I love this scene from Alice Walker’s “The Color Purple” which I am quoting from Goodreads:
Shug: More than anything God love admiration.
Celie: You saying God is vain?
Shug: No, not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off when you walk by the colour purple in a field and don’t notice it.
Celie: You sayin it just wanna be loved like it say in the bible?
Shug: Yeah, Celie. Everything wanna be loved. Us sing and dance and holla just wanting to be loved. Look at them trees. Notice how the trees do everything people do to get attention… except walk?
This season, there are lots of conversations about the Divine and Their effect on the universe. Think Gaza/ Israel/ Hamas/ Hezbollah: What’s God got to do with land, identity, power, belonging? Immigration, borders, ICE, Indigenous History Month: What’s God got to do with the doctrine of discovery, Manifest Destiny, and making so-called heathens “Christian?” LGBTQIA+ humans, sexuality, and reproductive justice: Is God OK with being gay and is God OK with being trans, and what is an abomination? Is Trump the Messiah? Should Christianity be taught in school? Is the U.S. a Christian nation? Think about superior races and inferior genders and ask yourself, “What’s talk of God got to do with that?”
We are heading toward the Winter Solstice and holidays for many major religions. What’s God got to do with these holidays and how we celebrate them? Everything! How we think about God (or don’t think about God) informs how we think about ourselves, the world, and the people in it.
So, what do you think? Below are some questions for conversation at dinner or on a walk.
Do you believe in God or in a higher power? What was your first God-moment?
For me: I fell in love with God when I was 8 years old when I received Communion for the first time. My mother told me the bread meant God would always love me and the wine (grape juice!) meant God would never leave me. God will always love me. God will never leave me. That does not mean God is a protective shield or an insurance policy for life-after-death. God is love. 1 John says it best. God is love, and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them. Love is the way, I believe, the truth, and the life. Jesus was love in the flesh. You and I are love made flesh. God is incarnate in the love that calls us to love our neighbors and to love ourselves. I feel so blessed that I make a living talking, writing, preaching, and teaching about God, a comforter and a waymaker, and a healer and a teacher.
What do you think about the Divine now?
I grew up Christian, raised by two African American parents who grew up in the Black Church in Mississippi. Their parents were Christians; their grandparents were Christian. Just like we all do, my folks had certain scriptures that guided their lives, and therefore guided my early life. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. The 23rd Psalm. Once I had a car accident, a terrible one, and I tied that accident to having disappointed God. I did not die, so the car accident was both punishment and mercy. I went to seminary soon after that and was delighted, mesmerized, and amazed that there were conversations to have about God that could reframe my thinking. I was on fire with questions, and enjoyed the possibility that maybe some of what I had learned about God was wrong. My vocation, I came to understand, was to listen to a still-speaking God and to help others to listen as well.
How has your relationship/responsibility to others been influenced by your perception of the Divine?
My relationship with my spouse, John, is such a holy experience. He is a United Methodist retired clergy, and our life is a theological project! We are being shaped by love, learning to love each other better. I am Nana to two children, and John and I parent their parents with friendship, love, grace, and joy. I love the beauty of creating a container for our family. I have siblings that I love deeply. We’ve lost both our parents now and as the eldest girl, I used to step in as co-madre. But I have discovered instead a responsibility to just BE with them…and to be myself, authentically. There is a deep respect and friendship in that context. God is love, I am love, I am loved, they are loved. Love is the relationship. What feels sacred to you right now?
For me, my community at Middle Church is sacred. So is my family. Sun on my face. That I can breathe. That there is a diverse web of humanity aching for peace and working toward it, and that I am part of it. That I have the honor of writing, speaking, preaching, dreaming, praying for a healed world. This is all sacred to me. God is in everything; everything is in God. This is what I have come to know. All of it is sacred.
Loves, each of us has a story about the Divine. That story and vision are important. Talk about it, listen to others talk about it. You can learn a lot about your people by listening to their stories, and their God story is just one of them. That story about God? It is critical to how we story everything else.
Happy Holidays!
Rev. Dr. Jacqui Lewis is senior minister and public theologian at Middle Church in New York. Celebrated internationally for her dynamic preaching and commitment to building a just society with fierce love, Dr. Lewis champions racial, economic, and gender/sexuality justice. The author of several books, including “Fierce Love” and the “Just Love Story Bible,” her work has been featured on NBC, CBS, PBS, MSNBC, NPR and in the New York Times, Washington Post, and Ebony and Essence Magazines.