Facing God
Frontpage, by Danusha V. Goska, Nov. 11, 2015:
Posted Nov 12, 2015
The Judeo-Christian tradition recognizes the individual, apart from the mob. That individual is invited to meet and talk, face to face and utterly spontaneously, with God, without interruption from any earthly authority. That encounter is the life spark of Western Civilization.
We define, and recognize, by contrasts. I learn much about Christian prayer and Christian monasticism by comparing them with their opposites. I think of Michelangelos Creation of Adam and what it says about my faith specifically, what it says about the Judeo-Christian concept of God, of man, and of prayer. I think of how that artwork and its implications contrast with other belief systems: modern Atheism, ancient Paganism, and Islam.
Between 1508 and 1512, on the ceiling of the Vaticans Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo depicted the spark of life in the fingertip-to-fingertip, eye-contact encounter between one, loving, creator God and one human being not a teeming mass just one person. In Michelangelos fresco, we see Adams full naked form, from head to toe. God looks like Adam, and Adam looks like God. They are the same size. Every detail here matters that Adam is just one man, that he is naked, that he is anatomically detailed, that he is the same size as God, that God and Adam are fundamentally structured the same, that Adam is making eye contact with God, that God looks upon Adam with fiercely attentive love every detail here has an impact on the life anyone can live in a Judeo-Christian society.
Organized Christophobes and anti-Semites have targeted Michelangelos Creation of Adam for attack. They call themselves The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. They blather, Oh, you Christians and Jews are so stupid; you think God is an old man in the sky with a long, white beard. They insist that it doesnt matter what story a society tells itself about its origins. They say that the Judeo-Christian God may as well be a monster made of spaghetti. They are ignorant and childish enough to believe that if we told ourselves that story, wed be able to have the same society that we have now. They are wrong on every count.
God created man in his image; in the divine image he created him; male and female he created them: Sofers, ancient Jewish scribes, committed these words to print in the book of Genesis thousands of years ago. Each individual person is the image of a loving God tzelem elohim in Hebrew, imago dei in Latin. Michelangelo used the language at which he was fluent his gift for accurately depicting anatomy and physiology to communicate the essence of the relationship between the Judeo-Christian God and each individual person.
Adam and God meet face to face, eye to eye, in the Sistine Chapel fresco. Exodus 33:11 tells us that The Lord spoke with Moses face to face, just as a man speaks with his friend. Deuteronomy 5:4 tells us that the Lord spoke to his people Israel face to face as well. In Numbers 6:25, God blesses thus The Lord let his face shine upon you. The Bible repeatedly adjures us to seek Gods face. When thou saidst, Seek ye my face; my heart said unto thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek Psalm 27:8. Face to face: this metonym has meant intimate connection human and spiritual for the past four thousand years. To face means to meet. The sixth amendment to the US Constitution guarantees the right to face ones accuser. Face often means dignity, e.g. To save face. This is true not just of English, but of many languages. In Medieval Slavic languages, without face means shame. In China and other Asian cultures, face is reputation, honor, and dignity.
Adam is an individual, apart from a mob. The Talmud teaches that God created only one Adam, rather than a group of men at once, to emphasize the value of each, individual life. One man, in himself, is an entire universe. The Bible teaches: you matter. Not some ideal you. Not you as a cog in a big machine. You who you are, right now. You matter. The God who created the universe wants contact with you. Bring your moment-by-moment concerns to God. Suffering? Pray. Rejoicing? Pray. Sick? Pray. Worried about someone else? Pray. Anxious for yourself? Pray. (James 5 13-18, Philippians 4:6). David, Mary, and Jesus model candid, spontaneous prayer. David nags God in the Psalms, Mary spikes the ball in the Magnificat, and Jesus on the cross holds back nothing. No prayers are as poignant as the prayers of desperate women. Hannah is reprimanded for the intensity of her prayer Lady, are you drunk? and the woman with a hemorrhage prays her tentative, tiny prayer silently, If only I can touch the hem of his garment.
Read more:
http://counterjihadreport.com/2015/11/12/facing-god/