What is God? Thoughts from Reverend Lea Mathieu
Introduction by Cole Goodwin
Welcome to the Spiritual Roundtable, an interfaith roundtable featuring a diverse range of spiritual belief systems in the Gorge Community.
Each week, spiritual leaders and learners will share their take on some of humanity's biggest questions, starting with: What does your spirituality mean to you? And ramping up into discussions about the nature of existence, the soul, the divine, and of course…a question as old as time itself: why are we here?
Roundtable writings will be published each Saturday and Sunday of the month. So look forward to new installments every Saturday and Sunday morning!
Take a deep breath… Meditate for a moment…And when you’re ready…keep reading to explore the diverse faiths, belief systems, and philosophies that exist in our communities.
This Month's Question: What is God (collective consciousness, deities, the divine, the beloved, the source, the sacred, the mother, the father, the world, the one power)? How can we have a relationship with this power? What does this power want/need/desire?
About Reverend Lea Mathieu: Reverend Mathieu is the minister of The Dalles United Church of Christ Congregational. She is also a farmer’s wife, mom, musician, teacher, and world traveler. She enjoys volunteering with public health, social services, and the arts. She may be contacted at revleamathieu@gmail.com
God Is Love
by The Reverend Lea Mathieu
The ocean, the “empty” space in every atom, the miracle of spring, anything by Bach, and so much more shout “Holy!” to me. But my bedrock, overarching image of God comes from scripture: “God is love, and those who abide in love abide in God, and God abides in them” (1 John 4:16b). As God is in the world, so are we called to be.
The great 13th century Sufi poet Rumi once said, “I belong to no religion. My religion is love.” Likewise, American transcendentalist Ralph Waldo Emerson claimed, “Religion is to do right. It is to love, it is to serve, it is to think, it is to be humble.” My bumper sticker says it a bit more succinctly: “Love God + Love People.”
That’s it, really. It does make preaching every Sunday a bit challenging when the truth is so simple. Thankfully, I have the Gospels to draw from, and that gives me enough material for weekly 10-minute talks. And to be honest, the call to love in this broken and violent world sometimes takes some talking through to make sense.
Like Rumi, I do not “belong” to a religion; I belong to God. I am a Christian because I strive to follow the extraordinary example of Jesus Christ, the Word made flesh, to walk with God regardless of circumstance and to love unconditionally.
Easter is my favorite day of the year because it testifies to my firm belief that, as I say in the prayers of the people every Sunday, “a mighty love is the source of all being.” I do not believe Jesus died for our sins: He died because of them - because of our species’ evident inability to accept the holiness of life and each other, because love is just too hard for many of us much of the time. We would even kill God - or try to. And yet, despite all we do, despite the seduction of evil, God in an outpouring of love gifts us with resurrection: new life, calls to service, grace and peace, life without fear in the eternal embrace of the divine. To which I say, yes.
I have been told that I am not “really” a Christian because I don’t believe in hell, the substitutionary atonement theory, religious exclusivism, or judgmentalism. A woman once told me she feared going to hell just for listening to me preach, since I happily officiate same-gender weddings. All these tests of faith, divisions, and exclusionary tactics just get in the way of loving God and God’s creation.
When asked what the greatest commandment was, Jesus quoted the Torah: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the greatest and first commandment. And a second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ All of the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40). That’s all you need to know, it’s all you need to do.
“If we love one another, God lives in us, and God’s love is perfected in us” (1 John 4:12).
Let it be.
Want to contribute to the Spiritual Roundtable? Read this first.
The Roundtable Mission and Vision
The goal of these roundtable writings is to:
Bring the spiritual community together.
Share ideas that elevate the human spirit.
Elevate the conversation around the spirit.
Embrace what is universal to all, while honoring what is special about each spirituality.
Center inclusivity and equity.
Promote our collective enlightenment.
Nurture civility and friendship between those with diverse belief systems in the Gorge.
Engage readers and spiritual seekers.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS NOT…
This is not a place for arguing about dogma.
This is not a place for ‘hating on’ or putting other belief systems down.
This is not a place for excluding, discriminating, or promoting fear or violence towards other people based on their race, color, ethnicity, beliefs, faith, gender, sexuality, ability.
This is not a place for hatred.
This is not a place for fear.
The Spiritual Roundtable IS..
This IS a place for hope.
This IS a place for joy.
This IS a place for comfort.
This IS a place for big questions.
This IS a place for learning.
This IS a place for sharing.
This IS a place for caring.
This IS a place for sharing what is special about your beliefs.
CCC News reserves the right to not publish any content that breaks with our mission, vision and values.
If you are interested in being included in the roundtable please email cole@columbiacommunityconnection.com
