What is this God? A Corrective: ruminations of a retired priest
“God protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything.” When I heard the living mystic James Finley speak these words in a dialogue with Franciscan priest Richard Rohr during a season 3 podcast of Another Name for Everything, I had to pull my car to the side of the road, replay his words and let them have their way with me. https://cac.org/podcast/another-name-for-every-thing/
What is this God that “protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything?” This is not God the patriarch that protects the compliant and obedient and destroys the disloyal and those who disobey. This is not prosperity gospel God nor sunbeam friend, perfect lover, omnipotent or omniscient God. This is not God that demands a bloody sacrifice to pay off humanity’s sin. What is this God?
God that “protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything” can be no less than boundless Presence; Breath of breath, Fire of consciousness, Wisdom of bodhisattvas, Tao that cannot be tao-ed. “God that protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything” is hidden in every speck and specter of creation. On what dare I base this spirited assertion? On the great wisdom traditions and their dogged endeavors to describe ordinary human’s direct experience of God.
Consider the experience of the ancient Israelites being guided by God in their Exodus from Egypt.“And the LORD went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light; to go by day and night…” (Exodus 13.21) Throughout their forty year ordeal the Israelites never stop calling out to God. “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!” (Psalm 139:7–8 ) Again, “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on him in truth.” (Psalm 145:18)
Hidden in clouds of unknowing, God available to “sustain us in everything” is not the exclusive real estate of Jews and Christians. “The Lord is near to all who call…” The wisdom of Lao Tzo in the Tao Te Ching teaches, “Every being in the universe is an expression of the Tao… The Tao gives birth to all beings, nourishes them, maintains them, cares for them, comforts them, protects them, takes them back to itself…” Lao Tzu’s teaching appears four hundred years before Jesus. (Mitchell, Stephen. tao te ching: A New English Version. p51) Similarly, the Confucian philosopher Mencius avers,“He who completely knows his own nature, knows Heaven.” (Damascene, Hieromonk. Christ the Eternal Tao. p2).
In some mysterious way God that “protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything” has ignited wonder and reverence in the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of people of every race, culture and canon throughout history. And people never stop calling out to ‘God’ by whatever name. There are thirty Hebrew names of One God, ninety nine names of God in Islam. Christians claim three names for One God, Hindu’s recognize Atman with one hundred and eight names. Indigenous people revere Great Spirit as the life force inhabiting all of creation. Non-theistic folks refer to the “Something More” that exceeds reason and materiality as Being, Light, Consciousness, The Way. or Tao.
The thing is, the mysterious “Something More” that defies every name eternally tries and tickles humankind, provoking us, like Jacob to wrestle through the night and never stop calling out until we receive a blessing. (Genesis 32.24–29) Sometimes the hidden Mystery plays a different hand and infuses us with “knowing” that eclipses our intellect as the Trappist monk, poet and scholar, Thomas Merton describes his mystical experience on March 18, 1958. “In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers. It was like waking from a dream of separateness…” https://www.spiritualtravels.info/spiritual-sites-around-the-world/north-america/kentucky-a-thomas-merton-tour/thomas-mertons-mystical-vision-in-louisville/accessed 4 May 2023.
It is out of the blue experiences that break the boundaries of our intellect and awaken direct knowledge OF God. Not knowledge ABOUT God. It is being surprised and revised by the direct experience of God that sustains us. The thing about such experiences is they are carved forever on the stones of our hearts. These matchless moments become the touchstones, the north star, the Spirit or Christ within that “sustains us in every thing.” Here is the good news. Direct experience of God is available to every human being. In fact, if you are reading this there is every chance you too have been surprised, and if you pay attention, revised by God.
When Jesus says, “I am in the Father and the Father is in me,” I believe the “I” in Jesus’ first person point of view is both personal and collective. Why else would he claim, “In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you?” (See text below) What is true for Jesus is true for every human being.
Jesus never claims “I am the only one privileged to be in special relationship with the Father.” Rather, he declares, “I go to prepare a place for you so that where I am, there you may be also…” Jesus exemplifies a very human way of living in right relationship with the hidden “Something More” that he calls Father. I believe this is what Jesus means when he calls himself, “the way,”
Clearly this contradicts the traditional interpretation of the words the writer of John’s gospel puts in Jesus’ mouth, words used to justify unspeakable harm executed against Jews and peoples of every non Christian tradition. “No one comes to the Father except through me.”
It is unthinkable that Jesus, who relentlessly points away from himself to the “Something More” that he calls “Father” while mercifully ministering to lepers, Gentiles, political and religious officials, and every one considered “other,” it is impossible to believe Jesus would adopt a security guard position, opting to check passports and cast out “others.” When Jesus says, “I am the way,” he is opening the way for all to see what life in intimate relationship with the hidden God of surprises can be. As his life, ministry and death clearly exemplify, living in right relationship with the “Something More” Jesus calls Father protects us from nothing and sustains us in everything.
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John 14:1–14 Jesus said, “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father’s house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also. And you know the way to the place where I am going.” Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you know me, you will know my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know me? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own; but the Father who dwells in me does his works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; but if you do not, then believe me because of the works themselves. Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Father. I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.”
