Transcript The Children of Abraham - St. John in the Wilderness Adult

Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction to Christian
Belief
2. The Risk of Love
(maker of heaven and earth)
Sunday, February 1, 2009
10 to 10:50 am, in the Parlor
Presenter: David Monyak
Primary
Reference

Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction
to Christian
Belief, Rowan
Williams,
Westminister John
Knox Press,
Louisville,
London, 2007
Primary
Reference

Tokens of Trust:
An Introduction
to Christian
Belief, Rowan
Williams,
Westminister John
Knox Press,
Louisville,
London, 2007
The Most Revd.
Rowan Williams is the
104th Archbishop of
Canterbury. He was
enthroned at
Canterbury Cathedral
on 27th February 2003
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Born 1950
Studied theology at Cambridge
DPhil at Oxford 1975
Priest 1978
1977 to 1992: taught theology at
Cambridge and Oxford
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1986: Lady Margaret
Professorship of Divinity at the
University of Oxford
1991: Bishop of Monmouth in
Anglican Church of Wales
1999: Archbishop of Wales
Dec 2002: confirmed as the 104th
bishop of the See of Canterbury
Considered by many the best
Protestant theologian in the world
today
Also a noted poet and translator of
Welsh poetry
Tokens of Trust
An Introduction to Christian Belief
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Jan 25. Who Can We Trust? (I believe in God the Father
almighty)
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Feb 1: The Risk of Love (maker of
heaven and earth)
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Feb 8: A Man for All Seasons (and in Jesus Christ his only
Son our Lord)
Feb 15: The Peace Dividend (He suffered and was buried,
and the third day he rose again)
Feb 22: God in Company (And I believe in one catholic and
apostolic Church)
Mar 1: Love, Actually (I look for the resurrection of the dead)
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O
heavenly Father, who has filled the
world with beauty: Open our eyes to
behold your gracious hand in all your
works; that, rejoicing in your whole
creation, we may learn to serve you
with gladness; for the sake of him
through whom all things were made,
your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
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For Joy in God’s Creation, Book of Common Prayer, p. 814
Last Week:
1. Who Can We Trust?
(I believe in God the Father
Almighty)
1. Who Can We Trust?
“I Believe”
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When we say “I believe” in God the Father
Almighty,” we are proclaiming:
I take refuge in God the Father Almighty
 I put my trust in God the Father Almighty
 God is where I belong
 God is who I have confidence in to keep me safe
 God is where I find the anchorage of my life
 God is where I find solid ground, home
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1. Who Can We Trust?
A Trustworthy God
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We can be confident God is a trustworthy God
because:
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1. The testimony of the scriptures tells us so:
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Through Jesus and the events around Jesus’ life, God has at last
made his purposes clear
God has shown us God’s agenda
2. God is the creator: “God is, in simple terms, sublimely
and eternally happy to be God, and the fact that this
sublime eternal happiness overflows into the act of creation
is itself a way of telling us that God is to be trusted
absolutely, that God has no private agenda”
1. Who Can We Trust?
“An Almighty Father”
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“Almighty” applied to God means:
There is no place where God is absent, powerless
or irrelevant
 There is no situation where God is at a loss
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“God always has the capacity to do something fresh and
different, to bring something new out of a situation”
God’s “love never exhausts its resources”
Therefore there is no situation in which we
cannot rely upon God: we can trust God as we
could a loving parent
1. Who Can We Trust?
A Real God
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Faith often begins with “belief,” trust in the lives of
some believing people. Some people do take
“responsibility for making God credible in the world”
through their lives.
Example: Etty Hillesum, a young Jewish women
captured by the Germans in Holland in 1941, who
died in the gas chambers at Auschwitz in November
1943 at the age of 29
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In the darkest of times, Etty felt called to “bear witness
to the fact that God lived,” to “commend You [God]
to the heart of others”
This Week:
2. The Risk of Love
(maker of heaven and earth)
The Idea of “God”
The Idea of “God”
Why Take Seriously the Idea of “God”?
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Taking seriously the significance of a life such
as Etty Hillesum’s may point us towards God –
if we’ve already accepted the idea there might
be an entity called “God”
But why should we take the “language” about
“God” seriously? Why should we take
seriously the idea there is such an entity as
“God”?
The Idea of “God”
Arguments for God’s Existence
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Arguments for God's existence usually invite
us to look at the world as a single “whole”
1. We have a stubborn intuition that it is a fair
question to ask where it “all” comes from.
 2. Modern science tells us that there is a “first
event,” a point from which the universe (as we
know it) begins as a whole to expand
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The Idea of “God”
Arguments for God’s Existence
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“If there is an apparently endless line of
dominoes knocking itself over one by one ...
somewhere there was a domino that was
nudged!”
- George, the philosophy professor in Tom Stoppard’s play
Jumpers
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In our complex world of continuously changing
energy and movement, cause and effect,
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What ultimately energizes?
What keeps the world from collapsing into incoherence and
randomness?
The Idea of “God”
Arguments for God’s Existence
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Trying to answer such questions gives rise to
the idea that our universe is a related to
another reality that:
Holds or includes our universe
 A reality so utterly consistent with itself, so
unaffected by other activity, that this reality is its
own explanation, its own “cause,” eternal and
unchanging: God
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Asking “If God made the world, who made God?” in
this other reality of God makes no sense
Not A “Clockmaker”
God
Not A Clockmaker God
CAUTION
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CAUTION: thinking about God as:
The one who long ago nudged the “first” domino
and is sitting back watching (or yawning) as the
domino line continues to fall;
 The “watchmaker” who long ago made a watch (=
the universe) and is now busy elsewhere;
 The “brilliant academic” who wrote great works
long ago (=our universe) and is now in retirement
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Is NOT biblical. It is not what Christians
believe (or Jews and Muslims).
Not A Clockmaker God
Creation is On-Going
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Creation is on-going
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The “beginning point” was the beginning of active
relationship that has never stopped.
“For God to create is for God to ‘commit’ his
action, his life, to sustaining a reality that is
different from him, and doing so without
interruption.”
Not A Clockmaker God
The Current of Divine Activity
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Analogy:
The universe: a glowing light bulb
 God: the electrical current that is flowing here and
now to keep the bulb lit
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The “current” of divine activity is here and
now making us real.
If God’s attention slipped for a moment,
creation would disappear.
Not A Clockmaker God
The “White Heat” At the Center of All
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God's action is on-going, a “white heat” at the
center of everything
Implications:
each one of us is already “in a relationship” with
God before we've ever thought about it
 every object or person we encounter is “in a
relationship” with God before they're in a
relationship of any kind with us.
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Not A Clockmaker God
God Versus What is Not God
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“Creation is an action of God that sets up a
relationship between God and what is not God.
Eternally, there is just God … And time begins
when God speaks to call into being a world
that is different and so establishes a reality that
depends on him. It depends on him moment by
moment, carried along on the current of his
activity”
Not A Clockmaker God
An Outpouring of Life From God
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“We may look at something that seems unmoving and
unchanging, like the pillars of a cathedral or the peaks
of a mountain, but what is within and beyond it is an
intense energy and movement. The scientist … will
tell us that at the heart of every apparently solid thing
is the dance of the subatomic particles. The
theologian … will want to add that at the heart of the
subatomic particles is an action and motion still more
basic, beyond measure and observation — the
outpouring of life from God.”
Not A Clockmaker God
Seeing Everything in Relation to God
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“Creation isn't a theory about how things
started; as St Thomas Aquinas said, it's a way
of seeing everything in relation to God.”
Not A Clockmaker God
CAUTION: Not Pantheism
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The idea of God as the “white heat” at the
center of everything may make it seem that
there is no real difference between God and the
world (= “pantheism”)
God is distinct from God’s creation:
God makes what isn't him and sets up a free and
loving relationship with it all
 If there were no creation, God would be the same
God, no less in glory and beauty
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The Problem of Evil
The Problem of Evil
Suffering and Disasters
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If the “white heat” of God is at the heart of
everything – every object, every process –
why does God allow – and sustain – suffering
and disaster, cancers and tsunamis?
It is a fair question, a justified protest:
Human pain must be taken seriously
 No one’s suffering is insignificant, just a statistic
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The Problem of Evil
A World of Regularity and Change
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Some points to keep in mind as we try to approach
some partial answer to this question:
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This world is different from God. It is a world of regularity,
but also complex interactions, interconnections, and change
Innumerable interactions and interconnections mesh to
make things happen
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“The Butterfly Effect:” the flap of a butterfly’s wing in Asia can
contribute to a whirlwind in Europe
In such a universe, the processes of change may not always
be smooth or gradual; there may be cataclysms, ‘violent
moments when the interactions are explosive.
The Problem of Evil
A World of Regularity and Change
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Some points to keep in mind as we try to approach
some partial answer:
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This universe of regularity, and also interactions,
interconnections and change has brought into being a world
of natural wonders, – and with life and intelligence
If God had made a universe with little interaction, little
interconnection and change, a world of “isolated systems”
where cataclysmic interactions could not happen, could the
universe have given rise to its present wonders, to life and
intelligence?
If God had made a universe with a “perpetual safety net,”
could we call it a world at all, a world with it own integrity
and regularity?
The Problem of Evil
Facing Tragedy
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These points do not make tragedy easier to face.
Yet in protesting “Why God do you allow suffering?”
we must also:
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Imagine what kind of world it would be if God simply
aborted any process that might pose a risk to living
creatures.
Not forget to take seriously lives like Etty Hillesum, that
witness to and make God credible to the world, even in the
midst of the most horrendous suffering
A Risky World
A Risky World
God’s Purpose in Creation
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So did God make a “risky” world?
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Yes!
And God takes the riskiness to an extreme point in making
a world in which creatures with minds and freedom emerge
God's purpose in creation is to bestow as much of his
being and life and joy as is possible — and that
includes pouring out his freedom.
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A God who poured out all aspects of his being and life
except freedom would be a God who refused the challenge
of real difference at its toughest level.
A Risky World
God’s Purpose in Creation
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Thus, as the Bible tells us in Genesis, creation
reached a climax point when beings who
reflect him more fully than anything else —
beings capable of choice and of love —
emerged.
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In other words: beings who reflected the “image
and likeness” of God
A Risky World
An Even Riskier Creation
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When beings reflecting the “image and
likeness of God” emerged, the riskiness of
creation took on new heights.
Not only are there now threats from natural
processes, but in addition, there are threats
from human choices:
both stupid choice, and
 choices deliberately hostile to God
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A Risky World
Trusting God in a Risky World
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The fact that God has created such a risky world with
beings who show something of God's liberty, God's
love, God's ability to make new things and
relationships, shows how “serious” God is about
creation.
God does not guarantee our safety in this risky
creation, but God is always present, free to move
things on even in the most desperate situations.
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In the Old Testament, Job was aware of God’s presence,
when, after suffering indescribable loss and anguish, he
says, “If he kills me, I shall still trust him” (Job
13.15).
Today there are people in similar situations saying similar
things.
Prayer and Miracles
Prayer and Miracles
An Almighty God
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Doesn’t the Bible seem to show a world where
God is almighty, can perform “miracles,”
imposing his will whenever and wherever he
wants?
If so:
“Why does God intervene there, and not here?”
 “Why are some prayers apparently answered, and
some not?”
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Prayer and Miracles
An Almighty God
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Recall (from session 1) the meaning of
“almighty” = power that:
Is a steady swell of loving presence
 Always at work in the center of everything
 Opening doors to the future even when we can see
no hope
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Prayer and Miracles
God’s Response to Prayer
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How the Almighty God does NOT respond to prayer:
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Receives prayer as an application on which he makes some
marks, then forwarding it on for major action (AKA
miracle) or minor action by an angelic civil service.
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Or throwing into the trash bin.
Can be battered into answering (finally!) by a heavy
campaign of praying
Can be influenced by a salutary turn of phrase or inside
connections (prayers to saints in heaven who can intervene
on your behalf)
Prayer and Miracles
God’s Response to Prayer
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How then does God respond to prayer? How might
God “act” in the world?
St. Augustine: miracles are really just natural
processes speeded up a bit, “fast-forwarded”
If God is actively sustaining the universe:
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the “white heat” at the heart of everything,
the “divine current” that keeps the universe in being
then perhaps we should not think of God’s miracles
and answers to prayer as things in competition with
God’s sustaining of the universe
Prayer and Miracles
God’s Response to Prayer
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God is always at work, but it is not always visible.
Sometimes the world's processes go with the grain of
his purpose and sometimes against it.
At times the processes of the world can come together
in a way which:
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Makes the world more transparent to the underlying action
of God
Gives God extra freedom to maneuver in our universe
Perhaps something we think, say or do, an intense
prayer, or a holy life, can open the world up a bit
more to God's purpose so that unexpected things
happen.
Prayer and Miracles
God’s Response to Prayer
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This picture may help a bit in understanding why
some prayers are “answered” and others are not.
We can never know all the processes present in a
given situation that may open the door further to
God’s action – or close it further.
But our prayer, or some act of love or devotion, may
be one of the innumerable factors in a situation that
shifts the balance of events and open the door further
to God’s action.
Prayer and Miracles
Jesus’ Miracles
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Do we explain the miracles of Jesus in the same way?
In Jesus, we have prayer and holiness in unique
intensity, so “the door” to God’s action is always
more open in the vicinity of his human reality
However, even Jesus couldn’t do anything he wanted:
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Jesus noted he needed to have the trust of people to cure
them.
Then Jesus said to them, “Prophets are not
without honor, except in their hometown, and
among their own kin, and in their own house.”
And he could do no deed of power there, except
that he laid his hands on a few sick people and
cured them. (Mark 6:4-5 NRS)
Prayer and Miracles
Jesus’ Miracles
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Jesus’ miracles happen when:
his boundless compassion comes together with
 other elements in the situation, such as the trust of
the suffering person, or of their parents or friends.
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The miracle is:
1. the action of God, and
 2. the fruit of making room for God in the world
by prayer, confidence in God, and receptivity to
God.
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Prayer and Miracles
Miracles and God’s Active Presence
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God has mysteriously made a world where the
processes of the world, and in particular, human
beings, can help – or hinder – God’s purposes.
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Our prayers and good thoughts, a holy life can help make
the world more transparent to God’s purposes, and then
unpredictable things – miracles – can happen.
To reject the possibility of miracles may reflect a
rejection of God’s active presence in creation, a belief
in a “watchmaker” God who is no longer actively
involved in the world.
Prayer and Miracles
Miracles and God’s Active Presence
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The vision that a young William Blake had on
Peckham Rye in 1767 – a vision of “a tree
filled with angels, bright angelic wings
bespangling every bough like stars” is closer
than we might think to reality:
“God is both invisible and inscrutable on the one
hand, and, on the other, almost unbearably close
wherever we are and whatever is happening.”
 [The world] “may not be secure but is pulsing with
something unmanageable, terrible and wonderful
just below its surface.”
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All Things Visible and
Invisible
Things Visible and Invisible
More Than We Can Grasp
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To say we believe in a God who creates
“heaven and earth and ... all things visible and
invisible” acknowledges:
Creation is more than we can get our minds
around. Some of it we can grasp, and some of it we
can’t.
 Creation has unfathomable dimensions to it,
hidden realities, hidden connections
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Things Visible and Invisible
Angels
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Angels in Christian teaching: even if you are
not inclined to believe literally in angels, they
can still be a powerful symbol that:
“round the corner of our vision things are
going on in the universe, glorious and
wonderful things, of which we know nothing”
Things Visible and Invisible
Angels
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“In the Bible angels are often rather terrifying
beings occasionally sweeping across the field
of our vision; they do God strange services that
we don't fully see; they provide a steady
backdrop in the universe of praise and
worship. They are great ‘beasts’, ‘living
creatures’, flying serpents burning with flames,
carrying the chariot of God, filling the Temple
in Jerusalem with bellows of adoration,
echoing to one another like whales in the
ocean.”
Things Visible and Invisible
All Things
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All things visible and invisible emphasizes
God is responsible for everything.
When the Creeds were written, there were rival
ideas:
This world was not made by God, but by some
second class (and incompetent) divinity
 Or some of this world was made by God, and some
of it by an evil divinity, a rival of God.
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Things Visible and Invisible
All Things
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But as Christians, we proclaim God made it
all, all things visible and invisible.
Implications:
Since what God made was good; nothing (and no
one) is bad by nature
 The whole range of human experience, and natural
phenomena, and process is of concern to God.
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Things Visible and Invisible
Every Aspect of Myself
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That God made it all, all things visible and invisible,
also has a deeply personal meaning for each of us: the
possibility of an whole or integrated life in the light
of God.
We have only a confused and fearful and partial
picture of ourselves:
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There are things in our lives that we are aware of, and
things we are not aware of, or have “swept under the rug”
We have learned to make good use of some of what God
has given us, and we've made a mess of some of the rest, or
just haven't come to terms with it
Our pasts are speckled with successes, but also are littered
with failures, with broken and unfulfilled relationships,
with lost and missed opportunities.
Things Visible and Invisible
Every Aspect of Myself
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But all that we are is the working out of what
God has made.
God has made us in our entirety, and is
concerned about all of us.
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(This is not the same as saying that anything we
choose to do is fine)
Things Visible and Invisible
Every Aspect of Myself
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Every aspect of who we are can – and needs –
to be brought into the circle of God's light,
because he can deal with all of it.
This also means that every facet of the human
experience, such as politics, sports, economics,
art, are of interest to God.
Things Visible and Invisible
Every Aspect of Myself
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“He can lead us gently to face what we find
unacceptable and learn how to make it
meaningful by his grace. He can draw the
scattered bits of myself together. He is not
going to be bored, disgusted or impatient with
anything he has made, even when we have
made a mess of it for ourselves. It’s in this way
that the creating God and the forgiving God
belong absolutely together …”