghandi presented a more nuanced view. He said that, "Power is of two kinds. One is obtained by the fear of punishment and the other by acts of love. Power based on love is a thousand times more effective than the one derived from fear of punishment." Power in itself is n...

Image from wikimedia commons This past Sunday I continued my series on "Names of God" by exploring the ideas associated with the phrase, "I am the LORD your God who brought you out of Egypt." First, a bit of back story: The family of Jacob came to Egypt to escape a famine which was happening in the land. Joseph, Jacob's son, was already in Egypt working as a high-ranking official who was managing the food stores during the famine. The famine ended, time passed, and the descendants of Jacob became numerous. The officials who had known Joseph and treated his family with kindness were now dead and the new rulers saw the many descendants of Jacob (Israel) as a threat, as outsiders who would surely take over the land. They began to treat the Israelites as second-class citizens and eventually forced them into slavery. This subjugation lasted over 400 years or 17 generations. God then called Moses to deliver his people out of slavery, and through a dramatic pro...

Image from thebooksoffoundation.blogspot.ca Sorry for the lag in posting. It has been the season for house guests, family events, starting new courses, various meetings, and travel. So it's a week later than it should be, but here is a summary of the second talk I gave on Names of God . This time I decided to tackle the recurring phrase, "The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob," which appears often in the scriptures, especially the Hebrew Bible. Once I got into it, I realised that I could only really cover one name at a time, so here is my take on what "The God of Abraham..." means. The first task when exploring this phrase, at least in my mind, is to familiarise ourselves with the story of Abraham (who starts out as Abram). You can read it in Genesis 11:27 to the end of Genesis 23. After this, the story switches to focus on Abraham's son, Isaac. It would be best if you took the time to read it yourself, but let me offer a very brief summary here. God ca...