Book Group: The God Who Weeps--Chapter One

It's taken me awhile to get back to the book group postings for this book, and I think that was a good thing.  I needed a chance to live with what I had read.  I needed a chance to re-read.  Each time I read a book, I use a different colored highlighter to mark things as I go.  This chapter is now orange and purple, and many of the things I marked this time were not the things I marked the first time.  Once again, I'm shown that we learn what we need to know when we are ready for it.  But enough about me.  Let's talk about the book.

Chapter 1 begins with exploring reasons for believing or not believing in God.  Then the authors ask an important question:

If God exists, does He deserve our worship?
(page 14)

Then they explore beliefs about God through the ages, and ultimately come to this:  the God that we can worship, that deserves our worship, is not a god of violence and punishment, but a

more perfect embodiment of the morally good that we recognize and seek to emulate
(page 18)

They then go on to explain that our god is a god of tenderness, sensitivity, compassion, and empathy.  He is a god that feels our pain and weeps with us and for us.  His vulnerability, His weakness (or what our world sees as weakness), is what draws us to him.

For God the Father, as for the Son, whatever power or influence He wields over the hearts of men, it is not the power or influence known to the world...God draws men to heaven "by long-suffering, by gentleness and meekness, and by love unfeigned;  By kindness, and pure knowledge."
(page 32)

I've often thought that one of the reasons we see such a difference between the vengeful god of the Old Testament and the message of love and compassion in the New Testament is that life here on Earth in a mortal body gave Christ an understanding of our suffering and struggles that he could not have completely understood before.

Christ's life in the flesh gave Him an empathy transcending the theoretical...Christ's empathy then is not some inherent attribute of the Divine.  It was dearly paid for, each day of His mortal life...
(page 27)

The final section of this chapter is about joy, God's joy, and the joy we can experience.  The authors quote this beautiful thought from Rachel Givens:

God's power rests no on totalizing omnipotence, but on His ability to alchemize suffering, tragedy, and loss into wisdom, understanding, and joy.
(pages 33-34)

God doesn't purposely put us into horrible situations to teach a lesson.  But He can helps us to learn something from any experience.

Questions for discussion or personal reflection:

1.  Why do you believe in God (or gods, or goddesses, or the Divine, or universal energy)?  How did you come to your beliefs?  

2.  Do you worship because you are supposed to, or because you are drawn to someone or something bigger than yourself, someone or something that you want to become like?  Is there some other reason you worship?  

3.  Does the idea of a vulnerable god scare you or empower you?  

4.  Even Jesus Christ had to learn empathy.  Where are you in this learning process?  Are you quick to judge, or can you see those you disagree with as Children of God, and feel compassion for them?  

5.  What other ideas from this chapter spoke to you?