Who is God?
A classic question, and one that the Christian answers (hopefully) by saying that God is Father, Son and Holy Spirit, the Holy Trinity. Yes, that's a correct answer, but it's also a slightly confusing answer for someone who didn't grow up swimming in that water.
What I mean by that is that a fish doesn't know it's wet. And a lifelong Christian doesn't know that he or she is a Christian. They know that they're a Christian, yes, obviously, but they don't conceive properly of a universe where Christian principles aren't taken for granted. Thus, they sort of sputter when asked to explain the Trinity. Three in one and one in three, yes, but what does that mean? It's very difficult for anyone to explain this without using analogies that fall apart. The shamrock, the egg, the person who can be at the same time father son and employee, all that. They all break down, because, well, the Trinity is something completely external to us. Not just external to us, external to the observable universe.
Given that the Trinity is external to us, and to the universe, the most useful place to start talking about it is where it intersects with the reality that we can observe. And what is that most pronounced space?
Who is God?
Well, who are you?
You're someone who exists, if you're reading this. If you're looking at this page, we can agree that you're here. And thanks for reading, by the way. So how'd you get here? One may say that we are a product of our times, we're a product of things that happened by accident, whatever. Whether you believe that we are a product of natural processes, or a product of God's infinite creation process, you're here. Now, in the church, we would say that we were made, and made by God. We tend to respond well to the notion that we were created by the majesty of God. too. There is a principle in philosophy called the 'anthropic principle.' It simply suggests that not only does the universe exist, but that we are in a position to see, observe, and catalogue it. Something happened.
Something. Could be anything, but at this point, given a lack of abiogenesis, a lack of proof of aliens from space seeding life and so on, given the lack of anything like that, the proposition of creation by the Lord God makes as much sense as anything else, so why not? We would say we are created, we would say that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. That's good so far. If you're here, let's just say that the something that brought you here could be God. Why not.
So you were made. But something went wrong. You were made with a conscience, a moral compass if you will. And forgetting the Bible, or your religion or anything like that, just your own standards of how people should behave, you break those standards that you would set for other people fairly regularly. That is, you know what you should do, and you don't do it. Even according to your own principles. And you also have things that you should do that you aren't. On a regular basis. Again, according to your own principles. That's a problem for the long term, as well as the short. And if you don't believe me, then go out into the world and witness a world full of graffiti and locked doors and security systems and guards designed to keep things on lockdown because, well, people can't be trusted. Good thing too, because if people were allowed free roam to look at and take whatever they wanted, well, they'd take everything. And you know this, given that you lock your house and car and garage and bicycle and everything else. You don't leave any of those things unsupervised, because you know that someone would take them. The people that might take them aren't monsters though. They are thieves, but they don't think of themselves as being bad people. Think of the thief on the cross, who insisted that Jesus should save himself and them. And understand that in the same way as these people don't think of themselves as bad people, so too do you not think of yourself as a bad person. You were short with your wife, but you're not an angry person. You didn't return that wallet, but finders keepers. You scanned the nectarines as though they were bananas at WalMart, but they factor that sort of thing into the prices right?
But those are all things you wouldn't want someone to do to you. Those are things that you would be very offended if they happened to you. You'd be affronted, bothered and angry. As you should be. But those things that you do are transgressing the moral law of the universe, of God, and of your own standards. That's the bad news. But you have a curious way of thinking of yourself - you don't behave the way people should behave, but you think of yourself as being a basically good person. The only way to square that circle is to release the misdeeds you've done, so that although you do bad things, you can still be seen to be a good person. Which is how you see yourself, and how you want to be seen by everyone. You're a person who has been made, and now you're a person who has done bad things but is still a good person. That's the work of the second person of the Trinity, Jesus, the word of God made flesh. The word of God that takes the law of God, and gives you his salvation.
But of course, that's all esoteric philosophy right? The problem by and large with philosophy is that it exists in textbooks and theory. It's not really all that practical, or to quote Aliens 'it's very pretty, but it doesn't really get us anywhere now does it?' The human condition is by default to be 'spiritual but not religious.' That is, to have an idea about a God out there somewhere, but to have no real conception of him as a person or as personal. But through the Holy Spirit, you can actually believe. You can believe the most important words that are spoken in scripture, in the liturgy, certainly by your pastor "For You." Without that work of the Holy Spirit, the Bible's just a book, God is unknown and it's all closed down. But you're probably a person who believes, so there's something that happened to make that book real, those words real, all that. And that's the work of the Holy Spirit.
So who is God? Who are you? You're someone who has been created, was redeemed, and believes in that. If you wonder about the Trinity being too complicated, don't start with God. Start with you.
