Marc Gafni – Lonely to Beloved (Audio approx 8 MB – right click to download)

Receiving the Divine Through the Third Person of the Trinity [1]

My first identifiable experience of God came one clear night on a mountain, while laying on my back, staring into the cosmos. “How big is it,” I asked and kept asking? And it kept getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger until I shuddered in fear, [2] and at that moment recognized the presence of Spirit shimmering “in, with, under it.”

Other experiences have followed, particularly of late through teachers in the “Evolutionary Spirituality” community. [3] I’ve been engaging this Spirit, at least in part, as the evolutionary impulse, that which drives creation forward, that yearning to become, eros if you will.

Having only understood the evolutionary nature of the cosmos for 200 of its’ 13.7 billion years, we are only beginning to work out the implications of the theory for the human project. This is a crucial point in history; we are the first “earthlings” to self-consciously contribute to an evolving universe. As we move beyond our “skin encapsulated ego,” and identify more completely with, and act from, this creative impulse we are . . . Mmmm, here is where I’m stuck; I need the rest of the Trinity.

For, what are we doing when we live out of deep eros alone, and why are we doing it; other than it’s kind of cool? My trouble is that this approach grounds ethics in what “I think is kind of cool” – the definition of disaster waiting to happen. [4] “Mass murder can’t be wrong just because I don’t like it.” [5]

So when I’m done contemplating the universe I move to this question: How come there is something instead of nothing? Or for that matter, how come there is nothing instead of whatever the hell wouldn’t be there if there wasn’t nothing? This is mystery. And when mystery encouters us it makes demands upon us.

We are not simply created to live towards our deepest deisre, we are created to live towards that which mystery intends. This is the “I am” that meets us in the stories of the Bible, the first person of the Trinity, who establishes, guides and directs this evolutionary impulse – this desire, this eros. It is in it’s nature, another kind of love, agape. [6]

Agape is that love which sees an object, (or in God’s case a “not object”), and puts value into it – a blank canvas, a child, a partner, the whole world, the cosmos. When these two persons, these two loves meet, they do a kind of dance. We are invited into that dance. It is here we meet God in second person – receiving and offering – called into union with the one. I can’t resist quoting the Westminster Catechsim [7]

Q. What is the chief end of man? (Sorry, it was written a long time ago.)

A. Man’s chief end is to glorify God, (which I take to mean, “offer God agape”), and to enjoy him forever, (which I take to mean “express eros towards God”).

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1. Please remember throughout this post that living within the Doctrine of the Trinity means whatever is said about one person, or face of Spirit, must also be said about the other two, because God is one.

2. Might this be “the fear of the Lord that is the beginning of wisdom” in Psalm 1?

3. Craig Hamilton, a student of Andrew Cohen, and Marc Gafni, (who might not want to be completely identified with that community), in particular.

4. I’m not suggesting that Craig, Marc, or Andrew have no ethics. (Please, I’m sure they are more ethical than I.) Marc works on these issues out of ethical monotheism in the Torah tradition. I only intend to offer a Trinitarian perspective.

5. Marc Gafni gave me this quote, but he was quoting someone else.

6. “God is agape” (1 John 4:8).

7. The Westminster standards are perhaps the foundational document of the “Reformed” tradition. http://index.pcusa.org/NXT/gateway.dll/Constitution/BOC-30/title00000.htm?f=templates&fn=default.htm (Navigate into the Book of Confessions under Constitution of the PCUSA.)

Love is Strong as Death (Audio approximately 9 MB, right-click to download)