After the Fall – God is love in faith in action

 

"Foodman" (2021 Yinka Shonibare*) illustrates "by sweat of the brow"

Eating of fruit from the forbidden tree caused separation of Adam/Eve from God; banishment but not eternal damnation. Time and time, again, God’s justice is meant to put things back into the proper order; realignment, not retribution or vengeance in its purpose. To judge is the step needed to make adjustments that reform or lead to repentance (turning away from the error of one’s way). The other kind of judgement – not to discern and decide, but rather to condemn and penalize, does not serve God’s justice by which right(eous) relationship between Creator and creatures is restored.

Taking the model of parent and child among mortals, by forcing the child to remain dependent and constrained from free passage into the World, a fully formed love cannot grow. Only by letting go of the child little by little can the parent hope that the child will come back in love voluntarily. Equally of God and the Garden of Eden: only by ejecting them from the Garden can they truly come to seek after God of their own free will.

During weekly Bible study of these lines in Genesis one guy wondered why God allowed the Fall to happen. Where is the part in the Lord’s Prayer about “lead us not into temptation”? Another guy offered the interpretation that past, present, and future are equally present at the same time for the infinite being of God. So the Fall was not the end of the story, but only the beginning. Yes, the root of human mortality and burdens begins with the forbidden fruit, but then all the rest of the generations and “begats” lead to the events of the New Testament and the centuries since then.

Humans want a series of tangible reference points, unmoving moments of accountability, things to aim for. Static snapshots in the life of Jesus, or in the Genesis stories and elsewhere can be imagined and held firm eternally. But God is about process, something that contradicts the snapshot way of thinking through things. What to us looks like a rigid situation is a transition or process in God’s larger process and long view. One consequence of God being a process and not a statue is that the governing, master principle that guides the hand of the Creator is love; “God is love” (1 John, chapter 4:8). For his Adam/Eve the loving thing to do is let go of them, allow them to sin, have faith that they will eventually feel lonesome for God and will seek after Him and please Him.

If we accept that “God is Love,” and that he allowed events to lead to a Fallen World (indeed, allowed Lucifer to do his worst), then it follows that what matters most is love; not outcomes, not results, not fixed blueprints for what the world should look like. The process (governed by lovingkindness; Metta) and attitude (hearts made soft) lead the way forward, not knowing exactly how things will turn out. As such, when love is in the driver’s seat, it takes faith to go onward day by day, never knowing the destination, the route, or signs of having arrived. In other words, always saying YES to opportunities to express love among strangers and friends opens up ever more connections, relationships, and possibilities. This is the reverse of what managers, administrators, and other human authorities learn to do when attempting to reach a certain goal. Rather than branching into more and more possibilities, the principle is to say NO in order to narrow down the choices until at last only one way of processing is streamlined. 

In other words, God’s way (love’s way) is NOT to control but to let go so that voluntary relationships thrive instead of contractual and obligatory ones. Love’s way is NOT to foreclose possible relationships but to open up more and more connections. The result of the Love Way is to have a consistent principle of governing decisions and direction of travel, but without a fixed destination. That sort of business model, organizational culture, or mission statement may not attract many investors, but it is what makes God the Creator (not humans in charge of things).

*see original, full-size photo at https://flickr.com/photos/anthroview/51980654224 

A personal scale for "be in the World but not of the World"

From the tree with knowledge of Good and Evil in the world?

The Jesuits (Society of Jesus) are closely associated with the aim to be "in the World, but not of the World." The idea is to do God's work in relationship with the high and the low of society but remain slightly at a distance in order to keep from being swept up or tripped up by the messiness and incompleteness found there: go into the trenches to wage battles with sin, but avoid being buried in the mud. Now instead of trying to grapple with the tension between mingling and holding one's distance, the scale of the tension can be shifted from the philosophical or the organizational to the boundaries of one's own body.

"Deny the flesh" is a phrase used to describe the discipline gained by being vigilant about one's motivations and the attractions to puffed up Ego, conspicuous consumption to wow others, and wasteful ways that contradict the Bible's instruction to be good stewards of the land, seas, and air. In a sense, this body-sized, corporeal medium is a place for striking a balance between "Delight in all of Creation" and "Deny the Flesh." This echoes the "be in the World" (garden of Earthly delight) tension with the "be not of the World" (deny the flesh). Maybe the ancient philosophers of Greek said the Golden Mean best, "in all things moderation."

By enjoying the pleasure, wonder, and rainbow of emotional responses to being a person in the world of nature and society and ideas, but at the same time seeking heavenly value and purposes, the result is a sort of "feet on the ground and head in the clouds." God is immanent in the people, places, and things of the World, but those tangible things are only place-holders or signposts that point to God's glory that runs through it all. The sated senses are only the surface of things; not a destination or stopping point. They are instead a gateway or entry to the fuller meaning of The World and of God's Ways.