Panentheism - 5-14-23
Panentheism
1 Peter 3:13-22; Acts 17:22-31
1 Peter 3:13-22
Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good? But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed. Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord. Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and reverence. Keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God’s will, than to suffer for doing evil. For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you—not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
Acts 17:22-31
So Paul took his stand in the open space at the Areopagus and laid it out for them. “It is plain to see that you Athenians take your religion seriously. When I arrived here the other day, I was fascinated with all the shrines I came across. And then I found one inscribed, TO THE GOD NOBODY KNOWS. I’m here to introduce you to this God so you can worship intelligently, know who you’re dealing with. “The God who made the world and everything in it, this Master of sky and land, doesn’t live in custom-made shrines or need the human race to run errands for him, as if he couldn’t take care of himself. He makes the creatures; the creatures don’t make him. Starting from scratch, he made the entire human race and made the earth hospitable, with plenty of time and space for living so we could seek after God, and not just grope around in the dark but actually find him. He doesn’t play hide-and-seek with us. He’s not remote; he’s near. We live and move in him, can’t get away from him! One of your poets said it well: ‘We’re the God-created.’ Well, if we are the God-created, it doesn’t make a lot of sense to think we could hire a sculptor to chisel a god out of stone for us, does it? “God overlooks it as long as you don’t know any better—but that time is past. The unknown is now known, and he’s calling for a radical life-change. He has set a day when the entire human race will be judged and everything set right. And he has already appointed the judge, confirming him before everyone by raising him from the dead.”
Prayer – God of life and creation; God of indwelling and continued speaking – we come this morning hoping to be reminded that you continue to bring new life, that you continue to create, that you are within and that your words for us still hold depth and breadth and all of life’s goodness. Grant us the courage as we grope for answers to trust your presence in all of life and creation while at the same time reminding us that you are not in some distant heaven, but right here with us and within us – loving us as only you can – amen.
From the beginning to end, the Bible is the story of God. Of course, the Bible is not God’s story of God; rather, the Hebrew Bible is ancient Israel’s story of God, and the Christian Scriptures reflects the early Christian movement’s story of God as revealed in and through Jesus the Christ. How did these two ancient communities see the central character in their story? How did they imagine God, and God’s relationship to the world? Both are questions that we still consider and wrestle with today.
The Bible does not provide a simple answer, but instead imagines God in two very different ways that stand in tension with each other. On the one hand, the Bible often uses personal imagery to speak of God. God is spoken of in anthropomorphic images as being like a person – God as King, Lord, Father, Mother, Warrior, Shepherd, and Potter to cite a partial list. The sheer number of images points to the fact that they are metaphors. God is not literally any of these, but is like a king, like a parent, like a shepherd, a potter and so on.
But when we take these anthropomorphic metaphors literally, we generate a way of seeing God commonly called “supernatural theism.” That is, we see God as someone “out there” who created the universe a long time ago as something separate from God. God’ relationship with the universe is seen this way – from “out there” – from “heaven” – where God rarely intervenes, especially in the more dramatic events reported in the Bible. So most of the time, God is not “here” but “out there.” God is some distant divine entity that seems not only far away but distant, remote and even unfindable.
In contrast, we also see passages from the Bible that describes God’s relationship to the universe as “right here” as well as more than “right here.” This way of imagining God sees the deity as the encompassing Spirit – a non-material dimension of reality that surrounds us and everything around us. Our passage this morning is from a sermon Paul preached to the governing council in Athens and he wanted them to know that he had noted from his travels around Athens he was aware of their desire for knowledge and understanding. He commented to them that the God they were seeking is not an unknown God, but the God who created all of the universe and continues to permeate all of creation; that the God who created humankind in God’s image, that it is in this God that we live and move and exist who is right here with us and not in some far off distant place.
In Paul’s conversation with the governing council at Areopagus, the most prestigious council of elders in the history of Athens, he communicated his belief that God made the world and everything in it and that every single person was God’s offspring, God’s beloved daughters and sons, so in Paul’s mind there was no person or sphere of influence outside of God’s care and concern. All of so called ‘secular life’ and not just sacred realms were spheres of God’s loving presence, or at least potentially so – law, literature, medicine, education, the arts, business, government, science, quite literally anything and everything. In his own Christian way, Paul viewed the venerable Areopagus as just another place where the Lord of all creation had gone before him and was already present.
The ancient Greek expression – pan en theo – literally “all in God” is the belief that the divine pervades and interpenetrates every part of the universe and also extends beyond time and space. The term panentheism was coined by German philosopher Karl Krause in 1828 to differentiate the idea of pantheism offered by Baruch Spinoza. Krause hoped to reconcile the idea of monotheism and pantheism by suggesting that God is viewed as the soul of the universe, the universal spirit present everywhere, which at the same time ‘transcends’ all things created. While pantheism asserts that “all is God,” panentheism claims that God is transcendent and thus greater than the universe. This conception of God influenced transcendentalists like Ralph Waldo Emerson as well as having influence in most of the major religions.
So what does this idea of Panentheism have to do with us today? How do experience God in our current day and time and place? How do we resemble those Athenians from 2000 years ago who were looking for an unknown God? Are we still seeking, and if so, what clues are around that can help us see God’s presence? Searchers; isn’t that what we all are? Maybe not everyone searches for God. There are those who search for God, those who search for meaning, those who search for joy. Some seek health and happiness, some look for family and belonging, some seek peace and solitude. There are people who long for fame, and people who want nothing more than quiet anonymity, people who want to be rich, and people who are ready to simplify their lives by getting rid of possessions.
Most of us at one time or another have a feeling that something is missing. And we go searching, at least in our minds. It seems that we are not unlike the ancient Athenians. They were looking for something. They were a pagan society, and had erected structures to every god represented in their pluralistic society, even one to an ‘unknown god’ to cover all the bases. Were they still searching? Paul seemed to think so of them, and perhaps we are as well today.
Searching isn’t a bad thing. It signifies that you care about deeper meaning. Are some quests more noble than others? Probably. Shallow goals typically produce shallow results. Fame and possessions, for example, don’t usually yield deep satisfaction and thus the campaign for more and more and more. Those pursuits, the shallow ones, can turn into idols when they replace the deeper searches for meaning. We Americans tend to be pretty good at shallower pursuits. Ads reach into our need to seek something, but they generally offer solutions that aren’t particularly meaningful. False idols. It’s the easier road, but it isn’t often fruitful in the long run.
What if we took Paul’s advice to look for the God who is not far away, but actually close by? What if our inward looking led us to see the places in our soul where God has already been at work, stirring us in the desire for meaning? What if our outward search led us to see the places where God has already been at work in the world? What if our searching could lead us to recognize meaning, happiness, peace, belonging and all those other things we need, that aren’t that far away after all?
This morning, Paul reminds us in a panentheistic way, that in God we live and move and have our being. The God who created us with as much care as all of creation is right here, with us and within us. The God who created all of creation continues to create and show the divine immanence for us to experience. God is not out there, distant, far away and remote. God is in each of us and in all of creation – the universal pattern of creation and re-creation reminds us that God continues to be present in our moments and in our lives. Next time you find yourself wondering where God is in the midst of the moment – remember – God is right here, right now and always – thanks be to God – amen.