SINGULARITY: The Gospel of John & The Mind of God

SINGULARITY: The Gospel of John & The Mind of God

By Deborah (Debo) Dykes

Scientists call the initial instant of creation, Singularity.  The entire present universe that is, was contained in that singular, unimaginable, brilliant flash.  Theoretically, we can take a snap shot of the first billionth of a second when matter particles and anti-matter particles destroyed each other in a brilliant flash.

For most progressive Christians, whatever else science will teach us, John, the Evangelist, claims in his Gospel that “in the beginning” in those initial instants, wisdom was active; intelligence was at work.  The mind of God was ordering all things. 

Progressive Christians consider the John tradition to have taken great interest in what was present when the world began. The John tradition makes the startling claim that no thing was created outside of the intelligence and the wisdom of the one who formed it.

The eminent biblical scholar, Gerhard Von Rad, has said that one very good way to understand what God meant when God told Moses that God’s name was “I am that I am” can be translated as “I who cause to be” or, “I am the one who makes everything.”

Just as the Bible can be said to be the weaving together of a tapestry of revelations and traditions, progressive Christians can do some weaving of Biblical text and scientific text today, by looking at the first chapter of John’s Gospel.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” For the first century Jew, aware of Hellenistic Greek, “Word” would remind her or him of the ancient wisdom that was with God from the beginning.  There is an interesting shift here, because in Hebrew, the word “wisdom” occurs in the feminine. The Greek translation of the word, “wisdom” is “Sophia.” Perhaps, the intention of the authors of the Gospel of John was to see Jesus as this “word;” as this “wisdom.”  It is considered, for progressive Christians, the eternal side of Jesus.  It seems as if it is the author’s, or authors’, way of somehow connecting Jesus with part of the original creation story.  This does not necessarily mean that Jesus was in the mind of God from the beginning.  There is no way for us to know what was on God’s mind. 

However, some choose to accept through the writers of the Gospel of John that it is through Jesus, God became present and lived among us, as one of us, human in every way.  For some it is through Jesus that God was in ultimate relationship with humanity.  For many progressive Christians, it is through Jesus’ raising awareness among people of the 1^st century of Rome’s domination system and oppression of the people that invited God’s presence and a relationship with humanity.

‘And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14. Dominic Crossan, widely regarded as a leading authority on the words and life of Jesus of Nazareth, says that if you want to see the face of God living on the planet, you might look at Jesus.  Jesus was full of everything of God.  In the first century, if you want to venerate the relationship between God and God’s people, what more lovely and graceful picture could you think of or choose than the one of “an only son.” 

Imagine for a moment, a king, a king full of grace and truth.  And imagine, just for a moment, the king’s court, where there is a lot going on.  Suddenly you see that the king is distracted; and, when you look at the source of this distraction, you see the King’s “only son,” in whom the king takes great pleasure, has entered the room.  Of course today, and for progressive Christians, one could easily substitute the King for the Queen, and her “only daughter.”

Consider, here, instead of making the area of focus, literally, that of “a father’s or mother’s only child,” you could focus on how God FEELS about the child.  Thus, the image is shifted to the RELATIONSHIP between the creator God and this human being, this child, this daughter or son, in whom we see and experience, the fullness of God’s grace and truth.  In Jesus is seen the true nature of the relationship between God the Father, God the Mother, and God the child.  And, we understand in that way, that grace follows upon grace, “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”  It had to come in the form of concrete knowledge – it had to become incarnate.

So how do we form a relationship with God through the incarnate being of Jesus of Nazareth?  Prayer is one method used to develop such a relationship.  Now, on a personal note, I must have been 5, or maybe 6 years old.  On Sunday mornings, during the Eucharist, I would stand on the kneeler next to my Dad as he knelt. (My mother played the organ.) I would watch him – his head bowed, his hands folded over the pew in front of him, his eyes closed.  Then I would lean towards his ear and whisper, “Is it almost over?”  Keeping his posture of eyes closed and head bowed, he would simply put his arm around me, not saying a word.  I wondered what he was doing.  Holding on to the pew in front of me, I would lean around in front of Dad, trying to see what he was doing!  Then, I would squat down and pear up from beneath where Dad’s arms and hands were folded over the pew, peering from a dimly lit space between the dark wood floors and dark pine pews, I wondered what could he possibly be doing!  Why was Dad so quiet and still?  And yet, he knew I was there, next to him, wiggling and peaking and wondering.  “Is he praying?  Is this how we pray?  And, why is Dad praying?

Within that singular instant of creation had God created human beings with the capacity for relationship with Godself?  And, is the relationship through prayer?  As a progressive Christian, I have discovered many methods of experiencing and expressing prayer in which I am deeply connected to God.  Relationship with other humans, with all of life, with Godself, is God’s gift that is part of the totality of the human experience.  God – fully present - not to be denied that which God causes - not to be denied the experience of being human – connects, restores, and renews all of life.

Sleeping In The Dirt: the complexity of sin

By Deborah (Debo) Dykes

February 26, 2011

             

A friend used to tell me, “Sin that matters is the sin that’s in the water.  We all participate.”  She was referring to systemic sin.

My first awareness of this kind of prophetic sin was in a little town outside of Shreveport, Louisiana.  I was a schoolteacher.  The faculty was required to be at school prior to the 7:35 am bell in the small, rural middle school located in Princeton, Louisiana. I signed in at the front office and made my way along the pathway that led past three long corridors of classrooms, the lunchroom, and the playground to a metal building where I would spend the day with my 9 mentally challenged students, separated from the main body of the school.

Anna, one of the nine students, was eleven years old.  The fact that life was difficult was just the way it was for Anna.  She didn’t know life could be any other way except tough.  The fact that she was in a class of mentally challenged students just seemed to be the way it was supposed to be for Anna.  She accepted it.  The “labeling” and teasing by other students was all part of life for her – she appeared to have adapted to it.

           

With only 9 students, I got to know them pretty well within a very short span of time.  Within weeks, I began to seriously questioned Anna’s placement in my class and her evaluation by the Special Education Office.  Anna was already in Jr. High and was quickly becoming too comfortable with not being “required” to produce at an acceptable academic level.  Soon, I became convinced that Anna’s problem was not that she was “mildly mentally challenged” but that she was dyslexic.  I couldn’t make sense of her evaluation. What in the world was the “system” doing depriving this precious child of an education she could surely handle – and allowing her to buy into the self-image a neglectful and unresponsive system had created for her.  I was outraged!  Even though I was a first year teacher with no tenure, I began to insist that she be re-evaluated.

           

After many weeks and many phone calls, I was finally able to schedule my first appointment with the Coordinator of Special Education for the school system in early December.  I presented Anna’s file as well as new materials and evaluations that overwhelmingly demonstrated that Anna was indeed not mentally challenged; rather, there was clear indication she was dyslexic.  With proper help, Anna would be very capable of functioning in a normal classroom, even complete high school – and possibly attend college.  The Coordinator expressed no interest in Anna’s case and sat through my presentation as dour and gray as the walls of her institutional office.   According to the Coordinator, Anna had been “fairly evaluated” and the office was too busy to re-evaluate students.

           

As one who has come close to abandoning Christianity all together, I am drawn back again and again by the growing body of historical information about Jesus of Nazareth and the early traditions that developed in his community.  So I will permit myself a biblical reference taken from the Acts of the Apostle.   Peter is speaking to a mixed crowd of believers and cynics.  He is condemning those who collaborated in the death of Jesus.  Peter says, “And now, friends, I know that you acted in ignorance, as did also your rulers.”

           

Might we allow ourselves to consider how our ignorance is involved in our understanding of systemic sin? Is it ridiculous the think we could possibly rid ourselves of this kind of sin?  In most circles of Christianity, ridding ourselves of sin means purifying the sinner or, in popular religious language, “washing us whiter than snow.”  People who are drawn to this belief seem to have a stake in being cleansed of sin so that they may be acceptable to God.  I don’t find fault with this, but it isn’t enough for me.  I’m simply not interested in the story of sin and salvation.  What I am interested in is the kind of sin we all participate in that ignores the cries of those who are powerless and have no real resources in our society.

           

So, what are the roots of society’s systemic willingness to ignore the cries of the oppressed?  Is this more of that idea that humans are intrinsically evil and selfish? Have we forget that we are ALL connected to each other; are we afraid that if we don’t make sure we have a big enough piece we won’t get enough of what we want?  Are we afraid that what we care about so much is unimportant?  Do we operate with the notion that there is not enough love, not enough good will, not enough property, and not enough money to go around?  Do we really believe in a God that loves the humanity that God created?  Do we actually love the humanity of which we are a part or do we reserve and direct our love only to those we choose?  And what kind of love comes from a person who elects to parcel out one’s love with restrictions and conditions attached?

If Christians believed what Jesus of Nazareth said, and taught about God (or as Jesus would have referred to God, Abba) then we would believe that God dotes on us and dreams of the day when we will love and nurture and respect and appreciate God’s creation, as much as God does.

           

For the most part, it is my belief that Christians believe what Jesus taught, but too often our behavior exposes us for the hypocrites we are.  More often than not, I think most folks don’t trust God.  We surely don’t trust each other.  If we did, we would not be behaving like we are.  That’s why we fight over theology, about the Bible, about what the Church of Jesus Christ is; about who Jesus of Nazareth was; not to mention the many interpretations of who said what, when, where, and why in the biblical text.  I think sin is not so much about displeasing God as it is missing out on what God intended life to be.  Our behavior toward each other keeps us alienated and isolated from the fruits of our life.  Therefore, we miss the love we could have and share, the trust we could have and share, the joy we could have and share in our collaborations with all others.  Are we the creators and perpetrators of systemic sin?

           

How sad it is that we teach our children to learn the skills of gossip, whispering rumor and hypocritical social graces. Perhaps child abuse isn’t limited to the bruises.

           

So, our understanding of sin is radically important.  Because, what ever else we may think sin is, real sin robs us, those we love, and those we don’t even know, of the bounty and the riches that God has intended from the beginning.

           

As I reflect once again on Anna, it took nearly the entire school year of phone calls, letters, documentation of Anna’s academic performance, and meeting with principals and coordinators.  Finally, in late spring, the School Board Office agreed to have Anna re-evaluated and given a thorough hearing and health examination.

           

The results concluded that Anna was indeed dyslexic.  She had suffered from nearly a 70% hearing loss in her left ear due to blockage.  Following a simple procedure at a health clinic, the doctor was successful in removing 2 roaches that were lodged in the canal next to Anna’s eardrum.  The Health Department involved Social Services who addressed the issue of unfit and inadequate living conditions, and arranged for a floor to be built in Anna’s house, along with adequate beds and other minimal accommodations such as running water and heat.

           

In the fall, I did not return to the Jr. High School, but transferred to another school.  I never knew what became of Anna.  My hope and prayer has always been that she never again had to sleep lying in the dirt.

In my mind, I'm going to South Carolina ... to hear “Parables By & About Jesus”

Debo W. & David R. Dykes, The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation

February 26, 2011

David R. Dykes, Richard Brennan Dom Crossan, & Marcus Borg

Anderson, South Carolina, February 2011.  More than 700 people attended a FAITHANDREASON® seminar for progressive Christians in this small southern town with its civil war history, to hear Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan present, “Parables By & About Jesus.” Natives of Anderson, SC, were already familiar with the sponsoring organization, The Anderson School of Theology for Lay Persons, inaugurated in 1960 by the very visionary young minister, Glenn Dorris.  It was a 50^th year celebration for the school which has brought some of the most prominent and widely respected scholars, authors, and lecturers to this southern city in the belly of the old confederacy.

Here’s what happened.  The Anderson School of Lay Theology decided that after 50 years of faithfully bringing some of the best and most progresses voices of the church to the region, it was time to take their work to the next level and pack the house, creating a critical mass of people who would participate a two day seminar and then engage in follow-on networking with other progressive congregations and groups in neighboring towns and cities.

They decided to collaborate with a notoriously progressive organization also from the deep south, The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation of Jackson, Mississippi.  Together the Anderson School of Lay Theology and The D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation worked for 24 months to staff and promote a landmark seminar that would bring Marcus J. Borg and John Dominic Crossan to Anderson to redefine the meaning and statue of the parables that historical Jesus used, and the parables that were created about him by the early first century community.

We anticipated bringing 300 like-minded people together to be inspired by these two remarkable scholars.  We knew that there are many fine and noteworthy groups and organizations scattered across the south and the nation who share the hopes and the agenda of the wider progressive Christian movement. We hoped that the seminar in Anderson would ignite a new progressive Christian awareness in Anderson and beyond. We also hoped to draw progressives from surrounding cities and towns.

Imagine our amazement and our delight when over 700 people from the Carolina’s, Georgia, Florida, Alabama and Mississippi showed up!  It was a sight to behold.  In fact one member of the Anderson School of Lay Theology wept with joy when she saw 50 years of effort and dedication manifesting in such a dynamic, enthusiastic audience.

Here’s why what happened in Anderson, SC, matters.  The language we use about faith is critical.  The words we select are crucial.  It matters very much that our claims about historical Jesus are grounded not only in a sacred text, but also that they are grounded in the stones and on the epitaphs of the first century.  To authentically participate in Christian tradition means to take seriously what was going on in the world when historical Jesus resisted the domination system of his own day and encouraged and insisted on non-violent alternatives to the way empire civilizations do business on any given day.  Our words, our claims matter greatly. We create our words; our words create us. We make our claims about what is historical and authentic about historical Jesus. And these claims we make about historical Jesus surely claim us. 

To claim the tradition is to know the tradition in its history and in its original meanings and contexts.  Nobody does it better with authentic tradition than Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan.

So, in the aftermath of the Borg-Crossan seminar in Anderson, new progressive partnerships and new progressive alliances are forming. You'll be hearing about them.

By the way, not all organizations that claim to link "Faith" and "Reason" together are progressive. Hooking them together in print is easy; anybody can do it. Creating and maintaining serious dialogue between them is takes a different kind of effort with a different kind of agenda.  We are FAITHANDREASON® with the registered trademark. 

"FAITHANDREASON®," is a production of the D. L. Dykes, Jr. Foundation in Jackson, MS.

Primordial elements swim in a plasma soup:  

could it be the mind of God?

Scientists call the initial instant of creation, Singularity.  And, all the present universe that is, was contained in that singular, unimaginable, brilliant flash.  Theoretically, we can take a snap shot of the first billionth of a second when primordial elements swam in a plasma soup and the first matter producing particles were cooked over a fire with temperatures in excess of 3000 billions of degrees.

Now, for those progressives, particularly Christians, who are interested in John the Evangelist, John, in quite different images and terms, describes how the world began.

John says that “in the beginning,” in those initial instants, wisdom was active; intelligence was at work. The mind of God was ordering all things. 

Clearly the John tradition takes great interest in what was present when the world began.  The John tradition makes the startling claim that no thing was created outside of the intelligence and the wisdom of the one who formed it.

The eminent biblical scholar, Gerhard Von Raad, has said that one very good way to understand what God meant when God told Moses that his name is “I am that I am,” would be to translate it to mean, “I who cause to be.” We might improvise with the scholar’s translation and expand it to, “I am the one who makes everything that is.”

Just as the Bible can be said to be the weaving together of a tapestry of divergent traditions, we can weave Biblical and scientific traditions together to produce a compelling interpretation of John’s powerful image of Jesus as the Incarnation

of this ancient wisdom.

“In the beginning was the Word,

and the Word was with God,

and the Word was God.” John 1:1

For the first century Jew who understood Hellenistic Greek, “Word” would be reminiscent of the ancient Hebrew term, “Wisdom.” And this “Wisdom” would have been understood as having been present with God from the beginning of creation.  John’s message is clear.  The intelligence of God was active in the creation of the world from the beginning.

You might say that, for John, God was in God’s right mind when the world

was made.  Possibly the writers of John also wants us to see that Jesus, whom he knows to be the Christ, is connected to and expressive of the very wisdom and intelligence of God that has been dynamically active from the very beginning, perhaps before the world

was formed, depending on one’s understanding of God.

It is a delicious idea, isn’t it? That God took the time to figure out what God wanted to do

in the formation and creation of the world? And it is an exquisite idea to think that Jesus of Nazareth, as we see him portrayed in the Gospels, is possibly, for progressive Christians, and those less progressive, the human embodiment of the mind and the heart of the one who created everything that is.

“And the Word became flesh

and lived among us,

and we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son,

full of grace and truth.”  John 1:14

John Dominic Crossan, widely regarded as the leading authority on the words and life of Jesus of Nazareth,  says that if you want to see the face of God living on the planet, look at Jesus.  Jesus, we might say, was full of the stuff of God. 

In the first century, if you want to venerate the relationship between God and God’s people, what more lovely and graceful image could you paint or describe

than “an only son.” (It goes without saying for progressive Christians, that graceful image would be “an only daughter” or “an only son” or “all one’s daughters” and  “all one’s sons.”)

But, back to the first century.  Imagine for a moment, a king; a king full of grace and truth.  And imagine, just for a moment, the king’s court, where the King presides over the court and affairs of state.and there is a lot going on.  Suddenly, you see that the king is distracted; and, when you look at the source of this distraction, you see that the King’s “only son,” in whom the king takes great pleasure, has entered the room.

You can see in the eyes of the King the great satisfaction and admiration of the youthful presence, full of light, full of light’s energy, full of the very kind of wisdom that the King holds within the King’s very heart.

The image is compelling, isn’t it? The child is born, full of the grace and truth that emanates from God, the Father, from God, the Mother, and now, from God the Child.

In Jesus, whom Christians call the Christ, is seen the true nature of the relationship between God the Father, God the Mother, and God the child.  And, we understand in that way, that grace follows upon grace.

Let me share a personal story with you.

I must have been 5, or maybe 6 years old. 

On Sunday mornings, during the Eucharist,

I would stand on the kneeler next to my Father as he knelt. 

I would watch him.

His head would be bowed;

his hands would be folded over the pew in front of him;

his eyes would be closed. 

Then I would lean towards his ear and whisper,

“Is it almost over?” 

Keeping his posture of eyes closed and head bowed,

he would simply put his arm around me,

not saying a word. 

I wondered what he was doing. 

Holding on to the pew in front of me,

I would lean around in front of Dad,

trying to see what he was doing! 

Then, I would squat down and pear up;

Peering from such a dimly lit space

between the dark wood floors

and dark pine pews; peering up at Dad from below.

I wondered what he could possibly be doing! 

Why was he so quiet and still? 

I knew that he knew I was there, next to him,

wiggling and peaking and wondering. 

I remember thinking,

“Is he praying?”

“Is this how we pray?” 

And even,

“Why is Dad praying?”

Now, many years later,

I know that it was through prayer,

that my Dad was in relationship with God. 

And, in those moments of squirming, and peaking,

held in Dad’s gentle embrace,

I learned for myself

something of what it means to

acknowledge my own mysterious

relationship with a Creator, a Life-Giver, God.

It seems that humans were created with the capacity for relationship with God-self.  Like a child squirming about, playing peek-a-boo with her Dad’s prayers, the child recognizes the possibility of developing her own focused, meaningful, and mysterious relationship with mystery itself.