A Progressive Revelation
Yesterday evening I was in conversation with a dear friend, having now shared life together for decades, though miles apart in orientation. He an industrial engineer and former CEO, yet we seemed to hit it off at our first introduction back in '86.
He sold his textile company, as he tells it, back when Burlington Industries came out with a new piece of equipment for processing cotton fibers, which set BI light years ahead.
From that time forward he has given himself to the study of what he has labeled as Master Capacity Building, now well known globally among futurists.
Our conversation always finds its way back to and around the impact of religion on mankind. From his perspective a limitation, though himself open to the spiritual (little "s") side of humanity. Of course I am always game for trying to separate those two concepts, religion and spirituality, too often thought of as Siamese twins.
Yesterday our conversation ranged somewhere between Bible stories and Quantum Theory!
How can a Being (just give me some margin here) that "sits" over billions of galaxies be comprehended by historical God speak, even if those words be God breathed! Its clear to me that the best attempts of well intended men and women over centuries has only helped frame an image of God so far from reality, that when He showed up in the Christ, the most learned of the religious had him killed!
How would that self existent Being, so creative as to introduce light, convert that energy into matter and from that living beings, allow that to happen to Himself (don't get hung up on the pronoun).
Yet, what better way, given a message as profound as the concept of love (it seems everything we humans desire boils done to this one word) than to reduce His Being sufficient to enter the womb of a virgin and be introduced as a helpless babe. You know, the Jesus thing!
So what about scripture, the Garden story, Moses's Exodus, the Kingdom of Isreal, the prophets of old who struggle with this YHWH, foretelling a place called Bethlehem, and even before, the Psalmists grieving some horrible suffering long before the concept ofRoman Crucifixion...that imposing such a "crossroad" moment that even our calendars reflect it!
This progressive revelation doesnt even stop there, as a band of followers are empowered at Pentecost, and though most are martyed, their message is carried forward across the very roads the Romans built!
Then a new sect comes out of Antioch, such that to be contained, Constantine' calls for a Book of Order and the Canon is birthed. The Institutional Church attempts to contain it as static truth, burning at the stake anyone who offers new revelation or activity beyond her designated sanctuaries.
Words like reformation are introduced when the Gutenberg Press provides access, now lightyears forward, AI!
My friend and I had suddenly come full circle with an ever emerging progressive revelation, somewhat paralleled by what is happening in health care, the Webb telescope and even space travel.
No more are flat-earthers afforded credibility yet deeper still is the longing, the mystery of love as multiple generations now inhabit the earth, with global instantaneous conversations.
My self selected mentor, Richard Rohr professes that God was first revealed in Creation, secondly in The Christ now in us! His Kingdom is among us!
Christ in us, the hope of glory!
What a plan!