Mystic Musings: Lent 3/06
“If He let go of my hand, I would weep so loudly, I would petition with all my might, I would cause so much trouble that I bet God would come to His (sic) senses and never do that again.”
Meister Eckhart, 13th-14th century Catholic mystic
For those of us raised on the Four Omni’s of God, this quote makes no sense. Even if we didn’t learn the Four Omni’s, they have been built into our assumptions about God. The Four Omni’s are Gods’ omnipotence (all powerful), omniscience (all knowing), omnibenevolent (all loving) and omnipresent (present everywhere).
Photo by Townsend Walton @twalton
But something happened in the world of theology after the Holocaust and the extermination of 6 million Jews. Theologians were left with a contradiction that they couldn’t solve. The Omnis claimed that God was both ALL powerful and ALL loving. But the Holocaust forced theologians to posit that God was either all powerful, but didn’t give a damn or God was all loving, but didn’t have the power to stop the extermination of 6 million Jews. In other words, many theologians decided that God couldn’t be all powerful and all loving at the same time, given the evidence of the Holocaust.
The Holocaust forced new thinking about God. In the 1950’s and 1960’s new theologies emerged that made room for the evolution of God. Process theology held that God, like the evolution of the Earth, also learns and grows and changes. Co-creation models assume that God is in a relational partnership with humanity and responds to the needs of creation. Where theology meets the Gaia Principle, God is assumed to be in a dynamic holistic relationship with humanity and the earth constantly evolving and changing.
If true, these theologies imagine God not so much as directing human affairs from on high, but as a lover who both lets His desires known and who responds to our desires. In other words, God is in an intimate and mutual relationship with His creation and every so often falls on HIs knees in regret and promises to never act that way again.
Sobering, right?
Sit quietly. Breathe deeply. With each inhale imagine God’s love pouring into you. With each exhale allow dying beliefs about God to ease out of you. Ponder these questions:
Do you believe that God is all powerful and all loving? If so, how have you made peace with that and are you satisfied with your understanding?
How would your relationship with God or the Sacred change if you knew that God’s mind and heart could be changed?
How does it feel to call God a King? A Parent? A Friend? A Lover?
In what ways do those images change how you show up in the world?