Jim Taylor's Columns - 'Soft Edges' and 'Sharp Edges'

To make Comments write directly to Jim at jimt@quixotic.ca

 

Published on Wednesday, September 28, 2016

Another way of knowing God

Maybe we’ve gotten it backwards.
When Emperor Constantine adopted Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the year 313 of our calendar, he inherited a religious landscape that looked rather like a dysfunctional school playground. The children were all playing different games, in the same space. Chaos resulted.
In 325, the playground supervisor -- Constantine -- gathered all the factions together and ordered them to work out their differences. Or else.
And so the Council of Nicea came up with the Nicene Creed. Or the first version of it, at least.
That creed defined the Trinitarian God. It said that God was known in three “persons.” First, God the Father, the all-knowing, all-seeing, all-powerful patriarch who rules the tribe. Second, Jesus the only Son of God, indistinguishable from his divine parent. And third, the Holy Spirit, which emanates from both of them -- like an aura, I suppose.
That formula has been the Christian norm for 17 centuries. Every other creed, every other doctrine, follows that pattern. There are still ministerial associations which will not let you in unless you can recite and affirm the Nicene Creed word for word.

Order of priority

The bishops who drafted the Nicene Creed probably never thought about the order of their axioms. It would be obvious, wouldn’t it, that God who created the universe came first? The world already existed when Jesus, the human, occupied 33 years of human history. So he comes second. And the gospels clearly state that the Holy Spirit was sent by Jesus after his departure. So it has to come third.
But the order has implications. Because creeds start with God, we tend to think first about God. We define God -- immortal, all powerful, all-knowing, perfect, controlling everything, transcendent, utterly separate and different from mere mortals…

And then, because Jesus is God incarnate-- of the same substance, says the Nicene Creed -- we attribute the same qualities to Jesus. Which means that he must have had God’s power to free himself, if he chose to. That he had supernatural powers to heal, to walk on water. That he knew in advance how the Temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed. And that he would rise from his tomb on the third morning. And so on.
Joseph McLelland, himself a patriarch of the Presbyterian Church in Canada, offers a different angle.
“There are two theories about how God became known as the Trinity,” McLelland said in the Presbyterian Record. “One is, you start with God, the Father, the absolute God. From that God are two emanations -- the Logos, who becomes incarnate, and the Spirit.
“[Or] among Christian theologians, you start with the specific, which is Jesus of Nazareth… If you start with Jesus, then Jesus is the model for God…”
We know a lot about Jesus’ qualities -- compassion, generosity, selflessness, kindness… Perhaps we should be saying, “That’s what God is like.”
The late Clarke McDonald, a friend and mentor, liked to say, “Jesus is the window through which I can see as much of God as I’m capable of seeing.”
Taking Jesus as the model, rather than some abstract definitions, might make God a lot less distant, a lot more approachable.
*****************************************
Copyright © 2016 by Jim Taylor. Non-profit use in congregations and study groups, and links from other blogs, welcomed; all other rights reserved.
To comment on this column, write jimt@quixotic.ca
*****************************************

YOUR TURN

Frank Martens has devoted himself for years to learning about the Palestinian/Israeli situation: “I couldn’t help putting your four rules of hospitality into the perspective of the Israeli/Palestinian conflict. 
“First rule of hospitality: when a stranger comes in peace, do not turn him away. When great number of Jews started coming to Palestine in the late 1890’s and early 1900’s the Arabs accepted them into their society and they lived in peace until the Zionist movement started in Europe. 
“Second rule of hospitality: take what you’re offered; don’t expect more than your host has available. When the Jews of Europe started buying land from absentee Arabs living either in the cities of Palestine or abroad, the conflicts started, but just on a rather small scale. Farmers were displaced from land that they had worked for centuries. Later, when the smaller conflicts developed into wars where Palestinians were slaughtered and cornered into small enclaves of land, the Israelis certainly broke your second rule. 
“Third rule of hospitality: know when it’s time to leave. I supposed you could look at this third rule from both sides – if you don’t want to think that Jews took more than they were offered and chased out or killed their hosts in the process. 
“Fourth rule: don’t start thinking it belongs to you. Israelis have never thought anything other than that the land of Palestine was given to them by God. 
“The actions committed by Israel in dispossessing the Palestinians from their homeland is criminal. If the ICC does not judge them guilty I would hope that their God does.”

Isabel Gibson looked more at the personal experience I had: “Yes, it can be hard to go home, even to visit. Maybe we need to be more like snails, carrying our homes around with us.”
Sometimes I think that I have spent about half my life looking for my home. I travelled a lot -- 66 countries at last count -- and almost every town or village I went into, I found myself wondering, irrationally, if this place was supposed to be where I found “home.” Now that I’m older, I know that I have found home -- until age and disability force me to leave it.
Do others have that feeling?

*****************************************

PSALM PARAPHRASES


The lectionary offers a choice for this Sunday: either Lamentations 3:13-16, or Psalm 37. Since I haven’t done a paraphrase of Lamentations (although I’ve been tempted) you’re getting Psalm 137 -- not a happy psalm. I couldn’t help wondering how the biblical writer might have dealt with the protests by black athletes who refuse to stand for the national anthem at games. 

We didn’t ask to come here. 
Deep in our DNA, we remember where we have come from --
another continent, another culture, another world.
You ripped us from our womb.
You beat us, maimed us, used us, sold us.
You said God had granted you dominion over us.
And you told us we were happy
because we learned to sing, to dance, to laugh,
to hide our broken lives. 

Then you gave us our freedom.
You said you had. 
But you hadn’t. 
We were still shut out of your restaurants,
your washrooms, your schools, your families. 
We were lynched, tortured, humiliated.
We sat in the back of the bus.
We remember.

And then you ask us to sing your warlike words, 
to stand in respect for your glorious achievements. 
We cannot celebrate your narcissism.
We cannot sing your self-congratulation.
We would be happy to see you trip on a splinter,
to fall down and smash your skull open. 

For paraphrases of most of the psalms used by the Revised Common Lectionary, you can order my book Everyday Psalms from Wood Lake Publishing, info@woodlake.com.

*******************************************

YOU SCRATCH MY BACK…

Ralph Milton has a new project, called Sing Hallelujah -- the world’s first video hymnal. It consists of 100 popular hymns, both new and old, on five DVDs that can be played using a standard DVD player and TV screen, for use in congregations who lack skilled musicians to play piano or organ. More details at www.singhallelujah.ca
Isabel Gibson's thoughtful and well-written blog, www.traditionaliconoclast.com
Wayne Irwin's "Churchweb Canada," an inexpensive service for any congregation wanting to develop a web presence, with free consultation. <http://www.churchwebcanada.ca>
Alva Wood's satiric stories about incompetent bureaucrats and prejudiced attitudes in a small town are not particularly religious, but they are fun; write alvawood@gmail.com to get onto her mailing list.
Tom Watson writes a weekly blog called “The View from Grandpa Tom’s Balcony” – ruminations on various subjects, and feedback from Tom’s readers. Write him at twatson@sentex.net

*****************************************

TECHNICAL STUFF


If you want to comment on something, send a message directly to me, jimt@quixotic.ca.
To subscribe or unsubscribe, send an e-mail message to jimt@quixotic.ca. Or you can subscribe electronically by sending a blank e-mail (no message or subject line) to softedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca. Similarly, you can un-subscribe at softedges-unsubscribe@lists.quixotic.ca.
Unfortunately, my webpage, http://edges.Canadahomepage.net, has been hijacked, and I haven’t been able to get it back yet. For the time being, therefore, there is no online archive of columns. If there’s a special column you want, write me; I can send it to you from my own records. 
I write a second column each Sunday called Sharp Edges, which tends to be somewhat more cutting about social and justice issues. To sign up for Sharp Edges, write to me directly, jimt@quixotic.ca, or send a note to sharpedges-subscribe@lists.quixotic.ca

********************************************

Comments (0)Number of views (1262)

Author: Jim Taylor

Categories: Soft Edges

Tags: knowing God, God

Print
«March 2024»
SunMonTueWedThuFriSat
252627282912
3456789
10111213141516
17181920212223
24252627282930
31123456

Archive

Tags

"gate of the year" #MeToo .C. Taylor 12th night 150th birthday 1950s 1954 1972 1984 215 3G 4004 BC 70 years 8 billion 9/11 A A God That Could Be Real abduction aboriginal abortion Abrams abuse achievement Adam Adams River addiction Addis Ababa adoption Adrian Dix Advent advertising affirmative action Afghanistan agendas aging agnostics Ahriman Ahura Mazda airlines airport killings Alabama albinism albinos Alexa algorithms Allegations allies Almighty Almighty God alone ALS alt-right altruism Amanda Gorman Amanda Todd Amazon American empire Amerika Amherst amnesia analysis anarchy Andes Andrea Constant Andrew Copeland Taylor anger animals anniversaries Anniversary Anthropocene antidote Ants aphrodisiac apologetics Apologies apology apoptosis App Store Archives Ardern Aristotle armistice Armstrong army Army and Navy stores Art artifacts artists ashes Asian assisted death astronomy atheists atonement atropine Attawapiscat attitudes attraction audits Aunt Jemima Australia authorities authorities. Bible autism automation autumn B.C. election B.C. Health Ministry B.C. Legislature B-2 Baal Shem Tov baby Bach bad news baggage Bagnell Bahai Baldi Bali Banda banning books Baptism Barabbas Barbados barbed wire barbers barriers Bashar al Assad Batman baton BC BC Conference Beans bears beauty Beaver Beethoven beginnings behaviour bel-2 belief systems beliefs bells belonging benefits Bernardo Berners-Lee berries Bethlehem Bible biblical sex bicycle Biden Bill C-6 billboards billionaire BioScience Bird songs birds birth birthday birthdays Bitcoin Black history Blackmore blessings Blockade blockades blood blood donations blood donors Bloomberg Blue Christmas boar boarding school body Boebert Bohr bolide Bolivia Bolivian women BOMBHEAD bombing bombings bombs books border patrol borrowing both/and bottom up Bountiful Brahms brain development Brain fog brains Brazil breath breathe breathing Brexit broken Bruce McLeod bubbles Buber Bucket list Buddha Buddhism Bulkley bulldozers bullets bullying burials bus driver bush pilots butterflies butterfly Calendar California Cambridge Analytica. Facebook cameras campfire Canada Canada Day Canadian Blood services Canal Flats cancer candidates cannibalism Canute Capitol Capp caregivers Caribbean Caribbean Conference of Churches caring Carnaval. Mardi Gras carousel cars Carter Commission cash castes cats cave caveats CBC CD Cecil the lion. Zanda cell phones Celsius CentrePiece CF chance change Charlie Gard Charlottesville Charter of Compassion Checklists checkups chemical weapons Chesapeake Bay Retriever Chesterton Child Advocacy Centre child trafficking childbirth children Chile Chile. Allende China chivalry chocolates choice choices choirs Christchurch Christiaanity Christian Christianity Christians Christina Rossetti Christine Blasey Ford Christmas Christmas Eve Christmas gathering Christmas lights Christmas tree Christmas trees Christopher Plummer Chrystia Freeland church churches circle of life citizenship Clarissa Pinkola Estés Clearwater Clichés cliffhanger climate change climate crisis clocks close votes clouds Coastal GasLink coastal tribes coffee coincidence cold Coleman collaboration collapse collective work colonial colonial mindset colonialism colonies Colten Boushie Columbia River Columbia River Treaty comfort comic strips commercials communication Communion community compassion competition complexity composers composting computer processes Computers conception conclusions Confederacy Confederate statues confession confessions confidence Confirmation confusion Congo Congress Conrad Black consciousness consensual consensus consent conservative Conservative Party conservative values conspiracies conspiracy constitution construction contraception contrasts Conversations Conversion conversion therapy Convoy cooperation COP26 copyright coral Cornwallis corona virus coronavirus corporate defence corporations corruption Corrymeela Cosby Cougars counter-cultural Countercurrents couple courtesy courts Covenant Coventry Cathedral cover-up COVID-19 Coyotes CPP CPR CRA Craig crashes Crawford Bay creation creche credit credit cards creeds cremation crescent Creston crime criminal crossbills cross-country skiing Crows crucifixion Cruelty crypto-currencies Cuba Missile Crisis Cultural appropriation cuneiform Curie curling cutbacks cute cyberbullying Cystic Fibrosis Dalai Lama Damien Damocles Dan Rather dancing Danforth dark matter darkness Darren Osburne Darwin data mining daughter David David Scott David Suzuki de Bono dead zone deaf deafness death death survival deaths debt decision decisions decorations deficit Definitions Delhi Dementia democracy Democratic denial Denny's departure Depression Derek Chauvin Descartes Desiderata despair determinism Devin Kelley dew dawn grass Diana Butler-Bass Dickie dinners dinosaurs discontinuities discussion Dishwashing dissent distancing diversity division divorce dog dogs dominance Don Cherry Donald Trump donkey Donna Sinclair donor doorways Doug Ford Doug Martindale Dr. Keith Roach Dr. Seuss dreaming dreams Drugs ducks duets Duvalier dying Dylan Thomas earth Earth Day earthquake Earworms Easter Eat Pray Love Eatons Ebola echo chambers e-cigarettes eclipse
Copyright 2024 by Jim Taylor  |  Powered by: Churchweb Canada