The picture we hold of God is very important; it determines everything. Ben Sira presents us with a picture of God: One of great wisdom, mighty in power, and seeing everything.
The picture of God we hold goes to the heart of much deeper questions about who we are, why we matter and what we are here for. If we ignore these deeper
questions, human life can easily be reduced to biology, utility and power dynamics. In other words, we reduce people (and ourselves) to mere objects. Ben Sirach, in chapter 17 of his book, says that God endowed human beings with strength like his own and made them in his image (vs 3), affirming the great narrative of creation in Genesis 1:26-27.
This is why Sirach is so adamant that our choices are not simply about us but about so much
more. They shape our lives, the lives of others, and reveal what our picture of God is. Every decision we make about how to treat another person, how to use the gifts that we have, how we act on our understanding of identity and purpose, and how we confront the great debates of our times says something about how we picture God. For example, if we treat some people—because they belong to ‘our group’—with more respect than those who do not, it says something about how much we see God as the one
who creates all people with equal dignity.
We inhabit a world that seems to be shifting, in certain places, towards Christian Nationalism (broadly understood as defining a nation by a conservative kind of Christianity and asserting therefore that government policies, laws, institutions, and public life reflect, promote, or enforce Christian values). If we are reflective and wise, we soon notice the underlying narrative: God favours X
instead of Y. The worst expression of this is in a system like apartheid, which (in our case) distorts Christianity by prioritising political power over love of neighbour; negates a people based on ethnicity/class, etc. and ultimately (falsely) claims that God is God of us and not you. ‘We’ have a privileged place in God’s universe and ‘you’ are subservient to ‘us’. Exclusionary views, like nativism, white supremacy, anti-immigrant sentiment, authoritarian tendencies, or marginalising
non-Christians or minorities, reveal a very perverse picture of God.
The writings of Ben Sira are a prime example of Biblical wisdom literature (or sapiential literature). We would be wise to spend time as we begin this season of Lent, reflecting on the importance of our choices and what they say about our picture, and ultimately our relationship with God.
Today, you are invited to reflect on what your important choices/decisions suggest about your deep-held picture of God.
