The Answer to God’s “Absence”

One of my favorite quotes about God is not from a usual source, but from that great “philosopher and theologian,” Archie Bunker.

For those who may be reading the Spanish version of this blog, and perhaps in another country, or for those too young to remember, Archie Bunker was the main character in a very popular American TV show from the 1970s called “All in the Family.”

Bunker was an obviously ill-informed, poorly educated, blue-collar guy who talked when he shouldn’t have, and when he did talk, made his family members and others wish he hadn’t. In one scene in which he argued with his atheist son-in-law about the inerrancy of the Bible (the proposition that the Bible is without error in matters of “doctrine”), Archie observed, “God don’t make no mistakes. That’s how he got to be God.”

Funny and Meant to Be

The line was funny and meant to be. And it may seem like a ridiculous statement, but we still may ask, “So how did God get to be God?”

According to the teachings of Christians and Jews, and real theologians, God has always been and always will be. He/She is unknowable except by analogy, that is, by comparing him/her with what we know from human experience.

But for Christians, and those seeking God in the Christian tradition, there’s one, huge exception: the Incarnation, that is, the belief that God became a human in the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus made God knowable, and even lovable.

But because of the human condition, even Jesus had to use analogies in the form of parables about who God is. The most potent of these analogies, seems to me, is his reference to God as Father, or Abba, which in Jesus’ language – Aramaic – signifies an intimate, close and trusting relationship, far removed from the image many of us have as an old, bearded man in the sky, who is arbitrary and even vindictive. Jesus uses the word “Abba,” or “Daddy,” 170 times.

The Prodigal Father

For me, one of the most moving parables is “the Prodigal Son” in Luke’s gospel. It’s ironic that it’s not the son in the story who is “prodigal” – meaning extravagant or excessive – but the father, who shows an apparent “excessive” amount of love and compassion for a son that many would say doesn’t deserve it.

When the son returns from a time away from home where he blew his inheritance in every direction, abandoning his father and family for a life of debauchery and hunger, the father sees him from afar, feels compassion, goes out to meet him, hugs and kisses him, puts a ring on his finger and throws a party for him. Jesus is saying, that’s what God is like.”

Apart from the parables and other sayings of Jesus is his teaching that not only do we have a loving, compassionate Father, but that we are brothers and sisters. This teaching is powerfully conveyed in the OUR father, the prayer that emphasizes not only our oneness with God but with each other.

So, for seekers – whether members of a religion or not, whether committed believers or confirmed skeptics – the idea that God became a human being means that we don’t need to ask the common question, “Where is God?” That question isn’t about just location, of course, but about God’s apparent absence, especially in the face of the terrible personal and communal tragedies that befall us.

“Divine Indwelling”

But “location” is important for us humans. And a traditional Christian teaching which may not be well-known these days, is that of the “divine indwelling,” the idea that God is in and around us – all of us.

Allow me to share my morning prayer, one I say mentally before beginning my meditative “centering prayer.” I’m a little embarrassed to share it because it’s very personal. Also, it’s not one that everyone should necessarily pray. You may have a better one. But this prayer puts me in my place, so to speak, and God in his/hers.

“Good morning, Father. Thank you for bringing me to the start of another day. I know by faith that you’re here with me, in me and around me, and in and around everyone else on this earth; that you are present from here to beyond the ends of the universe, and that you always were and always will be.”