The End of "Theology as Quest"

On July 4, I began a mini-series of reflections on theology (our view of Who God Is) as "sentence diagramming" -- a way of taking apart our ideas to see what they tell us about our relationship with the Almighty.  I said that if our theology (or diagram) is faulty, it will affect our relationship with God, much as my neighbor who felt that he would probably not go to heaven because "no one is good enough" (and by implication, least of all, him).

But the question I explored for the next few days was "how" we acquire "good" theology.  The prime example given through Scripture is that of Abraham, whose journey away from his native gods, family, and culture gave him exposure to a whole new way of thinking and relating to Yahweh, the One Who called him to a future he could not ever have imagined out of his old framework:  You shall be the father of multitudes, and all nations shall bless themselves by you.

The journey-theme continues throughout Scripture with each generation that follows Abraham, down to the Exodus, where the entire people (and all the odd assortment of wanderers that went out of Egypt with them) experienced leaving all that they knew to go to an unknown destination, led by this mysterious Yahweh.  On the way, in the desert, entering the Promised Land, they came to know the One Who was Faithful, Who did not abandon them, but who helped them, fed them, and guided them on their way. 

With the example from Holy Hunger, I wanted to show that it is each person's individual journey that reveals Who God Is.  While it may seem enough for awhile to just attend church and obey the commandments, each one of us sooner or later will find ourselves either searching for something more satisfying, or in a position, like Bullit-Jonas, desperate for help.  As soon as we open ourselves to the mysterious Other and cry out to satisfy our deepest hunger, He is there.  He loves to answer the cry of our heart.

Our ''theology" of God determines our relationship with Him, and our relationship with Him determines our theology.  The reason Jesus invited us into a personal relationship with the Father and promised us the Holy Spirit was to make of members of the "Family."  I have been trying to diagram the relationship to which we have been invited, but although I can get it down in Word, I cannot get it to paste into the blog.  So I will have to be content with trying to explain in words what a picture would show much better.

We tend to think of the saints in heaven standing around admiring the Beauty, the Love, the Goodness of God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit.  But actually, in heaven, we are drawn into their very life: the life, the energy wherein the Father pours out into the Son all that He is and has.  The Son, receiving everything from the Father without reserve, returns everything He receives back to the Father in the dynamism or movement of the Holy Spirit.  And we --- we are in Jesus; we are standing in Him as He receives everything from the Father, just as if we were supposed to be there from all eternity.  We are dynamic, participating, members of the family of God, not bystanders watching it all happen and admiring from afar. 

And that participation, that life, begins even now, through the action of Jesus Christ incarnating Himself in our flesh and taking up all the issues of our life as His own.  He has become one with us as He is with the Father, and He unites us with one another as we are united in Him.  That is what theology is all about---union with God and with one another in the divine action and energy of the Holy Spirit.