We’ve been taught to believe that God is a person, usually a male person, who is out there somewhere. But that limits God to our definitions and categories. Perhaps it’s time to understand God as a verb: active, dynamic, and engaging.
The following is a text version of this blog.
It takes some of us a long time to change our way of thinking. For me, it’s taken most of my lifetime. I understand what’s made it so difficult. You could say I was programmed to think a certain way. Most of us were. But sometimes, for our own good and for the good of others, we need to change, particularly when change is so important.
Most of us were taught that God is somewhere out there. We imagine God to be supernatural: above us, beyond us, looking down on us, and perhaps controlling our life circumstances. We think of God as a person – usually a male person – and give him human attributes. In doing so, we forget that God is beyond our intellect and imagination and never fits within the categories we create.
Rather than thinking of God as a person, as a noun that can be described, perhaps we should think of God as a verb. A verb is about action and movement. A verb is dynamic, not static.
There have been times when people have suggested that an opinion I have on something is heretical. But this isn’t one of those perspectives that can be called heretical. It reflects the Judeo-Christian tradition as well as many of the religions of the world.
In the Hebrew scripture, the book of Exodus, Moses asked for God’s name. God’s response was simply: I AM. The phrase, I AM, connotes “I am existence itself. I am life. I am the source of life.” It is creative, dynamic, and active.
The statement of God to Moses, I AM, located in a story of creation, found in the book of Genesis in Hebrew scripture. In Hebrew, the word used is dabar, which signifies creative action at work in the cosmos. Dabar is translated in Greek as logos, which is commonly translated in English as “word.” But this is much more than what we usually understand when we use the term “word.” The great I AM, the essence of existence, is dabar, creative energy that is calling the cosmos into being.
In reflecting on this, the noted Christian theologian of the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas, explained that God cannot be contained in heaven but is present everywhere. Aquinas further explained that wherever God exists, he wholly exists. In fact, Aquinas wrote that God is existence itself, God is being itself.
When we begin to understand that every aspect of what is around us is charged with the very being of the Divine, our understanding of God has to change. There is no longer a deity out there somewhere to please, to obey, to worship, or to bribe to make things happen. Instead, we begin to encounter the Divine in every interaction with people, in every blade of grass or bird in the tree. We grow to be open to experiencing the Divine in the joys of life but also in the deep sorrow. Because the mystery of the Divine is somehow all of it. Or, as Aquinas said, God is existence itself.
We sometimes think that indigenous peoples of the world are naïve in thinking that every tree, animal, and rock is sacred. But that’s exactly what is conveyed in the Hebrew scriptures and the writing of Aquinas. Further, Taoism of China understands that there is the flow of all of life that interconnects all things. This same understanding is rooted in Zen Buddhism.
My friends, God is not a noun, not a “him,” not a being beyond us. God is, God is active and alive, God is existence itself. All life and energy are imbued with the Divine.
When we come to understand this, not only do we enter into a deep mystical awareness, but our lives will change in amazing ways. We will understand our connections to others, whether loved ones or strangers, from a new vantage point. Further, we’ll see the planet and all life on the planet as sacred, a sanctuary, a home where the Divine dwells.