the vastness and diversity of God’s love

Sunday May 29th, Acts 17: 22 So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, 23 for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about. 24 “He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, All too often we hear the rhetoric of one religion or another saying they have the truth for all of humanity, and if everyone would only just believe the way they do they would be saved. The children of God called Christians are especially bad at this. On the other hand, the message is that if they do not believe the way each of these groups of the followers of God do, well, then it is time to get the asbestos suit ready because hell is awaiting. Paul on the other hand recognizes the spiritually yearning of those he meets and calls them to consider his vision of God. God comes to all people in many different ways. For me, it is the Grace of the Lutheran emphasis fits who I am. For others it may be some other form of expression. Instead of God being “either/or” I think that God is “both/and.” Lutheran is right for me, Judaism for you, Islam for someone else. Is there more than one God with a capital G? I don’t thing so. There are more than enough small “g” gods that fill our lives and draw us away from the big “G” God; all the variations of the capital G just show the vastness and diversity of God’s love. The variations of the small “g” god only show our cultural differences.