The Story So Far

The Story So Far

June 19, 2017

Once, you weren’t you. A long time ago, there was one thing. That one thing that became many. The one thing was still one, but it became complex and differentiated in an explosion of creativity. Through this, stars were born, galaxies started to swirl, and planets were formed. On one particular planet, this stardust started to form and become aware of itself.

Soon this life became self-aware and one particular species of primate discovered some of the processes through which this happened. Our evolutionary theory and quantum theories are showing our family history. The principle of reality is everything is relational. We are related and connected to all other things.

As far as we can see and have collected samples of, we keep seeing the same things. The elements in you, that make up you, were once super novas. The National Geographic article on this states that “Stars are like nuclear reactors. They take a fuel and convert it to something else. Hydrogen is formed into helium, and helium is built into carbon, nitrogen and oxygen, iron and sulfur—everything we’re made of.”[1] Stars have to super nova, explode, and send these elements out in the cosmos, thus seeding life on any planet that can have it. Those elements are in us.  Life here began out there. We are made of stardust. We are not rooted in nothing, we are inherently rooted in God.

Yet many reject this thinking that we’re all one. They do so on many grounds: race, class, sexual orientation and such. One such way is through religion. This is the great temptation every religion faces– our all-too-human tendency to create theological systems that ultimately place us in authority over others. We prefer our limited scope, we don’t like surprises or annoying reminders that we are related to everything, even things we don’t like. Like Klansmen. And snakes. We have those we have named others. They aren’t like us. They are different, less than, not as good.

Abraham and Sarah meet three others. Abraham seems startled by their sudden appearance. Yet his hospitality kicks in and he welcomes the strangers. “Have a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves.” The pious promise little but perform much. He runs to the tent and makes three measures of choice flour and then prepares a cow. This isn’t a short visit, this is an all-day event. Abraham is pulling out all the stops.

The rabbis picked up on this. In the Jewish tradition, they have a thing called “Midrash.” Midrash are stories that fill in the gaps to help understand the scripture better. The rabbis say of why Abraham goes over the top because Abraham sees God in the human situation. Once this wasn’t so. Abraham invited a traveler into his home and found him praying to an idol. Abraham chased him away. God reprimanded Abraham severely: “I have borne with him these many years although he rebelled against me, and you cannot bear with him one night?” Abraham realized his sin and did not rest until he had brought the stranger back.[2]

The three eat and Abraham waits on them. They ask where Sarah is and then they claim that when next they visit, this elderly couple will have a child. And Sarah laughs.

I wonder what kind of laugh. Was it snarky? “Pssh… Have a child in my withered state?” Was it in disbelief, like when you hear something so outrageous you have this sound that you make. Like it’s not a conscious choice to make that sound. Do you know what I’m talking about? Like when something just strikes you and you… just make that sound. I have a friend who tall and handsome and his sound is like this “Tee HE-HE” thing. When he makes that, I just laugh… You don’t really have a choice what that sound sounds like… I wonder if that’s what Sarah did?

This laugh has profound consequences; both theological and in the family system.

In May, I preached on the Participatory Trinity and the doctrine of Theosis: “God Becoming.” We are invited to become like God and live how God would live. We Christians believe that Jesus accomplished this, he is the pioneer and perfecter of this faith. Jesus is the Word Incarnate for us. Liberation Theologian Ellacuria asserts that “God’s creation is an inherent part of Trinitarian Life itself…” and thus “each thing, within its own limits, is a limited way of being God. This limited way is precisely the nature of each thing.” Opening to God more means that we are prevented from closing around ourselves, from absolutizing our own context; the things we like, the people we’re accustomed to dealing with. We are constantly called to turn toward creation and our neighbor in love and service, just like we see today with Abraham and in the life of Christ. Theologian Mayra Rivera states that “when the dynamic openness is limited, a negation of Trinitarian life occurs, which is sin.”[3]

Love God with your whole heart, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. Neighbor that is creation, the context of our being. Neighbor that is God, the source of our being. Neighbor that is other, the partner of our being. We are inherently connected to each of these things. Nature is our context, we must take care of it. We came out of it. Formed from the dust, related to the animals as we are cousins to them. We aren’t aliens, plopped here from somewhere else. In Genesis 1, it states, “Let us make humans in our image.” Who is God talking to? Some rabbis speculate that God is speaking with the animals. You provide the body, I’ll provide the image: the mind and spirit. Many are like Sarah and laugh at this. They can’t believe it. But is anything too wondrous for the Lord?

The God of creationists is an idol. It’s way too small of a god. I like a limitless God that operates in crazy ways! Ways we’re uncovering and the more we uncover the more we realize how little we know and how big and wonderful creation is. It’s an exciting story! It’s a cosmic love story! Everything is related to everything else. We are one. As the Rev. Alan Jones said, “The Trinity is how you can be you and I can be me, but we are one.”

Is anything too wondrous?

Sarah and Abraham didn’t think so. Sarah conceived and bore a son. She named that son Isaac whose name in Hebrew means, “Laughter.” Isaac means laughter. Laughter is in our family system. God delights in our lives. We can discover how the world really works and we can laugh. It can be a sarcastic laugh of disbelief. It can be that sound you make when you’re surprised. It can be an honest laugh of wonder.

Once you weren’t you. You were something else. We weren’t always human. We came from the animals and sometimes we act like them. We go back to our baser natures, act like our story is the best and we are superior. We go to war, commit acts of violence against one another, we harm. We shoot at congressmen practicing for baseball. When we engage in prejudice; racism, homophobia, sexism, able-ism, when we deny that we are one… we deny our life in God. Yet the good news of the kingdom cures this disease and sickness if we are willing to be guided on this path. The harvest is plenty, but the workers who seek to go after this life are few.

This may sound too good to be true. It may sound naive, like there aren’t real dangers and threats out in the world. Yes, there are folks who are too attached to themselves to see that they are connected to everything else. It’s why we sin against the earth and ruin it. It’s why we sin against one another and steal, oppress, and kill one another. The same sickness in them is in us too. Yet we have been given the mind of Christ, created a little lower than angels! We know the Good News!

Humanity coming into an awareness of the cosmic perspective in the exploration of the universe and outer space (astronomy) or the exploration of inner space and the nature of the universe (quantum physics), the secrets of existence are being unveiled like never before and with it the exponential progression of technology and an expanding kind of cosmic and global awareness. There was a huge consciousness shift in the 60’s, when for the first time we ascended above our world and saw our blue and green planet suspended in space. That marked the point of rapid acceleration into a new awareness for humanity. In the internet age, with easy global communication and access and distribution of information, globalization is sprinting forward, and individual awareness is transcending the tribal mindset and becoming powerfully aware of the bigger picture, the world at large. The old tribalistic and scapegoating ways of thinking that the world is founded on are being challenged and overturned. Alongside this, because of this easy access to communication and information, we live in unprecedented times of the shifting of cultures and societies, theologies and philosophies, a reformation of worldviews. It’s like there is an accelerating upheaval within planet earth and humanity, an anticipation and groaning for something coming.

I used to hate change growing up. I liked things stable and predictable. I don’t like running after trends, I like to see how things play out and see what sticks. Kate does too. She resisted getting a smart phone for a long time. We’ve had smart phones for two years now. We resisted because we don’t want to become screen addicted. Never before in the history of our species have we had access to all information in our pockets. Nor have we had so many things vying for our attention all the time. We are on a learning curve that is accelerating all the time. I am learning to love it. I believe God is preparing the church for the great days ahead, and will bring us into greater unity and love and power through greater revelation of Jesus. I’m glad to be alive in these times. I pray that I would be a good steward of what I’ve been given and that I would use my life and breath to know God and to herald this beloved community.

So I will commit to Sarah’s example. I will laugh a lot. Sometimes I’ll laugh because I can’t believe it or it will be a sarcastic laugh. Other times I’ll laugh because I’m in on the joke. That I delight in this life that was an unexpected gift I didn’t ask for, one that came to us through the processes of stellar and biological evolution that is rooted in God who delights in us. Everything is one, it just appears to be diverse separate for right now. Look for the connection points and delight in the diversity of our Grand Artist!

For once you weren’t you and one day you won’t be you any more. Whenever you become frightened of all the change in the world… Whenever you’re tempted to become small or narrow your view of who is human. When you are just anxious over the fact that one day you will die… Just think back to what your life was like in 1817. None of us existed. We were still one. Was that so bad?

[1] http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/150128-big-bang-universe-supernova-astrophysics-health-space-ngbooktalk/

[2] W. Gunther Plaut, The Torah: A Modern Commentary. Union of American Hebrew Congregations, New York, 1981. Page 125.

[3] Maya Rivera, The Touch of Transcendence. Westminster John Knox Press, 2007. Page 46.

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