Alive In Relationship: A Magical Mystical Way Of Relating To Our World Dave Andrews

Alive In Relations

hip:A Magical

Mystical Way Of Relating To Our

WorldDave Andrews

Alive In Relationship

• We are born into a magical mystical relational world by the incredible miracle which we know as birth;

• A world in which the poets say ‘we live and move and have our being’ in the very being of God (Acts 17.28);

• A God - whom the apostles say - is ‘Love’. (1 John 4.8)


• God can only be Love, if there is both relationality and quality of relationality in the very being of God.

• For there to be relationality in God, God needs to be at least ‘two-persons-in-relationship-in-one-community’

• In the very first verse of the very first chapter of the very first book of the Bible, the very first word used for ‘God’ is ‘Elohim’ - which suggests that God is a not a simplex entity, but is a complex entity with ‘two-persons-in-relationship-in-one-community’.(Genesis 1.1)


• However, for there to be not only relationality, but also quality of relationality, God needs to be an entity of at least ‘three-persons-in-relationship-in-one-community’.

• Why? Well, in order to ensure a ‘relationship’, there needs to be two persons, but in order to ensure the ethical quality of a ‘compassionate relationship’ there needs to be three persons – as it takes three persons to experience the relationship between two persons subjectively with the necessary inter-subjectivity required to ensure that relationship is compassionate.


• Christians call this complex entity of ‘three-persons-in-relationship-in-one-community’ simply the ‘Trinity’.

• The Trinity is a ‘heavenly’ community involved with ‘earthly’ society. Each of the ‘persons’ in the community are ‘personally’ involved with society. Because of their complete ‘interdependence’, each one is ‘implicated’ in the various roles each other plays in ‘creating’, ‘liberating’ and ‘inspiring’ society.

• However, each person in the community chooses to play one ‘particular’ role. The ‘name’ that each of the persons in the Trinity is called, tells us something about ‘what’ role they choose to play and about ‘what’ role they would encourage us to play in relation to our world.


• Traditionally the first person of the Trinity was called the ‘Father’ because he chose to play the role of a ‘cosmic parent to all his children’; the second person of the Trinity was called the ‘Son’ because he chose to play the role of the ‘model child for all his brothers and sisters’; and the third person of the Trinity was called the ‘Spirit’’ because s/he chose to play the role of the ‘motivator’. The names - ‘Father’, ‘Son’ and ‘Spirit’ – are ‘metaphors’, and not necessarily the best ‘metaphors’ to use to speak of God in today’s world. These names might have been helpful in pre-modern society, but aren’t so helpful in a post-modern society. Especially a post-modern society committed to gender equity. Thus, I suggest we consider more appropriate names for each of the persons.

Alive In Relationship • People have suggested many alternative names

for the parts each of the three Persons in the Trinity play:

1st Person 2nd Person 3rd Person

God Initiator

God Incarnate

God Incognito

Pathos Logos Ethos

Sat Chit Ananda

Creator Liberator Inspirator


• I believe that in order for us to discern our way to relate God’s world in terms of God’s love we need to triangulate our position in relation to each of the Three Persons of The Trinity, realising the significance of the role that they play in the world and the role that they call us to play in our matrix of relationships in the world.

Alive In Relationship • The parts each of the three Persons in the

Trinity play, and the points of departure for the parts we can play:

1st Person- 1st Point

2nd Person- 2nd Point

3rd Person- 3rd Point

The Truth From The Start

The Story At The Centre

The Experience In The End

The Reality That Defines Us

The Flesh That's Beside Us

The Breath That's Inside Us

The Law Of Love Written On Our Hearts

The Example Of One Who Is For Others

The Spirit Of Passion and Compassion

Point #1 To Be Alive In Relationship: The Law Of Love On Our Hearts

Creator

Point 1# In Relating To Our World

• The first point is to triangulate ourselves in relation to the Creator - The Truth From The Start, The Reality That Defines Us, The Law Of Love Written On Our Hearts.

• ‘God created humankind in God’s image; male and female God created them’ … from community … through community … for community! Genesis 1:27

• ‘They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.’ Romans.2:15


• In Taoism, The Law Of Love Written On Our Heart is descriptive: 'Regard your neighbour's loss or gain as your own loss or gain.'

• In Jainism, The Law Of Love Written On Our Heart is instructive: 'One who neglects existence disregards their own existence'.

• In Hinduism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Confucianism, Judaism and Baha’i, The Law Of Love Written On Our Heart is imperative and is framed in negative terms: 'Never do to others what would pain you'; 'Hurt not others with that which hurts yourself'; 'What is hateful to you do not do to your neighbour'; 'Do not impose on others what you do not yourself desire'; and 'Desire not for anyone the things you would not desire for yourself'.


• In Christianity, Islam and Sikhism, The Law Of Love Written On Our Heart is imperative and is framed in positive terms: 'Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'; 'Do unto all people as you would they should do to you'; and 'Treat others as you would be treated yourself.

• People of all religions – or none – all over the world know that there are no shortcuts, no quick fixes, and that we cannot ever hope to reweave the broken threads of the relationships in our world, if we do not practice The Law Of Love Written On Our Heart, and 'do unto others as we would have them do unto us'.


The great value of this Law of Love Written On Our Hearts is that it is acceptable not only to religious people who believe in God, but also to nonreligious people who don’t.

Skeptical Aussie philosopher Peter Singer says: ‘Reciprocity seems to be common to ethical systems everywhere.’

Thus people of all religions – and none - all over the world know - there are no short cuts; that there are no quick fixes; and that we cannot hope to co-create a better world unless we 'do unto others as we would have them do unto us'.


• Eg Anarcho-Syndicalists wearing T-Shirts saying ‘No God. No Masters’ wanting to develop real practical solidarity across the theological divide around issues of human rights…


• Eg Anarcho-Syndicalists wearing T-Shirts saying ‘No God. No Masters’ wanting to develop real practical solidarity across the theological divide around issues of human rights…

• Notice the scripture says the law is written ‘on’ our hearts not ‘in’ our hearts, and the Jews believe it is only when our hearts are broken that the words written ‘on’ our hearts can fall ‘into’ the cracks in our hearts, grow as seeds and bear fruit.

Point #2 To Be Alive In Relationship: The Example Of The One Who Is For Others

Liberator


• The second point is to triangulate ourselves in relation to the Liberator - The Story At The Centre, The Flesh That's Beside Us, The Example Of One Who Is For Others.

• Jesus is the Supreme Example of ‘The One Who Is For Others’.

• When I asked my dear friend, Jewish Rabbi, Zalman Kastel, what he personally found most confronting in the teaching of Jesus, he quickly replied, without any hesitation, that it was his commitment to unflinching nonviolence in the face of violence, which was based on his commitment of love for others – friend and foe alike – with no exceptions.


• Jesus said, ‘ Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who ill-use you. To him who strikes you on one cheek offer the other cheek also. If anyone takes away your cloak, do not stop him taking your tunic, too. Give to everyone who asks you; if anyone takes away your belongings, do not demand them back again. As you would like them to act towards you, so do you act towards them.

• If you love those who love you, what special grace is there in that. You must love your enemies; and do good to them; and lend with no hope of getting anything in return. Your reward will be great and you will be the sons of the Most High, because he is kind both to the thankless and to the wicked. Be compassionate as your Father in heaven is compassionate. (Luke 6:27-38)


• The traditional enemies of the Jews were the Samaritans, and in his encounter with the woman at the well (Jn:4:4-42) Jesus showed the way people of different religions, who are traditional enemies, should relate to each other. We should:• Acknowledge particularities – rituals of worship (Jn.4;19-21)• Affirm universalities – worship in spirit and truth (Jn.4:23)• Never denigrate others - ‘don’t call down fire’ (Lk.9:54-5) • Take a gentle approach – ‘if not against you, for you’

(Lk.9:50)• Accept hospitality – share food and drink together (Jn.4:7)• Practice respectful dialogue – explore the significance of

Jesus as the Messiah – but not expect others to change religion (Jn.4)


• One of Jesus’ most famous stories is the parable of the ‘Good Samaritan’. He told this story during a time the Samaritans and Jews were often fighting each other. (Luke 10.29-37)

• The first point is we need to extend compassion towards others. (Yes. But there is more) The second point is we need to extend compassion towards others who are our enemies. (Yes. But if that was the only other point Jesus wanted to make, he could have caste the rescuer as a Jew and the victim as a Samaritan). The third - and most important - point Jesus wanted to make (by casting the Jew as the victim and the Samaritan as the rescuer) is sometimes the only way we are going to learn about the need to extend compassion for our enemies is if we accept our enemies compassion for us!


• Eg After 9/11 visiting my local mosque to pray in solidarity with Muslims who were being terribly scapegoated…


• Eg After 9/11 visiting my local mosque to pray in solidarity with Muslims who were being terribly scapegoated…

• And Nora Amath, Director of Amarah (Australian Muslim Advocates of the Rights of All Humanity) introducing me to the Spirituality Of The Bismillah in the Qur’an…

Point #3 To Be Alive In Relationship: The Spirit Of Passion And Compassion

Inspirator


• The third point is to triangulate ourselves in relation to the Inspirator - The Experience In The End, The Breath That's Inside Us, The Spirit Of Passion And Compassion.

• When we turn to the Trinity we usually connect to the 1st or 2nd person – not the 3rd. There are good reasons for this. The ‘Father’ provides a set of rules that are easy to use as guidelines, and the ‘Son’ sets us a perfect example as a guide. But the ‘Spirit’ seems vague, enigmatic and mysterious. However, when it comes to engaging the world, Jesus says the Spirit is so important we shouldn’t proceed without ‘it’! Jesus says to his disciples ‘Do not move (without it), but wait for the Spirit’. Acts 1.4-8


• Who is the Spirit?

• Lets read Genesis 1.1-2 and answer the question – Who is the Spirit? ‘1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.’ brooding…

• The Spirit precedes and exceeds a reductionist post conversion Christian experience. The Spirit is God ‘incognito’. Inspiring the creative process from the start. The Hebrew ‘ruach’ and Greek ‘pneuma’, refer to Spirit as ‘wind’ or ‘breath’, conveying the idea the Spirit is as essential as the significance of the next breath we take.


• What role does the Spirit generally play?

• Through the Spirit, God energises us. In fact our English word ‘enthusiasm’ comes from the Greek ‘en-theos’ or ‘in-god’. Which would suggest, that if we want to maintain our ‘enthusiasm’, then we need to be ‘filled with the Spirit’. The Spirit enhances our ‘vitality’, our ’sensitivity’ and our ‘responsibility, so we have the power to struggle for real personal, social and political change.


• What role does the Spirit specifically play?

• Firstly the Spirit helps us engage reality and everything in it - truly as it is. 13”But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth”. John 16.13-14

• Taylor says the Spirit is ‘the one who presents reality to us’. So ‘it comes to us’ ‘commands our attention’ and we are ‘face to face with the truth of it - not merely the truth about it.’ ‘To be in-the-Spirit is to be vividly aware of every-thing the moment contains’. A spirited ‘experience occurs when something as ordinary as a sleeping child (in the arms of its mother) commands our attention’ and we see the significance of the obvious.


• What role does the Spirit specifically play?

• Secondly the Spirit helps us engage one another and create true community. So we pray “may the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.’ 2 Corinthians 13.14

• Taylor says ’The Grace’ in 2 Corinthians.13.14, refers to ‘the communion’, the in-between-ness of the Holy Spirit. ‘It is often translated fellowship, but fellowship is the result which we can feel and see. What causes the fellow-ship is the gift of awareness which opens our eyes to one another.’ The Spirit is not merely the ‘ground of our being’ but the ‘ground of our meeting’. ‘The Holy Spirit (is) the elemental energy of communion itself.’


• What are the indicators of the presence of the Spirit?

• Lets read Galatians 5.22-23 and answer the question – What are the indicators of the presence of the Spirit? In Galatians 5.22-23, Paul says the ‘fruit’ that the life of the Holy Spirit yields is:

‘love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control -

against such things there is no law’.

•


• Any community open to spirit will yield fruit of the Spirit. At a personal level there will be

love – passion and compassionjoy – awareness and appreciationpeace – trust and tranquillity.

At a relational level there will be patience – persistence kindness – sweetness, not bitterness At a social level there will be

goodness – generosity faithfulness – fidelity

At a political level there will be tolerance - and non-violence

self-control - and self-management.


• Wherever we go in the world we can assume that the Spirit is already at work, seeking to lead people into truth, and bring order through community out of chaos, whether people recognise it as the Spirit as the ‘Holy Spirit’ or simply as ‘team spirit’ or as ‘community spirit’.

• Our role is not to generate the work of the Spirit, but to validate it, celebrate it, participate in it and collaborate with it, cooperating with the work of the Spirit that is evident in the love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, tolerance and self-control.


• Eg Recently some activist friends called a group of us to come together for an Open Space conversation about how we could respond to the bloodshed in Gaza…


• Eg Recently some activist friends called a group of us to come together for an Open Space conversation about how we could respond to the bloodshed in Gaza…

• It was a magical mystical moment

• On one level - it changed nothing. • But on another level - it changed

everything.

Creator

Liberator

Inspirator

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Mystical Way Of

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Creator

Liberator

Inspirator

‘Act Justly’

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‘Walk Humbly’

Creator

Liberator

Inspirator

‘Act Justly’

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A Magical

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‘With God’

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Creator

Liberator

Inspirator

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‘Love Kindly’

A Magical

Mystical Way Of

Relating

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Alive In Relationship: A Magical Mystical Way Of Relating To Our World Dave Andrews