The Image of God

I came across this extract from Brian McLaren recently and thought it would make a good thought for Christmas Day. As we celebrate the incarnation, what image of God does the world get when it looks at the church today?

What kind of image of God do we represent to the world outside of the church?

• An uptight God who is about black-and-white easy answers and brittle, rigid logic and law, rather than about profound and many-faceted truth, self-sacrificing love, compassionate justice, and profound relationships
  

• A conceptual God who is encountered through systems of abstractions, propositions and terminology rather than through an amazing story, intense poetry, beauty, experience, experiment and community

• A controlling God who is cold, analytical, and mechanistic rather than a master artist, and lover who is passionate about good and evil, justice and injustice, beauty and desecration, hope and cynicism
  

• An exclusive God who favours insiders and is biased against outsiders rather than a God of scandalous inclusion, amazing mercy, and shocking acceptance, who blesses “insiders” so they can extend the blessing to “outsiders”, thus making everyone an insider

• A tense God who prefers people to become judgemental, arrogant, and closed-minded rather than compassionate, humble and teachable.
  

More Ready Than You Realize, Brian McLaren [p64-65] 

My hope is that the image we present is an image of profound grace, unconditional love and immeasurable compassion.