Today at church we celebrated Jesus' Transfiguration (recounted in Matthew 17:1-9, Mark 9:2-8, and Luke 9:28-36). I think all the emphasis on Jesus' physical appearance must have gotten my 6-year-old thinking, because during the sermon he asked me, "Mommy, why do we worship a God we can't see?"
Wow. I know what I told him, but I would be curious to hear your thoughts. I'm wondering if there is more I could have said, or if I could have said it better.
5 comments:
I'd say, "We see Him on the altar every week."
WIN.
I'd answer that we do see Him. Do we see Him right this second? No. Just like we don't see Grandma right this second either. But people did see Him. And we "see" Him on the altar. And we will see Him in the flesh soon. But just because we don't see Him in the flesh right now doesn't mean He isn't there. For example, you can tell Evan that Pastor F sees Him.
Thank you, friends. What I told him was--
1)We don't worship "a" god but the one and only true God. We worship Him becausse He is God. There is no other.
2) God is here among us right now. His body and blood are right up there on the altar. We can see Him in the water and the Word and in the fellowship of believers.
But I know what he was asking is why can't we see the historical Jesus, the one that walked on this earth and went up the Mount of Transfiguration and performed all sorts of miracles and died and rose again? That's the God he wants to see. Don't we all. Susan, I like your suggestion that I point out that although we don't see Him in his humanity right now, lots of people did and wrote all about it, and those that have gone to heaven are seeing Him face to face.
To be continued . . .
Update:
My husband talked to Evan about this, and he told me that he told Evan that we can't see God because we are sinners. I thought of this, too, after the fact. In the Garden Adam and Eve enjoyed a face-to-face relationship with God. But when they sinned that intimacy was destroyed and they were separated from Him and banished from the Garden. God cannot tolerate sin, so sinners cannot look at the face of God without being destroyed. But in His love and mercy God sent His Son to be His intermediary, to bridge the gap between Himself and humankind. In the person of Jesus the closeness that Adam and Eve had with the Father is restored. We were not privileged to see Jesus when He walked the earth, but He comes to us physically in Word and Sacrament. He is still here with us, even though we can't "see" Him as we might like.
Post a Comment