The Theology of Ricky Bobby
I took the plunge recently and enjoyed the silly and seriously entertaining Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. There are some very funny parts to that movie. I especially enjoyed Will Farrell’s prayer times. He is quite the prayer. For those who have not seen the movie, Ricky Bobby has a very specific image of Jesus that he prays to, he likes to pray to baby Jesus.
To quote one of his fine prayers, “Dear little baby Jesus, who’s sittin’ in his crib watchin the Baby Einstein videos, learnin’ ’bout shapes and colors. I would like to thank you for bringin’ me and my moma together, and also that my kids no longer sound like retarded gang-bangers.” The scenes involving his family dinner time prayers are very humorous, but they also touched on a thought I have often had. How you picture God goes a long way in determining how you pray.
What I mean by that is this: our image of God directly effects how we communicate with Him. Growing up I had an image of God sitting on a throne wagging a finger at me. He always saw me doing bad things, and my prayer life mainly consisted of me asking forgiveness. On the days when I felt I had earned God’s favor I might ask for something or just say hi, but those days seemed few and far between. For the most part God was kind of like Santa Claus for me back then. I just tried to stay on the right list.
As I have grown older and my image of God has changed, so too has my prayer life. The biggest change came for me when I began to see God smiling at me. It took me a lot of years to understand how much bigger God’s love and grace are than I could ever imagine. When God looks down on His children who love Him, He smiles. It is amazing that I grew up in the church, in a loving Christian home, and had a degree in Biblical Studies before that thought ever crossed my mind. The words of Zephaniah 3:17 began to ring in my head, “The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.”
As a parent I understand so much more how God could delight in His children, even when they are immature, stupid, disobedient, and imperfect. As these thoughts of God began to take hold of my soul, I began to seek God out in entirely different ways in my prayer life. Excitedly I rushed to talk to God about the joys and hurts of my life. Remorsefully I confessed, carrying the pain of disappointing a loved one, not just fear of retribution from a higher authority. Submission, obedience, and guidance became much realer to me as my image of God changed.
I hope my image of God will continue to change throughout my life. As I am shaped more and more by God’s hands and by listening to His voice, I pray that I will have bigger and more vivid images of the God I pray to. I hope that a familiarity will develop that will be like that you see of old friends or spouses who have been through so much together and know each other so well that they can sit and enjoy each others company while barely even using words. I pray that I will see God like that one day and the act of seeking Him out will have that kind of familiarity.
So thanks Ricky Bobby, you great big hairy American winning machine. Your infantile prayers are a great reminder of we limit our prayer lives based on our images of God and the desires of our hearts.
May all of us who seek God find images of glory far greater than our imaginations can conjure and far bigger than our minds can actually comprehend.
18 comments:
I relate with your thoughts here and the basic thrust of your comments.
My mother-in-law, about a year prior to dying, supposedly had this "death" experience where she was transported to Heaven's gates. I don't place a lot of stock in such experiences, but the part that gave me pause and has helped reshape my idea of Whom we serve, was when Jesus came out, leaned on the gate post, told her it wasn't yet time, chatted with her in a very friendly way, smiling all the time, and even cracked a joke or two. She said
He was very easy going and had a good sense of humor and she hated having to come back to earth out of His presence.
The smiling, joking Lord that is so endearing to us replicating a God who "delights" in our obedience and faith. Wow! Much different than how I, too, was raised.
Still . . . the wrath of the Lord and our God is well documented throughout Scripture to a much greater degree, for whatever reason.
I'm endeared by my "newfound" God reality at the same time very much aware of Christ, Calvary, and our Lord's Blood holding back the wrath of our "jealous" Creator.
As a result, it's still very difficult to refer or relate to God as "Dude" or "Bra", and I'll probably never tread there.
Man, I’ve got to see this movie; I am going to Netflix right now and moving it to the top of my queue. I have seen the scene you are referring to on youtube and it cracked me up!
I love the insight you have pointed out about praying according to your image of God; how we see God will certainly effect how we relate to him. Perhaps that is why we are given so many different contrasting and parallel images of God in scripture and at the same time warned against solidifying and reducing any one image as an exclusive defining “graven image”. It is a delicate balance to both embrace the various images of God in scripture as a glimpse of who God is and at the same time not commit idolatry of reducing God to any one of those very same scriptural images alone. If we can somehow navigate this path at least partly well we will give ourselves room for ongoing growth in our view of God through out our life.
I can also identify with how my prayers and relationship with God drastically changed when I got a much better idea of just how much God loves me. Thanks for the post Greg.
Peace,
James
As a random visitor to this blog, I would like to ask a question. If you have a specific image of god when you worship, doesn't it count as idol worship because you're worshiping the image rather than god?
metal detector,
thanks for your question and your thought. i can have an image of God (which is limited as the scriptures clearly state that i can never comprehend all of God) and still worship God, not the image.
i may never be able to understand the wind, but i can enjoy the breeze caressing my face.
brad
We can only speak of God in images. It's all we can do because we're human. We do it all the time.
God is not a father.
God is not a spirit (or a ghost).
God is not a flower (lily of the valley).
God is not a male.
All of these are images we use to help us understand the nature of God (who "he" is - there I just did it myself...I used the male pronoun - an image - and a bad one at that - to talk about God).
How else can we talk about God but in the finite words and images that we create?
F&TC,
- J
...to specifically respond to your question...I find that the music in worship is way more of an idol than the images in my head.
Can we not appreciate the Scripture without loving it's leather binding? Surely we can worship God in a faithful way without turning our perceived visage of him into an idol.
Jeremy, I think I understand where you are going with that last statement and I wholeheartedly concur, but I would love to hear you flesh it out a little more. Care to elaborate for little old me?
Jeremy:
I'm not sure what you mean by saying God is not a father when in scripture He is clearly "our Father" and that He is not a spirit, when the Scriptures teach that he is Spirit. John 4:21-24
It is better to say that God is not just. . .God is Transcendent, but at the same time He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you do not like male pronouns for God then you must not like the scriptures. For clearly scripture teaches that God is Father and Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God. Peace in Christ.
Steven
Steven,
You say that “It is better to say that God is not just. . .God is Transcendent, but at the same time He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you do not like male pronouns for God then you must not like the scriptures. For clearly scripture teaches that God is Father and Jesus is the Christ the Son of the living God.”
I agree, but even though the gender for God is dominated by male imagery in scripture can’t God transcend even that? So why can’t God be Father and Mother “at the same time? There are images of femininity in God in scripture so scripture is not a “clear” as you want to believe.”
Isaiah 66:12-13, “For this is what the LORD says: ‘I will extend peace to her like a river, and the wealth of nations like a flooding stream; you will nurse and be carried on her arm and dandled on her knees as a mother comforts her child, so will I comfort you;’”
Matthew 23:37 “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing.”
Of course you may respond that God is “like” a mother, but he “IS” Father; but wait I thought you said that God transcended being Father? Is God literally male?? Does God the Father have a penis? Are not men and women both made in the image of God, or is woman in the image of man and therefore only a degraded copy of God.? No, Scripture teaches that God made man in his image and he made them male and female: both in God’s image and so then both reflect God the same. If God has a physical and literal gender than being made in God’s image should be specifically male, but that is not the case in scripture.
Peace,
James
James:
It's hard to take those two passages of scripture you quoted and make a case for God being mother. You are right God can comfort like a mother but that does not make Him a mother. God is always addressed as Father in scripture never mother. Even Jesus called God Father, never mother and told His disciples to pray our FATHER...In the Nicene Creed We say "We believe in one God the Father...and in the The Apostles' Creed we say "I believe in God,the Father...Yes God created both the male and female in His spiritual image and no, God has no gender, God is our heavenly Father. The facts are God has always been addressed as Father in scripture and by christians for over 2000 years. In Galatians 4:6 Paul calls God "Abba Father" which in the Aramaic means Daddy not Mommy, I could go on and on. People who want to call God mother are out of line with what scripture teaches and what the church has believed for 2000 years. I think I'll stick with Jesus and the Church. For after all if Jesus wanted us to call God mother don't you think he would of told us to pray our mother not our Father. God is our spiritual Father to call God mother may be a popular thing to do, but not the orthodox thing do do. We can't just make God into any thing we want Him to be. As James says God is the ..."Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning"... To pray to God the mother would be to pray to a different god than the God of the bible and the Church of Jesus Christ! Peace in Christ.
Steven
Steven,
I was not making a case that scripture instructs us to call God mother, or that I think “Father” and “Mother” are synonymous and should be interchanged when translating scripture that uses the word “Father”. I was just saying that scripture sometimes uses feminine attributes and even uses things like being a mother to liken God too.
At the same time I don’t think you can find anything in scripture to warrant telling someone that they can not view God with feminine characteristics or as a Mother. You admit that God has no gender, so then how does he actually have the specific gender role of a father? If God has no gender than the word “father” is symbolic and not actual.
If someone prays to God as “Mother” as their paternal parent in the same way we pray to God as “Father” will God be offended? Will God not know that this person is speaking to him? What if this person’s own father disgraced the image of a father in their mind and an image of a mother in this person’s life is most like Christ; would not praying to Mother in this case be more like praying to who God really is than praying to God as a Father only in name?
You say we “just can’t make God into anything you want him to be”, and I agree. But you can’t even make God into what we think we know about him based on scripture; to MAKE God anything is to create an idol that we can control. You were most right when you said that God transcends being a Father- which is what Jeremy was saying. But, to lock in on God the Father as having a particular gender is to deny the mystery of who God really is for an image that is more akin to idolatry even if it is based on scripture. Of course to think God is exclusively feminine would also be idolatry. This reminds me of one of the points of Greg’s original post; that God is bigger than any image of him.
Peace,
James
James:
We agree that God is not a male by gender. God is neither male or female, but He is Father by His very nature. Paul tells us that there is "one God and Father of all, and in you all." Ephesians 4:6 The word Father is more than just symbolic it is actual. By adoption we become the Children of God, Paul tells us in Romans 8:15 that we..."receive the Spirit of adoption by who we cry out, Abba Father." The good news is that we can know God as Father, a heavenly Father who loves you and me and even when earthly Fathers fail us. I'm sorry but no place in scripture are we told to address God as mother. To do so is to make God something that He is not, mother. Even though He may comfort like a mother He is still Father. As followers of Jesus let do as Jesus said and pray "Our Father in heaven"... to know God in His fullness is to know Him as [Trinity] Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Some people try to take the mother thing way too far. Malachi 2:10 says, "Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us?"...God is what He is Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. I feel sorry for people who have a hard time knowing God as Father. To say God is mother is out of line with what the bible teaches about God. His Fatherhood is important. Peace in Christ.
Steven
Steven,
I agree that God’s Fatherhood is important but some people take the father thing to far as well by getting stuck thinking about God as a specific gender (I know you are not doing this.) We agree that God is not male or female, and I would agree that God is father “by nature”. If it is by nature and not literal gender than what qualities does a father have by nature as a parent that a mother does not have by nature as a parent?
James:
Even though mothers and fathers can share some of the same qualities that does not make a mother a father or a father a mother. To understand God as father we need to first understand Him as creator-One who brings into being. God the Father creator of heaven and earth. The supreme name of God is Father. God has been our Father for all eternity past. He brought us into existence. We should no more call God mother than we should call our earthly fathers mother. Even though God can act like a mother it does not make Him a mother. To us who are born of the Spirit we call Him Abba-Father. It is clear from scripture that God desires for us to know Him as a Father who can comfort like a mother when need be. We speak of Jerusalem as Mother of us all and Mother Church, but we always speak of God as Father, who brings all things into being. Peace in Christ.
Steven
Sense the original post was about images, how do you folks feel about using Icons in worship. I love the one of Jesus I have in my office. By Icons I mean Eastern Orthodox Icons or in that style.
Steven,
I am not sure that “Father” is “the supreme name of God”; I think God transcends everything we could call him in our human language or think about him in human terms. I understand the importance of the imagery of God as Father; but I only understand it to the extent that it is a paradox that saying that God is like a father seems to fall short just as much as saying that he is a father.
What I understand the most about the importance of God as the father is that in the context of a patriarchal world that scripture was revealed in that God is the ultimate patriarch; he is the top of the family tree and all things come from him. So, I would agree with your assessment of the imagery of a father having creator elements to him because of the context. Certainly mother imagery would also fit well with a creator God because women give birth. Isaiah 42:14 depicts the Lord as saying, "I cry out as a woman in labor, gasping and panting." Then in Deuteronomy 32:18 it says, "the Rock that begot (sometimes translated “fathered”) you ... the God who gave you birth." I also agree with you about the importance in the image of the father when it comes to our adoption, that we can cry out “Abba-Father”; again nothing about God as mother would be lost here either. Perhaps it would be lost on those that lived during the time of the patriarchal context when scripture was revealed; the people God first spoke to at this time lived in a system that saw the male patriarch on top of the food chain. In this context and cultural understanding the image of father is the better term because God is seen as being the supreme parent. I don’t think this is necessarily true in our culture today, but the point is that God is the supreme parent that all things come from and have adopted us as his own.
Anyway, I don’t think we are going to agree on this, and we don’t have too. Again, I also am not sure that “Father” is “the supreme name of God”. I don’t think any name or word can capture what God is. God replied to Moses when he asked about his name only that he was “I am”. God simply is, and no “name” can completely capture the mystery of his being. Ironically, I am not in the habit of calling God mother or with feminine pronouns; but I am trying to keep my mind open to the mystery of who God is. I want to keep the very really tension between the two very real truths that God is both completely out of our reach yet close enough to cry out to as “Abba Father”.
Stephen, I appreciate you moving on the conversation to the broader applications of the original post. I myself am fairly new to icons used in worship but I have been attracted to them lately. What Eastern Orthodox icons or in similar icons are you most interested in using in worship and how so? What image of Jesus do you have in your office?
Peace,
James
James:
I like the use of icons in worship, because they add beauty to worship. They are also a reminder of the great cloud of witnesses we are surrounded by and that all of heaven is worshiping God with us. I think as complete people we need those visual reminders of Christ and the saints. Many icons depict some great mystery of the Christian faith, which is great for contemplative prayer. I mostly like the icons of Christ, but I like some of Mary and the saints as well. The one I have in my office is of Christ the Teacher, it shows Him holding a closed gosple book, He looks a lot more mideastern. I'm not sure if the CotN is ready for icons, but I have used them in worship during Advent and Christmas. Peace in Christ.
Steven
The maternal tends to love in spite of justice, defend the child regardless of whether they are in the right or wrong. The paternal tends to be more interested in justice, mainly for the good of the child. The feminine is to protect the brood (defend the child), from all threats, just or injust. The paternal will typically allow for justice to prevail in order to teach the consequences to the child of certain decisions. Both are distinctly different, have the love of the child at heart and have an important role.
Given that sin has consequences (both physical and spirtiual) and God is a just God, and allows us to experience the consequences of some of our actions, it could be that this thought could give some insight. I believe the masculine and Father is used because God's relationship to us more closely parallels a Father to a child than a Mother.
Just a couple of late thoughts on the issue.
PRB
I really think today's society has a difficult time seeing God for who HE is because we have such a lack of fatherhood initiative in American culture. We cannot deny that Jesus spoke many times of His FATHER in heaven-- not His Mother. C'mon, church. Why can't we follow the ways of God without trying to turn it into something full of warm fuzzies that make US feel good and make us have a view of a god we have created rather than a view of THE GOD of the scriptures. Why do we not like to view a holy God who can love and comfort, yet who can be the consuming fire mentioned in Hebrews? Are we willing to compromise the true nature of God for something of our own creation? That is what man has been doing since the beginning. Trying to make God fit into his own world rather than fitting into God's world. Furthermore, about that movie. We come close to blasphemy when we look at prayer in light of something hilarious and not serious. Sure God wants a relationship, but He also wants reverence. Serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. He is coming for a holy people who worship Him in righteouness and TRUE holiness. Even so come Lord Jesus!
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