Here we are. Another beautiful day on the North Coast. Yesterday there was sunshine. Temperatures got up to 74 degrees. It was a lovely day in the neighborhood. Woke up this A.M. to clouds, wind, and the temperature at 31. Gotta luv it! Or not.
Been thinking about the sixties. I was a kid then. (Maybe this is end stage reminiscence.) My friends and I played hard. I’m sometimes surprised that we survived! Climbing the cliffs along Lake Erie and flying burning paper airplanes from the roof of my house. And don’t get me started on monkey bars! Lotta folks carry the scars of that artifact from the Inquisition. Those were days of music and lightning bugs and crayfish from the creek. Tadpoles and baby birds and the sound of cicada song. Sometimes I’d sit by the transistor AM radio all day just to hear “Puff the Magic Dragon,” or “They’re coming to take me away,” or “Journey to the center of your mind.” I loved music. Started playing guitar when I was nine. Was in my first band at 12. My mom had a few records around that I played the grooves off. “The New Christy Minstrels,” “Booker T and the MGs.” Loved me some “Green Onions”! I remember in sixth grade going to see the Cleveland Orchestra. So many of my classmates hated it. I LOVED it! How much sound came from the stage. I could feel it in my bones. Music, I believe, is the one thing that humans, and probably some of our near human cousins, has remained from the beginning. Maybe even as far back as Lucy. Music communicates and links us together. More than that it connects us with the entirety of the Cosmos. Our lives depend on the rhythms, melodies, and harmonies that pulse throughout the world and beyond. Well, that’s my opinion anyway.
We have no lack of creativity. When I was in grade school one of best buds was what today we call neuro divergent. Back then there were other terms for kids like him. Yet he was the most creative kid I ever knew. There was a time when our class at school discussed Rube Goldberg contraptions. Most of us had things that had three or four steps. My friend built elaborate machines with 10-15 steps. I worked with him one time building an egg incubator out of a cardboard box and a light bulb. We actually saw the growth of the embryos! Eventually, he was sent to a school where he could build things and thrive. Creative Minds.
Speaking of creativity, I’ve been reading a rather involved scholarly work on the Christian idea of Trinity. I really never got into Theology as a discipline. I prefer to develop theological ideas and practices from the biblical text. However, from the very beginning people have thought about and developed theories about God. This isn’t just a Christian thing, either. Before Messiah Jesus was born the ancient Israelites spent a lot of time and energy trying to understand Adonai Elohim, the Lord God. That’s a reason that we have Holy Writ today. That is the work of theology done by our ancient ancestors in the faith. Islam has its theologians as does Buddhism. These are all attempts to wrestle with how the Transcendent and the Immanent can exist in the same reality. I admire the work and the tenacity of these folks who use their creative minds to search out the truth behind the reality. The ‘why’ questions. It is our lot to question and search. We are all creative beings with a seeming insatiable thirst for the next thing; the next step in our understanding of the world in which we live.
However, so much is overly thought through. If that’s possible. Reading professional theologians, I find many questions and ideas that only other theologians will ever care about. I understand their arguments. I can see how they form their conclusions. But, honestly, I just don’t care. The path they follow is logical and convoluted. It may be interesting. For the average person sitting in the pew? Yeah, not so useful. I mean, who in real life ever stood in a grocery checkout discussing the opera dei ad extra interna? I’ll wait.
I do think that it is important that every person who claims to follow Messiah Jesus have an idea of Who God is and how can we relate to such a God. This is something in which the Church has well and truly screwed the pooch. The folks who desire to be faithful to this Savior have been drawn into all sorts of confusing and esoteric places that the faithfulness of God and the Messiah and the Ruach Elohim, the Breath of God, has been lost. I’m sorry for our loss. Yet I’m also hopeful that faithful people will begin to understand better God’s relationship with Godself and the Cosmos. That these folks will help to illuminate God in our lived experience.
We are creative enough for the task.
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