Apophatica

Horace, in his Ars Poetica, said that a playwright or poet should never resort to “God from a machine” (Deus ex machina) “unless a difficulty worthy of a god’s unraveling should happen.”  In Greek tragedies, the protagonist would often find him- or herself in such an unredeemable situation that there could not possibly be a positive outcome, when suddenly a person playing a god would be raised up from the floor or lowered from the ceiling by a machine to save the day.  This is where we get this term.  Horace’s words rang true over 2000 years ago and they still ring true today.

I have been reading Insurrection: To Believe is Human, To Doubt, Divine by Peter Rollins – just one of my favorite Irish-folk.  In this book, he makes many great points on how we view God and how we live in ways that are often antithetical to our views.  It got me thinking about how our faith has evolved over the years.  In today’s post-Christendom culture, there are few who would subscribe fully to a 1950s version of traditional theology.  Congregants, non-church goers, and even pastors have become more progressive in their thinking when it comes to things of God – but do we act like it?

As a pastor, I write liturgy, choose hymns, and craft sermons for every Sunday.  I realize that much of what I create is geared toward my audience and it’s never a good idea to piss off those who pay your bills.  BUT, how are any of us doing when it comes to our words and actions in relation to our understanding of the workings of the cosmos and the nature of God?  When I pick hymns, I often have to stick with old favorites to appease folks, but is it really healthy to sing hymns about a royal deity much removed from creation when our thoughts actually tend toward the panentheistic?  Is it ok to pray that God heal Mrs. Jones when we’re not so sure that’s how God works?  What about throwing out cliches to comfort someone during loss when we’re pretty convinced that we’re not going to be gathering at the river when this horse and pony show is done?

So, most of these are inconsequential examples, but I would also argue that they have large ramifications.  Something that isn’t inconsequential, however, is how we live our lives.  When we have moved far beyond a belief system that assures us that God will some day send Jesus back and make everything alright after kicking the “bad guys'” butts, why do we act like we still adhere to it?  If our theology tells us that the God that works ex machina is a long-dead construct, then how are we doing in light of our evolved theology that informs us that WE have work to do because God works through US?

When it all comes down to it, we are all living our lives as if we still adhere to a theology that we wrestled with, tasted the bitterness of cognitive dissonance, and finally freed ourselves from.  Why do we bother?  What if our actions and our beliefs were aligned in a way that we actually put our money where our faith is, so to speak?  Random acts of love and kindness, intentional work to bring hope to the downtrodden, freeing the oppressed with words and actions – it all takes guts and embracing the idea that nobody will do it for us.  As a pastor, I guess it’s my job to set the example and call on other clergy to set the example for their congregations to live as they believe.  Man, why do I always have to do all the work!?  Life would be so much easier if Horace were wrong and the conservatives were right . . . .

This entry was posted on July 24, 2014 at 2:52 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.