“THEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING”?

(Perhaps my thoughts are too personal for a devotional blog today?  I am struggling of the recent election and direction already being taking by the forthcoming administration.)  This morning, I was struggling with Jesus’ words on the cross, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

As I observe my culture, I see “people calling evil good and good evil, appointing darkness for light and light for darkness” (Isaiah 5:20).  (I can certainly be wrong in my discrimination of good and evil, but sometimes it seems clear.)  And I say, “But, Jesus, they know what they are doing!  Some are after power no matter what it costs; some in your Name, are ignoring all you said about becoming servants and practicing righteousness!  OK, some are doing the best they can based on what they know.  But, what about the others who know what they are doing!”

Then I thought about the Cross.  The people who tortured and crucified Jesus and who callously cast lots for his clothes did not know what they were doing.  That is obvious.  However, it is too superficial to think, “I see.  They did not know they were killing the Holy One, the Messiah.”  No.  Their ignorance went deeper.  They were hardening their hearts, destroying their consciences/consciousness (of God).  They were rejecting their high calling of being a creation in the image of God.  They were usurping the role of the Creator to be a Presence in their lives.  They were cutting themselves off from Life.  And, Jesus, hurt for them – on the Cross!

Then I looked at myself.  Woe to me that I can walk through much of my day without listening to Jesus.  Woe to me that I am quick to judge others.  Woe to me that I do not hurt for those who are turning aside from the One who loves them.  Woe to me.

Lord, not only do I need to be closer to you, but moreover, I need for you to create in me a heart that hurts for those who are turning away from you.  Amen.

NOTE: Blog renamed

 On 11/8/2024 the blog name was changed from Duke's Devotional Bible and Theology.

WHICH JESUS DO I FOLLOW?

If I am comfortable with Jesus, something is wrong.

I teach a class on the life and teachings of Jesus.  One of the things we study is how in the history of biblical scholarship, historians using the same source materials – primarily the Gospels – and supposedly the same historical-critical methodology, end up with very different portraits of Jesus.  The spot-on critique of such quests for the historical Jesus, is that each one has dissected the story threads of the Gospels and then woven them back together to create a Jesus that suits them.

An example, albeit an extreme one, is that at the time of Nazi Germany, Jesus had been reconstructed as a nationalistic, social revolutionary, who had rejected his Jewishness, had also become quite Aryan, and who would call “Christians” to restore their country to its former glory.  And so, Hitler advocated (racially pure) Positive Christianity.  (I said “extreme,” however I must note that I see this Aryan Jesus resurrected today in rising political circles in America by who believe that they will bring about God’s rule by political coercion, mainly on behalf of white “Christians.”)

Of course, from Constantine (4th cent.) on, we have numerous examples of Jesus and Christianity being co-opted for the sake of political power – something that cannot be reconciled with the biblical Jesus.  Jesus calls his followers to give up authority over others, not to seek privileges or even equity for themselves, but to become servants/slaves to others instead (e.g. Mark 10:35-45).  The Kingdom (rule) of God of the biblical Jesus cannot come about by political coercion; is it not of this world.  Moreover, the biblical Jesus – reconstructed across the sources and historical criteria – radically broke with the racial, sexist, political, political, and economic social stratification of his culture.  He had a diverse range of disciples and followers, touched a leper, allowed himself to be anointed by an “unclean” woman, ate with tax collects and with Pharisees, etc.

This biblical Jesus left those who met him uncomfortable.  The disciples were.  I find a psychological narrative comment in Mark quite telling.  As Jesus is headed south from Galilee to Jerusalem, he tells his disciples about his pending death and resurrection, “but they did not understand him and they were afraid to ask him” (Mark 9:32).  That is to say, they were not sure that they wanted to understand.  Still, they followed him.  Others were too uncomfortable to let him live.

So, the issue for me is this: Is the Jesus I follow one created in my image who serves my purposes?  Or, am I uncomfortably following the Real Jesus who is changing me into his image?
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Come Lord Jesus.  I am too aware that I want you in my image for my purposes.  Still, more deeply I want the real you.  Help me to follow you, even if confounded, like a true disciple.  Amen.

HOW TO MEET JESUS

 How does a person meet Jesus?  As a Christian, I tend to think that I own the market on selling Jesus.  Indeed, different Christian denominations tend to have proprietary ways to ensure that the outsider is included in salvation: a person must affirm a traditional creed, or come to the altar and recite the Sinner’s Prayer,” or be baptized, or speak in tongues, or pass a catechism, etc.  It is easy to fall into thinking that outsiders cannot come to know Jesus and the grace of God apart from a particular method.  We tend to pass over texts in which, after stating that God does not show partiality (Rom 2:11), Paul argues that even Gentiles who do not have the Law sometimes do that which shows the Law is written in their hearts, the means by which they will be assessed by God (2:13-16).  They may regarded as circumcised (sign of God’s covenant people) of heart, a characteristic for which they receive praise from God (2:26-29).

More directly, Jesus tells us how people encounter him.  When people have practiced righteousness toward their neighbors, it is Jesus they have fed, clothed, and visited (Matt 25:31-40).  Jesus tells us how all of the law and commandments (by which the community of faith obediently responds to relationship with God) are fulfilled by loving God and loving one’s neighbor (Matt 22:37-39).

So, by loving one’s neighbor, one encounters Jesus?  Yes, Jesus says that.  Remarkedly, I have never heard that proclaimed at an evangelistic meeting.  However, loving one’s neighbor is one way of seeking God, even if the person does not know she/he is seeking God.  Of course, I agree that Christians should encourage other ways of seeking and knowing Jesus: worship, prayer, meditating on Scripture, etc.  However, I should never disparage the person who is meeting Jesus by loving their neighbor.

Lord, bless those who are coming to know you by loving their neighbors.  Help me not to hinder them but rather to help enrich their knowledge of you.  Amen.

THEOLOGICAL RAMBLING: DEMERGENCE FROM GOD?

[I suppose this post’s thought does not count as a “devotional,” but it moves me to worship.]

Fun Thought Twister (explained below)
The Christian thinker said, “I entrust myself to God, but I do not believe God exists.”  Hint: there is a point here about our human comprehension of God’s existence.

Thesis
The beingness of the created world “demerges” from the beingness of God with the result that creation has limited, but shared, dimensions with its Creator.

Brief Background*
Going back to Thomas Aquinas, Dominicans held that God’s beingness was only analogical to human beingness; they are not the same.  Moreover, because of human’s different beingness, true knowledge of reality depended on revelation from God.  A perceived problem with this position is that God becomes too transcendent to be even spoken about.  Going back to Duns Scotus, Franciscans in response posited that God’s beingness is the same as that of the created world but that God was infinitely greater.  Though Duns Scotus should not be blamed – his thesis was quite complex – modern epistemology and skepticism about God in the West developed out of this concept of same beingness.  As a result, it became claimed that true knowledge of reality could be gained by observing nature alone empirically.  This trajectory eventually led to agnostic/atheistic claims that if God cannot be proven empirically, there is no God.  Or, in a different way, one of my colleagues states, “Since there is no such thing as disembodied agency [he is assuming empiricism], there can be no God.”

Thesis Developed
First, I accept the notion of panentheism, that our cosmos is “in” God while yet being distinct from God.  (See posts of Nov. 1, 2023; March 14, 2024; and April 24, 2024.)  Second, emergence, as a concept that I want to turn round, takes place within our cosmos, more complex systems emerge from less complex ones.  (One could think of self-consciousness as an emergent property, and perhaps even the ability to be conscious of God’s Presence as emergent.)  Third, although String Theory has nothing to do with theology – it is not science proving God – it is intriguing to me that such mathematicians posit nine or even twenty dimensions beyond that of our empirically knowable dimensions.  Putting the first and third notions together and reversing the second, leads me to the thesis that the created world “demerged” (to coin a word?) from the Creator, such that our cosmos has fewer, albeit shared, dimensions of some sort with God.
           Like Aquinas’s position, then, our restricted dimensionality means that empirical observation alone cannot truely lead to understanding reality; revelation is ultimately needed.  However, like Duns Scotus’ position, God is not completely transcendent; we share dimensions with God, something that allows us as embodied creatures to be touched and moved by the Presence of God.
            I will have to give this more thought and am certainly open to critique; however, for now this thought leads me to marvel at a Creator who is so otherly transcendent and yet concomitantly immanently connected to me.  Moreover, this God condescended to become enfleshed in our limited dimensionality so that we could know God better.  Breathtaking.

Praise you Lord Most High!  I do not understand, but I bow in marvel and amazement.  Amen.

Fun Thought Twister (explained)
The Christian thinker recognizes that one cannot simply equate our limited human notion of “exist” or “beingness” with God, but yet personally/relationally knows the reality of God and is moved to entrust oneself to God.
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*First, I am addressing a complex theological conflict that is beyond my expertise.  Second, such conflicts often arise when followers of sophisticated thinkers like Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus miss the original subtlety of those thinkers and see the other party’s God language as leaning toward error.  I imagine that had the two great thinkers met, they would have worked out a language comprise that would have satisfied them both.
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P.S. (10/29/2024) Having a dog might help me.  A dog would look attentively and lovingly at me while I ramble.

GOD DOES NOT OVERPOWER, BUT EMPOWERS1

The Bible portrays God as one who graciously and relationally empowers, not as one who autocratically overpowers.

Background:
From the beginning, God empowers rather than overpowers.  One should read the opening Genesis texts as ancient Near Eastern nature-of-life, explanatory texts, which are often based on common, phenomenological observations, but which have been rewritten from the Israelite, God-given worldview.  [Note: The most beneficial reading, then, is to observe what the Israelites, who were late comers to the ancient Near East, changed.]  The texts are not to be read as the literature of modern science.  Still, there are a couple of interesting texts in which an ancient concept about the natural world is significant for today:

“And God said, ‘Let the land produce [a command form] vegetation…’” (Gen 1:11).
“And God said, ‘Let the land bring out [a command form] living creatures…’” (Gen 1:27).

The notion is that the land had been equipped and empowered to be an agent in the procreation of life.  I am not interested in relating this concept to modern biological constructs of how life originated.  Also, on a phenomenological level, one can see how people observed plants sprouting from the ground.  However, I am intrigued by the theological notion of the natural world being empowered by God to cooperate in procreation rather being than overpowered.  That is because this concept is especially true of humanity created in the image of God (to represent God)² and commanded to be fruitful and to share in the ruling creation (1:27-28).

A second “creation” text, which begins at Genesis 2:4, reveals how humans – Adam himself coming from the “dust” of the ground (2:7) – were to care for the land in companionship (2:8,15,18,20b-24).  However, it also explains in narrative form how such divine empowerment became – and continues to become – corrupted when humanity no longer serves its Creator but rebels in desire to usurp God (the temptation of 3:4).  The result is that sin/chaos encroaches on both realms: not only does human procreation becomes laborious and the equal partnership between Eve and Adam broken, but also the ground becomes “cursed” so that working it become laborious; and, to it humans return as they experience their mortality (3:16-19).

Application:
To be honest, I would like for God to overpower the world of nature, as well as those with whom I live in tension, and, sometimes, even myself.  I want a smooth, non-laborious life.  I tire of the struggle.  However, the character of God’s sovereignty (kingship) is not that God overpower and control the natural world to do all that it does.  The natural world, an interplay of order and chaos without which life as we know it would not exist, generally “takes its course.”  In the same way, God does not overpower us such that we must do God’s will.  Rather, God desires that we willfully obey God as our Creator and King, something that begins to take place as we “seek God.”  It is then that God empowers us to face the labors of life and our mortality.  That is all I need.  That is the foundation of contentment.  That is the ground of hope – that which I do not see, but that of which I am certain (Heb 11:1).³

Jesus, I cannot manage in this life that you have entrusted to me without You.  I do not ask that you remove the labors of life for me.  I ask that you empower me to serve you faithfully throughout the labors of life that you might be glorified as Creator and King even to the end of my labor.  Amen.
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1. This concept ties in with the previous devotion, “God Is Not to Be Found in the 'Why? but in the 'Where?' (Oct. 14, 2024)
2. See entries on the “image of God,” Feb. 1, 2024, Oct. 3, 2024.
3. See entry on Hebrews 11:1, Sept. 13, 2023.

 

GOD IS NOT TO BE FOUND IN THE “WHY?” BUT IN THE “WHERE?”

In the midst of desolation and destruction, personal or widespread – I am in western NC where Hurricane Helene caused much devastation – God is not to be found in responses to our questions of “Why?”  It is poor theology to seek to provide the answer.  God is found when we ask God, "Where are you?"

Doctrines of the sovereignty of God frequently miss the biblical teaching behind the human images of God as King and Sovereign.  In the culture of the ancient Near East, a king was never responsible FOR everything that happened in his domain.  Rather, a king was responsible to respond TO what happened in his domain.  The ideal king would work for righteousness and justness within his domain.  That is what biblical authors would have had in mind when using kingship images for God.

Theological traditions that define “sovereignty” abstractly have missed the intention in the biblical texts.  They end up with a God who is responsible FOR everything that happens.  They fail to recognize the interplay between order and chaos that exists within all humans and within our natural world.*  Given that false assumption of abstract “sovereignty” wrongly puts Christians in the position of trying to answer “Why?”  The answers are always shallow and facile, even when they merely say, “It is for the greater good” or “It is part of God’s plan.”

Perhaps it would help to address a much-misunderstood text that people attempt to use to answer the why question, Romans 8:28: “And we know that all things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose” (Rom. 8:28 NET).  There, Paul is speaking of the call of all Israel – and for him, including all Gentiles in fulfillment of the promises to Abraham – who have actually responded by “loving God,” a statement of true seeking and relational dependence on God.  Such people now belong to the new era of life in the Spirit.  Paul can look teleologically on the scope of creation in bondage toward the eschatological (end-time) hope in the newness of all things, including the people of faith who are being conformed to the image of the Son (v. 29).  As such, Rom 8:28 never answers the “why?” of the moment.  It expresses confidence in God who is transforming lives and who will ultimately redeem all of creation.

            Moreover, when we ask the where question, we are not to ask our neighbors, “Where was God in this?”  That is really another form of the why question.  Rather, we are to ask God directly, “Where are you?”  That is when we begin to seek God.  Even when we are angry.  That is when we existentially, experientially begin to open ourselves to God.  That is when God begins to conform us to the image of the Son.  I firmly believe Jesus’ words:

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened for you.  For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matt. 7:7-8, NET)

Even in the midst of panic attacks, when I felt abandoned by God, God’s Presence was there.  I testify to that.  As part of this testimony, I share the following song as a prayer.

"In the Night Your Song is with Me"#
(Based on Psalm 42)

In the night your song is with me.
When the darkness engulfs my soul.
As the waves crash down upon me.
I will believe that I am not alone.

These are the things I will remember.
When it seems me you have forgotten.
When my soul knows not where you are.
I will believe that I am not alone.

When my heart is downcast in me.
And I want to meet with my God.
As my soul pants for the Water.
I will believe that I am not alone.

In the night your song is with me.
Faintly through roar of the waves.
I hear it dimly through the terror.
And I know that I am not alone.
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*Answers to theodicy (why there is human and physical “evil”) are complex.  Let it suffice to say that Genesis presents from the beginning a state of humanity and nature that exists within an interplay of order and chaos.  In this state, we are to learn to depend on our Creator.
#A friend recorded for this for me.  (My friend, Mike Rayson, a gifted musician, died recently.)  If interested, here is a link to the music on SoundCloud:  https://on.soundcloud.com/mpcRn1BNyePggiJz6