Henotheism

Today's reading: 2 Chronicles 31-33, Psalm 106:1-23.

I may have touched on this word before, but I will revisit it now. Did you know that Israelites were not monotheists...at least not at first? They were henotheists, that is, they believed in many gods but that theirs was the most powerful (or the only one who was creator, or the only "true" god, or possibly other things to make their god separate) and that every nation had their own god and that all these gods were fighting and you knew who was the best by who won (this appears quite a bit in today's reading). Many Jews moved away from this tradition, as is indicated elsewhere in scripture*. There are a lot of Christians today who are not monotheists, but still henotheists.

Here is a quick test for you to tell which you are: who do the Muslims worship? If your answer is "God," then you may be a monotheist. If your answer is "Their God Allah," you are a henotheist. There is quite a significant difference there.

Nikki and I entered into this conversation a few weeks ago and she asked about my perspective about Muslims. I stood by the Nicene Creed that we confess frequently in worship: "We believe in ONE God." Now, we are all in the habit of making common things into gods (money, sex, power) but for those who stand in the long tradition of Christianity there can only be ONE God. Why the difference in denominations and religions around the world? My humble (and possibly way off base) assumption is that tricky thing called "revelation." In other words, how God has revealed Godself, and how we have interpreted that. We hold that the greatest of the revelations of God in the person we call Jesus. Muslims do not, hence, we believe very different things, even though almost every one of our Old Testament scriptural stories are in their scripture as well. This does not mean we believe in different Gods.

I will invite you to think about it this way: If we truly believe that God is beyond all comprehension, then how is it that we know everything there is to know about God?




* - this is a very crude and short treatment of monotheism in Judaism, reading through a few chapters in I&II Kings and I&II Chronicles does reveal the people's tendency to gravitate between many gods and one God for worship, which is firmly established during the reign of Josiah.

A Celebration for All Times

Today's Reading: 2 Chronicles 26-28, Psalm 105.

Just watch that for a few minutes. I caught wind of that this week and was completely awestruck. Sure there are no animals being slaughtered, blood being splattered, etc. but there are tons of fires being lit. This is a fireworks show unlike anything I had ever seen, which prompted my wife to say, "Next year we are going to London for New Years' Day." Yet, there was something even more powerful that I experienced on Sunday.

An aside: pastors are constantly consumed on Sunday mornings with everything from the liturgy to their sermons to what people are thinking or hearing and even piles more. It is enough to most times block out any sort of celebration related to worshiping God.

Last Sunday, I was able to worship with my entire family for the first time in I can't even remember, and just moments into the readings, Grace came up and sat on my lap and I almost started bawling as I heard the words spoken from Paul's letter to the Romans that nothing could separate us from Christ Jesus. Sunday was a time of celebration that I had been looking forward to since Caleb's birthdate. With the Bishop thankful for the opportunity to preside over a baptism, I had the chance to be moved in an even more powerful way than by flaming particles.

Our worship offers the chance to experience God's love like this always, but do we miss it for other thoughts and obligations? What do you most look forward to during our celebration on Sundays? What could you not do without?