Entries Tagged as 'God'

Imperfect Unions and the Kingdom of God

The whole human race was created by God and for God. In a sense, all our hungers, desires, and longings are pale reflections of our desire for God. And no less certain, we will never be satisfied with our petty thirsts until such time as we have allowed God to pour himself into us so that we will be full. 

Paul says in Acts 17: God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ 

And Augustine said it equally well, “Thou hast created us for Thyself, and our heart is not quiet until it rests in Thee.” 

This longing is not less pressing in the quest and desire for justice.  All true justice and righteousness comes from God and from God alone, who “judges the world in righteousness and the peoples with equity.” (psalm 98) 

So, in this time of elections and seeking out a greater fairness and perfection for our imperfect union, it is always worth taking a moment to realize that our elections, speeches, and positions are more important in that they point to our need for God who alone can bring justice. They point to our human brokenness in our inability to being about a just order of creation and society. They point to the fact that we lie to one another and to ourselves when we think that this or that party or candidate will somehow bring about the good commonwealth.  

We do not need another Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, or Thomas Jefferson . . . We need God. We need God desperately.

Tags: Politics, Sovereignty of God, God, Kingdom of God by Administrator
No Comments »

Predestination

I have been spending some time latterly thinking about Wesley and the doctrine of predestination. Wesley was a famous rejecter of the Calvinist doctrine of predestination. To be more specific, he disagreed with the doctrine of double predestination, whereby some are elected to damnation.

Here is what he said:

“With regard to…Unconditional Election, I believe,
That God, before the foundation of the world, did unconditionally elect certain persons to do certain works, as Paul to preach the gospel:
that He has unconditionally elected some nations to receive peculiar privileges, the Jewish nation in particular:
that He has unconditionally elected some nations to hear the gospel…
that He has unconditionally elected some persons to peculiar advantages, both with regard to temporal and spiritual things:
And I do not deny (though I cannot prove that it is so), that He has unconditionally elected some persons [thence eminently styled ‘the Elect’] to eternal glory.
But I cannot believe, That all those who are not thus elected to glory must perish everlastingly;
or That there is one soul on earth who has not, [nor] ever had a possibility of escaping eternal damnation.”

Wesley was not able to escape the clear presence of the doctrine of predestination with in the Bible. But neither could he escape his clear experience of the role of human agency (free will) in our lives.

His classic attempt to reconcile this is in his sermon on predestination. There he suggests that God predestined before the beginning of time those people who he knew would eventually choose to become believers.
This always strikes me as a poor reconciliation. The central discomfort regarding predestination remains – that whether or not I chose to become a believer, it was always meant to be.

In Calvin’s case, God decided I would become a believer. In Wesley’s case, I chose to become a believer, but that is the choice I was always going to make anyway, as God knew from eternity. In either case, determinism is the reality of my spiritual life.

For myself, I cannot agree with Calvin. His God would send people to Hell in a capricious manner. I know that there are good Calvinist answers to this. But I cannot get passed that if God can save all, but chooses to save some, then he is immoral. Since God is the fountain of goodness-itself, God cannot be immoral – however else we put the pieces together. 

Neither do I like Wesley’s version of predestination from his sermons. It seems a poorly argued copout for a man who has to deal with a scriptural word, but does not like the reality to which it seems to point.
I am still working on this one.

I have no clear leadings from the spirit, and I may never have this one figured out on this side of eternity.
 

Tags: Salvation, Heaven, Hell, God by Administrator
No Comments »

Athanasius’ Creed

For Trinity Sunday, I offer you the Creed of Athanasius: 

Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the catholic faith.

Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally.

Now this is the catholic faith: We worship one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity, neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being.

For the Father is one person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another.

But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty.

What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit.

Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit.

The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite.

Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit:

And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal;

as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited.

Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit:

And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty.

Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God:

And yet there are not three gods, but one God.

Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord:

And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord.

As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords.

The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten;

the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father;

the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son.

Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits.

And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other;

but all three persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal; and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three persons.

Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.

It is necessary for eternal salvation that one also faithfully believe that our Lord Jesus Christ became flesh.

For this is the true faith that we believe and confess: That our Lord Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is both God and man.

He is God, begotten before all worlds from the being of the Father, and he is man, born in the world from the being of his mother —

existing fully as God, and fully as man with a rational soul and a human body;

equal to the Father in divinity, subordinate to the Father in humanity.

Although he is God and man, he is not divided, but is one Christ.

He is united because God has taken humanity into himself; he does not transform deity into humanity.

He is completely one in the unity of his person, without confusing his natures.

For as the rational soul and body are one person, so the one Christ is God and man.

He suffered death for our salvation.

He descended into hell and rose again from the dead.

He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

At his coming all people shall rise bodily to give an account of their own deeds.

Those who have done good will enter eternal life,

those who have done evil will enter eternal fire.

This is the catholic faith.

One cannot be saved without believing this firmly and faithfully.

Tags: The Trinity, God by Administrator
No Comments »

Trinity Sunday Inspiration

 

  

 ”According, therefore,to the measure of one’s faith in the Trinity,one should proceed without holding back from danger to make known the gift of God and everlasting consolation,to spread God’s name everywhere with confidence and without fear.”

– Saint Patrick

Tags: The Trinity, God by Administrator
No Comments »

Trinity Sunday

Happy Trinity Sunday!

Botticelli’s Holy Trinity

There has always been something I love about this painting by Botticelli. The pictures shows the Holy Trinity with Mary Magdalene and St. John the Baptist, and also Tobias and the Angel (from the apocrypha).

Mary Magdalene worships the Trinity in penitent garb and John the Baptist, always dressed in penitent garb, motions to the Trinity but looks at you - inviting you to worship with Magdalene as well.

What I like about the image is how well Botticelli does of holding the unity and separation of the Trinity at the same time. This is a hard enough image to convey in theology, but Botticelli seems to do it well enough with art.

The Father, Son, and Spirit are three and they are one at the same time. The Father is not the Son. The Son is not the Father. Neither the Son or the Father are the Spirit. And so, in this picture, the Father, Son, and Spirit are all three separate entities: old man in the sky with royal robes, a poor younger man in a white cloth, and a dove.

At the same time, the Father, Son, and Spirit are one: one God. The Son is God. The Father is God. The Spirit is God. But they are not three gods. They are one God. Here, Botticelli shows you the Son being held up on his cross by the hands of the Father, while the dove of the Spirit is lightly, almost breathed between the two of them. And the Spirit crosses over both Father and Son. All three together are surrounded by a halo of cherubim, the angels that surround the throne of God. So, the throne of God is all three persons at once- the Father in Heaven, the Son on His Cross, and the Spirit between them.

They are three and one at the same time.

But notice on last thing: their gaze. Jesus Christ without a doubt looks down toward the small penitent beneath Him. His gaze is always upon the people whom He calls to Himself. But notice also how it is a little hard to tell where the Father is looking. He looks down, but he seems to be bothing looking at the Son, but also maybe passed Him to the barren earth below.

So it is with God. Not only is God focued on enjoying his own perfection and divintiy (as Aquinas and Augustine taught us), but God is also always focused on those who are called to live the penitent life of a Christian, and the barren earth which needs to be redeemed.

Tags: The Trinity, God by Administrator
No Comments »

Giving and Thirsting

Jesus said, “Woman, here is your son.”

Jesus said, “I am thirsty.”

We have two of the last phrases from the death of Jesus. Both of them come from the Gospel of John and right next to one another.

As Jesus is looking down from the cross, he sees those last three people who remained faithful to him in all things. They were the only four that did not abandon him in his time of need and pain.

Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry for her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar.

Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry for her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar. 

Mary, his mother was one of them. Of course, she would be. I cannot imagine anything in the world more awful than seeing your own child being murdered, and very slowly at that, right in front of your eyes. What is worse, there was nothing that she could do about it. What is still even worse, it was possible that she might not have been allowed to eve cry for her dying son. See, it was a common practice back then, that when someone was seen to be shedding tears for a person dying on a crucifix, that they would be dragged from the crowd and nailed to the next cross going up. The Romans believed that no one should shed a tear for enemies of the Caesar. 

Imagine that: not even being allowed to cry for your son in that place.

The other three were Mary, the wife of Clopas. About her, nothing is known except that she was there. Then there was Mary Magdalene, who was never far from her beloved Lord and who would be the first to see him risen from the grave. And then there was the young disciple John.

When Jesus sees his mother there and John as well, he does an amazing thing. He gives them to one another. Mary who is losing her son Jesus, gets a new one in John. And John, who is losing a parent in Jesus, gets a new one in Mary. Among Jesus’ last acts from the cross, is to give to of his faithful to one another.

How amazing! You see, Jesus gives us all to one another. We are all give to each other in a common trust as Christians. And more than that, just in case we do not remember to go deep enough in our love for one another and our possession of one another, Jesus tells us that we are all family to one another. Mary and John are now mother and son. The disciples all understood this by calling each other sisters and brothers, as is still done in many churches to this day.

The cross is the place where the family of God is created. It is the place where we are bound to one another, made into a new family, a cosmic family with Jesus himself as the mystic cord between us all that will not break.

It is important to notice that everything Jesus says on the Cross related to himself and his needs, or is prayer to his Father. This is as it would be for each and every one of us. The only exception is this word where he gives his disciples and followers to one another. This is, effectively the last act of his worldly ministry before his death and resurrection. It was the last word he thought we needed to hear, even if we missed all the others.

It is also, nine times out of ten, the word that we all still need most to hear from God. It is the word we most often do not. It may be a reason why, while Mary and John could not cry that day, perhaps Jesus did – knowing how dense we could all be sometimes.

After this last act of his ministry, Jesus, says, “I thirst.” The guards below brought him something to drink, some sour wine on a branch of hyssop (a kind of tree). It is not known whether or not he was talking to the guards. Maybe he was talking to himself, or to his Father. We do not know. John just recorded the words.

I suspect that the reason John does not tell you who Jesus is speaking to is because it does not matter at all. This phrase is only at it’s most shallow about the fact that Jesus was physically parched and in need of some fluid. On this level, maybe no other statement of Jesus’ makes more sense. He was out there for hours, baking in the sun, sweating hard, and suffering a pain unto death.

But John wants us to focus still more, at the deeper level of what Jesus means when he says, “I thirst”. Just like Jesus gives us all to one another as family, so he gave himself to all of us and each of us.
Jesus quite literally poured himself out for us. He poured is literal blood out on the ground to save us from ourselves. He, who turned water into wine for a wedding, who promised living water to a Samaritan, who offered all who are thirsty to come unto him and drink…he took none of this for himself. He emptied himself of everything, everything for us. He did this until there was nothing left in him, not water, and not even life.

God loves the world this much! He loved the world so much that the eternal God, the fount of every grace and all life, somehow drives himself to emptiness on our behalf. God drives himself to thirst for us. If I live another thousand years, I do not think I will ever grasp how the eternal God can love us so much that he can actually empty himself that much! It is one of the truest and greatest mysteries of who God is. And that God for it.

Tags: Prayer, Historical Jesus, God, The Crucifixion, Evil by Administrator
No Comments »