Journal Entry 3/5/93
In the Beginning was the God/ess, the Playful,
The Delightful, the Wonder-Filled, the Divine Energy.
And the God/ess created humankind in the Divine Image;
Male and Female the Divine Image created them.
The God/ess blessed them saying, “Be creative and imaginative,
Fill the earth and rejoice in it.
Have compassion for the swimming creatures, the winged creatures,
The four-legged, and two-legged creatures and
All the living creatures that move upon the earth.”
The God/ess said, “Have compassion also with every tree
That has seed-bearing fruit, the flowers and the grasses.”
And so it was.
The HeavenEarth and all its array was begun,
But not completed.
And the God/ess said, “Let the creatures live in peace,
And bring the HeavenEarth to fulfillment.”
The God/ess looked at everything that was begun.
And the God/ess laughed.
Evening came.
And the God/ess played.
Morning came.
And the God/ess laughed.
Such was the beginning,
Of the creation and recreation.
(With a nod to Genesis and with audacious creative liberty).
The re-working of Genesis above, appeared in my journal for March, 1993
The reflection below is a combination of thoughts I wrote then, and some I’ve added today.
The term “HeavenEarth” serves as my vision for the realm of God. Repeatedly in the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth seemed pre-occupied with announcing its in-breaking. But traditional theology, in its treatment of the “realm [or Kingdom, or reign] of God,” has eliminated the earth from its imagery; it has virtually eliminated the human from its realization. The realm of God has come to mean some eschatological, other-worldly event that leaves the earth behind in a future eternal existence. It leaves the human behind and envisions angels and demons separated by a God who once again divides rather than re-members and re-creates. Once again a dualistic world view has rendered even the ultimate vision of Jesus, a torn, broken mess.
In my own understanding of the realm of God its fulfillment will only come when all dualisms have been eliminated; when the earth becomes heaven because we have created it so; when the human becomes divine because we have transformed ourselves into holy compassion; when spirit and matter are honored equally as sacred; when male and female are so inconsequential that the first thing noticed about a person is not their sex (or color, or ethnicity, or economic status), but their human dignity.
A theology that posits a being who broke through the dualism of divine/human and who existed as both-in-one was the opportunity to begin that vision. But it was lost like Arthur’s Camelot. And for one brief shining moment the world experienced the reality of Jesus of Nazareth who redeemed the earth by announcing its very intimacy with heaven; who exemplified the lesson once and for all, that the human and divine are not separate; who brought together male and female as Divine Logos and Sophia Wisdom; who announced that the realm of God lay not in an otherworldly place, but in the depths of the human soul. And then like all things before it that were profoundly beautiful and true, the world saw to it that his life and his lesson were killed.
“The realm of God is within you,” Jesus said.
It seems such a simple affirmation.
How could his millennia of listeners be so obtuse, arrogant or ignorant, stubborn, myopic or just plain stupid to have so misinterpreted and bastardized this truth?
But they have. Jesus was projected into the cosmos like some rocket ship, directly to the Father; God remains transcendent and “out there”; salvation lies in the future not in our own making here on earth; the human is still perceived by Us/Them categories, the Saved/the Unsaved, the sacred and the profane; the body is still understood to be the obstacle to the divine rather than its vehicle; the earth is rejected, squandered, and raped. Justice is sought not in the alleviation of suffering within our political and social structures but in a divine justice that comes at the end of time. Human pain has been nailed to the Cross with a hope of transformation only after death, not here and now. Eschatology has come to be associated with each individual’s end. Personal piety and grace have been stored up like neat little boxes for the time when enough little packets could assure a swift acceptance into heaven. How did Jesus’ vision become so SMALL? How did it become so trivial?
Reflection on the reflection:
I am amazed that “doing theology” can still fire me up so much. Though now my motivations are so different. I no longer have any interest in exploring the “nature” of the God of the Bible. Now, my “theological project” emerges from the conviction that traditional theology is unjust at its core; it creates and sustains human suffering and serves to protect unjust political, social and cultural structures and institutions. My theological project is no longer characterized by a desire to defend god, as to deconstruct the oppressive ideologies that have been created in the name of a god.
In a soldier's stance, I aimed my hand
At the mongrel dogs who teach
Fearing not that I'd become my enemy
In the instant that I preach
My existence led by confusion boats
Mutiny from stern to bow.
Ah, but I was so much older then,
I'm younger than that now.”
Bob Dylan, My Back Pages, 1964
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