Charting a New Reformation, Part XXXIV – Thesis #10, Prayer (continued), Prayer is Being not Doing

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 8 September 2016 14 Comments
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Question

How do you deal with the question that the universe is so old compared to our recent appearance on the scene? We seem to be very late in God’s creation. Secondly, if God loves all of us indiscriminately, why was there no great desire to communicate “His” words to all from the very beginning? Perhaps God has spoken to us all – to all cultures and we just need to look and come together to best “work out our own salvation.” I would appreciate your views.

Answer

Dear Ennio,

First of all, you have applied the categories of time and space to God. It was Albert Einstein who taught us that time and space are properties of the universe. Neither existed before the big bang. We cannot bind God with the categories of existence. Whatever else we might say, God is God and God does not live within the boundaries of time and space, so there is no such thing as before and after, young and old in the being of God.

Second, how does anyone of us know what God communicated to the original human species, I suspect that every tribe of human beings believed that they were “God’s Chosen People.” We today attribute this title primarily to the Jews, but that is because we have adopted their story as our own. So, when we talk about God revealing the divine will in the law, or God being experienced as present in the person of Christ, all we are doing is seeking to validate our own God understanding. We cannot bind God inside our limited convictions.

Most of the claims that various religious groups or churches make, of possessing the ultimate truth in some human form, is little more than idolatry. There is not, never has been and never will be something called “The One True Church.” There is not, never has been and never will be anything that could be called “an infallible Pope” or “an inerrant Bible.”

Our belief system is always a journey in process. We do not know our destiny and we certainly do not know the origins of our faith story.

So, Ennio, learn to walk into the infinite mystery of God - there are no guide posts. We walk in a community of faith and the job of the community is to challenge our excesses, which the religious life always seems to produce.

My best,
John Shelby Spong

 

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