MaryBeth LaMont

Abstract art by the definition which I understand it, is art that does not focus on or depict external realities. Shape, form, and color may be there, but the details are not. The art, if it is a painting, may appear almost blurred in its depiction of, say, a beach, though the color of sand may be quite accurate. The ocean past the beach, again, may appear a blur, but the colors of the ocean are very real.

Many of us at times have an abstract picture of God. This God represents the real God, but is a representation of God, not God and God’s self. Such an abstract picture of God can create a God that does not at all look like anything in the real world in which we live. Therefore, this God has would have less to do with us. There is a certain comfort in an abstract God. A God such as this is a God who is more apt to leave us alone; allow us to live and exist as we are in our very real world and our own reality.

I personally am not much interested in an abstract God. Neither was Martin Luther. Luther in the turmoil of his angst wrestled with a God too real at times. A God, Luther thought, was in every action, word, and event around him. A God who used these and more to torment Luther. Finally, Luther came to the conclusion that God is present in life’s reality. God, however, Luther discovered, is not in these places to torment, but to resolve, redeem, and work well.

In the two creation stories we have two different Gods. In Genesis 1 we have a God I call, “Management God” or “CEO God”. This is a God who creates by fiat, and orders, but remains aloof from what this God created. In Genesis 2, the second creation account, there is a “Blue Collar God”, one not afraid to get one’s hands dirty. This God literally scoops up the mud and breathes life into it to create humanity. This God is extremely close to its creation and knows what it is like to work hard. This God is present in its own creation and not at all aloof.

An abstract God can be admired and appreciated but it cannot be followed as it cannot be known nor can it have a direct relationship with us. This God does not let us stand there looking and admiring, but calls us to get down into creation; get our hands dirty with the hard work of caring for creation, and, we ourselves, carrying on as co-creators, not certainly equal with God and God’s creativity, but entrusted to care for it and expand the on-going creativity put in place by God.

Many faiths have images of God in various forms. Some, like Islam allow absolutely no image of any kind. Christianity has more than an image. We have Jesus Christ, a living breathing human like us, whose life, death, and resurrection paint a very clear image of God; an image that goes to the depth of God’s character and God’s soul.

God is not a God in the abstract merely to be thought of, debated, probed, and discussed. God is a real God to be present and to be experienced. God can be as real as the next comment we hear or the next challenge or comfort in our life. God is more to be lived with and for than to be admired. As God’s care for us is near and personal, God is real. Abstract Gods are for those who live in the abstract, not the real world of day to day living.