GeoFee
I am who I am becoming...
Thanks blackbelt,
I value diverse perspectives working together to establish common ground on which to establish action oriented to hope.
Once I tried to image how I would paint a picture of the trinity. I did not paint the picture but the concept I came up with continues to intrigue me. A father and a son are working in the field harvesting wheat. They are watched through a kitchen window by a mother while she is baking bread. This image admits a feminine characterization of the Holy Spirit.
The place of woman is sometimes obscure in the bible. Quite often her presence is signified by negative connotations. We may think of Adam blaming Eve for his surrender to temptation in the garden. This Hebrew mindset is accented by early biblical scholars such as Augustine. He saw woman simply as the place where a man could sow seed to reap a harvest of sons.
I notice that whenever God decides to start something new in the earth a woman is the place of beginning. Sarah's conception of a son. Hannah's conception of a son. Mary's conception of a son. Just when it seems that history is a failed project a woman hears the word of God and a future is made possible. I notice that God is realized in the unity of male and female.
Taking this a step further, I notice that our human brains function in a binary relationship. The rational and the intuitive in harmony make manifest a healthy human being. Where the trajectory shifts from that conjoined relationship to prefer the rational over the intuitive, or vice versa, distortion comes into play. I suspect this is connected to the concept of the fall.
This is key for me:
Speaking to the question asked by Moses God pronounces a simple existential phrase. It is interpreted in various ways. Above I noted the name "I am who I am". You notice "I will be what I will be." I have also heard the Hebrew translated as "I am what I am becoming". The latter two interpretations express dynamic presence. The first interpretation seems to be somewhat static. For me a dynamic God is preferred over a static God.
I find it interesting that the most truthful expression of my own being in the world is also "I am who I am becoming." This becoming is not a process by which I obtain something that is not available to me now. It is a process of eliminating all that I have acquired by my experience in the world to make present only who it is that God has created me to be. This is how I understand sanctification. A refining of my being to exclude all that is contrary to the way of God and liberating the image of God in me.
We begin in the name of God, "I am who I am becoming". We are separated from the name of God by our immersion in the experience of a distinctive racial, cultural, linguistic circumstances into which we have been born. That secondary identity eclipses the primary identity. We forget who we are in God and are diverted by who we appear to be in the world. Turning away from the way of our inherited being in the world is to turn towards our origin in God. This seems to be the substance of our baptism. Death to who I thought I was and resurrection to whom I actually am; the image of God in history. From old Adam to new Adam by a step of faith.
Will leave it there for a bit and see what comes next.
George
I value diverse perspectives working together to establish common ground on which to establish action oriented to hope.
Once I tried to image how I would paint a picture of the trinity. I did not paint the picture but the concept I came up with continues to intrigue me. A father and a son are working in the field harvesting wheat. They are watched through a kitchen window by a mother while she is baking bread. This image admits a feminine characterization of the Holy Spirit.
The place of woman is sometimes obscure in the bible. Quite often her presence is signified by negative connotations. We may think of Adam blaming Eve for his surrender to temptation in the garden. This Hebrew mindset is accented by early biblical scholars such as Augustine. He saw woman simply as the place where a man could sow seed to reap a harvest of sons.
I notice that whenever God decides to start something new in the earth a woman is the place of beginning. Sarah's conception of a son. Hannah's conception of a son. Mary's conception of a son. Just when it seems that history is a failed project a woman hears the word of God and a future is made possible. I notice that God is realized in the unity of male and female.
Taking this a step further, I notice that our human brains function in a binary relationship. The rational and the intuitive in harmony make manifest a healthy human being. Where the trajectory shifts from that conjoined relationship to prefer the rational over the intuitive, or vice versa, distortion comes into play. I suspect this is connected to the concept of the fall.
This is key for me:
Speaking to the question asked by Moses God pronounces a simple existential phrase. It is interpreted in various ways. Above I noted the name "I am who I am". You notice "I will be what I will be." I have also heard the Hebrew translated as "I am what I am becoming". The latter two interpretations express dynamic presence. The first interpretation seems to be somewhat static. For me a dynamic God is preferred over a static God.
I find it interesting that the most truthful expression of my own being in the world is also "I am who I am becoming." This becoming is not a process by which I obtain something that is not available to me now. It is a process of eliminating all that I have acquired by my experience in the world to make present only who it is that God has created me to be. This is how I understand sanctification. A refining of my being to exclude all that is contrary to the way of God and liberating the image of God in me.
We begin in the name of God, "I am who I am becoming". We are separated from the name of God by our immersion in the experience of a distinctive racial, cultural, linguistic circumstances into which we have been born. That secondary identity eclipses the primary identity. We forget who we are in God and are diverted by who we appear to be in the world. Turning away from the way of our inherited being in the world is to turn towards our origin in God. This seems to be the substance of our baptism. Death to who I thought I was and resurrection to whom I actually am; the image of God in history. From old Adam to new Adam by a step of faith.
Will leave it there for a bit and see what comes next.
George
