I like coming to church and, in particular, I like coming to this church. It gives me a space to break out of my ordinary routines and spend time thinking about the bigger and deeper issues of life. Nowadays, they tend to be ‘How can I best live my life?’ and ‘What will comfort me in tough times?’
When it comes to coming to church, I have a big stumbling block. It’s the question of God. Not a simple matter of whether to believe or not. I fall on the not side of the line but the issue is one of not being interested in believing. The image and representations of God I have encountered do not warm my heart, enlighten my mind or inspire a feeling of devotion.
God from a Christian point of view comes in two versions. The Spirit is deliberately omitted from this address, as he is far too nebulous and silent a being to be considered a god in his own right. This leaves the Old Testament God: God the Father: Yahweh or the Great Jehovah: and the Christ of the New Testament.
Jehovah appears to Moses in the burning bush, giving light on a dark night and enlightenment. This was a one-off epiphany and marked a turning point for Moses and the Israelites. Karen Armstrong describes the Old Testament God in her book ‘The History of God’ as a God of War. He can also be regarded as a dangerous being, which makes serious and strange demands on his people. This God is powerful but, in my view, is not attractive.
In the New Testament, we meet the Christ. He spoke some inspiring words, notably the Beatitudes and the Lord’s Prayer. Two thousand years later, these words are read and prayed worldwide. The difficulties for me are two. First, the image of the tortured, dead Christ on the cross is alternatively disturbing; looking at it inspires nausea rather than awe in me. Second, Christ demanded that his followers leave behind everything of their old lives to follow him. I cannot live that vagrant, hippy lifestyle. Admittedly, it could be because I am too old or too caught up in my comfortable domestic life.
I think that Terry Prachett and Neil gaiman; in their novel ‘Good Omens’ provides as good a critique of this lifestyle as I have ever read. There is a minor character in the story called Pepper and the writers say: “Pepper’s given names were Pippin Galadriel Moonchild. She had been given them in a naming ceremony in a muddy field that contained three sick sheep and a number of leaky polythene tepees. Her mother had chosen the welsh valley of Pant-y-Gyrdl as the ideal site to return to nature. Six months later, sick of the rain, the mosquitoes, the men, the tent trampling sheep who ate first the whole commune’s marijuana crop and then it’s antique minibus, and by now beginning to glimpse why almost the entire drive of human history has been an attempt to get as far away from nature as possible, Pepper’s mother returned to Pepper’s surprised grandparents in Tadfield, brought a bra and enrolled in a sociology course with a deep sigh of relief”
In the story ‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Lewis Carroll, Alice encounters the Cheshire Cat who “vanished quite slowly, beginning with the tail and ending with a grin which remained some time after the rest of it had gone.” Perhaps the same thing happens with gods. Again, some impression lingers after the rest has faded. Examples of this abound. The name of the day Thursday comes from Thor, the Scandinavian god of Thunder. Next month is may, the Irish version is ‘Bealtine’ – after the Celtic god Bealtine. Without thinking too hard, examples of vanishing gods come to mind. The Roman gods, Jupiter, Diana, Mercury and Mars. The Greek gods, Zeus, Aphrodite, Apollo and Poseiden. The god Marduk of Babylon.
This may be the natural order of things; gods grow in power and influence and slowly vanish.
The time may have come to find or develop a new avatar or image of God, an epiphany of God that will inspire and enlighten modern, cynical and economically prosperous people. The new version will need to appeal equally to men and women.
Where can we start in looking for or developing a new god? Traditionally the most powerful and important gods have those of war and fertility. War and Fertility are both sorted for twenty-first century humanity. So the question is, perhaps, ‘what do we want God for?
This is not an easy question; the possible replies range from ‘nothing’ to anything you can imagine. To narrow the answer to a manageable size, I deliberately misquote the words of William Morris, Victorian Polymath now remembered mainly in wallpaper designs. He said “Have nothing in your house that is neither beautiful nor useful.” It seems to me that a new version of God should be beautiful or useful and, if possible, both.
A god could and maybe should have other characteristics. However, I feel that beauty and utility are the most important Characteristics. Beauty is needed to make the heart beat faster, lift our mood and inspire devotion. Utility is needed to help us live together in ways that do not wreck our physical environament or need one billion people to live in abject poverty.
Unfortunately, now that I have established the need for a new God, I cannot actually offer you any such being. If I could produce a suitable image, it would be limited by my limited vision and impaired by my personal concerns of the moment. Any God that would awe, inspire and enlighten me would, I take for granted, have serious short comings for most if not all of you. Part of the reason for a free church is that no one is asked or expected to accept the god or gods of another.
Now I can conclude, leaving you to think about and consider what model of god will inspire your devotion and light up your dark places today and for the short term future.
Pamela McCarthy
10th April 2005 Dublin Unitarian Church