I Believe in a God of Commas
by Jay McDaniel
The God of the universe is a God of commas. In God there may be pauses for judgment, but there are no periods. At least no final ones. God has always been and will always be loving, say the process theologians. If God ever stopped loving, they add, God would cease to exist.
This means that God is always becoming love, and that this act of becoming love is part of God's very essence. An essence is not fixed and static, it is fluid and flowing, like a river. God's essence never stops.
God experiences what happens in the world as it happens (not before it happens) sharing in the experiences of all living beings anywhere in the universe. God becomes love by sharing, by empathizing, by the power of divine vulnerability.
After experiencing what happens, God then responds by offering fresh and energizing possibilities for the well-being of life, given what is possible in the situation at hand. Here, too, God becomes love. God becomes love by the power of divine graciousness, divine self-giving, divine grace.
Sometimes, as God shares in human experiences, God feels the harm we do to one another and to ourselves. This harm is sin. When this happens God experiences pain, not unlike the pain a loving parent feels when her siblings harm one another. We can symbolize this pain as anger, but the anger is really love in disguise. God does not respond to harm with harm, instead God's love is forgiving. God gives us second chances, maybe even a million of them. God is not yet finished with us.
In order for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, God needs our cooperation. God is not and never has been in complete control. Alway there has been a creativity -- tohu va-vohu (chaos) - of the universe existing along with God. This existed alongside God from the very beginning and God must work with this creativity as best God can. In our momenb ty moment freedom, we ourselves are self-expressions of this creativity and so is everything else in the universe. We can express it constructively or destructively, lovingly or hatefully.
The love that God becomes moment by moment naturally evokes our gratitude and praise. Not so much praise for a monarch on a throne but rather a deep Companion to the whole of life. Yes, there are aspects of God which are beyond time or non-temporal. The very fact that God is always loving is itself timeless. There may also be a side of God which is timelessly aware of all the potentialities that inform the universe. But the side of God which is religiously important is that side which is "in time." Always God is God-ing. Always God is becoming God. God's very essence includes commas: fresh possibilities. This is the good news of the uncontrolling love of God.
-- Jay McDaniel
This means that God is always becoming love, and that this act of becoming love is part of God's very essence. An essence is not fixed and static, it is fluid and flowing, like a river. God's essence never stops.
God experiences what happens in the world as it happens (not before it happens) sharing in the experiences of all living beings anywhere in the universe. God becomes love by sharing, by empathizing, by the power of divine vulnerability.
After experiencing what happens, God then responds by offering fresh and energizing possibilities for the well-being of life, given what is possible in the situation at hand. Here, too, God becomes love. God becomes love by the power of divine graciousness, divine self-giving, divine grace.
Sometimes, as God shares in human experiences, God feels the harm we do to one another and to ourselves. This harm is sin. When this happens God experiences pain, not unlike the pain a loving parent feels when her siblings harm one another. We can symbolize this pain as anger, but the anger is really love in disguise. God does not respond to harm with harm, instead God's love is forgiving. God gives us second chances, maybe even a million of them. God is not yet finished with us.
In order for the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven, God needs our cooperation. God is not and never has been in complete control. Alway there has been a creativity -- tohu va-vohu (chaos) - of the universe existing along with God. This existed alongside God from the very beginning and God must work with this creativity as best God can. In our momenb ty moment freedom, we ourselves are self-expressions of this creativity and so is everything else in the universe. We can express it constructively or destructively, lovingly or hatefully.
The love that God becomes moment by moment naturally evokes our gratitude and praise. Not so much praise for a monarch on a throne but rather a deep Companion to the whole of life. Yes, there are aspects of God which are beyond time or non-temporal. The very fact that God is always loving is itself timeless. There may also be a side of God which is timelessly aware of all the potentialities that inform the universe. But the side of God which is religiously important is that side which is "in time." Always God is God-ing. Always God is becoming God. God's very essence includes commas: fresh possibilities. This is the good news of the uncontrolling love of God.
-- Jay McDaniel
