We like to think in dualistic absolutes, e.g. the good, the bad, black and white. During this time of tribalism, politically and religiously, it is easy to think only in terms of us and them, and that God is only on our side and absent from the side of all our opponents. In a time of Blue and Red political differences, I know well the feeling of taking sides. I wonder out loud how anyone could claim that God is on the side of those holding an opposing viewpoint from my own. Then, I remember the words of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln is reported to have said to an outspoken opponent of the Confederacy, “The question is not whether God is on our side. The question is whether we are on God’s side.” For God, there are no dualistic absolutes.
One of the recurring messages of Jesus in the Gospels is telling people that they are not thinking as God thinks. Peter hears this directly from Jesus when he tries to persuade Jesus to not go to Jerusalem where there are those actively plotting his torture and execution. Jesus consistently tries to correct the absolutism of the Pharisees and the Sadducees in regard to their strict observance of the Mosaic Law. When Jesus was castigated by the Pharisees for curing on the Sabbath, Jesus hurls back at them that the Sabbath was created for humanity and NOT for God. In opposition to the Mosaic concept of “an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth,” Jesus tells people that that was no longer valid but wrong. Rather, people must love their enemies and pray for those who persecute them.
When the Christian Church became the state religion of the Roman Empire, it took on the structure and many of the sins of Roman Imperialism. Sadly, all the warfare that resulted, e.g. the 30 years war between Roman Catholics and Lutherans in Germany, the horrific consequences of imperial colonization in Central and South America, Africa, and many Asian nations, are in direct opposition to the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels. It tragically continues today.
I believe that anyone who truly seeks to follow the teachings of Jesus lives in a dramatic tension that continues to pull his or her life. It is easy to live in a world of black and white absolutes. To live in a black and white world of absolutes is a lazy way to live. You don’t have to think. You are not required to think. You are not required to wrestle with your faith trying to seek God’s will in the murkiness of a world that is NOT black and white, but rather mostly grey. This is what Jesus was trying to teach his disciples and the world. The world in which Jesus lived was anything but black and white. The world in which Jesus lived was incredibly a very murky, grey world.
I have found that a complacent faith is an empty faith. Faith is only alive in the midst of struggling to know the will of God in our lives. One cannot live by blind faith, for the descriptive word describes that kind of faith well, namely, it is blind.
The first step to living the Great commandment of Jesus “to love one another as I have loved you,” requires us to recognize that every human being in all nations wears the face of God. In spite of how much we may like or dislike another person, they wear the face of God. No matter how much it may irk us or cause us distress, the people we like least still wear the face of God. If this one thought can penetrate the darkness of our human hearts, there will exist the chance of God’s justice and peace to reign in our very broken world. It is our part to pry open our closed hearts to allow God’s justice and peace to penetrate our hearts and our lives.
This hymn and this song’s inspiration is derived from the first and second chapter of Isaiah.
In the first chapter, God is castigating the elders of Judah for their corruption, their greed, and their utter disregard of the poor and the vulnerable of their society. “Trample my courts no more; bringing offerings is futile; incense is an abomination to me. New moon and sabbath and calling of convocation— I cannot endure solemn assemblies with iniquity. Your new moons and your appointed festivals my soul hates; they have become a burden to me, I am weary of bearing them. When you stretch out your hands, I will hide my eyes from you; even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow. (Isaiah 1:12b-17, NRSV)
In the second chapter, Isaiah paints an eschatological vision of what will be, when all nations united with their enemies approach the mountain of God, ascend, and sit at the feet of God. God will teach them the ways of God’s peace and justice in which all weapons will be destroyed and turned into plows and pruning hooks and war will be destroyed for ever. That segment ends with the promise, “come, let us walk in the light of the Lord!”
The hymn acknowledges the truth that all people of our world, regardless of nation, culture, religion or non-religion, are children of God. God does not just wear one face, but wears the faces of ALL God’s children. This is the vision I hold before me during this time of great acrimony and division.
As you listen to the music, it starts out like a typical church hymn, than segues into another melody, before it segues again into a variation of the hymn, then segues again into another melody before concluding with a final variation on the hymn. Yes, you can sing the text of the hymn to the music, especially as it is played at the beginning and the end of the song.
Here is the text of the hymn:
HYMN TO OUR GOD OF MANY FACES
God of many names and faces,
Hymns of how our lives interlace
With you, whom we have known
And think of you as ours alone.
Our rituals, doors to our salvation?
Incense, music, food oblations,
Cultic gestures, words, and symbols,
Is this Salvation for the lazy and simple?
Truth be told, O God omnipotent,
Our feeble rituals sadly impotent,
Until we love all people on earth
To whom your love has given birth.
For every people, culture, nation
You equally love and grant salvation,
Our foes, our lives, you equally cherish,
And grieve the deaths of all who perish.
Truth be told, O God omnipotent,
Our feeble rituals sadly impotent,
Until we love all people on earth
To whom your love has given birth.
O God of many names and faces,
All human life your love graces,
Transform into flesh our hearts of stone,
For you are flesh of our flesh, and bone of our bone.
(c) 2020 by Robert Charles Wagner. All rights reserved.
Here is the music.
