DEATH, CONSCIOUSNESS, AND TRINITARIAN PANENTHEISM

(Some rambling thoughts today.)
1.      I like the concept of panentheism.  That is, all that exists has its beingness within God, but with God still being distinct.  (This is different than pantheism in which all that exists is “God.”)

2.      I like the concept of the Trinity being like an eternal system, in which the “parts” exist only in relationship in the whole (systems theory).

a.      There are many analogies for trying to comprehend the incomprehensible relationship of the Trinity, but one I like most I find/infer in John 1:1 and Genesis 1.  (Background: in this oral culture, what one uttered was by one’s breath/spirit.  Therefore, words had a vitality to them such that they could bless or curse.)
The Father, is the one who utters the Word/Logos (Son) by his Spirit/Breath.
The Spirit is of the Father and expresses the Word/Son.
The Word, through the Spirit, is of the being of the Father and communicates the Father.

3.      Since God “speaks” by God’s Breath/Spirit all that exists into creation (Genesis 1), and through God’s Logos/Word all such things were made (John 1:3), a panentheistic way of looking at creation makes sense to me.  Moreover, that leads me to think about how creation as I know it seems to exist and develop in a similar “systems-theory” approach as the Trinity.

4.      It seems to me that consciousness of our being-ness and consciousness of God are aspects of our nature as emergent systems.  As I mentioned in a note in the previous post, an experience of the Presence of God could be a real neurological event initiated by God in whom we all exist (panentheism).

5.      This leads me to be comforted about the death of ones I love.  I believe I picked up in a writing by John Polkinghorne the idea that who we each were in our consciousness at death exists in the “memory” of God, awaiting to be restored at the resurrection of the dead.  I like that idea but would extend it to saying that who we are exists within the “memory” of God throughout our lives as well as after our physical deaths.  Thinking about how I and my loved ones exist in the “memory” of God, then, comforts me with the promise that I will continue to have relationship with them at the resurrection of the dead.

Application:  Thoughts like this fill me with wonder.

Praise you LORD!  I will extol you with all my heart in the council of the upright and in the assembly.  Great are your works of the LORD; they are pondered by all who delight in them. (adaptation of Psalm 111:1 – 2).  Amen!

 

A DEVOTIONAL TESTIMONY

[A daughter subscribed me to a story site that sends a prompt to write about each week.  This week’s prompt was, “Have you ever had a "supernatural" experience, or an experience you can't explain?”  Here is my reply.  I hope it serves my few readers.]

Yes.  My “conversion” experience happened when, out of a general religious interest, I attended a Christian tent-revival meeting as an observer.  (I was in California at the time, hitch-hiking around the country.  I had dropped out of college in Michigan and dropped in on my grandparents.)  At the end of the service, there was an “altar call” to which I wanted to respond but was too proud.  Still, I stayed for what they called an “afterglow” time of worship.  I did not want to leave the place; something was too attractive.  During that “afterglow,” someone spoke what I would later learn was called a word of prophecy in the name of God.  However, although it was a real person speaking, I felt/heard what was like being enveloped in 3D sound and I was being told very personally that I was loved.  I responded, “Jesus, I am giving my life to you for you to put it back together.  I cannot.”  I felt – true to the expression – like I was walking on air.  When I got back to my grandmother’s place, she looked at me, smiled, and said that now I knew Jesus.

Reflections:
If a skeptic would challenge my experience and say that a person spoke, but my auditory experience was merely neurologically aberrant, a momentary psychotic experience, I would agree that was possible.  I could have been fooled by a physiological anomaly.  However, this event was just the beginning of my faith story.  That experience prompted me to seek God in a new way.  I began praying, worshipping, reading the Bible, meeting with Christians for fellowship and accountability to be obedient to God – even went on to be a Bible scholar.  My sense of relationship with God in Jesus grew and has only kept deepening for decades now.  Of course, I would be lying to say that being in right relationship with God resulted in a utopian life.  All the chaos of normal life is still present.  What is different is that Jesus has walked with me through that chaos.  The qualification I would add is that obedience to God dramatically reduces self-afflicted chaos!

In retrospect, I believe that my “supernatural” encounter happened the way it did because of my stubbornness.  Although I was seeking God in my own way, I believed that I needed rationally to understand everything first.  Jesus encountering me penetrated that barrier of the limits of human reason.#  At the same time, as I think about my Christian worldview, I find that while it transcends the rational, it is still rational and not at all irrational.*  As I now rationally assess my spiritual worldview, I see it not only as reasonable, but aesthetically beautiful, emotionally joyful, psychologically fulfilling, and above all pragmatically successful – walking with Jesus has made my life go better.

Application:
A repeated theme in my devotional reflections has been both the OT and NT commands and invitations to seek God – that God is there to know.  When I have had the opportunity to address sixth-grade students in church confirmation classes, some of whom do not want to be there and pay little attention, I tell them this:  There is only one thing to remember from all of the sessions, something they should keep tucked in their hearts.  Whenever they come to realize that they cannot run their own lives successfully, they can seek God.  Jesus is knocking and waiting for them to answer.

Thank you, Lord, that you are always there, always knocking, always ready to respond.  Amen.

# Going back to the admission that my experience may have been a momentary psychotic event, there is another way to look at it reasonably: How could God penetrate a person’s experiential perceptions without the event being a neurological anomaly?
*I have written previously about how this limitation of human reason to “prove” the divine realm that, therefore, necessitates seeking God relationally, is what “Pascal’s Wager” is about.

EASTER: RESURRECTION FAITH VS CROSS FAITH

 “If Christ has not been raised, then … your faith is empty” (1Cor 15:14).

I once suggested using the above verse as the opening tagline for an Easter college newspaper “ad” on behalf the Christian faculty/staff at my university.  (The ad with our names was intended let students know who we were and that we were available to them.)  My suggestion was shot down as “too negative.”  Ironically though, Paul thought this statement was important.  Paul’s point in 1Cor 15:12 – 19 is that all of Christian faith hinges on Jesus’ Resurrection.  Without it “you are still in your sins” (v 17).

There has been a long-reigning (about 800 years) historical shift theologically, particularly in the West, that focuses too much on the death of Jesus.  Certainly, that Jesus gave his life for humanity has always been core to Christian faith, so I am not casting any doubt on that.  However, the whole Incarnation, earthly ministry, AND death of Jesus are inclusively acts of God’s grace to us.  Moreover, the Resurrection holds the work of Christ all together – and prepares the way for the Ascension and giving of the Holy Spirit.

The Resurrection validates everything about Jesus:  He did have (and continues to have) authority to forgive sins.  He is indeed the Messiah.  His Resurrection was the “first-fruits” of the coming resurrection of the people of God.  Jesus did usher in a new era of God’s Kingdom/Rule as he kept proclaiming and demonstrating.  As Paul puts it in Romans 5:12 – 6:14, Jesus defeated the reign of the realm of sin and death and issued in the reign of life and the Spirit for those in Christ.

Point:  My concern is that an exclusive focus on the death of Jesus for sinful humanity leaves us with a static gospel; that is, we are in the state of having been forgiven -- period.  However, a balanced focus on the significance of the Resurrection, puts our faith into a dynamic relationship with Jesus.  Our hope is not a future hope of one day “going to heaven.”  It is a present, realized hope.  The Resurrection tells me that today I do not have to live under the reign of sin.  Because I am alive in the Risen Christ, I am now eternally alive and can live my earthly life under the reign of the Spirit now.  (Again, see Romans 5:12 – 6:14.)  This is Easter faith, Resurrection faith.  It is so much more than "Cross faith."

Lord, your grace is beyond my comprehension.  Jesus’ offer of himself is beyond my comprehension.  Jesus’ Resurrection is beyond my comprehension.  Yet, I know the reality of it all within my experience of your Presence in my life.  Thank you.  Thank you.  All praise be to you!  Amen.

GOOD FRIDAY: NEVER FORSAKEN

 

“And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out in a loud voice, ‘Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?’-- which means, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’ When some of those standing near heard this, they said, ‘Listen, he's calling Elijah.’” (Mark 15:34-35, NIV)

Those people standing at the cross misunderstood what Jesus said, and we sometimes do, too.  One popular, but non-biblical interpretation, is: first, the sins of the world were transferred to Jesus, for our substitutionary penalty; at that moment God, the Father, unable to look at sin, turned away from Jesus; and, Jesus in response cried out about being forsaken by God.

This text, however, is about Jesus starting to recite Psalm 22!  When the NT writers give us a phrase from the OT, we sometimes place our focus only on that phrase, but their expectation was that their audience knew the context of the phrase; they knew their Scriptures.  They are telling us that Psalm 22 was on Jesus’ mind.  Psalm 22 is the epitome of a type of psalm, the Psalm of Lament, and here, of the innocent, righteous sufferer.  [Note: The early Christians came to see Psalm 22 virtually as a prophecy about the suffering Messiah (for example, see verse 18 and John 19:24) and please read all of Psalm 22.]

What, then, was Jesus thinking?  Jesus’ cry from the cross is a cry of despair, but not total despair.  Jesus’ cry is a cry grounded on faith.  There is still trust in God; but not just trust, even praise and affirmation of divine victory!  Here is the concluding part of what Jesus was reciting:

For he [God] has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one;
he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

From you comes the theme of my praise in the great assembly;
before those who fear you I will fulfill my vows.

The poor will eat and be satisfied;
     those who seek the LORD will praise him--
     may your hearts live forever!

All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
and all the families of the nations will bow down before him,

for dominion belongs to the LORD
and he rules over the nations.

All the rich of the earth will feast and worship;
all who go down to the dust will kneel before him--
those who cannot keep themselves alive.

Posterity will serve him;
future generations will be told about the Lord.

They will proclaim his righteousness,
declaring to a people yet unborn:
He has done it!  (Psalm 22:24 – 31 NIV)

Personal Application:  I think that we, too, have times when we are allowed to cry out to God, “Why have you forsaken me?”
Jesus’ cry from the cross reminds me deeply of the Incarnation, that God took on our humanity.  We will never know the depth of Jesus’ despair and suffering on the Cross.  However, Jesus in his humanity does know and understand the depth of our despair and suffering.  We will experience times when God does not seem to be present and when we seem to be engulfed in darkness: times of crucial decisions, times of lost relationships, times of depression and anxiety, times when we feel beaten down. I am convinced that in these times, Jesus not only gives us permission to cry out, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me;” but our Risen Lord Jesus is there to intercede for us and cry out those words for us and in us and through us.  However, when Jesus cries out those words through us, they, like those of Psalm 22, will also be words of faith, words that proclaim down to the very last breath of life that God is still sovereign, that God is still there, that God is still for us.  
And we also have this perspective: When Jesus cried out those words from the Cross, it looked like all was lost, that the Son of God was dead, that the Kingdom of God would not come, that Satan had triumphed.  But, those who know Jesus, know that those words and the utter bleakness of the Cross are followed by Resurrection and Life.

Lord, thank you that the Cross was not a defeat.  Jesus was not forsaken.  And, you will never forsake me.  Amen.

LENT: WHY HUMAN FRAILITY IS GOOD

Lent is a good time to be frail.  Jesus is God become frail.

The frailty of Jesus.  My church has been preaching a series on the humility of Jesus using the first part (vv 6 – 8) of an early church hymn/poem (vv 6 – 11) in Philippians 2:

Who [Jesus], being in very nature God,
        did not consider equality with God
            something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
        by taking the very nature of a servant,
        being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
        he humbled himself
        by becoming obedient to death—
        even death on a cross! (Phil. 2:5 - 8 NIV)

[Note:  The introduction to the hymn, verse 5 is a command, not a suggestion: “Have this disposition in you as Christ Jesus!”]

The humility Paul commands here, which is found in Christ, is not what people generally extol as the “virtue” of humility, a mere non-prideful attitude.  The humility of Jesus means that he accepted frailty.  What do I mean by frailty?  It is the opposite of the self-reliance and self-effort toward self-motivated ends.  The acceptance of frailty is the recognition of absolute weakness apart from God.  The Incarnational, self-emptying of the essence of God in Jesus meant that he shared in human frailty.  However, in the frailty of human form and nature, Jesus was completely obedient.  Jesus became dependent on his Father.  In doing so, Jesus became the “new Adam” (Paul’s analogy in Rom 5:15; 1Cor 15:45) who ushered in a new era of God’s life and grace.  In the frailty of human form and nature, Jesus conquers sin and death.

Application:  Why is humble frailty a good disposition?  It leads us to dependence on God and obedience.  Following this hymn/poem of 2:8 - 11, Paul reminded his “saints at Philippi” that in their obedience God was enabling them to will and act according to his purposes (2:12 – 13).  That is what I want in my life.

The “test” of life is whether I live for my own desires by my own strength or whether I live as a created person dependent on my Creator.  This test is not a final examination; it plays out daily.  I read a statement a few days ago, “The greatest teacher of God’s presence in our life is our life.”*  What struck me in reflection is that my life is a constant testimony to me – as much or more so as to anyone else.  When I accept my frailty, I seek to be near my God.  I experience increased order in my life, the peace that comes from the Presence of God.  I witness it.  When in my “strength” I seek my own way, there is more chaos in my life.  I can testify to that as well.

For Paul frailty was quite personal:  At one point in his life, Paul pleaded for God to take away some physical frailty, a “thorn in the flesh” (2Cor 12:7 – 8).  In response, God told Paul: “Sufficient for you is my grace; for [my] strength is made complete in weakness” (2Cor 12:9).

Lord, help me to see clearly and accept fully my frailty so that you might enable me in my weakness through your Spirit to be of real service in your Kingdom.  Amen.

*James Finley as quoted in Rohr’s Daily Meditations, 3/15/24.