Theologian Matthew Fox introduces the life and teachings of German mystic Meister Eckhart:
Of all the mystics of the West, it is difficult to find anyone who more profoundly articulates the journey we make into the divine and out in the world again than Meister Eckhart. His is a spirituality of passion and compassion. Eckhart, a Dominican friar and preacher, lived from 1260 to 1329…. He teaches that spiritual awakening is to lead to justice-making and compassion in the world. He practiced what he preached…. Two examples of this are his support of the Beguine movement which was the women’s movement of the fourteenth century. And another is his support of the peasants. Indeed, half his sermons were preached in the peasant dialect of his day, and at his trial he was accused of “confusing the simple people” by telling them that they were all “aristocrats,” or “royal persons.”
But this is precisely the heart of Eckhart’s teaching and the heart of the biblical tradition of creation spirituality: That humans are blessed with divine powers and beauty but also with responsibilities of justice-making and compassion that characterize all royal personhood. How do we get to such deep self-esteem and to such deep acceptance of our responsibility?…. Our awareness is everything; our waking up is everything. We need to move from the superficial or “outer self” to the true self or “inner self.” Who is this inner self? Eckhart answers this question in his treatise “On the Aristocrat,” or “On the Royal Person.”
Fox presents Eckhart’s teaching:
The inner person is the soil in which God has sown the divine likeness and image and in which God sows the good seed, the roots of all wisdom, all skills, all virtues, all goodness—the seed of the divine nature…. This is the good tree of which our Lord says that it always bears good fruit and never evil fruit. For it desires goodness and is inclined toward goodness….
The seed of God is in us. If the seed had a good, wise, and industrious cultivator, it would thrive all the more and grow up to God whose seed it is, and the fruit would be equal to the nature of God. Now, the seed of a pear tree grows into a pear tree, a hazel seed into a hazel tree, the seed of God into God…. While this seed may be crowded, hidden away, and never cultivated, it will still never be obliterated. It glows and shines, gives off light, burns, and is unceasingly inclined toward God.
Fox concludes:
It is our task to cultivate this seed and give it nourishment so that the divine image in us can grow and thrive and prosper. This is what the spiritual journey is all about. Our spiritual journey consists in nourishing and watering and caring for this God-seed that is in all of us.
| God’s Temple Expansion Project |
 Failing to read the creation chapters in Genesis as temple narratives means that we will probably interpret them with another, less accurate, lens. For example, I thought of Eden as a divine zoo when I was young. It’s where God set up a comfortable habitat to watch his naked human creatures frolic without a care in the world. Like most modern Americans, my understanding of paradise was defined by leisure. In this way, the Garden of Eden seemed more like a hippie commune to me than anything resembling a temple. Viewing Eden as an all-inclusive resort or a human zoo presents God as a puppet master and reduces humanity’s purpose to just divine amusement. This, of course, is a terrible reading of Genesis.If we properly understand Eden as a temple where the heavens and earth overlap, and the humans as priests called to care for this bridge between God and his creation, then the garden becomes a collaborative environment where the Creator and people work together for a common goal. That goal becomes clear when we combine the seven-day temple inauguration account in Genesis 1 with the garden-temple narrative in Genesis 2-3. After creating his image/idols in Genesis 1:26-28, God instructs the man and women to “rule” over the earth on his behalf and cultivate order, beauty, and abundance everywhere. They were to “fill the earth and subdue it.” This is the very first command given in the Bible.Theologians refer to this verse in Genesis 1 as the “Cultural Mandate.” Nancy Pearcey, in her book Total Truth, explains why:The first phrase, ‘be fruitful and multiply,’ means to develop the social world: build families, churches, schools, cities, governments, laws. The second phrase, ‘subdue the earth,’ means to harness the natural world: plant crops, build bridges, design computers, and compose music. This passage is sometimes called the Cultural Mandate because it tells us that our original purpose was to create cultures, build civilizations—nothing less.Moving into the next chapter about the garden with this in mind, rather than a zoo created by God to contain humans it’s evident that Eden was intended to be a base camp to launch this shared God-human project. The man and woman were never supposed to remain in the garden. Instead, they and their descendants were to cooperate with God to expand the garden’s order, beauty, and abundance to fill the earth. In other words, God’s goal was for his temple to grow and encompass the whole world and everyone in it. As we continue through the Bible, it’s this temple-expansion mission that will explain God’s calling of Abraham and his descendants (Israel), the arrival of Jesus, his death, resurrection, and ascension, the purpose of God’s multiethnic community (the church), and the vision we see at the very end the Bible of God dwelling with all of his people in a renewed earth full of his glory. And, more immediately, it will help us make sense of humanity’s rebellion against God and their expulsion from the garden-temple. Stay tuned. DAILY SCRIPTURE GENESIS 1:26-29 PSALM 8:3-8 WEEKLY PRAYER. from Clement of Rome (d. 99) May God, who sees all things, and who is the Ruler of all spirits and the Lord of all flesh—who chose our Lord Jesus Christ and us through Him to be a peculiar people—grant to every soul that calls upon His glorious and holy Name, faith, peace, patience, long-suffering, self-control, purity, and sobriety, to the well-pleasing of His Name, through our High Priest and Protector, Jesus Christ, by whom be to Him glory, and majesty, and power, and honor, both now and forevermore. Amen. |
