Adrian Plass in his book “Jesus: Safe, Tender, Extreme, talks about an exercise his wife, Bridget, and he led with a group of Christians. The aim, apart from writing a group poem is to show just how diverse and “granular” the body of Christ actually is.
What they do is hand out small pieces of paper and announce that the poem will be titled “OUR GOD IS MANY THINGS”. They ask each member to write on their piece of paper “What God is to you at this precise moment on tis particular day.” They instruct them that they don’t have to be conscioulsy poetic or worry about having the “right answer”. The only correct answer is your own private truth, that first thought (not the second, third, fourth…edited, revised version), but that initial, not disproved version! It doesn’t matter if it is positive or negative, no one will know you have written it except God alone.

Each piece of paper was collected and Bridget would read out these statements, avoiding word for word repitition and adding the title of the “poem”…Here is what one group produced:

Our God is many things
He is a good Father, loving and ever-present
He is my rock
He is never with me when I need him most
A distant God, looking for reasons to punich
My best friend
The light that makes my darkness bearable

Our God is many things
The sun in winter, promising that spring will come
He has gone on holiday somewhere
The Father I never had
He is impossible to know
The essense of love
A mystery that death will solve

Our God is many things
He is like the sea, deep and serene
Filled with forgiveness
He loves everyone – except me
He lives in us
He must see my agony, but he doesn’t do anything about it
His love keeps the world turning

Our God is many things
Awesome and mighty
The Rose of Sharon
Our God is the one who painted the rainbow
He is cold and silent, full of promises that he never seems to keep
Our God is the God of the Jews
He hears and sees all we do

Our God is many things
The one I have been searching for all my life
A masked stranger
He helps the sky to kiss the sea
Glorious beyond words
The Father of our Lord Jesus
Nothing to write home about

Our God is many things
All I will ever want or need
I don’t know what will happen to me if things don’t change soon
Our God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow
God is love
I talk to him a lot, but he doesn’t listen?
Our God is many things (pg 36-37)

It is quite something to read, and I’m sure for some of us we are shocked at the response such an exercise produces, but it reveals to me the true reality of the body of Christ when it is allowed as is said in the book;

“…to express inner feelings without an immediate threat from one of those clodhopping terrible twins, Condemnation and Ministry.” (pg 37)

Such a poem reveals the true nature of the body of Christ, and it is not uniformly positive or at peace. There are a range of emotions revealed – fear, appreciation, hurt, questioning, praise… If we are to be “the body of Christ” we need to allow this full range of emotions and experienes AS THEY HAPPEN.

“Tough as it may be, and however much of a challenge to our feelings of safety and security, it is very important to God that we stand firm beside our fellow believers, whatever they may be going through…taking turns to be Jesus for each other, and allowing the truth to be told without reacting with rejection or aggression…Jesus is among us in the real world, and it is his command that we should tell the truth about ourselves and about him…” (pg 39)

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