Month: August 2022

The Divine-Human Waltz

Posted on by a43dcb5_wp

Listening to the sweeping movements of Strauss’s Blue Danube Waltz, reminded me of a biblical three-step put forth by the prophet Micah, a contemporary of the prophet Isaiah. Micah was trying to warn the the people of  the Southern Kingdom to change their evil ways (Micah 6:8). After the prophet, channeling God’s voice (as true prophets do), calls the people of Judah (and, by extension, us) to task. God gives a list of the major ways that the Israelites (us, too) have experienced the saving, liberating, healing action that could only be attributed to divine intervention: being freed from slavery in Egypt, being given great leaders, like Moses and his siblings, Aaron and Miriam, being spared from predatory monarchs and nations, being led through the wilderness…

God is the same for us as for the Israelites. God desires to liberate us from any and all enslavements (and we are very creative in entangling ourselves, and getting ourselves stuck in some form of unfreedom). God supplies wise and good people along our way. There are voices around us, and a voice within, to warn us away from dangers. God, if we cooperate, leads and guides our lives toward what is truly good and loving and life-giving. 

The people (we) replies to Micah: With what can we come before the Holy One who has treated us so graciously? Will God be pleased with thousands of animals burnt whole in sacrifice?  Countless streams of oil poured out? Perhaps God will only be satisfied, like the gods of the nations around us, with the sacrifice of our first born children? In other words, how can we ever pay God back for such infinite graciousness? What does God demand in return? The prophet Hosea had already put an answer on God’s lips before the earlier destruction and exile of the Northern Kingdom, “What I desire is mercy (compassion), not sacrifice.”

Micah reduces good, faithful living – living the way that God desires – to a three-step program: Act justly, Love with tender faithfulness; and Act humbly before God. This is all that God asks of us. That we treat everyone fairly. That we are true in all our dealings. That we love with tenderness and fidelity, not using or abusing others, overtly or subtly. That we act before God, and all God’s creation, with humility, knowing our place. We are wonderful, but we are not gods. We are made of earth and enlivened by the breath (Spirit) of God. If we do these three movements, we may find ourselves dancing gracefully as our life unfolds.

 

 

Do You Believe in Magic?

Posted on by a43dcb5_wp

Maybe it’s the opposite of the “Puppet Master god,” but, from our side of the divine-human equation, we, sometimes, might want to put the strings on God. If only God would do what I want!  Humans have had a fascination throughout history with trying to discover ways to manipulate God. Magic can be one of these attempts.

How great it would be to have a book of incantations to bring about whatever effects (special or not) we would like! There must be a formula of words that can unlock power, open invisible doors, transform our enemies into hideous and grotesque things. Perhaps there’s some potion we can swallow that will give us a glimpse into the mind of God.

For believers who belong to sacramental churches, there can be the understanding that, if one performs the ritual correctly we can make God appear, maybe even make God do our bidding (like rubbing an old, tarnished oil lamp). Sacraments only work because God has chosen to use created reality as a way to encounter God with us, within us, and among us. We have supplied the rituals and words. The graces that may come through them are God’s doing.

Paul Dukas’ music in The Sorcerer’s Apprentice vividly evokes the perils of ignorance playing with power to serve selfish purposes. When it comes to trying to conjure the divine, we don’t know what we are doing. There are so many other popular tales, including in the Bible, that try to demonstrate that we get in deep, deep trouble when we try to force God to jump through our hoops.

On the other hand, why would we want to go that route? God has already offered the most incredible magic of all. God has implanted the power to love in each one. We only need tap into it. To the extent that we do, we will change the world in the most beautiful way. Try the magic of love.

After You Die, You Will See God

Posted on by a43dcb5_wp

This dire message, dark and ominous, with the word will underlined multiple times, is on a very prominent billboard at a busy intersection near our home. The background depicts a readout from a heart monitor with a healthy looking pattern in red that suddenly morphs into a flatline, indicating the end of life. Not too subtle! Then there is a phone number, in case this warning has caught your attention and you have instantly become overwhelmed with dread of your eternal destiny, They (whoever they are) are waiting anxiously for your call. They can save you from something or other.

Instead of fear, this billboard fills me with a deep sadness. Why would anyone need to go through their whole life before they see God? Look around you! The world overflows with inexplicable gifts. In the midst of struggles, challenges, sorrows, pain and loss, there are beauty, kindness, goodness, graciousness, moments of joy. There is love – even heroic love. All we need do is look at a child, and see the wonder radiating from their eyes. God is smiling out from within all that is graceful and good. It’s a true tragedy when fear, ego and other distractions blind us from recognizing this. We can see God, here and now.

The divine and the less than divine are not polar opposites. One flows from the other. One flows into, and through, the other. People who call themselves Christian need to be very careful to not manufacture dualities. After all, we claim to believe that the Almighty shares intimately, through an amazing union with humanity, in Jesus.

How will we recognize God “after we die” if we haven’t seen God while we are alive?

 

 

The Puppet Master god

Posted on by a43dcb5_wp

One of the pervasive images with which we humans clothe God is that of a god that controls each and every moment and movement – a god who usurps the possibility of any freedom on our part. Like a puppeteer, this god toys with us, individually and as a species, throughout our lifetimes and our history, pulling the strings and making us move, dance, stumble, fall – literally jerking us around. No will of our own. This god is intimately, intricately and invasively involved in everything – a divine busybody, a divine bully who hoards the universal remote control that animates all things.

From the perspective of the divinization of human knowledge, this tyrannical god is ridiculous, yet comes in handy. It is a caricature very easily dismissed. Yet it meshes well with the perspective that we are the helpless pawns of a myriad of visible and invisible, purely natural and completely explainable forces. There is no need for a divine being, all is explainable through science – to the free and mature human being of today.

People of faith try to navigate the choppy waters of the narrows between the extremes of, we are totally free and we are completely controlled by forces beyond us. It is true that our freedom is very limited. And it is also true that we are able to say yes and no, to choose, to some degree, how we will live. People who love recognize the element of freedom that makes love possible. Without freedom, love, the free gift of one’s self, is meaningless. It couldn’t exist. Love cannot be programmed or even predicted.

God is Love, as Scriptures tells us. God wants us to be free from all that limits or impedes what is possible for us. God desires that we are free to choose to love, and to know that we are loved – no strings attached.