"What is the meaning of life?" This is one of the questions that philosophers and theologians have discussed for centuries or millennia. It is closely related to the question, "Does God exist?" If the answer to the latter question is "no," then it is likely that life has no ultimate meaning. But even if we can assume that God does exist, does that imply that the universe has a purpose? Not necessarily. The Deists, including many of the founding fathers of the United States, believed that God existed, but they envisioned a God who created the universe and the natural laws, then more or less abandoned it, at most observing it from the outside. One could argue that meaning in such a universe could be derived from the value of creation (if it had no value, why would God have made it?) and perhaps the beauty of natural laws (e.g., the law of gravity or the laws of motion), but it would be hard to find any great meaning for an individual life. Today's reading from Proverbs describes wisdom as God's partner in creation and beyond. Wisdom, personified as a woman, describes herself as the first of God's creations, present with God when God created the earth, before the bowels of the earth, or its springs, or its mountains were formed. But wisdom was not just created first and then cast aside. She played a role in the formation of the heavens and the seas and the land. She was a "master worker" before God who rejoiced in the inhabited world and delighted in the human race. It is clear that the wisdom teacher responsible for this passage believed that God valued the created world and especially human beings. Creation was not a haphazard series of events, a random confluence of energy and matter that combined in accordance with the laws of physics and probability to form the present world. No, there was real meaning and purpose in the created order. Philosophers and theologians will continue to debate whether life has meaning, and if so, what it is, but I take my cue from this passage and others like it, and from my observations of the world around me. I believe that God exists, that God remains in contact with the universe, and that life has meaning. I can see it in my own life and in the lives of those I care about.
Alas, and did my Savior bleed, And did my Sov'reign die? Would He devote that sacred head For such a worm as I?So reads the first line of the hymn "At the Cross" as originally written. Now let's turn to "Amazing Grace."
Amazing grace! How sweet the sound That saved a wretch like me.Christianity has a long history of making people feel worthless. Of course, there is biblical precedence for such statements. Take, for instance, Psalm 22:6: "But I am a worm, and not human." Many theologians would argue that the degrading language is simply figurative: we are all no more than worms in the presence of a holy God. Perhaps, but too often the "total depravity" of humankind has been used by church leaders to exert the control of the church over the individual. Only if you acknowledge that you are completely worthless apart from the church (or some particular religious leader) will you have some chance of finding value in your miserable existence. The psalmist who wrote Psalm 8 disagrees. The NRSV entitles this psalm "Divine Majesty and Human Dignity," a concept foreign to those who would like to see people grovel in the presence of God, but one that is quite consistent with the creation story in Genesis, where God declares that all of creation is "very good." In Psalm 8, human beings are compared not to worms but to God (or divine beings, or angels, depending on the translation). God has created humans with a dignity that is only a little less than God's. We are not worms, we are not wretches, we are not worthless. We are created in God's image, and we are of immense value to God. The corollary to this understanding is that people should treat other humans as valuable, too. The treatment that Iraqi prisoners received at the hands of some American soldiers in Abu Ghraib prison (tacitly approved, I believe, by their superiors up the chain of command) is not only outrageous, it's blasphemous, because it denies the value that each human being possesses as a part of God's creation. As children of God, we must first recognize our own value, then we must accord that same sense of worth to everyone with whom we come in contact.
For another discussion of this passage, click here.
Today is Trinity Sunday, a day set aside in many churches to honor the triune God who is at the center of traditional Christian faith. The passage from Romans is one of several in the New Testament that are cited as illustrative of the threefold nature of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have peace with God (the Father) through our Lord Jesus Christ (the Son) and have received the Holy Spirit in our hearts. Some of the earliest controversies in the church revolved around doctrines that would later be circumscribed by the concept of the Trinity: the divine and/or human nature of Jesus (Arianism, Nestorianism, monophysitism), God's relationship with Jesus after his baptism (adoptionism), and the question of whether the Father suffered on the cross (patripassionism). The doctrine of the Trinity was developed by Augustine in the West and by the Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) in the East. Despite opposition by a variety of people (Marcion, Arius, Socinius, etc.) the idea of the Trinity was adopted by the vast majority of the church and remains part of traditional creeds and confessions of most denominations today. Nevertheless, some Christians are calling for a reexamination of the doctrine today, in part because classical arguments for the Trinity are based in philosophies and worldviews that no longer hold sway. Does the doctrine of the Trinity still have meaning for Christians today? I think it does. The Trinity encompasses both the divine and the human. This suggests that the divine is closer to each of us than we might normally be aware. More than just a divine spark, I think humans have the capacity for a rich, deep interaction with God, to have an almost incarnational relationship with the creator of the universe. That is not to say that humans are divine, but that they are capable of participating in the divine, which permeates all of creation, and especially humanity. Ethically, humanity's participation in the divine should enhance our value in one another's eyes. Even eyes clouded by racial, ethnic, or nationalistic prejudice might be opened if we were to understand that all human beings, in a sense, carry God in them. What we have in common with our fellow humans should supersede those things that separate us. Finally, the Trinity is a divine mystery, as is life itself. One of the greatest errors of the early church was its attempt to explain the nature of God in minute detail, then force others to believe it. Christians persecuted other Christians--not to mention non-Christians--over tiny deviations in their understanding of the relationship between the divine and the human in Christ and other similar doctrines. The problem was that all who argued that their understanding of God was right were wrong. A God who can be explained is no God at all, and a religion without mystery is nothing more than a human construct, without a hint of divinity. Yes, the Trinity is still meaningful today, if the concept reminds us that we partake of the divine every moment of our lives, that every other person also participates in the divine, and that the true nature of God is shrouded in mystery that the keenest intellect doesn't have a prayer of penetrating.
For other discussions of this passage, click here and here.
A documentary based on Robert McNamara's book The Fog of War has recently been released on DVD and video. The film focuses on eleven lessons that McNamara says he has learned over the years regarding war. Lesson number seven is particularly applicable to today's gospel reading: "Belief and seeing are both often wrong." This statement flies in the face of the aphorism "seeing is believing," but it correctly points out the difficulties of arriving at the truth concerning a given situation. Jesus tells his followers, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth." The Spirit, Jesus says, will speak what he hears from Jesus, whose message reflects that of God. It is our duty as followers of God to seek the truth, to proclaim the truth, and to live by the truth. No one has a corner on the market of truth. For that reason, we should admit that we continue to seek the truth, even if we believe that we've already apprehended part of it. The truth is only revealed to people whose minds are open to receive it. The great danger of fundamentalism is not its particular set of doctrines but its claim to possess the truth. As McNamara says, believing and seeing are both often wrong. The one who is not open to changing his or her mind on doctrinal issues, on political stances, or on ethical evaluations has no understanding of the nature of the truth. Many white Christians of an earlier time were convinced that people with black skin were naturally inferior. They believed this with all their hearts, but they were wrong. Many Christian men (and women as well) believe that God has designated certain roles in the church for men--especially leadership roles--and others for women. The believe this with all their hearts, but they are wrong. One thing about God's truth is that it is consistent. If all are created in God's image, there are none who are superior to others by virtue of birth. God's followers are called to seek the truth throughout their lives. Although truth can be found in the Bible, it is an insufficient witness. Although truth can be found in the church, it is an insufficient witness. Although truth can be found in a theological analysis of the world around us, that, too, is an insufficient witness. Truth must be sought in many places in order to fully grasp it, to the extent that it can be fully grasped. We need to integrate our understanding of the Bible, the teachings of the church, our theological analysis of the world, and truth that we see in other sources in order to come to a better understanding of God's truth. No, we won't ever attain all truth, but such an approach will put us on the right path.