A few weeks ago I was out in the yard playing with the kids. In the midst of our game of tag, or whatever it was at the time, a black car turned into the driveway. It was a car that I did not recognize at all. I could see that it was filled with four men. I thought they might be looking for the Yeshiva across the street but they did not have the look of Hasidic Jews. I must say I was a little perplexed by their approach. The car stopped and a young man with a purple tie and a white shirt got out, and oh was he friendly. Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses for sure. I was right. Jehovah’s Witnesses. Usually I love these encounters. If it hadn’t taken time away from the kids I would have wanted to get in a real earnest discussion with them.

The young man handed me a pamphlet that was entitled “Why Does God Allow Suffering?” A good question that many a theologian and philosopher has considered. A question that is not easily answered or understood. However, knowing the usual line of this particular group I knew that the answer had to do with the coming end. For the Jehovah’s Witnesses the end has been near for a long time.

I have always wondered about that. How could your most basic message be that the end is near? Is there any future in that? Well for the Jehovah’s Witnesses there has been a great future in it. This group has never had a problem with finding adherents. It is a worldwide movement. Very active. And they are able to get their people to go out and talk, cold turkey with the likes of people like me.

Of course I do not agree with what they preach. It seems to me to be based too much on fear. And I have always said that I thought that fear was a great marketing device but made for a terrible religion. So I always want to point out the error of their ways.

Anyway after sparring a bit with the first person the more senior person came to the rescue. The approach that he used and is most effectively used by Jehovah’s Witnesses is to ask a question that can be answered with a particular scripture passage. And they can be quite convincing, unless you have read your Bible. One of the ways that this man tried to be convincing was to say, after he had cited scripture, “and God doesn’t lie does he.” The ploy is to establish a passage as an unchangeable truth. I didn’t want to bite. I said, no there would be no reason for God to lie but I do think God changes God’s mind.

“What makes you think that?”

“The Bible. Old Testament and New. In Genesis Abraham talks God out of destroying Sodom and Gamorah even though God vowed to do so. That makes me think that God has some malleability. Jesus tells a parable about the widow who went to the unjust judge unceasingly and because of that finally won her case. Jesus tells this to teach about the importance of prayer. The implication is that God can be influenced by our desires. And then there is the story of the Syro-Pheonician woman who actually gets Jesus to change his mind.

It was sometime in the midst of this monologue that they actually started retreating. The elder said that he thought I was good with words but didn’t understand God. I said that is OK because there are a multitude of opinions about God and I have found that all seem to have some seed of truth in them. But he was looking for a convert not respectful disagreement. And so they said their good byes and were gone.

Now I bring all this up to point out a part of his argument that I know he thought was airtight. And I bring it up because I believe it is so important for those of faith to believe otherwise. When he said, “And God doesn’t lie does he?” He thought he was speaking an accepted immutable truth about God. And most people agree. One thing about God that people over most religions can agree on is that God is changeless.

And there are passages in scripture to indicate this aspect of God’s nature. But I believe it is a mistake to believe that God is now and forevermore what God is and there is no more.

God is yet incomplete. Or at least what God is doing is yet incomplete. So we are still in a time of becoming, we are still growing. I think it goes for God to. If that were not true then why would we pray? Why would Abraham argue with God if God could not make a better decision? Why would Jesus tell a parable that actually compares God to an unjust judge who could be talked into finding for a widow simply because she was persistent?

And finally why would Jesus listen to a woman who was not even Jewish, a woman who he indirectly called a dog, a woman who he thought was outside the scope of his caring and ministry? He will do so because he is compassionate, as compassionate as God, and in order to live compassion you have to be able to change one’s mind.

If you read this story about the Syro-Phoenician woman you catch a glimpse of a Jesus growing beyond what he thought the scope of his mission as he originally had understood it. He could reach beyond the boundaries of Judaism because compassion demanded it. So if he were to be a truly compassionate man then he would have to change his mind about his mission and who was included. But please note that the most important aspect of the story is that it was because of what the woman said that Jesus changed.

That is an astounding message! What we do. What we desire. What we long for. Our actions can change God! Could our choices be any more important than that?

It may seem like a very subtle difference. But I contend that we are co-creators of this life with God. So we need not cower in fear of what God is going to do to us. If that was the essence of our relationship with God then we would be nothing but victims and you cannot know the blessings of this life feeling like a victim no matter the situation. But if we are in this with God then our every decision is important, our every action has potential to be sacred. And everything we do has an effect over the whole world. It isn’t us down here and God up there, it is all of us together so it is essential for our well being and the well being of all that we stay very open to God and each other.