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2004 - The Year of God? (but which God?)

The Bishop's Christmas message - 2004

The Bulletin magazine last week declared on its front cover 'He's Back! He won elections. He won (and lost) wars. How 2004 became... the Year of GOD'.

According to the article:

  • Osama bin Laden's God was out there helping him 'retaliate against the oppressor.'
  • George Bush's American religious right God was an election winner (unfortunately John Kerry left his campaign God blitz too late).
  • Justin Langer's Baptist God is with him at the crease (now you know why Australia keeps winning, since Matthew Hayden also shares this belief).
  • After an awful election night, Labour's Kevin Rudd now wants everyone to know that 'God isn't a wholly owned subsidiary of the Liberal Party' (even if Mark Latham is a convinced atheist!)
  • Mel Gibson made God popular again at the movies, whilst The Da Vinci Code tried to convince us the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding the real God somewhere in Europe for the past 2000 years.

The list goes on. God has been making appearances everywhere. Everyone seems to have had a personal version of God to back up whatever they did in 2004.

So, how do we know what God is really like? Personally speaking, I don't want to believe in The Bulletin's God, but are there other options?

Some popular Christmas carols (which have probably driven you mad in shopping centres by now) use the word Immanuel - which means 'God with us.' The extraordinary claim of Christmas is that Jesus Christ, born as a baby in the back of a pub, in a back blocks town, in an enemy occupied country, was in fact 'God with us.'

Jesus himself would say later as an adult, 'If anyone has seen me, they have seen God.'

So what was Jesus like then? He certainly stood up for the oppressed (but not as a terrorist). He fought the dominant political parties of the day, but wasn't a politician (neither left nor right). When he left, he said he would be with his followers everywhere, even playing cricket (but he doesn't promise to improve your batting average). And there is no secret 'code' to crack in order to find the real Jesus.

Simply put, Jesus came to show us what God is like (rather than help us create God in our own image). He came to show us that God is for us, not against us. He came to provide a bridge back to God. Why not take the first step onto that bridge with Jesus this Christmas?

Have a merry and peaceful Christmas and New Year.

Bishop John Harrower

John Harrower - head and shoulders
John Harrower