The futility of one metaphor...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the incomprehensibility of God. He is a God who is "light", who reveals Himself to us, but who also is mysterious and sometimes hidden. So I've been wondering what I know and what I do not know. How many of my thoughts about God are just assumptions or ideas that I've picked up from some other place? What started this line of thinking was Jesus constant use of the phrase, "The Kingdom of God is like...". It seems that everytime He used it he referred to some radically different analogy.

The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.
The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed.
The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.
The kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish.
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire men to work in his vineyard.
The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son.
The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.

Why did he use so many analogies? I tend to like people to say what they mean. Clarity please, and the less words the better. But I'm coming to realize that Jesus had to teach about the Kingdom this way. That's because it is so different from anything we have ever known. It's a radically counter-cultural, other-worldly way of life. It's almost as if the truth of the Kingdom of God is a multi-faceted gemstone. There is no way that you can take it all in at once. So as Jesus teaches, he focuses our attention on one aspect of the Kingdom, calling us to be captivated by its beauty. Then He backs us up and takes us for a run at the other side, allowing us to see a different aspect of the same beauty. The Kingdom is something that we can't put into words. So Jesus gives us picture after picture of what it looks like.

If this is true of the Kingdom, how much more is it true of the King Himself. God is "wholly other". We can't know all of Him. That would be beyond our human capability. So God gives us snapshots. Pictures of aspects of who He is. And as we see them we get a better understanding. That's why Jesus is so important. He is the ultimate picture, the one in whom lived "all the fullness of deity in bodily form". (Col. 2:9) Even with Jesus, though, it's hard for us to take the whole picture in at once. God, although knowable, is shrouded in mystery. We see him in little bits, as He chooses to reveal Himself to us. If we believe this to be true then it should shape the way we communicate God to others. Any talk of God should be done with the realization that there is much we do not know. Alvin Toffler said,

"No single world view can ever capture the whole truth. Only by applying mutliple and temporary metaphors can we gain a rounded (if still incomplete) picture of the world...I mistrust those who already think they have the answers when we are still trying to formulate the questions."

Our task is to humbly show people what we have seen to be true, and help them to begin to look for glimpses of God in the context of their own lives. We need to help them ask good questions. The focus is always on Jesus, but often the clarity comes as Jesus interacts with people in the context of their everyday life. I have often said of preaching that many times I am trying to get people to see and experience something that I haven't fully seen or experienced myself. I need the Holy Spirit to come and take people where they need to go. As we share the truths about Jesus with those around us, let's not limit ourselves to one or two metaphors. Let's not take our experience and determine that the way to growing in relationship with God is exactly the way we have seen it happen in our own life. I'm not saying that we need to throw out orthodoxy, just to be honest about how much we really know (and how much we really don't). Let's begin to allow God to show us all sides of Himself. In whatever way He chooses.