If last week's post, in part at least, was about the complexity of theology because, well, God is complicated (at least, complicated for us to understand who God is, what God is up to, etc), then this week's post begins with the complexity of humanity.
A section of a comment from Mark to last week's post is worth repeating here:
"One of the big errors, I think, in understanding human beings is to assume that there is a generic, singular "type" - that we are fundamentally rational, or fundamentally relational, or fundamentally emotion-based etc. While all of these are true, it is also obvious that beyond what we have common there is also a great diversity of ways of being. Religions who stress our unity and equality (especially strong with the monotheistic religions) often have the challenge of accounting for our great diversity too (polytheistic religions are perhaps better at allowing and even celebrating this, as they allow and celebrate it in their doctrine of God).
Too much diversity and we lose a sense of our (and God's) unity and wholeness; too much too much unity and we lose a an appreciation of the myriad forms in which human and divine being appears.
There are many models for understanding human diversity-in-unity. By this stage in my life I've tried many of them out on myself and clients! The one that keeps proving it's worth for me, as a basic foundation, is the Myers-Briggs typology based on the pioneering insights of Carl Jung. ..."
We are a diverse bunch - I have seen that in various interactions through this holiday season. But each of us as individuals, wherever we might be located on some scheme of human diversity, is a complex being. We are rational and emotional, we have a history, a present and a future (each of which might be charted on a spectrum from painful to pleasant), we are (with a nod to last week's post) full of desire and may or may not be planning appropriate means of fulfilling those desires (or ignoring them due to other priorities such as meeting the desires of others), and we have capacity both to bore others and to surprise them.
There are perhaps two chief means by which we regularly reflect on the complexity of humanity:
- gossip (focused on the quirks and quarrels of friends, family, acquaintances, workmates, neighbours, etc) and
- news (focused on the triumphs and tribulations of people we mostly do not know directly but feel we know because their lives are lived in our heads (politicians, film stars, sports stars, other celebrities).
Recent weeks of news have of course been dominated by the politician/TV star/golf star (at least on his own golf courses!)/celebrity Donald Trump and his entourage of prospective leaders of his about to be inaugurated empire - their appearances before hearings to determine their fitness for office have been, well, interesting. From the perspective of the complexity of being human, it is intriguing how well known sinners prior to nomination for office take on a certain saintliness in their own minds and in the minds of their supporters. Much as we might deride this phenomenon when viewed on YouTube/X/etc, do we not all do a bit of this "transformative view" of ourselves from time to time (or, indeed, all the time)?
Another aspect of the complexity of humanity is that few if any people are unable to do at least one good thing in their lives. And, speaking of Trump, my reading of this week's news about the Gaza-Israel ceasefire is that while credit goes to Biden and Blinken for laying the groundwork for the current deal - some months back, but not at that time actually achieving a deal - it has been the involvement of Trump which has enabled a deal to be clinched.
Even as the ceasefire unfolds (and as I write this, the news is of three Israeli hostages being released from Gaza), it seems that one might reasonably assess that the ceasefire is merely a cessation of hostilities and not an actual breaking out of peace.
Humanity is complicated; each of us are complex beings; whether we invest hopes in a new president or prime minister or monarch, or seek for genuine peace and justice in human communities (our own families? the neighbourhood? Sudan? Ukraine? Gaza/West Bank/Israel?), we are nearly always guilty of underestimating that complex people create complex situations for which simple solutions are mostly unachievable. (As an aside, isn't a strong part of the attractiveness of Trump for American voters and global supporters that he offers simple solutions for every problem. And, as a further aside, isn't there an illustration of the complexity of humanity in how four years of his presidency, 2016-2020, has seemingly created no voters' remorse!).
So, where is the God of Jesus Christ present in our world through the Holy Spirit in our complexity?
Certainly there is some complicatedness about answering that question. This morning, looking at X/Twitter - there is a bunch of Christians in Washington this week with a very simple answer to the question (summarising, Donald Trump is God's anointed saviour of America and the world) and there is a vast number of Christians elsewhere in America and the world deeply anxious for a Trumpian future and even more deeply disturbed at the state of (some) American theology! Whatever God is up to in the world at this time, Trump is an ordinary human sinner not an extraordinary vessel of God's grace.
My own answer to the question is this:
1. God is doing all kinds of things in the world all the time using all kinds of people. It is not promised to us that any one of us or any one order of the church (not even prophets!) will have discernment as to what is happening. It is possible that with the hindsight of historical reflection we will have some discernment. It is also possible that there will be moments of insight granted to us "this IS God at work in the world" - especially when we see that wonderful sign of the kingdom when people commit their lives to Christ the King of Kings!
2. We can answer the question by being people open to God working in us and through us: being faithful witnesses to Jesus Christ and the Gospel, loving neighbours, makers of peace, workers of justice and living holy lives.
If you are wondering where the weather issue from the subject line comes into this post, let me conclude by saying that, like humanity, weather is complicated. The dismal weather of last week's post has given way to pleasant, stock standard Christchurch summer weather. Praise the Lord!
But it may be about to change ... :)
10 comments:
I am glad I have caught up with last week and this week’s post thank you +Peter and friends.
A previous vicar of mine used to quote Murphy’s Law:
For every complex and difficult problem, there’s a simple, easy to understand wrong answer!
Consenting to the idea that good, too, can come from Trump is known as the hard proof of God's complexity. Like cod liver oil, not easy to swallow or keep down.
Spare a thought for the women he's sexually assaulted, who have to live with his image everywhere everyday. Someone I know survived the last Trump presidency by refusing to read or watch anything to do with him, refusing to take part in any conversation about him or even say his name. She is not a diplomat or politician, and so it worked quite well.
Suffering is complex. I was once so impressed hearing a Buddhist say that there are different kinds of suffering - some suffering is a result of unwise actions, physical and moral etc. Some suffering, closely linked to the first, is Nature's/Soul's/ God's/ Conscience's message that something isn't right and we need to change. Like: I cooked my eggs in seed oil rather than butter this morning. My gut is suffering now.
Some suffering, horrible as it is, grows and deepens our soul. Without it we wouldn't be as mature or as compassionate/loving - we'd still be in some Edenic paradise, refusing the pain and joy of change.
And there's suffering....I don't think the Buddhist mentioned this or maybe he did....that is so gratuitous and excessive that it destroys all of the above. Like bombs falling on Gaza. Some, like Richard Rohr, believe it is our duty to join in God's protest and participation in this form of suffering - to agree to carry some of God's suffering (for this complex, pained world God has created) as it were.
The theologian's error is to confuse these forms of suffering - or, worse still, assume their is just one answer to them all (like Moya cautions us against). Of course, in reality it's all confused!
In other words; One annoying form of Christian response is to hate all sin, to assume God hates all sin.
Definitely a number of reasons and ways of suffering Mark! And a mystery too +Peter as to how the Holy Spirit outworks in the world. One encouraging aspect I have found in the last week regarding the latter is the answer to prayer and the total joy when God does work in and through us.
In order to understand your last comment Mark, ‘assume God hates all sin’; does he not hate sin?
Dear Anon,
I would like to address you by a name!
For me, any being that hates isn't God. It's something much smaller, mord human.
And sin, some sin, is clearly part of how God works in the world - how the kingdom comes. I realize that's a completely dangerous statement if taken the wrong way!
Apologies Mark, I keep forgetting to do the name part : )
I am doing the repeating thing to make sure I get a grasp on how you view things:
So you couldn’t conceive of God hating because God is love? And in respect to sin, as this also can be used (or the consequences of sin) by God whether in us humans or in the world at large in order to achieve His purposes it is difficult to therefore see him as hating what he uses?
I was wondering about your last statement ‘assume God hates sin’ too, Mark!
I was reading Ezekiel in ‘The Message’ last year, and there are many passages attributed to God, of hair-raisingly furious retribution on his people for all their sins. It sounded like hatred, and it was certainly rage…
I know the old saying, ‘God loves the sinner but hates the sin’, is meant to be about his hatred of the damage that sin does to the one he loves so much, but that is not very clear in Scripture. God has a preference for the poor and needy, the widows and orphans, is the nearest that comes to that view, except perhaps Hosea.
And yet, I think I agree that any being who hates is not God!
No wonder that we are puzzled by the complexity of both God and the Scriptures…
(And summer has disappeared again!)
Summer is gone! Yes indeed...isn't it complex! There is do much attributed to "God", say, in the Old Testament, that seems to me this or that prophet/king/scribe's best attempt at "God", though often falling short.
Thanks Jean.
What is love?
I am having this discussion with an esteemed psychotherapy colleague. His "favourite theory of love" is from Melanie Klein who, following Freud, believed that there is an almighty internal struggle that goes on inside infants, inside all human beings, between the powerful energies of Love and Hate. Klein, and many others, saw that there were many *good* reasons for children to both deeply love and intensely hate their parents.
Love - you provide me with all this nurture, attention, I feel so safe with you, you allow me to merge with your strength and wisdom and goodness. I depend on you for my life!
Hate - I can't have you all to myself, I have to share you with This Parent or That Sibling, you are available and give me all your attention sometimes then you turn away and won't let me in! You are so cruel!
And this is in the context of a healthy, nurturing household! Klein thought that hate was a natural part of maturing and living in a world full of limits and complexity. It is very uncomfortable to have love and hate going at the same time, and Klein thought that accepting - and eoseky *containing* - this struggle was a sign of sanity and health.
Of course, there is a long history within Christianity of inappropriately moralizing children - you have to be a good boy, don't be angry, anger is bad etc. In other words, of not accepting the inner struggle between hate and love.
It is easy to see how this deep inner struggle would be projected onto God - whom, in the Christian tradition at least, is often framed as a good parent and with whom we experience the above deep feelings and conflicts that children experience with their human parents.
It is also easy to see how we might project this inner conflict (between love and hate) *into* God, as something God experiences too.
Thus all Christians and Christian theology struggle in our faith journey to make sense of the hate (anger, aggression, genocidal intentions and actions etc) versus the deep, deep love of God.
Perhaps God truly experiences this great inner conflict too. Who knows.
Only I disagree with my colleague that the Love versus Hate theory is truly the best theory of "Love". I think - many others before me think - there is a Big Love that transcends this important but not ultimate Love versus Hate , a love that creates, accepts, and affirms in the sense of love as "letting be", and that - gulp! - bears the consequences of that stupendously risky, loving act.
The Christian story - though their are versions of this in the other great wisdom traditions - is that God doesn't just leave it there, but specially sends out his own presence into the world of humans to help us clean up this mess/grow forward into the omega of who were are meant to be.
Hi Jean again
It seems to me that some "sin" isn't just used by God for good ends, but is so helpful for us to experience and go through and integrate and learn from that there would be no other way to develop depth and ultimately our compassion and wisdom and goodness but by going through such experiences. It's so uncomfortable, because they are usually horrible horrible experiences, and the idea of God causing them feels awful. But there it is. God, at the very keart, creates such a world where such things happen and if they didn't we'd probably never grow and either be infants or robots.
Hi Mark, thanks for replying.
Gosh that is some discourse about love : )… One can easily reason one can be both love as in “John 1 John 4:7–8
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love,“ but also have the capacity to hate. Obviously God in the O.T. especially is presented as hating. I suppose I have always reckoned that God hated that which was contrary to love and life in Him. For example the sacrificing children at the temples or the offerings people gave without paying heed to the spirit of the law (so indeed hating sin) ; notwithstanding when Christ came by triumphing over sin in us including creation and therefore evil in the world He rather than taking action to limit sin by setting laws in-line with His ways, or to convict those who perpetuate it by disaster or putting them in circumstances where they turn back to Him (something he called a form of babysitting); He provided a way for His love for us to take the punishment for sin, and therefore disarming its power to hold us in bondage, and satisfying his desire to have a relationship with us - which is only possible where sin does not separate. The love you mention that will as you describe it ‘let be’ and love regardless. From this expression of love we are commanded to love even our enemies.
I struggle to see God not hating sin for the very reason that the penalty of sin is death and death is but the separation from God who created us to be always with Him and have “life in all its fullness.” I comprehend your concept that we can indeed learn and grow from bad experiences and especially so when looking at fallen creation and the suffering that comes from it, yet as many times I see people wounded indefinitely or perpetuating evil because of the consequences of sin whether their own, or others, or others and their own. As such it makes me think of that all too familiar and hauntingly accurate poem, CHILDREN LEARN WHAT THEY LIVE
If a child lives with criticism, He learns to condemn.
If a child lives with hostility, He learns to fight.
If a child lives with ridicule, He learns to be shy.
If a child lives with shame, He learns to feel guilty.
If a child lives with tolerance, He learns to be patient.
If a child lives with encouragement, He learns confidence.
If a child lives with praise, He learns to appreciate.
If a child lives with fairness, He learns justice.
Had we no sin or suffering would we be entirely selfish creatures : ) … That sounds like a question for C.S.Lewis!
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