I was looking through some old photographs recently and came upon a picture of the kitchen of my childhood. In my mind I knew right where the chairs were, the dishwasher was located, the cabinets, and the countertops. And the color of the walls: blue. Except, they were green. I stared and stared at the picture until it hit me that the photograph wasn’t discolored. My memory was. My conception of my childhood kitchen was not my childhood kitchen. I had equated my conception with the reality, and was once again reminded that the two are not always the same.

This same thing happens with God.

In fact, on Sunday, as we meet John the Baptist in our gospel reading, we see that he makes the same mistake – and goes from John the Baptist to John the Idolater.

Here’s what I mean. John had a certain idea of who God was and how God acted. In Sunday’s reading John gets so confused over this that he sends his disciples to ask if Jesus is, indeed, the messiah.  Now remember that John was Jesus’ cousin and had baptized him. But John’s conception of who God was seems to have overshadowed that. And now John is thoroughly confused about the whole thing.

You and I get the same way.  And because God doesn't fit our idea of who God should be we can find ourselves not only misunderstanding God but getting angry at God, and even pulling back from God, which is counterproductive because God is the very source that is most likely to help us.

This is why openness and humility are so important for us to cultivate. Our default settings need to be calibrated to accept newness and novelty with more of a ‘wow, tell me more’ approach and less of a ‘this can’t be so’ attitude. 

How is God asking us to be open today? What are we being urged to try, explore, and imagine? In what ways do our conceptions of God keep us from drawing nearer to God?

Reading

The Social Media Gospel – Meredith Goulc

The Distant Mirror – Barbara Tuchman
Matthew for Everyone – NT Wright