When I was in Egypt, standing in absolute awe in front of the pyramids, I heard someone behind me say, "Imagine, Moses walked by these pyramids every day."
Then it hit me. No wonder they hated Moses. I mean, sure, he was a Jew and all, so there was that. But, the Egyptians built pyramids to many different Gods, and here comes this guy who may have been a Jew, but he was brought up a proper Egyptian pantheist, and now he's talking about ONE God!!??!! I mean, look at all the work - not to mention mud and straw and slave labor - they could have saved if they didn't have so many gods.
I don't know why I had never thought of that before, but the thing about being an Episcopalian, as you're discovering, is that this is what it means to become an Episcopalian. You're always becoming. It really never ends. You never really "arrive," because you're still always getting there. And where you are is where you are. And, it's where you're supposed to be. For now.
I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to see what more the Holy Spirit has in store for you.
Thank you for this. “You’re always becoming” feels exactly right, and honestly that may be the most Episcopalian sentence anybody has handed me yet. I love the image of you standing there at the pyramids and having that thought about Moses. It made me laugh, but it also makes a strange kind of sense. Nothing will make a one-God message sound more disruptive than a skyline full of monuments to many.
What you said about never really arriving comforts me more than you know. I think part of me keeps looking around for the moment when I will finally feel like I fully know what I’m doing, and maybe the truth is that faith is less about arriving and more about paying attention while God keeps working on us. I’m really glad to be here, and really grateful for your kindness.
I love how the Holy Spirit connects things, people, ideas. A dear friend of mine called me yesterday and we were talking about "progressive Christians." While he can't label himself as such, he said, "But I sure as hell love you guys." We talked about how this way of seeing "stretches" our understanding of G*d (as limited as they are) and makes it deeper, "stranger, fuller, heavier." Yes! "Seventy times seven," yes! Thank you for the confirmation on this Good word.
I love this so much. “Stranger, fuller, heavier” is such a good way to put it. That is exactly what this all feels like to me right now. Not smaller or easier, but deeper. Wider. More alive.
And I laughed at “But I sure as hell love you guys,” because honestly, that feels like a pretty solid bridge for the Holy Spirit to work with. I think that’s part of what keeps catching me off guard in all this, how often God shows up in the stretching. In the places where our understanding gets bigger and a little less tidy. “Seventy times seven” is exactly the kind of phrase that keeps breaking open the hard little boxes we try to put each other in.
Thank you for this. It feels like a confirmation to me too.
There is one God. Humans have categorized their interactions with God into three boxes. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The infinite God is not divisible into individual entities. In fact God is not an entity but the source of all existing entities. So to say God is three in one is as true as saying God is a thousand in one. It’s a way of humans attempting to understand the infinite. The Trinity isn’t real, it’s an invention. It’s not even in the Bible. If it helps you relate to God to think of it this way. Good. If it doesn’t help you, that’s good too. Discard it and come up with your own understanding.
When I was in Egypt, standing in absolute awe in front of the pyramids, I heard someone behind me say, "Imagine, Moses walked by these pyramids every day."
Then it hit me. No wonder they hated Moses. I mean, sure, he was a Jew and all, so there was that. But, the Egyptians built pyramids to many different Gods, and here comes this guy who may have been a Jew, but he was brought up a proper Egyptian pantheist, and now he's talking about ONE God!!??!! I mean, look at all the work - not to mention mud and straw and slave labor - they could have saved if they didn't have so many gods.
I don't know why I had never thought of that before, but the thing about being an Episcopalian, as you're discovering, is that this is what it means to become an Episcopalian. You're always becoming. It really never ends. You never really "arrive," because you're still always getting there. And where you are is where you are. And, it's where you're supposed to be. For now.
I'm so glad you're here. I can't wait to see what more the Holy Spirit has in store for you.
Thank you for this. “You’re always becoming” feels exactly right, and honestly that may be the most Episcopalian sentence anybody has handed me yet. I love the image of you standing there at the pyramids and having that thought about Moses. It made me laugh, but it also makes a strange kind of sense. Nothing will make a one-God message sound more disruptive than a skyline full of monuments to many.
What you said about never really arriving comforts me more than you know. I think part of me keeps looking around for the moment when I will finally feel like I fully know what I’m doing, and maybe the truth is that faith is less about arriving and more about paying attention while God keeps working on us. I’m really glad to be here, and really grateful for your kindness.
I love how the Holy Spirit connects things, people, ideas. A dear friend of mine called me yesterday and we were talking about "progressive Christians." While he can't label himself as such, he said, "But I sure as hell love you guys." We talked about how this way of seeing "stretches" our understanding of G*d (as limited as they are) and makes it deeper, "stranger, fuller, heavier." Yes! "Seventy times seven," yes! Thank you for the confirmation on this Good word.
I love this so much. “Stranger, fuller, heavier” is such a good way to put it. That is exactly what this all feels like to me right now. Not smaller or easier, but deeper. Wider. More alive.
And I laughed at “But I sure as hell love you guys,” because honestly, that feels like a pretty solid bridge for the Holy Spirit to work with. I think that’s part of what keeps catching me off guard in all this, how often God shows up in the stretching. In the places where our understanding gets bigger and a little less tidy. “Seventy times seven” is exactly the kind of phrase that keeps breaking open the hard little boxes we try to put each other in.
Thank you for this. It feels like a confirmation to me too.
Indeed Father, Son and Holy Spirit are bigger than I can imagine. That’s where faith comes in. I loved your essay.
Thank you for reading!
There is one God. Humans have categorized their interactions with God into three boxes. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The infinite God is not divisible into individual entities. In fact God is not an entity but the source of all existing entities. So to say God is three in one is as true as saying God is a thousand in one. It’s a way of humans attempting to understand the infinite. The Trinity isn’t real, it’s an invention. It’s not even in the Bible. If it helps you relate to God to think of it this way. Good. If it doesn’t help you, that’s good too. Discard it and come up with your own understanding.