LIFE 2009 February : Almighty

We believe in One God, The Father, The Almighty, maker of heaven and earth... and to the republic for which it stands... oops!  The part of the creed we are exploring in this session is "We believe in One God, the Father, The Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is seen and unseen".

The questions is how can that phrase from the creed become REAL to us, not just a line we recite from memory and perhaps even overlap with lines from something else.  It is so central to our faith and yet can we get our hearts and minds around it? 

ONE God, that maybe isn't hard.  In Scriptures we hear God, time and again, remind his people that there is one and only one true God.  Surely one and only one God would be ALMIGHTY, but doesn't that seem so far removed from us, even intimidating?

Doesn't Jesus tell us that God is not some remote power we should fear, but someone who loves us and wants the best for us?  Instead of power based on an image of fear and trepidation, are we talking about the mighty power of love and goodness?  Jesus was speaking of a love that leads us to the beauty, truth, and goodness of God.  How does that love of God become real for us?  In a time when earthly power might come from money, and image of physical beauty, or even fear, we can rely on our belief in that loving god to find the truth, the beauty, and goodness in our world?

Because a picture is worth a thousand words, and our modern technology lets us multiply that effect by adding motion and sound, we are going to use some movie clips to illustrate ways our perception of truth, beauty, goodness, and even love, get distorted by all of the trappings of our daily lives.