A few weeks ago I heard someone talk about “God’s plan” for us. For complicated reasons, I always bridle a little when I hear that term. What I hear in the idea of “God’s Plan” is the understanding that there is some kind of predestined path on which I am supposed to walk, if I can figure it out. I believe something rather different from that.
God’s plan is, I think, a matter for ongoing discernment. I do believe that the holy and life-giving I AM (ego eimi, Yahweh, G*d, Being)** that willed and still wills all things into existence continues to be engaged in our every action. I believe that G*d’s interaction with us is dialogical and co-operative, rather than pre-determined. In my understanding, that means that any plan is emergent, worked out as time and circumstances require. (“But,” you might ask, “isn’t God in charge of those circumstances?” And I say that in Jesus G*d gave up control in favor of friendly persuasion.) Because of the divine spark ignited in us, we are co-creators with G*d of that plan rather that predestined to fall in or out of line with a pre-existent and unknowable plan.
I believe that every fiber of our being, and of all being, has the inbuilt will to exist in the image and likeness of Love. And Love guides, giving up control. That is why Being became flesh in Jesus – to walk along side us as a companion rather than above, controlling us. That conviction is grounded in my own experience of being free to make variously good and bad decisions. No matter how hard I try to discern G*d’s will, I am still responsible.
We are unavoidably limited in our ability to talk about G*d. We are stuck with metaphors. For those of us who have children, parenthood is a natural image to use for our understanding of love, obedience, rebellion, freedom, restraint, relationship and alienation – all subheadings under the general title of “God and Theology.” Whether we experienced – or are – controlling or permissive parents, that might shape our understanding of the very nature of G*d.
I loved watching my children grow, each taking their own very different rates and directions. I have loved watching them grow into independence even more. Yet more than once I have had people tell me of having had an abusive father; to speak of God as “Father” is a troubling and negative image. So Jesus uses lots of different metaphors to enable a more profound understanding. Although he addressed G*d as Abba (Father, but better translated as Daddy) he also images G*d as a brood hen, a shepherd, an unjust judge (!), a bridegroom, a woman who has lost a coin, and vineyard owner. These images are an open acknowledgement of our inability to nail down how G*d is. (That refusal to be nailed down is surely one understanding of the ultimate meaning of Good Friday.)
So does G*d intervene directly in human affairs? I have to admit the evidence is inconclusive, but I behave and pray as if yes, G*d is in charge. Do my prayers influence G*d? It seems presumptuous to say they do, but my own children’s requests influence me, so… And besides, I do know that prayer influences me. It opens my horizons, gives voice to dreams, acknowledges my own lack of control, expresses private grief and joy and gratitude. And I do believe that all of those things are part of any plan that G*d, ego eimi, Jahweh, I AM, Being has for me.
** The greatest single difficulty in speaking of God is the limitation of language that seems to require that we speak of G*d as a being. G*d is not a being but is rather, using the terminology of Paul Tillich, the Ground of all Being. Holiness is the core reality of all that exists. As Christians we affirm that that holiness is most concretely expressed in the person of Jesus.
The Rt. Rev. Martin G. Townsend
Interim Rector