FREEDOM TO CREATE WITH GOD:
And the sometimes-dark consequences.
By Graham Campbell
For you were called to freedom, brothers and sisters; only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for self-indulgence, but through love become slaves to each other. For the whole law is summed up in a single commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Galatians 5:13 NRSV
Over the last two or three decades, I have grown into a view of my life in the midst of the Divine that I can embrace. In the progressive view, God does not control everything we do or everything that happens to us. He is not the royal master who wants to dictate everything his subjects do. Rather, he/she/they are our partner, our co-creator of our lives. We are not puppets responding every time the Divine pulls our strings. We are created in his image able to embrace the richness of what it means to be fully mature humans. This view sees God as having created us to exist within a wide arc of freedom. We are given lots of room to experiment and mature into fully functioning adult humans.
God is present in our lives, but as a partner, not a controlling dictator/king, puppeteer, chess -master, or parent.
God is present in, woven into the fabric, wrapped up in every aspect of life. In this way, she is close to us, partnering in life. For example, God is present in every drop of water as the process holding the molecules together, and energy flowing throughout the universe making rain fall according to the laws of gravity thus supplying us with the “Lillies of the Fields” (Matthew 6:28-30). We live in a portion of the universe that is controlled by mostly observable Newtonian Laws of physics. God continues caring for us, with us, as these laws make our world livable. God is with us in every atom, force, and energy in the cosmos but is not limited to those laws. At times, he whispers to us, nudging us in growth, producing directions but always leaving lots of room for our freedom. God is our partner. God is not synonymous with us, just as human parents are partners with their children but are also different.
Within that wide arc of freedom we have been granted, we are God’s partner in creating our lives. As pastor Brent said on April 12th, “Prayer is a way to envision our future, an act of co-creation.” We are neither puppets on strings nor isolated, abandoned children. Two metaphors may help. First, (to the extent that any parenting metaphor works,) God is much more the free-range parent than the helicopter parent flying up to campus three times a week to make sure Junior is studying. Second, (to the extent that the chess master metaphor works,) we are free to get our queen captured or get checkmated early, OR to live our life, our fully human life as beings created in the Divine image. It is in this arch of freedom that cosmic creation and all forms of personal creativity continue to evolve. We can go either way. Without it, nothing can happen other than the clock, which is preset in chess matches, signaling it’s time for our move. And it is also true the God grieves as did Jesus (John 11:35) when we choose to be less than that of which we are capable. Created in this way we are free to mature and achieve (or not) everything for which we were created as we continually create ourselves.
HOWEVER, we cannot avoid the consequences of the freedom we live within. Freedom includes the dark potential of moving toward the opposite of fulfillment; toward limits, exclusion, division, and hate. Thus, catastrophes like the holocaust and other forms of ethnic cleansing, atomic suicide, and wars which are all too common are not punishments from God, but are the consequences of freedom misused. And in these dark times in our country, we appear to be headed back toward exclusion and hate which are not expressions of our creation in the image of God.
We are living in a time in the United States when we are witnessing unprecedented amounts of hate, division, and antisemitism which are abundant in our communities. In spite of warnings about the anti-Christ, or as Paul refers to him, “The Lawless One,” for over two thousand years, evangelicals seem to vote for him when he shows up. (Thessalonians 2:3-4) In the midst of this darkness, true disciples seek to follow Jesus in loving our neighbor (Mark 12:30-31) and caring for strangers. “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” (Hebrews 13:1-2) And there are over one hundred verses in both Christian and Jewish Scripture insisting on care for the stranger or foreigner. You see our loyalty is to our discipleship toward Jesus first and when our country is aligned with those values, we are especially patriotic. And when it isn’t we remain patriotic by pointing it out as Jesus did and occasionally overturn tables as he did in three Gospels. (Mt21:12-13, Mark 11:15-18 & John 2:14-16.) It is clear in the Gospels that this act of civil disobedience is what got Jesus arrested. So, it is not always easy.
Disciples know that there is no separation between morality and politics. Just as God is always with us in every aspect of our lives, so too, we respond to our instruction from Jesus in every facet, area, and element of our existence. The arc of freedom God grants us in our creation is always present with its call to co-create our lives and the Kingdom of God in our every effort. There is no separation between our spiritual lives and our political activity.
Nothing is predestined, predetermined, or preplanned in this constantly evolving, maturing life. The only thing that is for sure is that we are all children of God created to love one another and, in the process, co-create our world as we become more whole, fully human and holy if we choose.
That is the complete paradox we live in as disciples; God is in complete control maintaining a cosmos down to the tiniest atom and law of physics which supports our lives within a wide arc of freedom to cast light or be engulfed in the darkness of our time.
In this, I have come to know that I have choices in everything I do. I have come to see there is little that I ‘have to do’ but much that I WANT to do as I partner with the Divine. It is not aways easy and sometimes I am not a very good partner, but I am always supported and deeply grateful for the support.
