Monday, March 7: Who is God? | St. Thomas Episcopal Church

Asking the Questions

Who is God?

I grew up very “well-churched” - Sunday school and worship services AM and PM, Wednesday night dinner and devotional, children’s choir, annual week-long revivals, at least two Vacation Bible Schools every summer. My notion of God as a powerful old man that sat on a huge throne in a lavish building behind pearly gates on a street paved in gold was formed and cemented by these early experiences.

This God was like a temperamental Santa Claus. If you asked Him for things and you had been good, you’d get them. If you asked for things and had been bad, you would not get them. If you had been very bad, you’d really tick Him off, and The Devil was coming to get you!

Though I had been deeply affected by the Kennedy assassination in ‘63, it wasn’t until the events of 1968 that I realized my spiritual paradigm had to change, or at least expand. An ugly war was shattering lives. RFK and MLK were suddenly, brutally gone. There was rioting in the streets. The world seemed chaotic. Bad things were happening to good people. Who was the God that allowed this?

I stayed “churched,” though, because I was supposed to / expected to / not-so-subtly pressured to. It wasn’t until 1996, after I had suffered some profound personal losses, that I began to give myself permission to explore my own spirituality. I read John Shelby Spong, Marianne Williamson, and Greg Braden. I learned to meditate. I went to Sedona and experienced first-hand many alternative paths to the same spiritual center. I came to know that being “churched,” by itself, did not ensure a meaningful relationship with the Great I Am. I found new, infinitely deeper meaning in the Bible verse I had memorized so many years before: “God is LOVE.”

God is the love that a parent feels for a child, humans feel for their partners, animals feel for their humans, friends feel for their friends. God is, and was, and always will be, because love is, and was, and always will be. God is One, because we are all One, united by a love that is infinite in scope and power, a love that surpasses our understanding yet is as vital, dynamic, and personal as our own heartbeats. “I believe in ONE GOD…”
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Be still; know I AM GOD.
Be still; know I AM.
Be still; know I.
Be still; know.
Be still.
Be.

Jennifer Fletcher is the author of today's Lenten Reflection. Jennifer is pictured here with a wise night visitor in 2019 during a St. Thomas production of Amal and the Night Visitors. Jennifer first joined St. Thomas in 1976. Though she sang at churches across the city and even moved to the other side of the state for a while, St. Thomas has always been HOME. She is a longtime volunteer and advocate for the WNN food pantry, has taught many adult formation sessions, serves as a lector, and is a dedicated yard sale volunteer. She is grateful St. Thomas offers a place to experience the God of Love.