Tuesday, May 31, 2016

Is God the distant Creator in heaven—or your intimate Soul Mate?

Acts chapter 16 introduces an unexpected situation for anyone who thinks that all early Christians had a personal "heart-felt" response to God/Christ. At Philippi (a Roman colony, Acts 16:12) Paul and Silas answer the jailer's question: "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" by replying "Believe [2nd singular imperative] in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved—you and your household" (Acts 16:31). In other words the jailer's faith in Jesus saved not only the jailer but also his entire household (family and slaves), and the members of the jailer's household were baptized along with him (Acts 16:34)—even though it was only the jailer who believed Paul and Silas (it is the same in Acts 16:34). The same situation occurred earlier in Acts 16:14-15: Lydia opened her heart to what Paul said, and she was baptized—with her whole household. The situation is very different in Acts 18:8, however, where Crispus, his household, and many others in the city believed Paul, and they were all baptized along with Crispus (see also Acts 11:13-18; John 4:53).
 
The temptation is to assume that Luke was simply a careless or imprecise writer, and he really intended that these two incidents at Philippi in Acts 16 should be read in the light of the incident in Acts 8, where it is unambiguously stated that the members of the jailer's household actually did believe and hence (one assumes) had a personal religious experience—although that is not what the text says. But what if Luke was being very precise, and the jailer, as paterfamilias (head of a Roman household), had introduced a new deity (i.e., Jesus) to his family household?  Hence the jailer's family and slaves would also worship his new household deity. "The pater familias (sic ) was the priest of the household, and those subject to his potestas [authority] assisted in the prayers and offerings [of] the sacra familiaria [family rites]." *
 
From this perspective the jailer's family and all his household slaves were required to participate in an exercise of Christian (?) worship, even though they did not share in the jailer's religious belief.
 
That is not unlike the situation in contemporary Christian worship where we find elaborate ritual and liturgy at one end of a wide spectrum of beliefs and worship styles—and a charismatic type of worship at the other end. Think of that wide spectrum as the distance between Paul's charismatic and spirit-led Christianity (the Pauline letters) at its one end, and the institutional religion of the Pastoral Epistles (1st, 2nd Timothy, and Titus) at its other end.
 
Assuming that you have not abandoned participation in formal Christian worship altogether, where do you assume you fall on the scale between a keen sense of personal union with the Divine and a somewhat perfunctory participation in a ritual, whose beliefs you no longer share? Or put another way: does God's Spirit dwell within you to the extent that you are conscious of an intimate sharing in the divine Presence, or is it simply the case that God is in his heaven while you at a distance "experience" God only in the ritual, liturgy, and Eucharist (or Mass) of formalized worship?
 
What do you think?
 
Charles W. Hedrick
Professor Emeritus
Missouri State University
 
*H. W. Johnston, The Private Life of the Romans (New York: Scott, Foresman, 1903), 29.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Charlie, I have no direct evidence of either option which you offer. I did have a strong emotional experience at age 11-12 when I heard an evangelist at a youth camp meeting urge us to answer Jesus' call to the Christian ministry. I answered it from then to age 30. I've said before that there are times when I still speak to Jesus as though he were actually with me, though I have no evidence for it. These are all only indirect indications of deity, however. I mentioned in the previous discussion that the closest we can get to deity is a commitment to what's most important, and to my mind that is fulfilled relationships. Deity being the impulse for fulfilled relationships is the closest I can get to soul mate.

Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.

Charles Hedrick said...

Good Afternoon Gene,
I appreciate your caution in answering. It is not an easy question. Can you describe what you mean by fulfilled relationships?
Cordially,
Charlie

Elizabeth said...

Good evening Charlie!

Some people find it difficult to talk openly about such a personal question as this. Personally, my rule is never to discuss my beliefs about God. How in the world would you substantiate a belief in an invisible being? I might as well tell you I believed in aliens from other planets. What would you say?
"What proof do you have of their existence?"

For me, I was born with an innate knowing that "God" or something divine surrounds me in nature. As a child, you couldn't keep me indoors. I spent a great deal of time outside because I felt a strong connection to the Divine. Beliefs can only be stated, Charlie, they can't always be proven. I challenge anyone to scientifically and empirically prove every belief within their belief system. No one can do such a thing.

I have no idea who God is or where he or she came from, where or why God exists, what God looks like, etc... Divine beings are not capable of being examined through physical means. But I do believe this: divine beings are not man-made, in a literal sense. Yes man can create graven images and idols and bow in worship to them... But man cannot create angels or gods or spirits, except in his imagination.

However, religion is man-made... And I will leave you with two quotes which perfectly sum up my opinions about religion as an institution:

"Were I again to be reduced to the chains of slavery, next to that enslavement, I should regard being the slave of a religious master the greatest calamity that could befall me. For of all slaveholders with whom I have ever met, religious slaveholders are the worst. I have ever found them the meanest and basest, the most cruel and cowardly, of all others."
Frederick Douglass

"But above all do I hold my horror of the Scotch Sabbath. Indeed, it has left me with a distaste for church-going of any kind. Yet I approve of piety... for others. If I am not a pillar of the church, I am, at least, one of the pagan columns that support it from the outside... I would rather worship in my own kale-yard." Robert Service "Ploughman of the Moon" 1946

If you wish to worship with me Gene or Charlie, you are welcome to join me in my kale-yard.

Cheers, Elizabeth

Anonymous said...

Hi Charlie,
My vision of fulfilled relationships has environmental, sociological, and psychological dimensions. I mean the intuition that the spheres of nature (see Elizabeth's remarks) and society are interdependent. I mean forgiveness dissolving guilt, acceptance dissolving shame, trust dissolving fear, joy dissolving sadness, patience dissolving anger, and a loving healing touch dissolving illness and personal demons. I mean using knowledge and empathy in the service of that vision.

Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.

Anonymous said...

Charlie, I just finished reading your first of three-parts dialogue article with Lee McDonald in the 4thR. Excellent step by step illuminating approach to "Is the Bible the Word of God."

Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.

Anonymous said...

Hi Charlie,
Hoping I'm not clogging the airways here, but you write provocative stuff. It struck me this morning that we should pay attention to truth in the arts.

I realized that I can sing with more conviction than I can speak. I can sing "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands" with more conviction than I can rationalize and explain it, so I guess that's heading toward God as "soul mate."

It also strikes me that the title of your essay could be oriented toward Jesus, i.e., "Does Jesus sit at the right hand of God in heaven, or is he your intimate soul mate." Again, I find myself to be a better singer than a rationalist. I can sing spirituals with the greatest conviction, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," "Take My Hand Precious Lord," "Stand by Me," "Peace in the Valley," "He'll Understand and Say, 'Well Done,'" and so forth.

These songs bring a great personal satisfaction and comfort. In this sense, the living Jesus is a "soul mate," and God gets closer but still remains somewhat distant.

However, I'm not able to say with Paul, "It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me." (Gal 2:20)

Gene Stecher
Chambersburg, Pa.

Charles Hedrick said...

Thanks Gene,
I am sure there will be those who disagree. I was surprised to learn that the term "word of God" as applied to the Bible is a 16th century concept.
Charlie

Charles Hedrick said...

Hi Elizabeth,
In response to your question about Aliens from other planets: My response would not be to demand proof; rather, I would ask why? Why is it that you believe in Aliens from other worlds? I would simply assume that you had some good reason for doing so, and expect to learn something from you that I did not know before. And then I would process your answer though what I know and how I know and see if I did in fact learn something.
Nice quotations by the way!
Cordially,
Charlie

Charles Hedrick said...

I agree with you. In my view the clergy aims to control what their parishoners think about God and to control how they experience God. It is only in the music that people are free to experience God in their own way.
Cordially,
Charlie

Elizabeth said...

Ha ha, thank you Charlie! I found Robert Service's memoirs and they are delicious treasures... Very funny storyteller.

I understand what you said to Gene about singing spirituals and through music that parishioners can experience God in their own way... That is what I do in my so called "kale-yard." (I don't really know what kale-yard is, by the way. But I like the sound of it.)

So the simple answer is this: I experience God through my own intuition. My own knowing that comes from... I don't know where it comes from. I can't explain in words how it is that I know God is real. To me- that's what intuition is. Knowing what I know without being able to explain where I got the knowledge from. It was just "downloaded" into me... Somehow, some way, some where in the distant past. Any belief that weighs me down and burdens me with guilt or heaviness- I let go. If a belief is heavy and burdensome, then it doesn't belong to you. But my belief in God is lighter than air and so I've kept that one my whole life.

I find it curious, though, that I have never been drawn to Jesus for some reason. I don't feel any connection to him. So I never talk to anyone about him because you can say "I don't believe in God" and people will smile at you patiently and say "There, there... you just need some time, you just need to get in the Word and come back to church." But if you say, "Well, I believe in God but I don't believe in Jesus or the Holy Trinity" ... Watch out. It won't be pretty.

Elizabeth