Show me God and I will be satisfied

One day Jesus was teaching his disciples some deep stuff. One of them, a little exasperated, not really understanding, blurted out, "Just show me God and I will be satisfied!" Jesus replied, with a great deal of patience, "You've been with me for a while now, but you still don't get it! If you have seen me you have seen God. God is in me and I am in God."

Traditionally scholars have interpreted this in an exclusive way. Jesus is talking about his own uniqueness. "God is in me only. Only I am in God."

But, perhaps that is not what Jesus meant at all. Think differently for a while. What if Jesus was saying something revolutionary about God. God is not "out there," separate from all that is, in splendid isolation, "somewhere beyond the blue." God is rather right here, right now. In me. In you. In all that is. If so, Jesus was not making a claim for his own uniqueness, but saying something extraordinarily inclusive. God is in interbeing with all that is.

Interbeing is a word Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh, uses to refer to the idea that everything is inter-connected. Nothing exists in any separate way. I am the food I eat. The food I eat came from the soil. The soil is made up of decaying vegetation. The process involves water and rain and clouds and wind and sun and moon. All is/are interconnected. You might say, "All things inter-are, therefore I inter-am."

This in not unlike the Christian idea of Panentheism. God is in all, all is in God. God is neither distant nor separate. "The kingdom (realm) of God is among you," Jesus said another time.

Two applications:

First, sometimes a friend will say something like, "I will believe in God if you prove to me God exists, but not until." But if God is in interbeing with all things, and all things are in interbeing with God, the question is wrongheaded. There could never be a proof for God. What is required is a different way of seeing.

Second, these ideas are wonderfully practical and profoundly nonviolent. That God is in all changes your relationship to non-human animals, to nature, to your enemies. For here we find God.

+Ab. Andy


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