Life-Giver

I mentioned in the sermon yesterday an idea that’s essential to the way that I think about God. At the center of much of my thinking about God is that God is the “Creator”, the giver of life. The idea came up in the sermon as we worked though Acts 17 and its account of Paul in Athens. There in his famous mini-sermon at the Areopagus, Paul says,

“The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things.” (Acts 17:24–25 NRSV)

Here, Paul offers to the Athenians a broad gate to begin thinking about God: God is the one who creates, and who gives life.There’s nothing particularly new or novel about that bit of theology; it is basic, fundamental. Increasingly, though, I find it useful to put the idea of God the creator and life-giver at the center of my theological thinking—and my prayers as well. When I offer my prayers to the life-giving God, it orients me to pray and live as one who receives life—and who must not waste the life I’m given, nor fail to appreciate its given-ness.I am a living being, given a gift. When I pray, I come to the giver.This came up in the psalms today, in my cycle of praying through them I was in Psalm 36:

“How precious is your steadfast love, O God!
All people may take refuge in the shadow of your wings.
They feast on the abundance of your house,
and you give them drink from the river of your delights.
For with you is the fountain of life;
in your light we see light.”
(Psalms 36:7–9 NRSV)

Yes, God— you are the one with whom is the “fountain of life”. You are the very source of our vitality. You have made us alive—may your spirit lead us to live.Amen!