The God We Need

In my previous entry here (America in Crisis 7/16/17) I began with the statement: “We need God”, and went on to say: “not as interpreted by specific religions”.  That is not to suggest institutional religions are without value, for institutions are a necessary part of civilization.  All institutions are human constructs, bringing frameworks of order to society.  “Religion” is the name given to the larger category of ways that focus on how we are to relate to God.  Each specific religion has designated ways to worship involving rules and demands.

God does not demand, God only invites—as Jesus demonstrated.  God is beyond human comprehension, yet so often religions assume to know the unknowable.  A ‘god concept’ symbolizes our unknowing; a formless nameless way that leaves institutional demands behind and is focused on those qualities we believe to be ‘of God’ as we understand God to be.  We have come to believe God’s qualities to be Truth, Justice, Compassion, Mercy, Love and all goodness.  That is the God we need.

In a prior entry here (God Search 6/28/17) I wrote of humankind’s insatiable desire for ‘something more’.  We need hope we need purpose and meaning.  A god concept carries the highest values we wish to embody.  We need reminding of them.  Without a means of calling those values to mind, they recede from our awareness.  As a nation we have retreated not only from religion, but also from our fundamental values.  In stepping back from involving God in our daily lives we’ve lost sight of truth, honesty, compassion and goodness.

Our last election process was an embarrassment of insults, lies and slanderous innuendoes—for the most part we didn’t raise objections, we just shrugged and looked the other way. 

We’ve made a collective mistake in backing away from God and we are suffering the consequence by now finding our government in turmoil.

Honesty, integrity and sincerity should be the first consideration when selecting a president.  Without taking into account principles of Truth and Justice to guide us, we chose as candidate and then elected a monumentally unqualified man to lead the country—the one who shouted the loudest!  The issue is not about the party he belongs to but about the character of the individual.  His dishonesty, lack of integrity and excess egotism were on display throughout the campaign and yet he was elected.

This crisis is not just about our government it is about our souls.

From my first blog entry of 8/19/13 here are the final lines from my poem

                                                                ‘Un-named God’

- - -

But you are the un-named God

The soul-giver

I know you by your absence

When we turn from you

We dispossess our souls

soon to discover

             we are the hollow men.

Without you we cannot save ourselves

                                             from ourselves.

  Only in your presence do we partake of the mystery,

                                        Only in your presence do we reach beyond ourselves,
                                        Only in your presence do we find fulfillment .

America in Crisis

What is my bottom line?  What is it that I will continue to defend after all else fails?  It is the simple statement: ‘We need God.’  I’ve heard it said that if there wasn’t a God, we’d have to create one.

We need God, not as interpreted by specific religions which are often overlaid with human images that serve their own advantage, but the fundamental ‘god concept’ that points to the values of goodness, truth and moral order—without that we cannot build a just world.

In searching to understand life we often rely on symbols to relay complex concepts.  Symbols reach beyond the limits of words, going deeper into the unconscious; their disavowal can damage the psyche.  The Statue of Liberty speaks to us of America, a flag identifies a nation, and a god concept—the symbol for a God beyond our knowing—represents ultimate values. 

When America’s founding fathers were forming this nation they freely spoke of God; even our money carries the motto ‘in God we trust’.  Sometime in the 20^th Century we began to retreat form associating with God.  In today’s world we are prohibited from praying in schools or public assemblies and visual references to God have been removed (i.e. the 10 Commandments in courtrooms and Christmas nativity scenes on public greens).  That sends the message—intended or not—that ‘things of God are to be avoided’.  By outlawing references to God we have lost sight of the positive values that a god concept represents, so our children grow up without a frame of reference focused on the good, the right, the just and moral values.

Turn back to the statement ‘if there wasn’t a God we’d have to create one’—isn’t that what we’re doing in our pursuit of human rights?  We (but not all) have thus far recognized that we must abolish slavery; grant full personhood to all apart from race, gender, creed etc.; we also recognize that the sick and injured are to be cared for, not ‘abandoned to fate’; that education be available to all; and those in need be helped to find the way to self-sufficiency . . . these humanitarian concerns arise from what has always been of concern to religions in their seeking for God, these choices are examples of the god concept at work—freed from the limitations of individual denominational restrictions.  We recognize them as core values.  In effect, as we accept them, we are ‘creating God’ within ourselves—and God is OK with that!

With this last election our nation has taken a backward step to further retreat from God.  If we look we can see a major turn has occurred, away from humanitarian concerns, toward corporate interests.  I understand that economics, industrial and national interests also require attention, but not ‘instead of’, ‘more than’ and ‘at the expense of’ humanitarian concerns.  And so many of Trump’s executive actions have more the flavor of vengefulness than concern for public welfare, especially withdrawing from the Paris Accord and canceling the clean air act.

In this backward step, another danger has surfaced.  The current political entanglements involving Russian meddling in our election process is not a ‘small thing’, a ‘nothing’ to be swept under the rug so we can go on to ‘real problems’—this is a major crisis America faces.  There is something very wrong here when our election process is under attack, and this administration sees no cause for alarm!

This Friday (7/14/17) I watched The News Hour on PBS.  In the discussions they touched on several issues including the administration’s disparaging of the US Intelligence agencies, their repeated attack on the news media accusing it of ‘fake news’, and the latest disclosures in Donald Trump Jr’s emails with focus on his utter disregard for the seriousness of the situation; he offers no apology, shows no regret, brushes it off as ‘nothing’ because ’nothing came of it’, gives no evidence of having overcome any scruples and sees nothing wrong.  This points to something sinister we saw earlier in the campaign when the drive to win obscured human decency.  I quote David Brooks (NY Times columnist) . . . “this is a zone beyond any ethical scruples, it all about winning.”  He also quoted someone whose name I didn’t catch, but I offer it as something to ponder: “If you make losing a sin, you make cheating a sacrament.”

If this is where we are, America is indeed in crisis.

God Search

Within the human species there is an insatiable desire to know, understand and draw conclusions—some call that a ‘God Search’.  It requires quiet time, but in this crazy fast-paced world of information overload, who has that quiet time?  And that search has been relegated to ‘unimportant’ in our secular world . . . but is it?

We all know that life is a limited experience.  We each come into being by way of an unfathomable chain of events; then, unknown circumstances will play upon us until the inevitable extinguishing of our mortal self.  We know this, but do we actually realize it?  Fact:  with few exceptions, the allotted time for each of us averages some 75-85 years and only rarely exceeds 100.  Such a tiny piece of time!  Individually we enter and exit the flow of life that stretches beyond our vision in both directions, backward and forward.   Why are we here so briefly? Why do we have consciousness to ask the question ‘Why’?

The majority of people are unconcerned about deep questions of existence, they are engaged in the survival struggle and ask only questions about immediate concerns . . . but for those who do ask the deep questions there seems to be two conflicting answers.  The first answer that came long ago, was to consider that some guiding spirit or spirits ‘made things happen’, controlling and watching the human struggle.  The spirits were identified differently by different groups of people, but the unifying idea was of ‘something more’.  The second answer came later, it was to consider that there are no spirit guides, humanity is alone in a meaningless universe without pattern or purpose—life appeared on this planet through random happenstance.  Our coming and going is just that brief experience without value, purpose or hope.

We seem to be caught between those two answers even if we personally aren’t engaged in the search.  The first answer seemed to offer hope and promise in the ‘something more’, but it became tangled in the definitions and rules of the institutions that grew around the idea.  The second answer came supported by science and seemed lofty, intelligent and, Oh so rational!—but dark and unsatisfying . . . Nothing more?  Meaninglessness?

Currently, among progressive thinkers a new question is being raised:  Are we experiencing another Axial Age?  A pivotal time when there is a fundamental shift in thinking about the universe and our part in it?  So, to address the question below that question, what IS an Axial Age?

The German philosopher Karl Jasper coined the term Axial Age in reference to the period of time roughly between 800-200 B.C.  He wrote: “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently throughout most of the inhabited world” . . . in that time the great intellectual, philosophical and religious systems emerged [i.e. Greek philosophers, Hebrew prophets, Confucius and Lao-Tzu in China, the Buddha in India, Zoroaster in Persia . . .] that shaped subsequent human society and culture.  Each chose different patterns of behavior yet held similar attitudes of respectful relationships and ultimate concerns beyond mere survival.  There was a shift or turn away from the violence of mere self-preservation characteristic of tribalism, shifting to living cooperatively with those who were different and speculating about the fate of humanity.  There emerged a new concern for the individual person evidenced by some form of the ‘Golden Rule’ expressed in each of the cultures. (“Do unto others as you would have them do unto you”.) 

The New World Encyclopedia defines this era as: “the time in which all foundations that underlie current civilization came into being.  The Axial Age plays a central, foundational, or crucial role in human history.”

What is the significance of the Axial Age with regards to the God search?  It is a piece of evidence that supports the hopeful position that life is unfolding in accordance to a discernible pattern or plan.  From the study of science we see and understand life has evolved from simple to complex forms; when we observe long-term human behavior we can see a pattern of advancement from lower to higher states of consciousness.  The 1^st Axial Age shows that without direct communication, these diverse groups of people, although isolated from each other, chose advancement from barbarism to civilization—it implies a knowing directive force behind the flow of history, and bespeaks intentionality that affirms a God leading humanity to a higher purpose.   

Evolution, Why Does it Matter?

I return to considering the works of Teilhard de Chardin.  His two best-known books are: The Phenomenon of Man (renamed The Human Phenomenon in a newer translation), it is his scientific treatise on the evolution of the earth and the human species; and The Divine Milieu, his mystic understanding of the God-humanity relationship.  A scientist and a Jesuit, his life was devoted to reconciling science and religion, the two seemingly conflicting paths for understanding who and what we are.

Science shows evolution to be the underlying principle of all that is; Teilhard fully accepts the reality of evolution and that it is God’s great plan, filled with meaning and purpose.  He has identified the ‘law of complexity-consciousness’ as the pattern that gives direction to evolution.  In that observable pattern, over eons, life progressed from single-cell entities to ultimately reach the purpose inherent from the beginning: the emergence of the human, a complex being created in God’s image possessing consciousness, thought and feeling, free will, creativity and the ability to love.  Teilhard refers to the evolutionary process as a ‘genesis’, a vast coming to be.

Full consciousness in the human species is not some random ‘surprise happening’; it is God’s intended goal for evolution.  Throughout, as organisms became more complex, simultaneously consciousness increased until, with the human, reflective awareness emerged with the birth of thought.  More than a change in degree, it was a change in nature to a new species.  With thought came the freedom to choose (free will) and responsibility for the direction chosen for the future.  As we advance in our ability to control and direct, it is clear that those abilities can have both wonderfully positive and horribly negative consequences.  We have yet to realize our world is one interacting/interdependent unit that stands in danger of self-destruction.

The search for knowledge and understanding has proceeded haphazardly without clear belief in a direction or goal . . . science and religion have argued over the preeminence of the world vs. God; science—in its arrogance—has suggested there is ONLY world and God is illusion.  Mystics of all traditions have recognized a link between God and world.

The poem in my previous entry is about the God-human relationship, co-creating a world on planet earth.

The wonder and order of the Universe; the intricate balance of the elements of our earth that support unexplainable, inexplicable life is proof to me of God . . . random chance cannot justify that level of order and balance—so I believe in the mystery that gave rise to such wonder and call the Mystery, God.  God prepared us to encounter life together and gave us the freedom to shape our world.  I can’t understand or explain God, but I’m convinced that we were given what we need and God has sprinkled humanity’s search for wisdom with clues that lead us toward understanding the why and who we are and our place in the great mystery of life. 

One of God’s ‘sprinkled clues’ as to our self-identity is found in the process we witness daily in observing human development from embryo to mature adult.  Begun in mysterious darkness, emerging with only primitive abilities, dependent and needing guidance, gradually discovering skills and abilities, growing into beings capable of shaping their own future.   –We’re adults now, God gave us the tools we need for survival and the rest is up to us.

I encourage you to turn back to my May 28 entry and read ‘Child is Father of the Man’ with these thoughts in mind.

A Consciousness Change

“The Age of Nations is past,

The task before us now, if we would not perish,

Is to build the earth.”

                                                                                                            Teilhard de Chardin

I believe there is a God and that there is meaning and purpose to our existence: humanity is to evolve and learn to live as God has directed—then we will join God in eternity.  I believe that Father God, who created life and the world, first guided infant humanity.  I believe he gave directions to Abraham to form the Jewish nation in a time when ‘Might Means Right’ was the only guiding principle.  For the nascent nation God chose Moses to lead their development with laws and rules.  This changed humanity’s consciousness.  It evolved from tribalism and led to the first Axial period wherein, throughout the globe, isolated clusters of humanity, led by great Prophets, laid the foundations of civilization between 800 and 200 B.C.

When God determined the time was ripe, God the Father ceased direct guidance, giving humanity full power of free will.  God entered time as the man Jesus, demonstrating how we are to live.  Like rebellious adolescents, mankind did not adopt ‘The Way’ given us by Jesus.  Some saw the wisdom and Christianity took hold, keeping Jesus’ words alive.  For centuries the world progressed physically in adolescent-like rebellion, playing dangerous war games, claiming for profit earth’s natural resources and rebelling against moral order.

We now stand on the brink of self-destruction!  We're children no longer, needing to be guided and led; we can see what the rebellion has achieved.  It is time to accept our adulthood—another consciousness change is needed—to recognize our world is one interacting/interdependent unit that will succeed or perish as a whole.

* * *

                                          THE CHILD IS FATHER OF THE MAN

From parent comes child

Who is destined himself to become parent.

From God comes man

Himself to become as God—

One to other

United in understanding

Through shared creation.

Each still is

But they share a being

Impossible without the evolutionary development.

But that is the completion—

The becoming is painful.

To grow under protective care:

                  To have one to give answers,

                  To have one to run to for comfort,

                  To have one to define limits’

                  To have one to forgive mistakes,

                  To have one to answer needs

                  To have one to see in us value . . . . . .

                                                      Childhood and Innocence.

Then to be alone:

                  To search out answers,

                  To endure without comfort,

                  To draw our own limits,

                  To be responsible for mistakes,

                  To find the means to answer needs,

                  To create our own value by our actions . . . .

                                                      Maturity and Responsibility.

The aloneness feels like abandonment;

But necessary for becoming.

It is weakness, cowardice, and death

To run back to the protectiveness outgrown.

It is strength, courage and life

To face the challenge alone.

The challenges to be met?

One cannot foretell.

For some they are few;

For others, many.

But the greater the challenges met and overcome,

The greater the one overcoming.

Refuse the challenge

               Deny the worth of the struggle.

                                 Give no example to those who follow,

                                                   Destruction . . . . . . .

                                                                     And worse yet,

                                                                                       Responsibility for that destruction!

Refusal, denial, and the killing of hope

Will not eliminate the responsibility inherent in maturation.

There is no choice but to go forward and build,

To find within the self

The ability to become as the One who gave being.

God is not dead

His infinite wisdom sees the necessity

Of Man’s accepting the responsibility

Of his own destiny.

The pain?

                  The suffering?

                                    The aloneness?

                                                      To be endured!

Instead of receiving,

It is now ours to give

The child must now become the father.

As God Loves

       Easter season continues until Pentecost, so I look again at the Easter message—Jesus died for our sins.  It has always troubled me when preachers say Jesus died for MY sins—indicating a personal thing.  Beyond personal sin, there is societal sin—a far greater offense!  Our world is a singular unit in the vast Universe.  We are one interdependent/interacting world.  We’ve not acknowledged that, we’ve not learned to love as God loves, we’ve held self-interest above universal concerns so our world is in crisis: Climate Change breeds weather disasters, our institutions are failing and in disarray, angry rebellion and wars are widespread, refugees flood neighboring nation’s exhausting their ability to give aid . . . because we haven’t learned to love.

       With his Passion, Jesus lived evil’s consequences.  Jesus did more than just free us from our personal sins—God could have done that with a wave of his hand—but not without canceling free will.  That freedom has given us the right to shape our world by our collective choices.  In Deuteronomy God’s edict to mankind is:  “I lay before you life and death, choose life.”  That points to freedom that carries the burden of responsibility. When we maim and steal, maliciously exploit, abuse our neighbor and ignore their needs we are choosing to sin.  Individually it is personal sin, but when adopted by a culture it is destructive to Humanity.  God, in the human form of Jesus elected to live out sin’s long-range effects . . . he endured the harshest, cruelest, most malhuman acts of which man is capable—unfettered venomous hatred and complete utter destruction—that is sin’s consequences.

       Jesus lived it out for our understanding.  He endured it and his body was destroyed, but his spirit rose.  Only love is strong enough to conquer evil—hatred and wars are its fuel.  The Passion addressed our human need to see proof of the effect of not learning to love.  God loves us that much; to become the material evidence of sin’s overwhelming destructive power.

       In this 21^st Century humanity cannot continue to be a world of ‘us’ and ‘them’.  Thousands of years have been spent exploring, discovering, developing and connecting the ‘parts’ of this one world, and, if we but look, we can’t help but see we are One interacting, interconnected single unit in a vast Universe—we survive or perish together.  Jesus’ entire earthly message was ‘love one another as I have loved you’.

       The Passion was God’s pure love showing us the outcome of the path we are walking—until we learn to love.  He died willingly to bring the message:  God loves us this much!  Because Jesus rose from death, we esteem him, praise and honor him—for our theology tells us that doing so is a guarantee of our personal salvation . . . but do we understand the message?  It’s more than Jesus saves each of us; the call is salvation for all of us.  God awaits humanity together, to choose for life.  We are called to return God’s love by learning how to love as God loves.

Holy Thursday 2017

                                     

       In January, I was riding home with my 16 year old grandson from a very moving Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Atlanta . . . we’d sung a beautiful song that kept running thru my thoughts.  I asked my grandson for his thoughts about Holy Communion.  After a pause he said he wasn’t sure; what they taught in Sunday school makes it seem ‘like magic’—the priest says some words and poof, the wafer turns in to Jesus—that’s pretty hard to believe.  I agreed.  I asked if he wanted to hear my thoughts on it—he said yes. 

       I said that to me, it was like the words of the song we’d just sung "because we called, you have come".  God is everywhere and in everything.  The Bible quotes Jesus as having said: “When two or more are gathered in my name, I am there in their midst.”  In church as we pray and sing we are calling God to be with us; the ‘Godness’ that is everywhere becomes more concentrated and focused on the host as the priest’s words are said.  Our valuing something makes it MORE than just the thing itself—like a wedding ring or a trophy for winning a tournament—it carries meaning far beyond the metal of which it is made.  So it is with the host. 

       He said he liked that explanation.  Some time later I wrote the following.

                                                       * * *

                                                  Eucharist

Because we called,

            You have come . . .

Candles flicker, hands bless,

            words are said . .

Not magic here—

            but mystery profound . . .

a humble offering

            is transformed.

                           There was a long, slow Coming-to-be

                                    --human hands, with hope

                                       planted seeds in the soil

                                    --God blessed the earth

                                       with sun and rain.

                           Seasons, and eons passed

                               as nature gifted humans with harvest

                                    --grapes fat on the vine

                                    --wheat bursting its husks

                                                            and mankind was fed.

Jesus came to tell us of the mystery of God

            we hadn’t yet comprehended:

                        “This is my body,

                        This is my blood”

His words lead us to see that God’s blessings

            have joined with human labor

            in a co-creative offering:

                        --grapes to wine

                        --wheat to bread

Your presence, God,

            steeped in the All

            is called forth.

           

And because we call,

            You come closer.

Not magic . . .

            but the revelation

            to us, of that which 
            is already there.