Saturday, July 01, 2006

Today I thought about the Trinity-Toon pictured at left. Very amusing, isn't it?

When the Lutherans are being boring, and the 'piskies are being pissy, leave it to the Presbys to lighten the mood.

But, I was thinking about it this morning... The rock redeemer, womb, whatever... And, may the God of the liberals help me, I began to see the theological soundness of rock, paper, scissors.

ROCK of Ages, of course, cleft for me. Rock from which comes saving water, sealing oil, and honey enough to make even a rough incarnation sweet. A purely dumb thing, the main object of which may be to remind us that God can use anything.

PAPER, which as anyone who has played the game knows, covers everything else. Like a garment knitted of love and skin to cover the shame of sin; like the bandage of forgiveness which covers our wounds, love and forgiveness are the paper that covers everything else.

And the good old SCISSORS are for pruning the vine, giving shape and form. Sometimes God prunes gently, sometimes brutally. Sometimes God lets our enemies do it, and sometimes... Oh God, how I wish it weren't so... even our friends. But, like it or not, the scissors are there. It's even in the Bible for all you literalists.

Of course, those are not exactly what we mean by Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. But, they are also not all together incorrect. And Rock, Redeemer, and Womb don't quite get it either. So there. I am not trying to pawn this off on you as real theology anyway, just an idea. And here it is:

What I have been thinking relative to this bit of silliness is that even when we deliberately try not to talk about God, we are talking about God. God is everything. That's how God is.

God is the cold stone as well as the honey that comes from it. God is the wound and God is the healer. God is the vine and the scissors, the enemy and the friend, the helpful clip and the stab in the back.

We can no more not talk about God than we can flee from Her presence. So, bring on the wombs and rocks, sisters and mothers, redeemers and whatnots. Whatever words we use, it's still all about God.

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