This week, I am preparing for the first Adult Education Spiritual Growth class of the year, a dialogue with Dr. Brown around basic questions about God: What do we mean when we say this word?

It would be one thing to look at a few books, see what has been said about God (as if that were even possible), and then riff off of words gone by. But, to borrow from the sublime writer Frederick Buechner, talking about God can either be pontification ... or it can be pointing.

Pointing, of course, involves questions, longing, emotions, and uncertainty. It is necessarily partial; a movement towards something and never a destination. We are all equipped to be pointers, aka “theologians,” which simply and literally means “talking about God.”

But I am finding that coming up with questions is dangerous business. I can’t think of a topic that is such a strange blend of the intensely personal and the seemingly objective theological. Yes, to talk and to ask about God can remain like a puzzle, or an intellectual exercise, or ... it can go right to the heart of your beliefs, your conduct in life, your fears, your hopes—in short, you.

That is not narcissism, but the nature of the inquiry. As John Calvin pointed out, without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God ... and ... without knowledge of God there is no knowledge of self. Start in either place, and you will need to end up in the other. In other words, no hiding.

This is an open invitation to bring your unhidden self, with its questions and longings, to this dialogue on Sunday, September 12. If you have a question about God you would like to see addressed, leave it for me below as a "comment". And either come to the class at 1:30 at Marble or click here to tune in to the live stream.

In the meantime, spend the week just noticing your perceptions of God, if any…the unbidden insights, the awareness of others’ needs, the prayers you find yourself saying, the slant of September light.