Tuesday, October 13, 2020

Recovering Our Distinctive Character

It is 1450 BC. The people of Yahweh have been camped at the base of Mount Sinai for about a year. They are about to pull up stakes and walk through hostile territory to the Promised Land. Moses goes to the Tent of Meeting to speak with Yahweh.

He says to Yahweh, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight and your people. Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” (Exodus 33:15-16, English Standard Version).

We all are stuck with one Global Technological System (GTS) as our inescapable context. It is the finest monument yet to the six false, malicious, yet conventional gods of power, falsehood, indifference, and death. These six are the Olympian gods of politics, war, technology, sex, money, and consumption.

These gods and their GTS continuously deform the structures of all ecosystems, societies, cultures, and Olympian personalities into their image.

In bright contrast, Yahweh remains the one distinct (separate) and distinctive (unique) god of freedom, truth, love, and vitality. He remains for us, with us, and in us, transforming us into as distinct and distinctive a people as he is a god. May our lives witness more clearly to him for our salvation and his glory.

Copyright © 2020 by Steven Farsaci. All rights reserved. Fair use encouraged.