The centrality of God

 

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1 ESV

                The very first character introduced in the Bible is God, and He enters the narrative at center stage. Rather, He is at the center of everything when everything else enters around Him. It is God who begins the cosmos, and sets in motion the story of which we are all a part. He performs the initial action, with purpose. He begins, and He continues. He is the first to be in the story for it is His story, He started it, and will see it through. He is by right, and by all reason, and by revelation at the very center of all things. He shall be the central figure when this story is ended, and the better story begun.

                This centrality is established in the first sentence of the Bible, it is the first demand of right theology, and therefore of right thinking and of right living. The demand is made explicit in the first and greatest commandment that all our beings be directed to God (Deuteronomy 6:5, Mark 12:30, Matthew 22: 37, Luke 10:27). When God is not central in our lives all is thrown into disorder. Apart from the centrality there is nothing that can hold our world together. Our thinking has no grounding. Our attempts at order have no stay and no hold. When God is removed from the center in so far as He can be, which is to say when we delude ourselves into thinking such a thing possible, what is left is chaos and futility. The further we would remove God the further we shall fall into suffering.

                Now if God is at the center internally, that is to say in our souls, shouldn’t that reality be externally evident? And if we would have God in the center of our lives internally should we not do all to enforce this reality externally?  The external recognition of the internal reality reinforces the reality internally. The outward expression affirms the inner truth. The microcosm expresses the macrocosm, The lesser points to the greater reality. Consistency in witness is good, and important.  And this is never more important than when it comes to the first lesson of scripture, that God is at the center.

Prayer

Father be in our lives, and in our communities, and in our society, and in all things where You are in truth and ought to be in all ways at the very center. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.

Songs

Be Thou my vision

All creatures of our God and King

This is my Father’s world

 

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