Musings in this Holy Season

In this season of Passover and Easter, my thoughts are drawn to mankind’s search for God and Wisdom and how that is relayed in Bible Stories.  I approach those stories with 21^st Century reasoning while keeping in mind that each generation’s search reflects their society’s stage of development.  Do I believe the Bible is God-inspired?  Indeed I do; but God’s inspiration passed through the minds and hands of men in an era of limited knowledge.  Before there was writing, information was passed on orally thru story telling with no requirement for factual accuracy.  The Bible writers were from that tradition and used stories to convey the wisdom that was beyond their ability to fully reckon with.

In our present information age, we read stories to find the essential facts or points the story is making—that was not the ‘norm’ four thousand years ago, they just told interesting stories to get something across.  I’ve considered some essential points from stories in Genesis.  The first chapter of Genesis is the story of creation; I’ve selected the wisdom points that it conveys.

1)   God is the Creator.  Can we translate that to mean ‘that which called being into existence’?  [Being = materialization; (i.e. the universe, world, life forms, humanity . . .) existence = the known and experienced reality]   

O.K., that’s a bit much to process, but the rest of Genesis’ wisdom is easier.

            2)  It describes an order of creation (1^st day, 2^nd day, 3^rd day, etc. that

                  agrees with Science)

3)  God made man in God’s own image (able to create and bring order)

4)   In contrast to other creatures, humans had the unique ability to make choices (free will)

5)   some of the choices made by man would be to his own detriment. (sin,. . . Atomic bombs?)

From Creation, my thoughts take a jump to Abraham and the ‘chosen people’.  Chosen how?  Why?  For what?  The story tells of God directing Abraham to “leave your home country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.  I will make you into a great nation . . .”  [Gen. 12, NIV]

The point seems to be that the Jews were to make a significant contribution to the world and civilization.  (they have)

Some four thousand years ago (estimated to be the time of Abraham) humanity was emerging from the primitive world whose only rule was largely ‘survival of the fittest’ and ‘might means right’ with honor going only to the rulers and virtual enslavement of the masses.  Yet since the beginning of civilization there is evidence of humanity’s reaching for ‘something’ beyond the immediate experience of life—1) burying of their dead, 2) collecting and honoring totems, 3) developing dances and rituals, 4) calling upon spirits . . . the ‘something’ sought was vague and without a clear direction.  The descendants of Abraham and Sarah were to begin the movement of humanity toward a God of purpose and direction.  God as God truly is.  Over time the Jewish people (the ‘chosen people’)  established laws, both for settling disputes (legality), and of personal conduct (The 10 Commandments); to teach of One God; and to assemble sacred literature (the Old Testament/the Torah).  From my vantage point I see that as the advancement of civilization.  But the essential point was not that the Jews would advance civilization, but they were chosen to be the genetic line from which the Messiah was to come.  Messiah:  “the one chosen to lead the world and thereby save it”,  “the anointed”, “God’s appearance on earth”.

Approximately two thousand years after Abraham, Jesus entered the world.  Jesus was a Jew.  He instructed people in how to live with compassion and kindness, forgiving enemies and caring for all in need.  He performed miracles, prayed to God, calling him ’Father’; his followers—first Jews then others—believed him to be the Messiah, but the Jewish authorities did not.  He was crucified and rose from the dead.

Stories of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection were added to the Bible as the ‘New Testament’ for Christians.  For Jews, the Torah alone is their sacred scripture.

Each year Passover and Easter come at the same time.  I am pleased that there is mutual respect and at times there is sharing together of their celebrations.

Trinity Thoughts

Throughout this Easter season I have thought much about the Trinity.  I find it does not present to me the great incomprehensible mystery theologians speak of – Why?

This is how my mind addresses it.

I am Barbara, one singular limited human being.  During my lifetime others have known me as different persons.  I can and have manifested myself in these ways:  I am parent—“Mom”; teacher—“Ms. S-C”; and writer—“B. Sabonis-Chafee”.  Because I am limited by my material reality and exist in time and space, those manifestations happen sequentially.  Although most people can and do experience me mainly as one or the other (and can even be unaware that I’m manifested differently to others at other times) I am always the same Barbara.

For God, there is not a limit.  The Eternal God exists beyond the limits of time and space.  God’s Being has been manifested to humanity in three ways: as Creator, Savior, and Spirit.  Christianity has chosen to identify those manifestations as: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Theologians have also chosen to label God’s different ways-of-being as ‘3 Persons’. The choice of terminology has effected our perception of and our ultimate understanding of God.

Consider the word ‘person’.   Unconsciously we bring our common understanding to it, which refers to a separate individual or ‘unit’ of being.   We know of a person as one who comes into life by way of two individuals joining in sexual union to produce a baby—or new unit of being—which is first dependent upon parents but develops (over time) into the new singular unit, independent of the source of their existence.

The vastness of God is beyond our ability to comprehend but we use what we do know to try to reach a degree of understanding.  During the two thousand years of development, the Jewish people became monotheists—believers in One God—and awaiting a Messiah.  The life and message of Jesus brought people to the belief that he was the promised Messiah, the Christ.  He preached love and peace, was crucified, died and arose—conquering death.  The Messiah, thus God’s presence had been manifested to the world.  Some of the Jews, then non-Jews became Christians, believers with the conviction that Jesus=God.  Then, experiencing another manifestation of God’s presence with Pentecost, accepted that Holy Spirit =God.  It took centuries to establish the tenets of Christianity.  One great problem (still considered the greatest Mystery) was how to reconcile monotheism with a Triune God of three different persons.  The world’s experience of God had been in three different ways as: creator, savior and spirit; these encounters were different experiences so, in thought, they were separated and given the labels of ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Holy Spirit’, calling them different ‘persons’ of God, creating the confusion of One God, but three ‘persons’.

God is beyond our knowing and those awarenesses that do come to our understanding are clouded by explanations we have invented.  When reason advances our understanding (consciousness?) it requires that we change our perceptions and relinquish the long-favored errors present in the explanation.  Faced with a change in perception it is imperative not to deny the essential experience or main point but realize the error was in the way it was explained. 

Regarding the Trinity, I suggest relinquishing the use of ‘persons’ to describe the differing manifestations—the ‘Person’ of God is God (I Am) One God.  God was manifested in an earthly sojourn as the human person, Jesus.  The Christian belief is that God did enter human form for a specific duration to share the experience of being human and demonstrate how we as humans can share in ‘godness’.  We can’t fully understand it, but history and scripture affirm that it happened.  God did not ‘leave’ eternity to become Jesus (making eternity absent of God).  Eternity holds all expressions of reality within itself, so God continues eternally while entering time’s temporality. 

How many ways can God manifest the God-self?  We can’t know that, so lets confine the issue to the ways in which humanity has recognized them.  God’s Being is manifested to our human world: 1) as Creator (we see and experience life and the world in which we exist); 2) as the Savior in the person Jesus, also identified as The Christ (saving us from limited being); and 3) as the Holy Spirit, (The Divine Milieu) present throughout all of creation, guiding our evolution.

My prayer:    God of the Universe, you are one God in three manifestations;

                          --as Creator you give us life and the world;

--as Savior you clothed yourself in human flesh and entered time to show us how we are to live

--as Holy Spirit you are everpresent, enveloping us in your love and giving guidance to those who seek your council.

            Thank you—for all that is

            Amen—Thy will, not mine be done
            Trust—I believe, Lord, help my unbelief