A God Who Hurts

Via Call Me Ishmael shares his notes from a Bible study with Marilyn Robinson, author of Gilead:

"We have broken His heart a million times over." And every time we do, God responds. "The whole Bible is God trying to say, 'I take this very seriously.'"

But we just won't listen, and we keep knocking God around. God, says Robinson, can be understood at times as like an abused wife -- an interesting idea about who holds the power in this relationship between humanity and the divine.

At first I thought, maybe Robinson has been reading Rilke ("What will you do God, when I die?"). But wasn't it Jesus hanging on a tree who showed us the face of God?

What does it mean for our worship if we believe Robinson's (hearsay) claim about who has power in humanity's relationship with God?