"So help me God." In January, Barack Obama put his right hand on a Bible and completed a solemn oath by calling on God for help. This week's political theatre of Sonia Sotomayor's confirmation hearings has put the judicial oath of office in the spotlight and it has received considerable commentary. Interestingly, it concludes with the same call on God for assistance, which makes it endlessly clear that the supposed wall of separation between Church and State is messy and has some self-serving interpretations.
As a nation we are publically and officially religious when it suits our purpose; we play linguistic games to placate the idolatry of relativism, and then beseech God for his favor in the Public Square on our terms, thank you very much.
This societal schizophrenia is reflective of how individuals approach faith. We want all the trappings of the sacred without any of the obedience. We compartmentalize religious expression and in doing so, we demand that God remain inside a box of our making. Politicians legislate with a self-aggrandizing sense of importance as though they actually possess the authority to regulate truth. Having systematically deconstructed the Divine, we routinely summon God at our convenience, as though he were the Robin Williams-voiced Genie in the animated movie, Aladdin.
At certain signposts along the way we give a nodding acknowledgment to our need for a Supreme Being's approval. We expect God's blessing when we are born; we order his blessing when we come of age; we assume his blessing when we marry; we presume his blessing on our children; we claim his blessing and acceptance when we die. Between those highpoints we're quite happy not to be bothered by God's pesky requirements to worship and glorify him with our lives.
It is the absolute extreme of arrogance for us to reduce the Creator of the universe to a celestial waiter at our beck and call, even if we occasionally do leave large tips in the collection plate. Contrary to the continual whine of our self-absorbed perspective, we are not at the main table or on center stage for this infinite drama. The story of history is God's story of redemption. We are part of the story, but it is most definitely God's story. All of life on this planet is about God; it is not about us.
Our capacity for understanding the supernatural is limited; our finite grasp on what occurs in the heavenlies comes with the territory of being human. God's designed plans are far greater than we can possibly fathom. Through the apparent random chances and within all the meaningless minutia of our lives, God is busy working out his eternal purposes in history. What he is actively engaged in to bring all things to their appointed consummation in Christ is utterly beyond our ability to comprehend.
With that actual worldview in mind, doesn't it make sense for us to do more than just push God to the fringe? We go through intense motions to keep God at arm's length, but given his everlasting love, should we not invite him to be a part of every moment he allows us? Instead of our casual dismissal of the transcendent dimension of our lives, we should recognize that relying on God is an option we jettison at our own peril.
Our intellectual effort to capture and tame God has detrimental consequences. The progressive culturalization of Christianity has banished Scriptural principles in the name of expediency and political-correctness, creating an entity that a brilliant first-century leader referred to as "having a form of godliness but denying its power." Token adherence to ritual or ceremony doesn't quite cut it. Faith meets reality when the pretensions of religiosity are given the heave-ho and replaced by authentic humility.
Jesus of Nazareth is our ultimate example. For him there was no separation or difference between the secular and sacred. All of life was a matter of where God wanted him and what God wanted him to be doing. We ought to endeavor to emulate his reliance on God. For that to begin, we must confess our complete dependence on God for everything as we seek to deepen intimacy with him by living prayerfully. "So help me God" cannot be reduced to a mere tagline or magic incantation; it must be our desperate plea for the grace to live in a manner that genuinely honors him.


