The Dance of God? Credits: X-ray: NASA/CXC/CfA/E. O’Sullivan Optical: Canada-France-Hawaii-Telescope/Coelum Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, and how you swore to them by your own self, saying,I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky; and all this land that I promised,I will give your descendants as their perpetual heritage.So the LORD relented in the punishment he had threatened to inflict on his people.
Ez 32,13-14
Today’s first reading brings to mind a question that theologians and thoughtful believers have grappled with for centuries: Can God change?
Hebrew Scriptures contain numerous passages where God “changes his mind.” In the New Testament, Jesus shows emotion when he weeps over Jerusalem and at the tomb of Lazarus. Can prayers and entreaties for mercy change God’s plans?
Part of the dilemma stems from the idea that perfection is unchangeable. If perfection changes, it can only change to less than perfection. So, if God is perfect, God cannot change. This is a static perception of God.
There are other ideas that do not share the static, dualistic (perfect or not) way of approaching God. One of these is looking at God as a dynamic relationship among the Divine persons: As Christians, we could say the relationship of the Trinity. God is not three unchanging persons, but the relationship, the love, the “dance” of three.
Has this “dance” spilled over and “become” creation? Did God will to create and to draw us ever deeper into a relationship with the Infinite, into the “Dance?”
Reflecting on these questions and allowing ourselves to think in new ways about God can deepen our expereince of the Holy One. It can take us to a “broad place,” (Ps 118,5) to look at God with fresh eyes. Today’s reading made me think and sent me to books and the internet to delve deeper into the mystery of how God relates to me, to us, to creation.
As we continue our spiritual journey of Lent, let’s ponder Jesus’ birth, death, and resurrection as God’s most direct invitation: Come, dance with Me.
© 2011 Mary van Balen
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