Bald Eagle Alaska
The question, if God is not up there and out there, where is God?—has led me to a study of modern science and astronomy. As I sat in the planetarium and looked at the images of the expanding universe on the domed ceiling, I was enthralled with the expansiveness of the universe—billions of galaxies like our each with billions of stars, supernovas exploding and bringing forth new stars from dying stars. Life-death-resurrection in the warp and woof of the creation story. Wow!!!! This view of the universe moves us far beyond the domed cosmology of the biblical milieu. God is not out there above the heavens sitting on his throne. Where then is God? Who is God?
Teilhard de Chardin, Karl Rahner, Rupert Sheldrake, Albert Einstein, Brian Swimme, Thomas Berry, John Haught, Ilio Delio and countless others offer a different cosmology. It is a cosmology based on the ever- evolving universe which flared forth from the Creator at the very instant of the Big Bang approximately 14 billion years ago. Creation is not a static, one-time event that happened long ago. Creation today continues to flare forth as an expression the love of the Creator. The incarnation of Jesus the Christ is part of the flaring forth of the Divine Love which drives the universe.
It is time we stopped paying lip service to incarnation. God became flesh, sarx, matter. God became matter. Karl Rahner, among others, believes that there is not much difference between matter and spirit. Spirit is matter evolved to higher levels of consciousness. The Greek word sarx means matter.
What does it mean to say and really believe that God became matter? It means that Jesus the Christ, God become matter, is at the heart of the flaring forth of cosmos. The Risen Jesus is the Cosmic Christ. Living in us as our deepest reality, the Cosmic Christ propels us forth to become that which we already are. The Cosmic Christ is also the Omega Point calling us forth to our true selves—God became matter so that matter might become divine. Matter, the divine Mater, brings us forth and calls us forth to new life, to ever-evolving consciousness of our intimate relationship to the Creator God who is Love Incarnate.
I am particularly intrigues with Sheldrake’s concept of morphogenic (morphic) fields. Sheldrake is trying to account for the fact that there is something beyond matter, beyond sarx, which accounts for the form things take as they evolve over time. One poignant example is the titmouse bird. These birds “learned” how to unseal the bottles of milk left on doorsteps by dairymen. The war interrupted door-to-door deliveries of milk. When deliveries resumed, guess what? A new generation to birds (the original milk sippers had passed on) picked up on the behavior and broke seals and sipped milk. Morphic resonance accounts for the memory which drives evolution to higher levels.
As the cosmos evolves in an evolutionary mode, morphic fields remember the past and adapt to the future. In Matthew 13:53 Jesus says “Then every scribe who has been instructed in the Kingdom of heaven is like the head of a household who brings from his storeroom both the new and the old.” Morphic fields bring forth the old and the new from the storeroom of the Creator.
I am beginning to see how the theory of morphic resonance affects different holons. One such holon would be healing ministry within a church or the church. Healing ministry is a morhpic field. It creates an evolving field of relationships and beliefs and expectations. When people gather to pray over each other, a powerful resonance emerges. In spite of evil, sickness, war and human destruction, the universe bends toward justice—right relationships. God wants us to have life and to have everything we need. Morphic fields can generate wholeness, wellness, and healing.
From all this another powerful concept emerges? Cosmic life is patterned relationships, often chaotic but somehow ordered. Sub-atomic particles do not follow the same rules as atomic particles. Or, do they? The research continues. The important point to me is that the cosmos thrives on relationships. The biosphere is southeastern Alaska is but one dramatic example of this. King Salmon, the Celtic symbol of wisdom, is the focal point of the book, Salmon in the Trees. The trees and insects nurture the salmon after they spawn. By the way, did you know that the salmon dies after spawning? Death bringing forth new life! Growing and maturing, the salmon race down the waterways to find their ocean home. Nurtured by the ocean, especially nitrogen indigenous to the ocean, the salmon return home to the same stream (morphic resonance at work). The eagles, the bears, the otters and other creatures await their return. It is a glorious salmon feast. The eaters are fattened for the winter. The dead and decaying salmon infiltrate the earth and streams. Animal droppings carry the remains of the salmon farther into the rain forest. Salmon is truly in the trees!
Then I discovered that only about 4% of the universe is visible matter. The remaining 96% is either dark matter or dark energy. Visible matter is but the tip of the iceberg with regard to what is really there. What dark matter and dark energy lies beyond every visible star? Is the dark energy which drives the evolution of the cosmos the Creator within matter?
I go back to Thomas Merton who read the mystics right—all is one. We are all in intimate relationship to one another, ourselves, God. Yet, we live in a fractured world where divisions, hate, murder and state-mandated murder—war—are the fare of the day. We thrill to the glory of the cosmos to wake up to senseless mass-murder in Norway.
The Cosmic Christ within us and ahead of us as the Omega Point of the cosmos has shown us a new morphic pattern. The Kin-dom of God shows us what is possible, what our true potential rally is. We are called to go beyond the evil in the evil in the cosmos and to strive to become sons and daughters of the Cosmic Christ is calling us forth in Love.
I will continue my musings and searchings as I thrill at the wonder in the everyday cosmos. I apologize if I have misrepresented any of the teachings of the new cosmologists. I will walk reverently on the earth knowing that she is my mater, the matter I come from, the stardust I am. I rest peacefully in the Creator who is incarnate in me and in us as the Spirit of the Risen Cosmic Christ. Julian of Norwich tells me that all is well and all will be well. God is incarnate in God’s creation bringing forth the hope of resurrected life.
