Psalm 8
The unity of Father Son Spirit cannot be divided and yet each member while fully present in the other is also distinct. Attempting to say something about each One in Three, while preserving the Three in each One is a tip toe through the tulips of heresy, but I will press on, gingerly! In the time before time began the One who was not created called forth the heavens and the earth setting the stars like jewels in the crown of space. From infinite imagination the One who was not created called forth living things weaving them together with the fabric of the earth. And when all was said and done and very good the One who was not created formed in the image of the infinite imagination a creature both beautiful and terrible. Given our drive to exercise dominion over all things, including the One who imagined us, God might be mindful of mortals for God’s own sake. That might not be so far from the truth. The first article of the faith names the One who created the heavens and the earth as God, the Father Almighty. It is the parent in the infinite imagination that is mindful of the children created in the image of God. Love for the child will move that same One who was not created to inhabit mortal flesh and be crowned with glory and honor, not in the heavens but on a cross on a hill. Love for the child will move that same One who was not created to inspire the mouths of babes and infants and the young and the old to sing Alleluia when the enemy and the avenger, death itself, is swallowed up in victory. The One in Three and Three in One bound together by love for the children both beautiful and terrible until and for the day when the children of the infinite imagination are reborn into the eternal future.
I struggle with the view that we are somehow to live for some unforeseen future reality, or that God intended we would/should. Perhaps the one who created the heavens and the earth intended that we would at long last seek to set ourselves aside and follow (in this created earth and not some distant heaven) the one who was crowned on a cross on a hill. Perhaps the one who inspires intended that our alleluia's be more than words and song, would be - dare I say it - love for God and each other and for all of this creation in this time and place.
ReplyDeleteYes. I think that is what Jesus meant when he said “The kingdom of heaven is at hand. Repent and believe the good news.” Or in other words live the future in the present because as John remembered, Jesus said “those who believe have passed from death to life.” So yes, that is what we should and do strive to live into. But how can those in bondage to sin live beyond the limitations of pride and envy and lust and greed? That is the human condition of those both beautiful and terrible and so we are always all that we can be and less than until at last the terrible is fully overcome by the beautiful.
ReplyDeleteWe are limited by our covetous nature, the archer misses the mark, but we are not imprisoned by it. I hope for heaven as well, just have grown weary of religion that is so heaven-centered that it's no earthly good. I know that's not your religion either, but the point must be made. I don't spend my days thinking of heaven, and I certainly don't live for it. I live here and now, and the new beginning the Trinity inspires is one that empowers/frees us to live winsome, even compelling lives.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely, but I think it's a both and, not an either or. The vision of the peaceable kingdom inspires us to work for peace in the here and now anticipating what will be, but even a winsome and compelling life is but a foretaste of the feast.
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