The Greatness or Every-thing-ness of God
Indianapolis First Friends Quaker Meeting
Pastor Bob Henry
July 10, 2022
Good morning, Friends and welcome to Light Reflections. Our scripture reading for this morning is from Acts 17:24-28 from The Voice translation.
24 This is the God who made the universe and all it contains, the God who is the King of all heaven and all earth. It would be illogical to assume that a God of this magnitude could possibly be contained in any man-made structure, no matter how majestic. 25 Nor would it be logical to think that this God would need human beings to provide Him with food and shelter—after all, He Himself would have given to humans everything they need—life, breath, food, shelter, and so on.
This is the only universal God, the One who makes all people whatever their nationality or culture or religion.
26 This God made us in all our diversity from one original person, allowing each culture to have its own time to develop, giving each its own place to live and thrive in its distinct ways. 27 His purpose in all this was that people of every culture and religion would search for this ultimate God, grope for Him in the darkness, as it were, hoping to find Him. Yet, in truth, God is not far from any of us. 28 For you know the saying, “We live in God; we move in God; we exist in God.” And still another said, “We are indeed God’s children.”
A week ago, I spent each evening with our children teaching, learning, and even questioning with them about the Greatness of God. We explored some “monumental” aspects and attributes of God – from God’s love to God’s surprising nature, but as I went home each night, I often would reflect on what I personally have learned about God over the years, from my earliest days at VBS (when my mom was the VBS director) to doctoral level debates in grad school.
The one thing I know is personally my view of God has changed radically over the years.
Most people who seek to be spiritually formed find a lot more out there than even what can be contained within one’s own mind just by stepping out into a place of questioning.
This past week, I turned on several occasions to teacher, lecturer and progressive theologian Gene W. Marshall, along with some of the greatest theologians of our time, to help me wrestle with and clarify some of my evolving views of God. I am going to utilize some of their thoughts this morning to help us wrestle together.
Let’s consider this sermon more like a “VBS Lesson for Adults” on God.
I am often challenged by theologian H. Richard Niebuhr. He has help me consider “God” a devotional word, much like calling someone your “sweetheart.” He says,
“Sweetheart” points to a particular person, but it also expresses a quality of relationship. Similarly, the word ‘God’ includes the meanings of loyalty, commitment, trust, friendship, and passionate devotion.
At the same time, ‘God,’ as used in the Bible, points to an actual experience, an actual encounter with, how shall we say it, the Ground of our Being; the Mystery, Depth, and Greatness of our lives; Final Reality; Reality as a Whole; the Mystery that will not go away.
For some of you, those descriptions may be new, expanding, or even confusing.
That is why theologian Paul Tillich used the word “God” sparingly in his work because he realized how many misunderstandings circle around this word.
Tillich believed that God is not a thing among other things or a person but the Ground of Being that is beyond all beings, beyond all persons. This Ground of Being is an inescapable over-all-ness with which we have a relationship, whether we relate to this Ground as our God or not.
For many years among the Anglicans, I learned to talk about the Great Mystery, but it makes sense to take that mystery and make it even grander – the Ground of Being which is beyond all beings or persons.
I remember one of my professors in my doctoral work saying as we were beginning his class, “If you came with God neatly in a box, get ready to have the box shredded because God can’t be contained in a box.” And boy was he right. I left that day with a headache, kind of holding the shredded pieces of my box and dropping some of them on my walk back to my room.
Gene Marshall explains this Great Mystery or Whole of Reality in a helpful way, he says,
“We can understand having a relationship with our pets, our spouse, our children, or our garden. We also have a relationship with the Whole of Reality. This Whole, this Mysterious Whole is a Master Process moving toward us in every moment, challenging the depths of our being. And we are responding to this challenge, either in flight, fight, or openness. This active, often fierce, process is our relationship with God, the ‘God’ that Jesus worshiped, and the ‘God’ that the Bible insists is our only appropriate worship. This biblical God is not a being among other beings, not a supernatural being among other supernatural beings, not a being at all – not a person nor an inanimate thing or collection of things, but BEING-AS-A-WHOLE.”
So “God,” as this word is used in the Bible, does not mean something located within some larger sphere called “Reality.” It is misleading to speak of “the reality of God,” for “God” is a devotional word for Reality Itself, for Reality as a Whole. Using the word “God” in the biblical sense means being devoted to the EVERY-THING-NESS that transcends every thing and yet is present in every thing. Each and every thing is contained within this EVERY-THING-NESS. I am using the word “thing” in a very broad sense, including Jesus, including you, including me.
A few years ago, I was first introduced to this thinking by Rob Bell in a video I used to share with my students at Huntington University which he called “Everything is Spiritual.” In it he said,
“God is not a question about what may or may not be up there or above or out there— God is what we’re unquestionably in.”
And Rob goes on…
“There’s a line in the Bible about the God who is above all and through all and in all. Just one line, but so massive. Above all and through all and in all.”
I remember sitting with those thoughts for quite some time – “God is what we’re unquestionably in.” And I knew that scripture, Ephesians 4:1 that reads “There is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.“
It was this enlightenment that made my transition to Quakers possible and even inviting. God was no longer just out there. But I am part of what I call “God” or as we Quakers say, there is that of God within each of us.”
Gene Marshall says,
“Each of us is a specific and distinguishable finite being, yet each of us is also a being that is inescapably related to the EVERY-THING-NESS in which all things cohere.”
See, here is where we get confused, most Christians tend to see God as a supernatural being – a being alongside other beings – a super-being in another world of beings, a being that can interfere in this world and help us handle the things we want to arrange differently.
Marshall says,
“This view is not the biblical view of God. When the Bible and other Christian classics seem to refer to an otherworldly person, we need to remember that these writings are poetry, ancient poetry. The biblical writers were using mythic language. People who lived in pre-modern times had no difficulty using mythic language. It was their way of talking about their life experiences. They were not literalists who believed that they could visit this super-place and pull-on God’s beard…When we use personal language to talk about God, we are talking mythically about our own personal relationship with that Infinite EVERYTHING-NESS that cannot be contained within any human imagery, personal or impersonal.
This means, when you and I step out and begin asking questions, when we become curious, when we build relationships, and open ourselves to the creation or natural world around us, or our neighbors and the cultures around us, it is then we begin to experience this Mystery, that we call God, in new ways.
For the last year in Seeking Friends we studied Richard Rohr’s book “Every Thing is Sacred” – again he focuses on the “Everything-ness.” Actually, the first book I was encouraged to read of Richard Rohr’s was his book “Everything Belongs.” The irony and connection in all of this was stunning as I contemplated it this week.
Rohr takes this one step further and this is where I want to end this week. He says,
Here is a mantra that we might repeat throughout our day:
“God’s life is living itself in me. I am aware of life living itself in me.”
We cannot not live in the presence of God. We are totally surrounded by God, even as we read these words. This is not some New Age idea.
(Rohr says) recall St. Patrick’s blessing,
“God beneath you, God in front of you, God behind you, God above you, God within you.”
Once I can see the Mystery here, and trust the Mystery even in this piece of clay that I am, then I can also see it in you. We are eventually able to see the divine image within ourselves, in each other, and in all things.
Finally, the seeing is one. How we see anything is how we will see everything.
Folks, I spent a great deal of my life trying to find God, define the Great Mystery, even encapsulate the Light (as we Quakers would say) in the pages of scripture, in theological texts, even in the Church itself.
Yet often that led me to a much narrower understanding, at times, even a box to contain my views. But when I am willing to open my eyes and allow my curiosity to be piqued by the God, Mystery, Light around and within me, I can then see that of God more clearly in All of Creation including my neighbor.
Don’t get me wrong – I am still daily wrestling with seeing the Everything-ness of God, but I have come to realize that is exactly what this life is all about.
So, I walked away from VBS this year challenged to see the GREATNESS of God and I hope by sharing it, I have piqued your curiosity as well.
Let us end by speaking that mantra from Richard Rohr one more time. Repeat after me:
“God’s life is living itself in me. I am aware of life living itself in me.”
Now, as we enter a time of waiting worship – ask yourselves the following queries:
Have I ever considered God being “what I am unquestionably in”?
How has my interest and curiosity been piqued, today, and where in nature and my neighbor will I seek God this week?