Atheist Damon Vix in front of the display he set among other, traditional holiday displays in Palisades Park in Santa Monica, Calif..(AP Photo/Scott Head)
Yes, I’ve been called naive and Pollyanna-ish.
I happen to think those are occasionally positive characteristics in the Reign of God. Yes, I believe in science, reason and can live with ambivalence and amibiguity. After all, I’m Episcopalian, and I think thatap all good.
I even see a silver lining in the fact many more folks are identifying themselves as unbelievers in any particular denomination. I think itap better we have folks skeptical of answers to questions that can’t be answered.
Take the Trinity. Please, as Dr. Henny Youngman would say. Three Persons, one God, one Person of which has two natures, human and divine. Do we have tacos yet? People, especially the young, throw up their hands at mathematical answers describing an awesome God beyond our power of comprehension.
I’ve made up a prayer that expresses my take on Trinity. “Praise to the God beyond me,” I say, lifting my hands above my head, “Praise to the God within me,” I say, crossing my hands over my heart, and “Praise to the God through me,” extending my hands wide to our earthen world. The gesture tries to get past the descriptors that divide us of gender, role and dogma, letting me honor and remember the God beyond (Father, Creator, Mother), the God within (fully human, giftedly divine, Child, Savior) and through us (the God who acts, loves, breathes, Spirit).
Maybe more would be attracted to living with faith if the Trinity was seen more as a dynamic relationship than an equation. Mystics teach us that we have theosis, that we are part of divine nature through the incarnation of Jesus among us. We are part of divine and human life flow. They care less about heaven, hell, earning or losing post-life status, but choose to see the whole of life as infinite abundance, free flowing. John the Evangelist seems to say only lovers know whatap really going on with God. Otherwise God is distant, impenetrable, uninteresting. Richard St. Victor in 1173 thought, “For God to be True, God has to be one. For God to be Love, God has to be two. And for God to be Joy, God has to be Three.” Thatap the Spirit!
Believers can reach non-believers, and invite them into a life excitingly communal, if we would acknowledge the uncertainty, pain and unfulfilled expectations of the world we share. The Judge has not brought justice, the Prince of Peace has yet to bring peace. We need to practice bringing Good News in the real world, demonstrating how to live as neighbors amid an American empire with no visible emperor to subvert or overthrow.
An appealing Jesus, then as now, preaches the coming of the Reign of God Now. It is a genuine alternative to the way we live; the Reign of God is where and when God’s way holds sway. If modern physics talks about alternate universes, why can’t the Reign of God be one? One we are creating on this planet, in this time, in this universe Now. We believers reject atheistic materialism, magical thinking, and unbridled, brutish market capitalism with which there are no neighbors or neighborhoods, no sisters or brothers.
People, including the young, who don’t believe in what they think of as a fantasy world beyond this one may be willing to join the Reign of God making a difference on this fragile planet, in this confusing, divisive and fearful time.
The message: Forgiveness is possible, hope is warranted, the courage to act justly is expected. Begin with the struggling poor. We don’t go to church to flee the world’s problems, nor will we accept the world’s selfish answers. Accept your divine nature, become part of the divine flow here and now, join the Reign of God, be who you are, the Body of Christ, saving flesh for the life of the world. Praise to the God beyond, within, through us.
