When I was learning Spanish, one of the first features of the language I learned was the difference between tu and usted. Both mean you in English, but tu is informal while usted is formal. In other words, you would address your friends and family with tu. Usted, on the other hand, evolved from vuestro merced (Your Mercy), which definitely implies that you are addressing someone more powerful than you, where perhaps there’s some social distance in the relationship that has nothing to do with coronavirus. While sorting out these forms for everyday conversation, one of my first questions was, “Which one do I use for prayer?” Think about it. God doesn’t fit neatly into either category. He is our Father, but He is also the omnipotent creator of the universe. There is no greater distance in rank than that between lowly humans and the Lord Almighty. My teachers told me (and I’m translating here, for the comfort of an English-reading audience) “You use tu. He is your father.” This raises an interesting question: are you more comfortable calling God tu or usted? We’ve talked about prayer as a relationship in this blog before, but the nature of the relationship is something that’s worth paying attention to. When Jesus first referred to God as Abba, Father, it would have shocked anyone around him because no one in the Old Testament referred to Him that way. In fact, the name of God--YHWH--was considered so sacred that it could not be spoken aloud. To this day, some Orthodox Jews show their respect by writing it G-d in English out of reverence for His name. Essentially, by calling God Abba, by making the relationship with God tu instead of usted, Jesus permanently changed the way we approach Him. He had the unique right, of course, to a level of intimacy and familiarity that we do not, for He Himself was also God. Yet He also instructed His disciples to pray calling God Abba, Father. Different kinds of people have different kinds of struggles with the nature of God and how to approach Him. Some struggle to take comfort in His almighty power, the transcendent Otherness the Jews express so well with their way of addressing Him. Others struggle with the terrifying intimacy of the personal immanence of God that Jesus invited His disciples to enjoy. In Jesus Himself, God’s transcendence and immanence are integrated. Some of my favorite songs of all time are Christmas carols that meditate on how these ideas converge in Jesus. Take for example, this line from Benjamin Britten’s Ceremony of Carols, referring to the infant Jesus, “For in this space contain’d was / Heaven and Earth in little space.” In other words, Jesus was a full integration of the human and divine, a synthesis of the humility of humanity and the glory of divinity. Meanwhile, the idea of God as Father also brings these things together. A father helps bring you into this world, and cares for you even as he is an authority over you. He helps you make sense of life, and patiently teaches you the skills you need to make it in the world. He is a friend, authority, comforter, and protector rolled into one. Perhaps I’m speaking from the bias of having an exceptionally caring father who happened to also be an authority over me in a formal way in the classroom, but in the role of a father I see this same convergence between powerful authority and tenderhearted, personal relationship. Tu or usted? As you pray, consider which you feel more comfortable with for God, and ask yourself why. He is both. More than either His power or His love alone, the reality that God contains both and holds them in perfect balance is what makes my heart want to bow down in worship before Him and bask in the awe of His presence. This is a thing that the rational mind can describe, but only the heart can fully appreciate: the transcendent God of the universe considers you, personally, to be His beloved child.
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AuthorJillian Lutes is the youth pastor at West Covina Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church. Archives
May 2020
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