God Is Relationship<\/strong><\/a>\nThursday, May 9, 2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>We owe a great deal of Western thinking to the Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle (384\u2013322 BCE). Aristotle taught that there were ten different qualities to all things, including \u201csubstance\u201d and \u201crelationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Substance is that which is \u201cindependent\u201d of all else and can stand on its own. Aristotle ranked substance as the highest quality. In early Christian traditions, the West tried to build on Aristotle to prove that this God whom we had come to understand as Trinitarian was a substance. We didn\u2019t want an ephemeral old <em>relationship<\/em> God, you know. We wanted a <em>substantial<\/em> God whom we could prove was as good as anybody else\u2019s God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, when Jesus called himself the Son of the Father and yet one with the Father, he is giving clear primacy to <em>relationship<\/em>. Who you are is who you are in the Father, as he would put it. That is your meaning and your identity. Jesus says to his Father, \u201cI have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me\u201d (John 17:22-23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humans are not independent substance, nor is any part of creation; it all exists in radical relationship\u2014ecosystems, orbits, cycles, and circulatory systems. To the Western mind, this \u201cmere\u201d relationship looks like second or third best to being self-made and independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the fourth and fifth centuries, Augustine (354\u2013430) described Trinity as God in three substances united as one. By the next century, God is one substance who happens to have three relationships. Aquinas (1225\u20131274) comes along in the thirteenth century saying that God is one substance, but the relationships constitute the very nature of that substance, <em>subsistent relationship<\/em>. Now we are prepared to say that God is not, nor does God need to be, \u201csubstance\u201d in the Aristotelian sense of something independent of all else. God is relationship itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would name <em>salvation<\/em> as simply the readiness, the capacity, and the willingness to stay in relationship. As long as you show up with some degree of vulnerability, the Spirit can keep working. <em>Self-sufficiency makes God experience impossible!<\/em> That\u2019s why Jesus showed up in this world as a naked, vulnerable one, a defenseless baby lying in the place where animals eat. Talk about utter relationship! Naked vulnerability means I\u2019m going to let you influence me; I\u2019m going to allow you to change me. The Way of Jesus is an invitation to a Trinitarian way of living, loving, and relating\u2014on earth as it is in the Godhead. We are intrinsically like the Trinity, living in absolute relatedness. To choose to stand outside of this Flow is the deepest and most obvious meaning of <em>sin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We call the Flow <em>love<\/em>. We really were made for love, and outside of it we die very quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trinity: Part 1 God Is Relationship Thursday, May 9, 2019 We owe a great deal of Western thinking to the Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle (384\u2013322 BCE). Aristotle taught that there were ten different qualities to all things, including \u201csubstance\u201d and \u201crelationship.\u201d Substance is that which is \u201cindependent\u201d of all else and can stand on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18019,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions\/18019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
<\/iframe><\/p>\n\n\n<p>We owe a great deal of Western thinking to the Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle (384\u2013322 BCE). Aristotle taught that there were ten different qualities to all things, including \u201csubstance\u201d and \u201crelationship.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Substance is that which is \u201cindependent\u201d of all else and can stand on its own. Aristotle ranked substance as the highest quality. In early Christian traditions, the West tried to build on Aristotle to prove that this God whom we had come to understand as Trinitarian was a substance. We didn\u2019t want an ephemeral old <em>relationship<\/em> God, you know. We wanted a <em>substantial<\/em> God whom we could prove was as good as anybody else\u2019s God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yet, when Jesus called himself the Son of the Father and yet one with the Father, he is giving clear primacy to <em>relationship<\/em>. Who you are is who you are in the Father, as he would put it. That is your meaning and your identity. Jesus says to his Father, \u201cI have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one, that the world may know that you sent me, and that you loved them even as you loved me\u201d (John 17:22-23).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Humans are not independent substance, nor is any part of creation; it all exists in radical relationship\u2014ecosystems, orbits, cycles, and circulatory systems. To the Western mind, this \u201cmere\u201d relationship looks like second or third best to being self-made and independent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In the fourth and fifth centuries, Augustine (354\u2013430) described Trinity as God in three substances united as one. By the next century, God is one substance who happens to have three relationships. Aquinas (1225\u20131274) comes along in the thirteenth century saying that God is one substance, but the relationships constitute the very nature of that substance, <em>subsistent relationship<\/em>. Now we are prepared to say that God is not, nor does God need to be, \u201csubstance\u201d in the Aristotelian sense of something independent of all else. God is relationship itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I would name <em>salvation<\/em> as simply the readiness, the capacity, and the willingness to stay in relationship. As long as you show up with some degree of vulnerability, the Spirit can keep working. <em>Self-sufficiency makes God experience impossible!<\/em> That\u2019s why Jesus showed up in this world as a naked, vulnerable one, a defenseless baby lying in the place where animals eat. Talk about utter relationship! Naked vulnerability means I\u2019m going to let you influence me; I\u2019m going to allow you to change me. The Way of Jesus is an invitation to a Trinitarian way of living, loving, and relating\u2014on earth as it is in the Godhead. We are intrinsically like the Trinity, living in absolute relatedness. To choose to stand outside of this Flow is the deepest and most obvious meaning of <em>sin.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We call the Flow <em>love<\/em>. We really were made for love, and outside of it we die very quickly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Trinity: Part 1 God Is Relationship Thursday, May 9, 2019 We owe a great deal of Western thinking to the Greek philosopher and scientist, Aristotle (384\u2013322 BCE). Aristotle taught that there were ten different qualities to all things, including \u201csubstance\u201d and \u201crelationship.\u201d Substance is that which is \u201cindependent\u201d of all else and can stand on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18018"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18019,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18018\/revisions\/18019"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18018"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18018"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/co2mannatoday.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18018"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}