Lord and Lawd
[Adam and Eve] heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden at the time of the evening breeze. – Genesis 3:8 (NRSV)
I’ve lived in the south for 14 years. It’s different down here.
For example, in the Northeast, where I’m from, people display irritation and anger without much of a filter. In the South, by contrast, it’s customary to add a little sweet to the T.
God is different too. In the North, I was taught to worship a distant, all-powerful deity who is immortal, invisible, inaccessible, and hid from our eyes. In the South, God is more proximate and engaged, walking and talking with believers in the garden… while showing no mercy to unrepentant sinners. In the North, people worship the Lord. In the South, people walk with the Lawd.
Ancient Israel had a similar dynamic. In the North, “Elohim” God was understood to be distant and all powerful. In the southern part of Israel, “Yahweh” God was intimate and available.
We need both. If God is too distant, we miss the personal connection. If God is only personal, we miss the opportunity to lose ourselves in holy majesty and mystery.
Jesus was born in the northern part of Israel and died in the south. In him, God’s love became proximate, familiar, knowable. Meanwhile, Jesus pointed to the Holy beyond himself. He reconciled both in his body and being. What is a cross but the convergence of the four directions? Are we, who are made in God’s image, called to do anything less?
Prayer
Lord and Lawd, you who are closer than breath and farther than the most distant galaxy, let me experience the oneness of being today.
Matt Laney is co-Pastor of Virginia Highland Church UCC in Atlanta, GA and the author of >Pride Wars, a fantasy series published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for Young Readers. The first two books, The Spinner Prince and The Four Guardians are available now.