is still a mystery—the mystery of love for our salvation.
Marga: That’s a great point. The work of God the Spirit creates possi- bilities within human language itself to point to the mystery of God, who rejoices in being at work as father, mother, sister, partner, friend, advo- cate. God fills our diverse human spaces with grace overflowing. It is a grace that allows us to be more than we imagine we could be, more than we imagine God could be. Calling upon God with names
SHUTTERSTOCK
God confounds power-hungry lead- ers as a simple baby boy in a manger. God hangs with thieves on a cross. God calls for justice from the gates of the city as the female figure of wisdom (Proverbs 8). God compares God’s being to a nursing mother (Isaiah 49:15) and to a mother who comforts her child (Isaiah 66:13). God the Spirit comes as a dove on Jesus’ shoulder as he arose, baptized, from the River Jordan. And the power of the same Spirit is evident in wind, fire and the speaking in tongues at Pentecost (Acts 2). God’s self-revelation in myriad
ways tells us that human language can’t contain the deep, profound and unending love and faithfulness that God shows to us. God’s being and actions for our sake will always exceed anything our human lan- guage could say about God.
Hoffmeyer: I appreciate your emphasis on God’s self-revelation. Some people talk as if we use many names for God because they are just so many inadequate human attempts
to reach toward God. Thankfully, God comes to us. God is not far away, but Emmanuel—“God with us”—as we read in Matthew 1:23. God is beyond our control, but not by being distant. God is near to us, revealed in Jesus Christ. At the same time, the God whom Jesus reveals remains the mystery of unconditional and unlimited love. I was happy that you referred Exodus 3, where the divine response to Moses’ demand to hear God’s name is “I am who I am and who I will be.” Part of the point of that scriptural passage is that God is a mystery who refuses to be encom- passed by any name. Methodist theologian Kendall Soulen published an important book on naming God, The Divine Name(s) and the Holy Trinity (Westminster John Knox Press, 2011). He argues that the revelation of the divine mys- tery in Jesus Christ means we must name God in ways that both center us in the unique, unsurpassable rev- elation in Jesus Christ and honor the fact that the God whom Jesus reveals
that reflect where God chooses to work not only opens us up to God’s creative work, but to the women, girls, sons, grandfathers, friends, strangers, neighbors and children who are living, working, strug- gling next to us—who come to us as agents of grace. They, too, along with Christ, are the face of God. In them, God declares, “here I am.”
Hoffmeyer: I agree that God is pres- ent to and for us in a great variety of ways. Rather than saying, though, that these are other ways “along with Christ,” why not say that, through the Spirit, Christ is present in a great variety of ways?
In and through their variety, all of these ways “look like Jesus” inasmuch as they communicate to us the unconditional love of God made flesh in Jesus Christ.
Marga: I couldn’t agree more. Christ is present to us in a variety of ways through the Spirit. This was Luther’s great comfort, and it’s God’s promise to us.
I’m grateful that we are able to
explore these things together. Praise God for all the blessings we have been given, not the least of which is the mutual conversation and con- solation of Christian brothers and sisters.
May 2013 19
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