God is not a Trophy God

You have to be careful what you say about God

(Parish Grapevine - June 2005)

The end of the football season saw an amazing turnaround in the fortunes of Celtic and Rangers in the Scottish Premier League. With five minutes of the season remaining it looked certain that Celtic would be champions. Then Motherwell scored twice in the closing minutes to hand the title to Rangers. (Sorry, those who aren?t interested in football!) The only reason I refer to this is because the Radio 5 reporter asked the Rangers? manager ?Do you think God was looking kindly on you this afternoon?? It is this sort of question which prompts my health warning about talk about God.

Does God win titles? Of course not. Players do and God helps, or so the Radio 5 question implies, as did the report that one of the Rangers player, a so-called ?born again? Christian, who immediately fell to his knees in thanksgiving to God. We live in times when we think God has looked kindly upon us if we have a good job, beautiful children, vibrant health and a trophy or two in the cabinet. Put another way, isn?t life sweet if we have health, success and wealth ? and God as well (he?s the icing on the cake!)? Where on earth do these ideas come from? This God is a fiction of our imagination, developed to justify the status quo and to help us have an easy night?s sleep.

This god has nothing to offer the son who has recently lost his father ? his one and only friend ? and who is struggling to find a reason to carry on his life. It?s not surprising that God appears ?not to be a very nice person? when the image presented is of one giving and withholding trophies, giving and taking life. Such a god who creates success also has to be held account for suffering and failure, and I agree, ?he ain?t nice? and I would support the angry young man?s decision not to believe in him.

But the Bible gives us a very different image of God who plays host to the people of the gutter in preference to the successful people, who sides with those condemned by others, who suffers the evils and injustices of life without repaying evil with evil. The Bible gives us a picture of God who goes to the help of the helpless, who offers comfort and consolation, and who challenges people to change lifestyle so that they live humbly and justly for the sake of one another.

It?s a story that isn?t set as an American Dallas-style soap, but is set in the context of the most persecuted peoples of the planet. We need to think about these things when we talk about God. Careless talk about him deprives the people favoured by him. We are all dangerously misled by a trophy God.

David Herbert