Chaos Theory

One of the books I have students read in Foundations of Worship is by Harold Best - Unceasing Worship.  In the chapters for tonight's class he claims the God of the Bible is not just a God of order... but a God of chaos.  God is an abstract artist... creating out of nothing.  No where in creation do we find a perfect circle or straight line.  No where in creation do we find a complete replica of a tree or a blade of grass.  Each is different... predictable yet unpredictable.  Similar but not the same.  The God of the Bible is a God who cannot be figured out or fully anticipated.  While he is faithful... he also surprises us.  While he is the "same yesterday today and forever"... we dare not box Him in.  Did Elijah expect to experience God in the silence?  Did orthodox Jews expect to experience God in a wandering rabbi?

Which has me thinking more and more about so called "orthodoxy".  Now please don't get me wrong... I believe in truth... that God has revealed Himself.  Yet... when does doctrine and right belief trump the Spirit of God that moves untamed like the wind?  When does order and structure become the idolatry of the status quo?  When does law become rigid and unforgiving... when does orthodoxy become judgmental and graceless?

I'm not advocating we embrace total chaos or relativity.  I'm advocating a movement to the middle... a paradoxical tension that doesn't have a nice tidy resolution.  While we must proclaim the truth about God as revealed in the testimony of scripture... we must also proclaim the good news of grace and forgiveness  - God bursting into our lives in unpredictable ways.

A Risk Worth Taking

One of the courses I teach is called Gen 300.  Last week I got up on my box... I sermonized... passionately describing the God of the Bible as a God who can't help but create.  A God who exists in community - Father, Son, and Holy Spirt.  When John says that "God is Love" I believe he is saying that God exists as this trinitarian community.  Thus... creation is the outworking - the outpouring - of this love.  

But love is a risk... creating is risky.  Bringing forth life with the capacity for love is to bring forth beings with the capacity to say "no".  Parents understand this very well.  Thus... the God of the Bible took a risk - a risk he deemed worth taking.

Not everyone appreciated my perspective.  How can God risk?  Is not God omniscient?  Doesn't he know what will happen before it happens?  Excellent questions...  but they are questions that originate outside the biblical story.  We all do it... start with a philosophical proposition concerning such things as "omnipotence" and "omniscience" and read them back into the text.  But what happens if we let the text speak?  Where does the Biblical story lead?

Lately in my other classes I have been emphasizing reading the Bible as narrative.  Allowing the Biblical story to inform our doctrine.  Easier said then done... I realize.  I believe when we approach the Bible this way God speaks to us... he pulls us into the Trinitarian life... allowing us to see what he has made from his perspective.  Allowing us to experience the suffering of the cross for what it is... God's desperate search for Adam... for us.  God's willingness to enter hell itself - God forsakenness - for the sake of a people and creation he loves.  

The truth as I see it:  The biblical story proclaims the good news of a God who searches... the story of how the Divine "yes" overcomes our rebellious "no".  A God who is for His creation...

Good news indeed.