Not exactly created "in the image" of God

Little by little discovering by reading, conversations, and questions that familiar Bible phrases and references sounded out in modern English can fail to communicate some important texture, echoes, resonance or other attached meaning to a Biblical word or idea, today it occurred to me that maybe something similar is going on in the cherished idea that humans are "created in the image of God." Related: that a person can see Jesus in the face (voice, actions, examples) of others. And: that "we are the hands and feet of God" here on Earth.

In particular "in the image of" possibly has other facets or nuances that get overshadowed by the typical, casual meaning - as if a mirror image or photographic image. Note that the speculations that follow are purely conjecture and don't derive from excavating the original ancient Greek or ancient Hebrew source words and surrounding lines of text, either. Trying on some synonyms for "image of God" there are several that put the overall meaning in a slightly different light. (1) With the likeness of God, (2) in a manner similar to God, (3) with the essential orientation and purposes [character] of God, (4) an identity or resemblance that is true to God's Way.

Examine closely the usual "in the image of God," [Genesis 1:27, New International Version]

So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.

Now substitute one of the earlier synonyms to see the result. In place of pepple as God's carbon-copy that we tend to imagine in the age of photocopiers and social media photo sharing, the meaning shifts to talk about the interior instead of the looks and likeness on the outside. Without analyzing the source languages used at the time of Genesis going from oral tradition to written inscription, it is impossible to know if "image of God" does differ to modern understanding. But certainly it is in the realm of possibility that "the image of God" more accurately is about some essential interior capacity and instinct; something that is in the human identity that comes from God, something that resonates with and longs for God. To have a core, essential, heart-felt, identical identifying identity to the Great I Am surely rings with truth, righteousness, and beauty.

Judgement Day is not what you think

Popular imagination for judgement that is balanced and weighed.

The weekly Bible Study is incrementally making its way through Romans; this time the tail of chapter 3 and first lines of chapter 4. The idea of JUDGEMENT comes up and for some reason when hearing it read on this occasion that word stuck out in my mind. Like so many words, with modern ears a particular image comes to mind that could miss the meaning of the original word long, long ago. Besides the historical drift in meanings - what it refers to AND the connotations that echo from it, there is also the potential misalignment of (modern) English and the earlier translation(s) relied upon to arrive at the words printed today. Setting aside both concerns (historical and translational), though, consider the roots and several senses contained in 'judgement'.

The idea of "You will be judged" in a courtroom situation has the idea of punishment and maybe reformation or realignment: too lenient is considered unjust, but too harsh is also considered unjust. However, the folk image of "knocking on heaven's door" and being judged as to being admitted or else being denied admission is slightly different to the courtroom example. It is more of a pass/fail gatekeeper image. What the passage in Romans 3 and 4 means, though, could be something neither of the Pearly Gates or the courtroom bench. Clues to the full and true, intended sense of Justice that Paul describes can be found in the family of related words: Justice, Justify, Judgement, Judicial, Adjudicate, and so on. Assuming that God's nature is Love for all creatures, animal and vegetable (micro-organism, too?), and that his faith is abiding --no matter what is in a person's own mind or heart, then JUDGING is about realigning the out-of-tune soul, restoring neglected relationships between Creator and Creature. Therefore, when coming before God to be judged and/or for the Final Judgement Day the purpose is to put things in order, completion, Shalom, in-tune. It is not retribution, revenge, tit for tat, or punitive damages coming due in some kind of cosmic accounting. This sort of judging is more closely related to justifying something, in the sense of typewriters that arrange the lines of text along the left margin, or the right margin, or center-justified along the axis of the page.

See Romans 3:28 (NIV translation, emphasis added)

...we maintain that a person is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

Or the same verse from The Message translation: Our lives get in step with God and all others by letting him set the pace, not by proudly or anxiously trying to run the parade.

Or from Hawai'ian Pidgin English translation: So dis wat we figga: Anybody can get um right wit God wen dey trus him, not wen dey ony do da stuff Godʼs Rules say. 

  Justified in this passage may sound to modern ears as a synonym for 'authorized' and 'by reason of' (in the sense of rationalizing or entitlement for something). But consider the earlier discussion where justified has the meaning of realigning and putting into order. With that emphasis, then the assertion that "a person is JUSTIFIED BY faith" gives a new picture: faith does not authorize or give excuses for a person's way of walking through the world, but instead faith is the mechanism by which a person's drifting off the path can thereby be put back into the proper standing again. Likewise of JUDGEMENT DAY: this is not a frightening threat of ultimate accountability. Instead it is a repair of misaligned and mistaken being for the purpose of putting things right all over again.

Similarly for the words, 'true' (and truths), 'righteous' (and self-righteous), and 'holy' (perfected, Shalom, full circle of completion). Taking the technical meaning in carpenter language, a cut line or a plank is 'true' when the line is straight, correct, right, aligned. Thus when something is seen to be true, this means it is right, and by extension that it is righteous. When things are indeed all in order (not chaos or in entropy) then there is a sense of completion and rest; thus everything is whole, holy, hale, healed, healthy, and complete. Shalom.

Not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it - music metaphor

Bible Study on Tuesday morning brought us back for the 4^th or 5^th time in the past many years to Paul's letter to the Rabbi Christ followers in Rome. The NIV (new international version) and maybe all Bibles, no matter the branch of Christianity or language of publication, arranges his many letters by order of length rather than chronologically or geographically, for example. This is the longest of the 13 attributed to him.

 

[Wikipedia in English for 'Epistle to the Romans']

In Romans 2:1–4 Paul warns hypocrites of condemning others for failing to follow Jewish Law while themselves also fail to fulfill its ultimate spirit, sticking to the letter of the law but missing the meaning of it. The men in the weekly Zoom get-together chewed on this timeless tension in general, but then also looked for examples in our own time and the people and places we know today, too.

Music is a precious metaphor or analogy so often. Here, too, it provided a way to think about Paul's warning about the connection of form and content, law and spirit. Consider the way a band, a soloist, or a choir learns a piece of music. The printed sheet of music is something like a law - a declared way things should be. However, blankly (lacking in spirit or verve) reproducing the pitches and rhythms in synch with the others does not express the full meaning and beauty (and truth) of the song. Only by practicing over and  over can the performer's mind let go of the technical details of the printed 'law' and begin to hear one's fellow players. Perhaps at an even higher level the entire ensemble of performers begins to feel the swell and dip of the whole piece of music, not just thinking about one measure at a time or just one musical phrase, but also the much larger musical art all together. In other words, the music is only alive after the printed notes on the page of musical notations no longer confine the spirit of the players. Likewise in Paul's letter: it is not the legalisms, the details and preoccupation with small things that is the beginning and end of worship. Those elements of Law do exist and occupy a place of significance. But such things should not be confused with the larger spirit of the Law. In modern terms, it is the difference between Christianity and Churchianity; worshiping the Lord and Master versus the building and by-laws. 

Taking the musical metaphor a little further, consider the creative power of (jazz) improvisation. There are rules and boundaries, but those do not define the art. Rather it is the free-flow and back and forth of one performer in relationship to the others that makes the whole thing pulse with life. Listeners can recognize phrases of well-known melodies woven into much larger unscripted meanings. In order to satisfy players and listeners alike there must be a constant tension between the 'Law' (tempo, whole group sync to each other, taking turns with each other) and the 'Spirit' (embellishment, variations, returns to the central pattern of melody). Too much 'flow' or too much 'control' will not allow the life of the event to rise up.

Leaving the land of music in order to venture into the arena of foreign language learning, there is another useful metaphor between 'law' and 'spirit' that Paul has put into his letter in the 2^nd chapter of Romans. Newcomers to a language need to practice basic syllables, accent, and core vocabulary again and again; they have to 'walk' before they can 'run' or fly. Such things as word order, social status (addressing the right person in the right way) are a kind of linguistic and social grammar. Only by gaining a kind of 'muscle memory' can the student of foreign language go deeper and farther to express their own meanings. Intermediate-level students have the task of balancing "fluency" and "accuracy." Being overly concerned about making mistakes (accuracy focus) can inhibit the person from putting their skills into play. Being overly concerned with speed and repartee with native speakers (fluency focus) can mislead the person into believing they have no corrections to pay attention to – with the result that native speakers may struggle to catch the intended meaning, or may be caused embarrassment from errors in word choice, for example. Something similar may be true in the grammar of Christianity that Paul writes about: too much concern with ritual rightness could distract the faithful from the larger prize and main point - to love God and also one's neighbor as oneself. But too much concern with the Greatest Commandment (to love God and also one's neighbor as oneself) while disregarding the Law and process means that congregational efforts may fail through lack of common structure and ways.

Jesus states that he has come not to abolish the Law but to fulfill it, not its letter but its spirit.

"Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them." [Matthew 5:17 NIV]

In conclusion, after reading and reflecting on Romans 2 the other day, the illustrations from making music & from speaking in a new language seem to line up with this essential tension Paul describes between leaning too much on the letter of the law (or the opposite, paying little attention to its particulars). So the next time something you hear or see gives you feelings of hypocrisy, think of the Jazz Masters jamming: holding on to the law, but just barely, in order to soar all together - not a lone voice but an ensemble raising their song.

Suppose 10 years from now - AI conversation partner

During the weekly Bible Study via video meeting the idea of interacting with each other but interacting with one or more AI services came to mind: wandering and wondering about meanings, comparisons, seeming paradoxes, word roots and so forth. Human participants have a reserve of personal experiences, a learning curve of meanings early and now and ones to aspire to in the future. On the other hand, having a facsimile "conversation" with the vast reserves of an AI database of other people's words and findings has some merits, too; maybe not lived experience, but filtered pieces of others' lives, for example. Seeing others demonstrate fruitful ways to build productive phrases and question syntax when engaging with an AI could soon lead to more and individuals and groups interacting with the giant but also imperfect services/agents of Artificial Intelligence, of which there were about 800 AI projects in late 2023 for various purposes and scale around the planet, at least 800 that are known of.

Looking at the Word Cloud illustration here, it comes from pasting the 'Bible' section of the Wikipedia article on Hermeneutics. It puts some of the words into visual form: bigger or more centrally placed is for pieces of the text most numerous (not necessarily the most significant; quantity over quality). By presenting something in a new medium or arrangement, sometimes new responses come to mind. Similarly, when working with an AI there is a chance of hearing a familiar reply but in a slightly different frame of reference or accenting different parts of the solution than is usual. As a result, a person posing questions or asking for responses from the AI to one's own assertions and summaries can turn up new perspectives in a rapid and wide-ranging way.

Supposing that the video meeting of the weekly Men's Bible Study could jump ahead 10 years. Maybe interacting with an AI would be completely normalized and the interchange between mortal creatures would thereby gain wider scale and more detailed cross-linkages than they draw in 2024 without the benefit of an A.I. to comb the digital cosmos. In the end would this augmented way of seeing, imagining, and knowing God lead to a more durable, stronger, and many-sided relationship witih God; or, indeed would it lead to the reverse – weaker and more easily broken linkage to knowing God and facilitating his will to be done, on Earth as it is in Heaven.

God is Love but also Love is God?

God in fleshly form made it possible to see what it means to be righteous (not like Pharisees or Sadducees) among one's fellow residents, kindred or stranger. And since "God is Love" is the starting point or center of everything else, including the Greatest Commandment (to Love God; and to Love your neighbor as yourself), it stands to reason that the nearest that any one person can get to knowing God's nature and self ---since a mountain-top experience with a Burning Bush is most rare, indeed– will be to dive deeply into loving one's fellow child of God. In other words, if God is Love and also the reverse is true; that Love is God's innermost foundation, then devoting oneself to the care and commitment to others (both stranger and friend, and even one's enemy) is the most direct, substantive, and flesh-and-blood encounter with God.

However, all this conjecture is based on logic (logos), something that is useful to human interactions, but something which cannot encompass God's infinity. So much of who God is fills the space between words, in places no known language has touched. God's omniscience and omnipresence and eternity is much bigger than all the logic and syllables in the world. Therefore, equating God is Love to the equation stated the other way around, that Love is God, may well tangle itself in circle of logic and miss God altogether.

God's Time versus Human Time - Prayer intentions

Maybe in the generations before rapid changes in technology, livelihoods, and outlook on life there was a closer connection of the present-day to what the ancestors lived and what could be expected for one's descendants. In such times the words of the Lord's Prayer or any personal prayer spoken or written might talk about current situations but still resonate implicitly with times long ago and times yet to come in the same breath: "nowadays" really was more or less like the old days and the future times, too.

But in 2023 and for much of the 1900s, too, one generation to the next has faced different obstacles and opportunities, imagined different future possibilities and had different relationships to the past ways of thinking and acting, too. As a result, for people alive today to recite the Lord's Prayer (lead us not into temptation, for example) the assumption is about temptation right about now and maybe the next several days, or maybe in a more abstract sense of indefinitely for all time going forward. What if the meaning applied equally to now and the past and the future: God's Time, when distinctions of past-present-future are collapsed into everything-all at once-right now?

By taking into account the way God dissolves boundaries of past-present-future, one's own personal prayers and the congregational ones spoken together from prayerbook or psalter can mean all these things at once - prayers for those in one's life who breathe now, but also equally meaningful to pray for those long departed and even those before whom you never have met personally. Equally meaningful would be the prayers we make today for those yet to be; those in the near and distant future whom we never know personally. By taking this wider point of view, the Lord's Prayer and personal ones can be "time travelers" in a way to speak far into the past and future, not just the small circle of one's own knowledge. As a result, one's own relationship changes: instead of being one generational step on the staircase of history, now we are both this moment in time AND also integrally part of the whole of time, the whole staircase - not just an isolated step. Imagined barriers between the breathing moment of today and those long gone and those far in the future fade away and the connections become alive and ever present.

Here's the concluding part of the The Lord's Prayer (an uncommon translation to defamiliarize the usually taken-for-granted lines)

• Hawai'ian Pidgin English for Matthew 6:9-13 

No let us get chance fo do bad kine stuff,

    But take us outa dea, so da Bad Guy no can hurt us.

[Cuz you our King,

    You get da real power,

An you stay awesome foeva.

    Dass it!]'

By habit we see the petition "lead us not into temptation... forever and ever, Amen" talking about nowadays personally, and also a kind of generalization for all time (not just for ourselves personally, but for all people everywhere). But by seeing The Lord's Prayer and any other prayer as applying to past AND present AND future, then the words ripple across the sky and across all centuries in a much bigger and deeper meaning. We speak on behalf of ancestors and descendants; also, for strangers and for friends/family.

Holding lightly to the narrow path

This week's Men's Bible Study continued with Genesis. Our pace is slow but our discussion turns up rich thinking and reactions. This time it was the part when the twin brothers meet after years of estrangement. Esau brings 400 men along to visit Jacob, the deceiver. Jacob a.k.a. "struggles with God" (Isra-el) has a limp from his night of wrestling in the desert decades earlier. Both men have reached middle age and are blessed with descendants, chattels, and health. Their father, Isaac, lingers a little longer. And while the text of the scripture gives a certain amount of detail and character, much of God's work is non-verbal or perhaps involves words but goes beyond logic, syllogism, and narrative pace. Instead, there can be poetic overtones, and visual communication, and ambiguity (to mortal minds it appears contradictory or mutually exclusive; not to God, though) and ambivalence.

The NIV puts the desert wrestling match this way, [emphasis added]

Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel*, because you have struggled with God and with humans and have overcome." [NIV, Gen. 32: 28]

---*NIV footnote: Israel probably means he struggles with God.

Until this morning's discussion, that episode before the reunion of the brothers seemed to be a discrete episode: wrestling until daybreak, God asking the name of Jacob before giving this new name, no sense of Jacob sharing that new name with friends and family or else keeping it secret. But talking with the others in the Bible Study group, the sense of ongoing struggle came into focus; the translated English grammatical form "struggles" allows both interpretations of the description: completed event (one who struggles ---at that moment in time) or ongoing condition (one who daily struggles without end). As such, Jacob becomes every person seeking after God to know the righteous road: Jacob is a serial sinner and (self) deceiver who nonetheless keeps coming back to God, the struggle of wrestling with the Word (living Word and scriptural word) for Jacob is unending. 

In the same way that a person may say, "I am born again," and give the impression of passing a milestone or arriving at a new way of living, there is an underlying Jacob-like process going on. The person "is" now a Christian but not in a completed, "one and done," kind of way. Each new day brings temptations and opportunities for righteousness. It is a state of ongoing struggle and seeking and vigilance. Similarly, Jesus warned of false prophets: listen, yes, but always exercise discernment. Hold firmly, but let that hold be done lightly. Listen for God's will, but be careful not to confuse or conflate with your own wishes or worries. Watch for God at work around you, but do not willfully see only what suits your own sensibilities. Have faith to step into pathways unfamiliar; to break bread with strangers; to trust God's love. But let it be "trust but verify" to hold a degree of tension and vigilance always. As an embodied, lived out, religious tradition, Christianity has to be taught, learned, praised, worshiped anew each day. It is a living word to be lived out, not just studied or recited. As such, the expression, "to hold lightly," seems to sum up the way to walk in God's world. Coming into the body of believers is an important step, but it is not enough "to be" Christian. it is a continuing curve of growth and exercise; literally "be-ING" Christian, one day after another, one step after another, one prayer after another, one generation after another. 

Thinking about the character of the Abrahamic religion, one distilled image is of a "charitable friend." The trinitarian or unitarian relationship between believers and the Almighty is like the company of a life-long friend to accompany the ups and downs along with way. Rather than profound truths or galactic laws, it is the abiding commitment to generous friendship that sets apart the God of Abraham from other forms of understanding the universe and creation. Cynics might reduce such longing and support to anthropomorphizing the religion, vainly attributing human structure and interests onto the higher power. Who can say, truly: a God above all others may have human-like dimensions, but concurrently may well have dimensions totally unlike that. So believers may do best to accept the human-smelling godliness, but not foreclose the myriad truths of infinity, too. Not "either - or" (false dichotomy), but "both - and" (inclusive, ambiguous). Even if struggles to know God's ways never can lead to a comprehensive, encompassing grasp, just the effort at reaching out and seeking after brings life-giving benefit to self and others. So, taking Jacob as an example, it is worth "holding lightly" one's seeking after God, who, after all never nees to seek after us since he is ever-present already, if only we pay attention.

God is love, is present (now), is here (in this place), is holding you, is scaffolding

The word 'love' is so central to the example lived by Jesus and God the Father, not to forget the Holy Spirit. And yet, because English is relatively impoverished of vocabulary, "love" is used for everything from favorite ice-cream to one's pet rat to one's ancestors or BFF (best friend forever). So it is worth digging under the shiny and care-worn surface of 'love' when hearing the phrase or when declaring that "God is love." Or "faith, hope, love... the greatest of these is love."

In the various meanings and purposes of the word 'love' there are a few common elements. One is about positive affect. Another is emotional power and strength and durability or commitment. Still another facet seems to be something like ownership or possession, but not in the way that property "ownership" means exclusive use-rights; controlling who has access and how the space/time may be used (or is forbidden). Rather, this sort of 'owning' is about holding firmly, not to control but rather to release into the wider world of relationships yet to be. Just like "owning" a description, credit-worthy or blame-worthy of words or deeds, so it is with "owning" your love of a person, place, or thing: you hold it firmly, like a short-term gantry of a moon rocket, or a temporary scaffold that makes possible the construction of a long-standing building. in other words, "love" in the usage about God loving his people (and the reverse, too, how people profess their love of God and God's ways and godliness) can be restated as something like: holding firmly so that God's true nature (merciful, eternal, righteous, and so on) can fully form and then go into the wider world to do God's will.

Thinking about the image of scaffolding more figuratively, perhaps that is a big part of spiritual growth and maturity, too. Things like sacred places (built by humans or naturally occurring), relics and symbols, Order of Worship, spoken liturgy and praises sung in the melodies and words of hymns, rituals during the passage of a lifetime, and so on can structure one's activities and mental (and heart-filled) attention, much like a scaffolding enables a building to grow to finished form. Once accomplished, though, the scaffolding can come down. Its pieces are no longer needed. A beginner seeks and benefits from structures and guidelines and landmarks to navigate with. But a mature person of faith is less concerned with the outward elements and instead dwells on the inward ones (one's heart of hearts).

Putting these speculations of "love" as a kind of holding firm but ready to let go, too; and the idea of scaffolding that holds a person in place during the process of building a durable house of faith, it does seem that love can be unpacked to see its many facets, but that overall the net effect is that God's love amounts to a kind of scaffolding. When fully developed and set free, then a person can venture into the wider world where "all people are God's children," and "there is no Us and Them, stranger or friend" - all fit into one's circle of concern. No matter the denomination, or perhaps even the name of the spiritual tradition, so long as the person opens their heart, pauses from the daily grind to look up or glance around to listen for God, then one's actions and list of achievements only matter to the extent that the heart grows used to glorifying God. If one's actions fail, God will still find a way. The doing matters only because it engages and opens one's heart, not because it succeeds (or fails) in any material sense of achieving a worldly goal (building and grounds committee, mission project, fund-raising goals, etc).

In summary, "God is Love" can be recharacterized to dig under the glossy surface of casually disregarding "love": God is about holding firm so you can mature to the point of no longer leaning on external supports and now can enter into the wider world of sharing that love with others, so that God's will can be done eternally. Whether or not your actions have worldly success or not is less important than the effect of softening one's hard heart and making one's ears and eyes open. Just as a worship service begins with an invocation of God to join with the worshippers, it is not God who has to show up but the reverse: it is a matter of invoking the worshipers to open their ears and eyes and leave aside the distractions and worries of daily living.

Big sin, little sin, what to do with sin

 

Imperfect on the outside, but still able to hold coffee hot

Men's bible study got through one or two verses in Genesis this morning; yes, we sometimes barely advance when measured by letters or syllables. It was the part with Lot and his salty wife and wine-toting daughters. We came around to the idea that sin, like Christianity itself, is relational. It does involve an individual knowingly or unknowingly (or half-knowingly) erring, but seldom is the person alone affected; others are touched, too. God does not give up on his creatures, even if human hearts are less reliable or unshakeable. So our discussion went to and fro, hither and yon to plumb the topography of sin. Here are some of the thoughts that rose to the surface.

<>Much like the microorganisms (or the Internet 'viruses') we are surrounded by, sin is an ocean we swim in. Fortunately, for most people with a shred of conscience, we can avoid or sense sin that is imminent or which just happened or which is about to take place. When our immune system is weak or compromised, though, sin can infect or at least add to burden we carry.

<>Continuing with the bodily, medical interpretation, sin is a chronic part of the Earthly (life-giving) environment. So instead of denial and judgement, what new Christians and long-time ones need is ways to keep sin in perspective: yes, you have sinned and will again, but forgiven and ask to be forgiven, then get back to the main theme: love God and also love your neighbor as yourself.

<>Substituting the word 'perfection' or purity for sin, it is fair to say that we live in a world of imperfection, disappointment, and unblessed situations. To obsess about one's risk to sin, or dangers of being muddied by life may result is putting too much effort into ridding oneself of liability; being "super-scrupulous" to the extent that one's good intentions distort the overall picture - being so preoccupied about avoiding sin as to miss life itself. As the aphorism puts it, "the road to perdition is paved with good intentions." By going to extremes to be righteous one can soon become self-righteous.

<>An action, word, or thought by itself need not inherently be sinful. Only when one's heart turns away from God is the thing sinful. In other words, tangible or external aspects do not have to be judged evil, since God can work with even extremely challenging circumstances and creatures. And one's life course may go through unpleasant and unwished conditions prone to sin by self and those all around. But it is less the external facts than it is one's reaction when tested or tempted that matters most to God; what is in one's heart of hearts.

<>Sin can be little or big in human eyes, but anything that gets in the way between God and the many creatures here is doing the same thing. Since God is beyond time and space, being infinite and eternal, things like sin's relative cost, breadth of impact, duration, or depth need not be comparative. Just the fact that a person has "missed the mark" (sinned, out of alignment, weakening righteousness) makes all forms of sin equally sinful.

In conclusion, by acknowledging sin in self and others, there is less need to draw a line to separate "us" from "them," stranger from friend, Godly or godless. When all are sinners, then it is easier to see others of high or low status with the same eyes of agape love. It is easier to invite them into the community of worship and to grow the relationships from that point going forward. In an odd sort of way, sin seems to be essential to a vibrant world of relationships and discernments in one's faith tradition and one's personal spiritual maturing process, too. Let us see it for what it is, in its many forms and harms, and then responding to it, we are free to get on with the business of God's work; of caring for his sheep - sin and all.

It is simple (love God) AND complicated (but...)

When things look simple at first, but looking more closely and with greater care, then complexity and additional ground to cover will often come into focus. The name for this phenomenon is the "Richardson Effect," Lewis Fry Richardson - Wikipedia and springs from his observation that the coastline of Britain looks to be one length from a distance, but once examined closer and closer, the wiggly contour yields up more an more linear distance to add to the total. Perhaps, the counterbalance to getting tangled up in details of complexity comes in the saying, "don't lose sight of the forest for the trees" (fixating on just one close-up instance can blind you to the larger shape and activity).

Turning to the Bible, fixating on the word or syllable level can yield up more and more detail. However, the overarching message in the Greatest Commandment should not be obscured in all the plunge into rich detail and texture of the Good Book and the lives portrayed on those printed pages. Rather than to fixate on ink on paper from one translation or another, scrutinized what is between the lines, what is not printed but still being conveyed in the examples shown in parables and conversations captured in writing. Teachings that are multi-sided, are non-logic-based on the surface, and that run counter to the habits of the current moment in history cannot be captured in lines of published text. Only by example, demonstration, and other non-verbal channels can the LORD communicate the intention and meaning.

Beyond solitary and group Bible reading, it is important to wrestle with the words ['Isra-el" is "wrestles with God"] so they fully embrace our own lives and historical setting. Thus, tangents and real-life applications, and "what if" conversations add color and depth-dimension to narrative and records given on the Bible pages. And it is valuable to be on the lookout for "God winks" outside of church worship and in all the places where you find yourself. God is at work in self and others, usually in unexpected ways. 

For city residents, the sight in not uncommon to see oftentimes men begging for money in the seconds before the traffic signal changes from red to green. It is easy or customary to avoid eye-contact and studiously focus on the stop light instead. But here is a fraction of a minute for making human contact, acknowledgement of the person's presence and value, and offering some cash or other fungible form of spending. That is a vivid illustration of bridging the gap between self and other, known and unknown, familiar and strange. But during any given day there are probably many less dramatic intersections with others that easily can follow avoidance habits. However, if the opportunity presents itself, or if you reach out to create an opportunity to see and value the other person (not begging for something to spend, but maybe asking for attention or social relationship) then there are several ways for "Thy kingdom come" to play out:

--listen instead of planning your own reply or extension from that other person's topic

--look the person in the eye, ask their name (or use their name)

--with generous admiration notice beauty in any form it takes (but don't shy from ugliness in God's kingdom, either)

--watch out for knee-jerk reaction to discount others, strangers, etc. Instead frame this as One of God's Children.

There is a three-part chain of Facts (look them square in the face) >Truth (without clear distinction, all is muddied sameness) >Trust (only on a solid foundation of facts to build truth can trust grow). By seeing others not as falling short of one's comfort level and standards, but instead as holding value "as is," then the rich texture and complexity that comes from looking closer and more carefully around God's word and God's creation can fill your heart ever more deeply and at greater length; just as the "Richardson Effect" show that complexity comes from closer seeing. Simple truths (God is love) are bedrock, but looking more closely and with greater care makes the full complexity come into focus - not to obscure the Simple Truths, but to magnify them in myriad instances.

Etymology 'evil' and 'regret' in Genesis 6:5-6

image search "etymological dictionary" (screenshot)

Tuesday Bible Study this week began with God's great disappointment with human inclination to fail at righteousness and to fall into corruption and violence. Later God give Noah measurements for the Ark and the passenger list, then made the rain. After extinguishing all other life from land and air except aboard the ark, things fair up and Creation has a restart. The original passage of chapter 6 was written down first in Hebrew, but here it is in the NIV in English translation as, "...every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled."

One question is about the source word 'evil'. Leaving aside Hebrew word choice, along with its root and relatives, as well as (then and now) connotation, perhaps some clue about the nature of 'evil' can be found from English in the dictionary. Likewise of the fundamental meaning of regret; regretfulness.

[credit: Primidi.com, emphasis added] ...The root meaning of the word is of obscure origin though shown to be akin to modern German Das Übel (although 'Evil' is normally translated as 'Das Böse') with the basic idea of transgressing.

Comment: breaking boundaries and exceeding limits, being improper or not right [righteous, rectitude] are some of the allied ideas. So the quote, "thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time," seems to point to the built-in propensity to veer off course, miss the mark, sin. Thus "evil" is not the absence of blessing or goodness or holiness. Rather, it is accidental, inherent, or intended steering off course. Elsewhere 'satan' or 'fallen angel Lucifer' is asserted as the embodiment of evil and master of worldliness. But here in Genesis, it is God's estimation that [before the flood, at least] evil is basic to human hearts.

Looking at regret's etymology, [credit: etymologeek.com, emphasis added] ...re (again) greter (Old French: weep, mourn, lament): Emotional pain on account of something done or experienced in the past, with a wish that it had been different.

Comment: Here is God emoting. Since mankind sins at the level of heart, never mind the exterior physical world, that decision to give breath/animating spirit [ruach in Hebrew] now in Genesis chapter 6 is the source of God's feelings of regret over past action.

In the context of Noah and the great flood to extinguish almost all of life, including the human ones, and start again with a view to less evil and more righteous instincts, these two terms - evil in human hearts and regret in God's own heart suggest a few things. One is that evil is inherent in living experience. Temptation is present in all places and times; there is potential to do evil, but also to do good. Therefore, the first advice is to pay attention and be alert to opportunities to go beyond one's own small existence and do good with and for others. At the same time, beware of false opportunities in self and others to do evil. Another observation that comes from examining 'evil' in people and 'regret' felt by God is that an essential, fundamental and vital tension exists between evil (man's ways) and righteousness (God's ways). If the condition of life were ONLY evil or ONLY righteousness then there would be no tension; no life, no risk of failing, no reward from getting in right relationship with God's ways. And while it sometimes looks like there is so much that is bad in the world and that things seem not to change, according to the principle of "dynamic equilibrium" (think of treading water: maintaining some equilibrium with head above water, but beneath the surface there is a whole lot of motion), the surface can look like it is not moving, while in fact several different forces are in tension to produce the appearance of equilibrium. Likewise, perhaps, this tension exists between human hearts (inclined to evil) and God's ways (righteousness) to produce the central life-filling experience of so many generations before and after the one we belong to.

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 

Sweet spot at intersection of impatience and forgiveness

Many observers say that aging seems to go with narrowed mind, rigid habits, less flexible movement, and general orneriness as experienced by those who interact with the person. Of course, viewed from the inside out, the incremental changes that come day by day do not seem to make one feel different to the self-images from younger days. In parallel to this general trajectory toward crotichiness there is also the path of deepening spiritual maturity and the ability to accommodate seemingly contradictory statements (cognitive dissonance). Accordingly, there may be a growing capacity to be forgiving of self and others, and an ability to slow down long enough to utter, "thank you, LORD," at times of delight or moments of irritation and annoyance. 

The intersection of the ornery trajectory and the loving trajectory can make for a sweet-spot that produces a wonderful tension. One's mind and body go slower but one's heart goes deeper than before. Of course, not everyone experiences both of these directions singly or together; and not everyone lives into old age, either. But for those who do live on and who can identify and appreciate this counterbalancing narrower impatience with deeper patience, then much goodness can be said about it.

After all, the opposite of love is not hate (it is possible to hate something about a person while still holding them dear). Instead, the opposite of love and open-heartedness is fear and a close-pressed heart. So there is a great possibility to praise God in times of frustration while aging, even as the developmental arc leans toward short-temperedness. To an outside observer, maybe that abiding contentedness looks a lot like equanimity. But on the inside this expansiveness and letting go of self and defensiveness is a welcome release from the Vale of Tears and stresses of struggle in life's pushing and pulling.

Ideally, this elderhood sense of abiding joy will be "spiritual fruit" that naturally ripens from one's core nature; what lies in one's heart. But more realistically, perhaps, it takes some planning and intentional effort to walk and talk something like Jesus did, living out in human form the central idea that God is Love, as told in the Quaker song, "How Can I Keep from Singing," ---love is the Lord of heaven and Earth. By dwelling in that intersection where aging brings impatience and risks of frustration while maturity also brings deeper hearts and care of others then God's abundant life of love that overflows to others becomes normal and natural. It is the sweet-spot between impatience and forgiveness.

Inverting “love thy neighbor”

Most of Jesus' public ministry shows him as a giver, rather than receiver of love; an embodiment of "love thy neighbor as thyself." And yet there are cases when the action of giving is of limited value; for example, in the story of the Widow's Mite: she gives her few coins, while a wealthy donor drops in a high-value coin. However, the face-value is less important than the heart-value of the person making the offering. If one's heart is not really in it, then the action is hollow. In other words what is in one's heart is what matters, not the physical action or its success or failure. So long as one has a Servant Heart, then any action – large or small, public or unwitnessed – has meaning in God's reckoning. 

But inverting the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor, the examples of Jesus shown in the Gospel are much scarcer. There are so many instances of Jesus reaching out to others or responding to the requests made of him. Far fewer are the cases when he is the recipient of others who are exercising the commandment and treating him as their neighbor, worthy of giving love to him. So much attention is put on training one's Servant's Heart, one that is strong and also meek like an ox; in which meek is not another word for weak, but means strength that is harnessed for a purpose. Very little attention is put on training one to be a graceful receiver of the gifts from others. 

There are times when a helping hand is offered, money or material is brought to share, or words of kindness or counsel are delivered. A greedy heart might seize these things for personal advantage. An ungrateful heart might brush aside this opportunity to engage with others on the receiving end instead of the giving end. But a graceful heart would be used to bowing to the generous spirit in which the unselfish, neighborly gesture is made. Whereas the role of giver requires a decision and follow-through, possibly intruding into another's life, the role of receiver is less often an anticipated event and instead comes about as an unexpected, unasked for moment of delight. A giver is an active agent, but a receiver has to react to something that is out of their hands. And so, it is worth putting effort not just to encourage a Servant's Heart for loving one's neighbor as oneself, but also to learn how to be a graceful receiver of other's care. 

Acts 20:35 tell us that "it is more blessed to give than to receive," and yet, giving on an impulse or after careful decision is perhaps the easier of the two. One's heart must be humble when offering to others; but also when accepting what others may give. 

Here is the context (from the Biblegateway.com for the edition of the HWP, Hawai'ian Pidgin English) 

"I rememba wat da Boss Jesus wen say, 'Da guy who give, he stay mo good inside den da guy who get.' " 

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=acts%2020:35&version=HWP 

Too often the commandment to Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself emphasizes the giving, not the receiving. But both of these require one's heart to be in it, not hollowly going through the motions. Only what is in the heart matters to God, not the actions, not the success or failure resulting for all to see on the outside. Count Leo Tolstoy's thin book, The Kingdom of God is within You, embodies this truism that the heart is what matters for God's kingdom to come. 

Book, https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/4602  background,  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kingdom_of_God_Is_Within_You 

Since a sincere heart is the language that God speaks, it is worth gathering together sayings (in English; maybe other languages have other angles of view, too) about one's heart: heartfelt, heart-weary, heartbroken, heavy/light-hearted, heartless, having a heart, your heart is in it, and so on. Related is a set of quotations ABOUT the human heart in poetry and prose, https://sayingspoint.com/heart-sayings/ 

A few of this list of 80 quotations follow, 

"One of the hardest things in life is having words in your heart that you can't utter." —James Earl Jones 

"A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge." —Thomas Carlyle 

"Those who don't know how to weep with their whole heart, don't know how to laugh either." —Golda Meir 

"The heart has eyes which the brain knows nothing of." —Charles H. Perkhurst 

"If you find it in your heart to care for somebody else, you will have succeeded." —Maya Angelou 

"The only lasting beauty is the beauty of the heart." —Rumi 

"Let your heart guide you. It whispers, so listen closely." —Unknown 

"The best gifts come from the heart, not the store." —Sarah Dessen 

"You change your life by changing your heart." —Max Lucado 

"Wherever you go, go with all your heart." —Confucius 

 

Clearly, it is not just Jesus who is concerned about what fills people's hearts as it embraces or it gets in the way of one's lifelong relationship with God and all of the living things belonging in Creation. 

Christian - in a nutshell

 

The legalist experts of the Old Testament tried to trick Rabbi Jesus into saying the wrong answer when they asked him to name The Greatest Commandment given by God to shape the lives of people. He answered that the greatest commandment is to love God with all your heart and mind; and, to love your neighbor as yourself [not neighbor above oneself; nor self over the neighbor, instead both equally important]. By fulfilling the second part of his answer, in effect we are pleasing God; God is implicitly being honored and praised by fulfilling the "neighbor" commandment. Among many powerful illustrations of caring for one another there is the Good Samaritan story. An image search for free clipart turns up many iterations, including the ones here.

Baked into the commandment is the question, "who is MY neighbor"? And with the images shown here we have the answer: EVERYONE is your neighbor (etymology is 'neigh' or near + bur or fellow resident). Viewed in tandem with the Bible's assertation that the God of Abraham is not exclusively for the Jewish people, but instead is for all nations, the Good Samaritan story presents somebody passing by the person in distress, and in spite of their ethnic and religious differences, still this person takes care of the one that is hurt.

 

The ordained minister and later children's TV host, Fred Rogers, of Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood, put the matter of "who is your neighbor" [how far does one's response and responsibility extend to others] in the form of an invitation, " Won't You Be My Neighbor"? (in other words, we can be friends, not strangers, right?). So when there is doubt about who one's neighbor is, it can best be formed into an invitation: Won't you be my neighbor? Some may reject the invitation, but others may accept the invitation.

 

Thinking back to the Greatest Commandment and also to the most basic expression of what Christian is: in effect it is the Good Samaritan parable. Notice other people and give them your respect [literally, RE + SPECTATE, or "see again" and "take a second look"]. When there is need or distress, offer comfort.

In contrast to this "nutshell" illustration for living a life of Christ-the-servant, a city church moving into the premises of a dwindling church organization made great efforts to personally invite neighbors along many of the surrounding streets, going door to door and a month later following with a colorful 6" x 9" postal card announcement of services and invitation. At the same time a prominent section was marked, THE BIBLE WAY TO HEAVEN. The subheadings were each supported with a few sentences. (1) Recognize your conditions, (2) Realize the penalty for sin, (3) Believe Christ dies for you, (4) Trust Christ alone as your savior. Sadly, though, the parable of the Good Samaritan is nowhere to be seen.

New model church in 2022 - putting new wine into a new wineskin

Thinking of the Bible scene where the Satan tempts Rabbi Jesus by offering The World to him, I am thinking of the observation by others who say that the Devil is not likely to wear horns, tail, and pitchfork. Instead, the Evil One may take the form of this screenshot featuring the compact Internet device in many pockets and handbags. Smartphones promise a world of information, remote control of money and products or services, and eternal memory. It is able to give an answer to any question - validity to be determined, though. In many ways the smartphone deceives, distracts, and steals time and attention little by little, leaving individuals and organizations poorer as a result. By itself it is an inanimate object, but in the hands of experienced and inexperienced users it can cause great harm by immediate impact, by indirect effect, by intentional deception, by self-deception (confirmation bias; echo chamber). All this risk and harm comes with wondrous abilities, too.

What does this have to do with church life in USA since 2005 or 2010? Around that time adults and many children began to do more and more functions of daily life online. Eye-candy of color, sound, and motion tempt the user's attention. Outrage loops and algorithms tracking one's patterns of responding stirs emotions by proxy. And a mix of blind faith (not entirely confident how the apps work, what they extract from one's life) and unnatural self-confidence (because it says so online; am I right or am I right) contributes to greater and greater dependence on the device, each year or two building an appetite for a faster, stronger, more useful (and expensive) model. The net result of all this personalized bubble and imaginary independence is that churches grow smaller as young people occupy themselves in other (virtual) places and older people complete their lifecycle to join the heavenly host.

Everyday many mainline, once well-funded and endowed institutional bodies of believers shrink and fall off the vine, leaving remaining worshipers with a choice between seeking another group to worship with, dabbling with online or TV or radio preaching and teaching, or by doing nothing that has been structured and is built upon tradition. 

Since the society is changing, in great part because of Internet both mobile and based on PC at work or home, a new vision now is needed of church belonging, worshiping, maturing, and expressing God's love of friends and strangers as with oneself.  Churches before the Internet counted on a pyramid of financial and volunteer support: a wide base of light participation, an important middle core of moderate involvement, and a small number of big givers of time, talent, and treasure (money). Now in 2022 the total size of the pyramid is much smaller for many formerly well-established organizational "pillars of community" and "weavers of the social fabric." And the shape is maybe closer to a skinny rectangle with a smaller base of light participation, a proportionately bigger mid-section involved in much of the day-to-day functions of a body of believers, and a small layer of big contributors. With mainline Protestant church attendance dwindling, rather than to fade away, perhaps there is a way to redefine the shape of active church life, not measured by terms from earlier generations.

The society is less inclined to hear, to seek out, or to respond to "God is love" and "Jesus saves" than 30 years ago. And the flow of money into the coffers is less in total and competes with subscriptions, taxes, fees, and costs of food and shelter and transportation. Meanwhile 25% of USA households have children living in poverty on average, some places much less, other places much more. And gun violence and car crashes are the biggest threats to growing up. So with fewer people to attract, and less money from those present, but with never more urgent needs to address (poverty, illness, loneliness, lack of attention to what one says or feels, spiritual desert filled with mirages of distraction, lots of widows -single-parent families- and orphans, substance dependencies and anxieties, dangerous air and water), the question is how can CHURCH redefine itself as a new bottle for the new wine of Christ-followers eager to live their beliefs and touch the lives of others, even while praising God's abiding presence and direction. In other words: what could a new model for congregational life look like, tailor-made to fit these times of constant flux and transition seemingly unable to rest or stabilize?

In the church-planting times of St. Paul there were synagogues (after Temple destruction in 70 A.D. only synagogues) but many times the believers gathered ad hoc in a house or maybe outdoors. After 2000 years the idea of church turned into something really big, formal, hierarchical, institutional, and exulted. Paradoxically, it was exclusive (the gate is narrow; I am the Way) but also inclusive (intended for everybody). A majority of citizens registered with one church or another. When they moved, they requested a letter of transfer to verify their good standing. Post-war in the 20^th century the abundant food and fellowship events were a balm for PTSD after many years of killing and brutality. Now those basic elements of the nostalgic church are weakened, reduced, or gone altogether. Rather than to lament the loss of previous traditions, and to strive valiantly to make things great again, it is far better to seize the moment of change as an opportunity to reformulate the dedicated, committed body of believers in all demographic points in life to carry on the most important functions of church life, while not aspiring anymore to recreate old structures and effects.

In the good old days, the annual cycle of church holidays, functions, committees and boards, fellowship and flower dedications, program of music, Sunday school events, and so on would involve each congregant in different ways and during different phases of life. The doors were open to all to join in, whether pursuing a membership class or not. However, seldom would a stranger venture a visit without a preexisting social link to people already present in the pews - relatives, neighbors, workmates, and friends might take an interest or respond to an invitation to worship or attend an event. In 2022 there now are far fewer worshipers, but still some of the core functions can proceed in new ways: Preaching and teaching can take hybrid form (both online and in-person; as a congregation and in small groups for Bible or book study). Praise and thanksgiving feels most satisfying in person, but some indirect joy comes at a distance online. too. Engaging in outreach beyond the walls of the church is more complicated when people's routines are scheduled by consulting online events and notifications and last-minute invitations. Instead of groups of people to engage with, today the communities are virtual and fragmented across many places. But since the modern-day sorrows are so many and so entrenched, problems not solved by throwing money but by giving attention and care, then still now there is a need and opportunity to be God's hands and feet, ears and eyes. Life events and rituals still occupy an important place, so that can continue into the future, too.

In summary, what exactly is different between the new model(s) church and the old model of "boards and committees" and pledge-drives with fund-raisers? Worshipers today are fewer but now are more eager for personal growth and seek opportunities to try out their stronger spiritual muscles. The physical footprint (and carbon footprint) of the church infrastructure is smaller and more multi-purpose, much like nimble workplaces and flexible family life, too. Smaller, lighter-weight, faster to respond to opportunities and emergent needs, more alert to peer (collaborative or mentoring/mentee) churches, and with thoughtful online presence, too. These are some characteristics suited to 2022 different to 2000. Proactive in-reach (not hosting outreach events but directly, purposefully reaching in) sets apart the new model church in society, too. Each of the festering and persistent social problems listed, above, needs a different plan of in-reach, but surely there is a way for God seekers to be present as witnesses to listen and learn, to respond and contribute.

Concluding thoughts on a new model for being a Christian and belonging to a new model of church in our times: (1) resist the urge to grieve the old ways or to recreate those times in disregard for 2022 social needs and conditions, (2) revisit again and again this conceptual work of fitting the core Christian functions into a new body shape tailored to the new society [kaizen =continuous improvement, readjustment], and (3) rest in God's love, knowing that human effort is limited but God's effort is unlimited. Not many people live to see a moment offering fundamental reassessment and reformulation of what we call church life. This chance to work things out, not to merely survive, but to thrive, is something not to squander but to wrestle with like Jacob did in the night before the morning light came and God named him Israel ['wrestles with God']. Dreaming a new shape of "doing" church is something to do now.