“Sure I do”.
Generally the reply has come promptly, and different occasions it has come hesitantly.
And with the lens of hindsight, I do not assume the hesitation had a lot to do with my religion, however extra that I did not know a lot regarding God, or what God can actually be – or perhaps even what it means to imagine.
That, I truly assume, applies to many Danes I meet.
Right here is my expertise that many individuals imagine in one thing larger between heaven and earth, that individuals imagine there’s a drive, one thing non secular, one thing mysterious or no matter phrases can describe this: God.
A yr in the past, the Folkekirkens Uddannelsen- og Videnscenter additionally printed a qualitative and quantitative survey of Danes’ religiosity and relationship with the folks church anno 2020.
A number of of the interviewees from the qualitative examine affirm my assumption – they imagine that there’s “extra between heaven and earth”. This expertise of sensing, sensing and feeling that there’s something “extra” on this planet can also be addressed within the examine.
So it is not only a intestine feeling primarily based on my conversations with others, but it surely’s additionally actually a query that the folks church, monks and believers must take care of.
My thesis would in all probability be that this “extra” might nicely be God, however that the Danes’ data of God is typically locked in childhood teachings.
How will we perceive God?
That is what pursuits me. How can we as people perceive God?
How can we people perceive, speak regarding and sense – you identify it – one thing that’s so large, almighty and easy on the identical time.
And why is it that we discover it tough to declare that “sure, I imagine within the Christian God” moderately than how straightforward it may be to say that you just imagine in one thing larger between heaven and earth.
What do you assume? Do you imagine in God? And what dimension is God actually?
Within the Bible, God is described in a sea of other ways, with totally different photographs, totally different synonyms and other ways of addressing man.
It’s identified, for instance, when God is described as a father – see, for instance, the Gospel of Matthew chapter 6 verse 9 with the Lord’s Prayer.
However there are additionally locations the place God’s care and a focus is described or in comparison with a mom – resembling within the E book of Isaiah chapter 49 verse 15. We additionally discover the feminine determine or imagery within the New Testomony – for instance within the Gospel of Matthew 23,37, the place God is depicted as a hen.
After which there are additionally locations the place God’s imagery is visualized as one thing lifeless moderately than alive – resembling a fort or a rock, as seen within the E book of Psalms chapter 18 verse 3.
God shouldn’t be restricted by gender
Within the personified photographs of God, the male traits are dominant, however there are additionally many examples of feminine photographs.
However God can’t be recognized with an individual, male or feminine. God is bigger.
And once we speak regarding God, God will all the time be concretized in our makes an attempt to understand God, and God will all the time appear smaller than God truly is – in our makes an attempt to grasp.
“God shouldn’t be restricted by gender” as I mentioned on Friday 7 June on P1 Morgen in an interview with Bjarne Stensbeck and Ole Brink.
And I mentioned that as a result of God is transcendent. God is thus qualitatively totally different from our world (though God isn’t distant) and subsequently can’t be described exhaustively/adequately with ideas from our sensory expertise.
God subsequently has no gender, as gender is human, however comprises masculine and female traits that we expertise within the encounter with God. As a result of we people want God to handle us in many alternative methods.
To help this, I don’t use “he” or “she” for God, however merely use the phrase God until it serves an energetic objective.
And sure, Jesus says “he” regarding God as a result of God is Jesus’ father – so in fact you possibly can nonetheless say “he”.
However in an try and unfold the idea of God, in order that it is likely to be simpler to say “sure, I imagine in God”, I would really like in my communication to be extra interested in who God is for man, and the way we convey this additional – via, for instance, sermons, educating of confirmands and rituals.
So we aren’t locked into the concept that God is an individual, however one thing fully totally different. The God who’s each the Creator, the Savior and the Giver of Life.
2024-06-15 13:42:10
#Northern #Jutland #priest #dont #God
