Tradition and Trespasses

Tradition and Trespasses

Introduction:

We can hear the themes of our childhood stories echoing throughout our lives. There is Cinderella-- the ragged, pathetic, abused girl, who when she was beautified, becomes the choice of the young, courageous, handsome prince. There is the story of poor little Snow White who needs the kiss of a stunningly gorgeous young man and the help of seven old men to save her from evil. Very few parents, I am sure, would stand up against their children watching or reading Cinderella or even Snow White. After all, these stories are a part of our culture. These stories and others are foundational for all of us.

But who are we as a culture? What is our culture really saying underneath these little fantasy stories? This fabulously romantic idea of the man being the savior and the one who chooses has seeped through our veins and we barely realize it.

When we apply our culture?s underlying ideas in foundational stories to theology, we see that we would never want to make God analogous to the poor, ragged, pathetic, abused female. We would rather see God as the chooser, the hero, the savior, the powerful man.

Biblical Exegesis:

If we turn to a healthy biblical exegesis of scripture, then we see that God is

portrayed in creaturely images both as a father and a mother. The book of Hosea portrays God as the father of Israel. It is in the eleventh chapter that one especially sees God portrayed as a father weeping over his son whom he raised. There are also passages such as Isaiah 49:15 where God?s love is shown as a woman?s love for a child of her womb.

Tradition:

Tradition is what those who have come before us have handed down to us so that we might continue to live their faith (K. S. McCormick). Our tradition as a church has named the Trinity of our one God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. The tradition of God as Father comes from a rich heritage that we, as a present, living community, can draw from and use.

Wolfhart Pannenberg points out one of the rich qualities that comes along with referring to God as Father. He says (concerning the Israelites and God), ?the fatherly relation of God to the king by an act of adoption gave the idea of God as father a consistency which made it much more than a metaphor.