IS GOD FOR REAL?

Every January for about the past forty years or so senior seminarians in the Episcopal Church take a four-day test called The General Ordination Examination. They are tested on what are called the seven canonical areas in which ordained clergy are expected to have some expertise and knowledge: scripture, church history, pastoral care, liturgy and so forth.

Many years ago there was a question in the area of theology that asked very simply “Is God black?” The student was to write an essay of about 1500 words in response to that question. The expectation was that there be enough details within the response that it could be assumed that the student had a sufficient grasp of the theology of the Episcopal Church. Granted, one may debate what “sufficient” means and how that can be determined based on only one theological question; but that debate can and should be left to another day.

That being said, folklore has it – meaning that I cannot prove it as it came to me secondhand – that one seminarian wrote a three-word response and that that response was sufficient. That response? “Yes, she is.” To this day I still marvel at both the brevity and the theological depth of that answer. It requires no more explanation and any explanation that would be given would only cloud the issue. On the other hand, if the respondent replied, “No, he is not?”, the essay would have to go on at great length to define and defend God’s male gender and color of skin and why God has gender and skin in the first place. And that would only be for starters.

The deeper question, however, is this: “Is God for real?” In other words, does God exist or is God simply the figment of our imagination? Or both? On the one hand we cannot prove that God exists. We can and do come close, but we cannot prove it without a shadow of doubt or else everyone would not only believe in God, we would all know God exists because we can prove it in the same way we can prove to another that we exist – by having that person reach out and physically touch us, see with his own eyes.

We cannot do that with God. We cannot prove God exists. We can only believe. And we do. And in our belief God becomes a figment of our imagination just as heaven and hell do. We cannot prove they exist either. We can only imagine what they are like. No one has ever seen heaven or hell and then returned to this life to tell us what either is like. Same with God. So we must imagine what God is like, even imagine what God looks like. Yes, God is Spirit, we say, but we cannot imagine spirit – a bird will not do here! – and so we put some kind of flesh and bones in our imagining of God.

With all that said, can we believers be asked, “Is God for real if all you have is some figment of your imagination about God, your God?” We even have to ask ourselves that question. In the end, we respond that we believe God is real, is for real, because we base our lives on that belief. In fact, God is so real that any words we use to describe God fall short. Better say nothing than to say anything. Better to believe than not or to say simply, “For me God is for real.”