Perhaps too dense, but a few grounding ideas about how to go about talking about God from within the Christian tradition. Also, we deconstruct U2's song "Yahweh" to give us a few thoughts

1. Who We Talk About When We Talk
About God

2. https://youtu.be/3EmrFyt00ck
(Acoustic version of U2’s Yahweh)

3. Gratitude
For what are you grateful?

4. Take these shoes
Click-clacking down some dead end street
Take these shoes
And make them fit
Take this shirt
Polyester white trash made in nowhere
Take this shirt
And make it clean, clean
Take this soul
Stranded in some skin and bones
Take this soul
And make it sing, sing
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still, I'm waiting for the dawn
Take these hands
Teach them what to carry
Take these hands
Don't make a fist, no
Take this mouth
So quick to criticize
Take this mouth
Give it a kiss
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before the child is born
Yahweh, Yahweh
Still, I'm waiting for the dawn
Still waiting for the dawn, the sun is
coming up
The sun is coming up on the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
This love is like a drop in the ocean
Yahweh, Yahweh
Always pain before a child is born
Yahweh, tell me now
Why the dark before the dawn?
Take this city
A city should be shining on a hill
Take this city
If it be your will
What no man can own, no man can take
Take this heart
Take this heart
Take this heart
And make it break

5. Question
What themes is the song pointing at?

6. A Few Themes
• Redemption
• “Polyester white trash made in
nowhere… make it clean”
• Beauty
• “Make it sing”
• Ethical Transformation
• “Take these hands and teach
them what to carry”
• Expectation
• “Always pain before the child is born”
• Politics
• “A city should be shining on a hill”
• Repentance
• “Take this heart and make it
break”
• Agency
• “If it be your will”

7. Thinking About God is Hard
• “The structure of the universe
(multiverse) as such”
• God is not an object in the
universe, rather God is the
precondition of there being
any structure of the universe
at all
• This is why, in a certain
sense, everyone believes in
God – everyone believes the
universe has a determinate
structure (e.g. hostile or
welcoming, ethical or ethically
uninterested). The question
is: What else can we say
about it?

8. The Moral Law
• The Universe is not an
obviously moral place – it is
generally “red in truth and
claw.”
• Yet we have this sense that
how we behave is important,
that there is a “should” at
work.
• Why?
• How can it be that the very
impersonal seeming universe
could have anything at all to
say about morality? How
does “is” become “should”?

9. A Personal God
• The Christian tradition so
insistent that God is best
described in personal terms
But Moses said to God, ‘If I come to
the Israelites and say to them, “The
God of your ancestors has sent me to
you”, and they ask me, “What is his
name?” what shall I say to them?’
God said to Moses, ‘I am who I am.’*
He said further, ‘Thus you shall say to
the Israelites, “I am has sent me to
you.” ’ God also said to Moses, ‘Thus
you shall say to the Israelites, “The
Lord,* the God of your ancestors, the
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac,
and the God of Jacob, has sent me to
you” Exodus 3:13-15

10. Talking About God
• If God is not an object in the
universe able to be
scrutinized scientifically, then
how can we best search?
• In Christianity, there is a
strong tradition that says the
only way to do it is
relationally. Only by trusting
in God can we begin to know
God.
O taste and see that the Lord is
good;
happy are those who take
refuge in him.
Psalm 34:8

11. Problems
• Can you have a relationship
with God without relating to
people too?
• Is a “personal” relationship
with God an adequate
description?
• Does God answer prayer?
• What does it mean to pray?
• What does it mean to “Trust
God”
• Why keep the Bible?
• Does God interfere? What
does “interfere” mean here?
• Why is God silent?
• What kind of “relationship” is
it? Is it like a person to person
relationship?

12. Our Father in heaven,
hallowed be your name,
your kingdom come,
your will be done,
on earth as in heaven.
Give us today our daily bread.
Forgive us our sins
as we forgive those who sin against us.
Save us from the time of trial
and deliver us from evil.
For the kingdom, the power, and the glory are yours
now and for ever. Amen.

13. Go in peace;
may you carry God’s Wisdom,
speak forth God’s Word,
and embody God’s Presence
wherever you are.
In the name of Christ. Amen.