Hello my friends,

I hope this finds you well. This week, I want to reflect on how our beliefs about the nature of God impacts how we live our lives and how that dynamic shapes the world we live in today.

RESOURCES:

-I was recently given the book, "The Word of a Humble God: The Origins, Inspiration, and Interpretation of Scripture." by Karen R. Keen. I have not begun to read it yet, but I am excited to get started. Karen works to bring together both historical criticism and theology, this investigation examines ancient scribal culture through the lens of faith. What we find is a divine-human collaboration that points to the character of God and the value of human agency. If you also pick this up, let me know. It would be great to know we are reading it together.

-In October of 2021, the podcast Hidden Brain had a fantastic episode on humility, in which is said, “we should be humble about what we think we know, and even humble about what we can know.” When we judge the bad choices of the past, sociologist Duncan Watts says in this episode that we should strive for “epistemic humility” — a realization that our information is always incomplete. The episode is called "The Halo Effect." I think you will find this as fascinating as I did.

-I wrote this article awhile back and it just seems fitting given the world today and many of the questions we've been asking lately: Why Do The Wicked Prosper?​

-I recently reminded of how phenomenal Dr. Gorman's book is on the subject. It's called "Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation." Not only does he give such a needed lens to our interpretation of such a complex and often misunderstood part of the Bible, but it points yet again to humility being the way Jesus exercises power. Yes, even in the Book of Revelation. I highly recommend this book.

-Free resource: A Christian Field Guide to Christian Nationalism.pdf​

We Will Look Like The Kind Of God We Worship.

On Sunday, May 31st, Christians all over the world will be observing Trinity Sunday, which is a major feast day in the Western Christian liturgical calendar. It is always observed on the first Sunday after Pentecost. It celebrates the core Christian doctrine of the Holy Trinity, that the one God exists as three distinct co-equal and co-eternal Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Unlike other feast days that focus on a specific event like the resurrection or the giving of the Holy Spirit, Trinity Sunday centers entirely on the nature of God. It serves as a climax to the major seasons of the church year from Advent through Pentecost by reflecting on the triune God who creates, redeems, and guides humanity.

The churches I grew up in never observed Trinity Sunday. In fact, I was never really taught about the Trinity in church. It wasn’t until my theological studies that I became familiar with trinitarian theology and its role within Christianity as a whole. After studying the history of trinitarian controversies and the ongoing debates around it in our time, I found myself gravitating towards the significance of God’s nature as triune in pastoral ministry.

Reflecting An Image.

I remember writing in my journal one Sunday after service that how we conduct ourselves as Christians ultimately comes down to who we believe God to be. That we will always look like the kind of God we believe in.

If we believe in a vengeful, dogmatic, and legalistic God, that is how we will act as well.

If we believe in a compassionate, merciful, and just God, that is how we will act as well.

Theology, after all, is the study of God. It is the words we choose or don’t choose to describe who God is and who we are to be based on that description of God. So what we say about God also says a lot about who we are as well.

The entire Bible begins with humanity created in God’s image. The way we live and treat one another reflects an image no matter what. The question is, will it be the nature of God we see in Jesus or a god of our own making?

This is ultimately what the authors of scripture were doing as well. They were verbalizing what they believed about how God revealed God’s self in the world in their particular time and place and how they were called to respond in their time based on that revelation. When we pay close attention to the narrative of scripture, we find a continuous developing of theology. From pantheism, to polytheism, to monotheism, to resurrection, to incarnation, the authors of scripture from Genesis to Revelation were working out their understanding of God with God and with each other.

It is no coincidence that that the name “Israel,” which was given to Jacob after he wrestled the angel in Genesis 32, which would be the name given to subsequent generations, means “one who wrestles with God.” I can think of no better definition of theology. Wrestling with our concepts of God, taking seriously the work of understanding what we actually believe about God and how it impacts the way we live our lives and our relationships with others. Wrestling with a deep humility that comes from a core belief that God is God and we are not. Wrestling with a deep hope for the blessing of clarity, direction, and centeredness, and to be a blessing to others.

The World We Create.

One of the historical concepts of the trinity I learned in my studies is that of the divine dance. Many early Christians understood the co-equal nature of the one God as three persons as a community. Living in synchronous harmony. A community where God the creator, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit practiced a life of communion with one another. A life where no person practiced dominion over another, but each served the other in deep humility and compassion. Much like the encouragement Paul gives in Philippians 2 in describing the very nature of Jesus, to “put the interests of others above yourself.” I truly believe that this is who God is. God looks like Jesus. God is by God’s very nature, love. I believe it is that very nature of God that we are called to reflect in the world. As Jesus did.

As St. Maximos the Confessor wrote, ”The gradual process by which a person is renewed and unified so completely with God that he becomes by grace what God is by nature.”

This concept of the trinity as a divine dance had a deep impact on me and caused me to imagine a world where people lived in that same way. Where each person lived, not by seeking dominance over others, but by serving others in humility and compassion. Where people lived like Jesus for and with others. It was a world I came to believe that the church was called to practice and invite others to do the same. It was a world that felt so possible to create, yet so impossible to achieve at the same time.

Godly Grief.

This belief of God as love by nature is at the heart of so much of my grief over this last decade. Where we have witnessed many corners of Christianity in the United States express, support, and condone so many things that are deeply contrary to this nature of God. Things like blatant misinformation and lies. Demonizing and dehumanizing immigrants, Palestinians, Muslims, and political opponents. Sexism and misogyny. Greed and arrogance. Racism and historical whitewashing. Religious bigotry, jingoism, and nationalism. One of the most grievous things about this dynamic is that when those who claim to follow Jesus express, minimize, justify, and even support these things, they are telling the world that this is who they believe God to be too. That is the image of God they are presenting to the world and that is the only image of God some in our world will ever see.

Living in this time, it can be easy to just be overcome by grief in the face of all the injustices and misuse of our sacred faith that is happening before us every day. Yet, just as we see in Jesus’ life and the lives of every person we admire throughout history and today who persevered through adversity and clung to hope that love would prevail, we too must continue taking steps forward. In the face of such darkness, we must shine the light of love all the brighter. Because just as it is true that God’s nature is love, the nature of authoritarianism is self destruction. As the Bible and history shows us time and time again, the arrogant, the violent, the greedy, and the reckless, no matter how much power and wealth they acquire, always end up self imploding in the end. Love always outlasts fear and hate.

1 John 4:20 says, “Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.” Love is the way we show God to the world. May the world see God’s nature of love by the way we live and by the way we treat others here and now.

Prayer

God, you are love.

Love is your nature and it was through love that you created all things.

It was through love that Jesus gave his life up for us.

It was through love that brought him out of that grave.

It is love that liberates. It is love that heals.

It is love that overcomes hate, fear, and evil.

You created us in your image, God.

We reflect your image when we love one another.

Give us the courage and strength to continue towards love in our world that seems so intent on fear, division, and hate.

In the name of Jesus, whose disciples are known by their love, Amen.

Now I'd like to hear from you! Did you find this helpful? What thoughts came to your mind as you read? Feel free to respond to this email and share your thoughts with me. I look forward to reading them. A 30 Day Day Devotional: I wrote a daily devotional in hopes to provide a companion for people seeking to follow Jesus through the season of we are currently navigating together. You can find out more below: $20.00 Following Jesus In A World Obsessed With Empires: 30 Days of reclaiming the hope, compassion, and justice of Jesus. Today, our world can often feel overwhelmed by darkness, division, and despair. I created this 30-day devotional to... Read more Get it now! ​ Ways to support: If you'd like to support this project, you can do so through one-time-gift of any amount you feel is right. You can also subscribe through a $5/mo, $15/mo, or $25/mo. Several others have also asked for a recurring gift option that is different from the ones offered here, like this one. If you'd like me to set up a different option for you, please just send me an email with the word "support" in the subject line. As always, I really want to thank all of you for reading and for all the ways you support me and this project every single week. I'm thankful for the ways we are building this together and hope it creates a lasting, positive change in our world along the way! I sincerely appreciate you all, Ben Remember, you can now view this and all previous newsletters as well as invite friends to join through this link: https://benjamin-cremer.ck.page/profile.

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