These two works offer insight into how we too often view of
God as judgmental (forensic, to use L’Engle’s metaphor) rather than Grace-ful
and Loving. L’Engle explores the story of Jacob in her book. She says that in
many places church culture has shifted to a view of God Who seeks to punish and
keeps lists of what we do wrong. If we really read the Old and New Testament we
will find a God of love Who cares for and forgives even someone like Jacob who
lies, cheats, steals, etc. When we image God as the One who tallies good and
evil on a scale, Rohr says, “We end up making God very small and draw the
Godhead into our own ego-driven need for retribution, judicial resolution and
punishment…exactly what Jesus came to undo.”
Rohr’s work asks us to revisit the Cross because, he says,
too often we do not see the Cross as the “revelation of a mystery” but rather
as a “substitutionary tragedy”. We humans have “always needed to find a way to
deal with human anxiety and evil…usually by sacrificial systems…[and] we think
it is our job to destroy the evil element.” We find it too easy to point fingers at others instead of accepting our own role in whatever problems arise.In the ultimate paradox and overturning of our systems, “Jesus took away the sin of the world, by exposing it first of all as different than we imagined, and letting us know that our pattern of ignorant killing, attacking and blaming is in fact history’s primary illusion…he shared with us a Great Participative Love, which would make it possible for us not to hate at all.” Our response to that Love needs to be seeing God in life. God loves us not matter how incompletely and imperfectly we accomplish that.
L'Engle says, “If our worship of God means anything at all, it must be voluntary, not coerced.” God gives us the choice to see and respond. Jacob, you may recall, finds himself fleeing from his
brother’s (well deserved) wrath and discovers God, perhaps for the first real
time at Luz. He does not encounter God who chastises him for his deceit and
failures. He finds “the Lord is in this place…this is the Gate of
Heaven.” (Genesis 28:16-17) L’Engle notes, “Wherever I call upon my Maker is
always God’s house”. Of course, we have free will to see or not the glory
around us. Jacob, in
fact, even though he is awed, bargains with God. “IF God will be with me, and
will keep me…THEN the Lord shall be my God.” (Genesis 28:20-22)
Rohr quotes Duns Scotus who states, “God’s redemptive
action…[is] God’s perfect and utterly free initiative of love…God is in charge
of history, not us and surely not our sinfulness.” Rohr insists “Jesus
Christ is both the medium and the message…Jesus is pure gift, grace and glory!”
Unlike Jacob, Jesus (God in human form) is the true image of God. According to
Rohr, those gazing upon the ‘Crucified One’ with “contemplative eyes are always
healed at deep levels of pain, unforgiveness, aggressivity, and victimhood.”
Our sacrificial, forensic metaphors and images limit how we
are able to come to God. They are built from our own desire for control and
power. Throughout history, we have chosen to seek power rather than healing which comes from 'gazing upon the Crucified One'.
Rohr notes, “enslavement and exodus is the great
Jewish lens through which history is read…the pattern of down and up, loss and
renewal, enslavement and liberation, exile and return, transformation through
darkness and suffering has become quite clear in the Hebrew scriptures.” We don't like the enslavement, exile, loss parts of the cycle and try to control our lives to prevent that, even if it means trampling over others in the process.
However, the real image of God is “Jesus on the cross [who]
identifies with the human problem…He refuses to stand above or outside the
human dilemma…instead becomes the scapegoat personified.” Scotus says, “Jesus
was not ‘necessary’ to solve any problem whatsoever-he was no mopping-up
exercise after the fact-but a pure and gracious declaration of the primordial
truth, from the very beginning which was called the doctrine of ‘the primacy of
Christ’.”
When we are able to turn and see God in the ups and downs, then we can respond differently than when we are trying to earn approval from a God who is all about judgment. L’Engle quotes Thomas Traherne who says “It is by your love
that you enjoy all His delights, and are delightful to Him.” When we respond in
love to God, we enter into His joy and that is the goal of all living and all
worship. Later she notes that “The image of God within us is love.” Not only is
the image within us love, but also we are to be that image to the world.
Take a moment or more to consider how you view
God? As the Judge who takes notes of every wrong action to hold up at the final
judgment or as God on the Cross holding out arms of all embracing Love? Is God
in every place, for you, so that all is the Gateway to Heaven or only in
selected places and times, when you are ‘perfect’ and ‘all is well with the
world’? What difference do the two images of God make?Next time we will consider the God of Grace and God of Glory based on L'Engle and Rohr's thoughts.
