You may think this is a silly question. Isn’t God the same to a Southern California Lutheran as God is to a Tibetan monk as God is to a Gazan refugee? In some ways, yes, of course. God is constant and dependable. But in other ways, God is dynamic, always moving, just like God was at the beginning of the world – hovering over the formless void, willing a universe (or many universes) into being. And God has been revealed to Christians through Jesus Christ, to Jewish nation through Torah, to Muslims through Mohammed… there are myriad ways God has revealed Godself. This makes God unknowable, which is a confounding and fascinating truth of God. I think about my marriage and my family. I will be learning about who my wife is, who my child is, who my granddaughter is, forever. I will also be learning about myself forever. Wouldn’t the same be true about God and God’s revelations to us? Systematic theologians are people who realize our entire worldview is shaped “systematically” by who we understand God to be. Is God the loving, powerful creator of us all? Or is God like a watchmaker who set the cosmos in motion and walked away? Is God a trickster? A punisher? A redeemer? We know people feel all kinds of ways about God, including ignoring, not believing in or hating God. Whether or not they choose to acknowledge it, taking any of these stances about God shapes how they feel about nature, or people, or justice or health. I do not mean to say an atheist does not care about nature, the opposite is frequently true. What I mean is how people will approach life and life’s challenges differently based on how they think God is engaging life and life’s challenges. The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America has come into the news in the past few weeks because the presumptive Democratic nominee for vice president, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota, is an ELCA Lutheran. Some people are asking “What’s a Lutheran?” Others are wondering about Governor Walz’ military service, school record, and decisions as a governor based on their perception of what a Lutheran Christian is. Some believe his service reflects his devotion to God in a Lutheran flavor, others are mocking his faith in a liberal denomination. I do not write to talk about Governor Walz. Let the two presidential candidates and their running mates run their own campaign and answer for their actions and proposed policies. I write to talk about God, and how we perceive God as ELCA Lutherans in Southern California. Lutherans believe God is the Source of Life, the creator of the universe. We believe the Bible’s teachings, although we do not expound a literal interpretation of scripture. This does not mean we throw out scriptures, it means we read them critically, with reason and intelligence, and wonder what God’s revelation is for us in this time and place. We believe the Word of God is relevant today, instructing us on who God is, and how we are to act. We profess in the words of the Apostle’s Creed that God is almighty, and deeply engaged, through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, in human activity and the church. Jesus “will come to judge the living and the dead,” so we do not believe God just set us in motion and said, “Good luck with that!” We are held to a standard of love and forgiveness and service. But we do not do these things to impress God and stay in God’s grace. God is the one who has brought us eternal life, forgiveness, reconciliation, not us or our actions. As Gerhard Forde said, (paraphrased) “What will you do with your life once you realize you do not have to spend any time working on your salvation?” The answer, in my mind, is we can now spend our time loving God’s people and God’s planet. As the nation careens toward a presidential election in just under two months, I have been praying a lot about how a person of faith should live in these times. Our national laws prohibit preachers from endorsing candidates from the pulpit, so what can Christians do, if we aren’t telling people who to vote for and why? (That’s meant as something of a joke, but seriously, what are we to do?) As Lutherans, we take our dual citizenship in the kingdom of God and the kingdom of earth seriously. We know we belong to God our Creator, and answer to His authority. But our founder, Martin Luther, and our Savior, Jesus before him, were clear that we “give unto Caesar that which is Caesar’s,” which I interpret to mean we must live in the world, and its trappings, while also answering to our call as God’s people. One of the most confounding things, in my mind, is the various ways Christians express their faith. Some Christians are judgmental, demanding and rigid. Others are free-flowing and permissive. I realize one of the key things we must determine, as people who follow Jesus, is what do we mean when we say we are Christian? Who is Jesus to us? Who is God? What is the church? Sure, these are lofty questions, but I think in these difficult times, when each of us must determine what we believe and where we stand on issues, we need to do something of a systematic theology “check-in”. What is systematic theology? It’s a way of understanding how you view the world, how you act, what you think of yourself and others, and the cosmos, is based on what you think of God. If you believe God is judgmental and angry, you likely live in fear or retaliation or judgment. If you believe God is loving and reconciling, you likely live seeking healthy relationship. And how you think about God shapes how you think about Jesus and the Holy Spirit and sin and the church and the world. It’s not quite that obvious, but who we think God is determines just about everything about the way we act. I do not mean to say you must believe in God to be deeply ethical and loving: many atheists are selfless and kind. What I mean is how people will approach life and life’s challenges differently based on how they think God is engaging life and life’s challenges.