“Thou,” Your Enemy

I used to be attracted to process theology, I think because it was the first philosophy that opened my eyes to an alternate theology beyond the basic American fundamentalism you so commonly read about in the socials. I also appreciated its attempts to address theodicy or the problem of suffering and evil. There certainly must be ways that God limits God’s self in order to put love above all, but the main problem I have with process theology is the same problem I have with pantheism. While I believe that God is present in everything as the source and sustainer of all life, as the ultimate ground of being God must also be greater than all of creation. Immanent and also transcendent. Panentheism seems to address this for me and besides as I’ve gotten older, the problem of evil bothers me less and less.

Of course I have some issues with panentheism, both philosophically and intellectually. I hate to force-fit anyone, least of all myself, into a single philosophy. Yet I feel at its core, panentheism is Trinitarian. God is creator, spirit, and incarnate all at once. A friend who is a process theology fan described process theology as taking the first words of the creation story, “in the beginning, God created…” and taking, “the,” out of that phrase resulting in “in beginning, God created.” Unsatisfactorily, God is simply the greatest sum of all created parts. While this may help solve the problem of evil against the common dogma of an all knowing and all powerful God, ontologically it simply punts the football. It makes God one more thing in the created order. You still have to wrestle with the question of why anything exists at all. Ultimately, this question led me to abandon process theology even though I’m still somewhat romantically inclined to some of its core teachings such as God luring us toward love through a universe that seems to exist based on forces of attraction.

Seeing God in All

In the last couple of months, I have taken to the spiritual practice of addressing the world around me as, “thou.” This came from revisiting some Joseph Campbell with my sons during a ski trip.

The Indians addressed life as a “thou,” I mean, trees and stones, everything else. You can address anything as a “thou”, and you can feel the change in your psychology as you do it. The ego that sees a “thou” is not the same ego that sees an “it.” Your whole psychology changes when you address things as an “it.” And when you go to war with a people, the problem of the newspapers is to turn those people into “its,” so that they’re not “thous.” — Joseph Campbell speaking to Bill Moyers in The Power of Myth

As a mystic who believes in the real presence of Christ and has practiced contemplative prayer for over 20 years now, I am aware Christ lives inside of me. Humility demands I recognize I am not unique in this. Once I see Christ inside of myself I cannot help but see Christ inside of others.

Jesus commands us to see Him inside of others. In Matthew 25 we learn that as we have done to the least of our fellow humans, we have done to Christ. Jesus doesn’t say, “as you have done to the least of your fellow baptized and believing Christians, you have done unto me.” It’s about everyone, including and probably especially the least of us. Clearly, Christ finds presence in all of humanity with a preference for those we might shun.

This permeates the entire gospel. Love God and love neighbor even when that neighbor is your enemy. Why does Jesus tells us to love our enemies? Is it because hatred only breeds more hatred? Is it because forgiveness defuses some of our greatest sins? Yes, and also because God‘s spirit has been breathed into the clay of our enemies.

Matthew 5:24-25

But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the righteous and on the unrighteous.

What does it mean for God to make his sun rise on the evil and send rain to the unrighteous? I think the common sense among most Christians is simply that God has created the unrighteous as well as the righteous. I prefer to take a wider view of sun and rain and believe that God’s spirit lives in all of us. I can tell you that loving my enemies is one of the hardest things for me to do as a Christian. How can this makes sense in our chaotic world? Does God’s spirit live inside Vladimir Putin? Yes, I’m afraid to tell you that it somehow must. Putin is barely a shell of a human being — truly one of the least of us. Your largest ideas about the order of the world are minuscule compared to God’s plans.

God’s image and spirit is a part of all of the created order. Just as God sent the sun and rain to the righteous and unrighteous, God sent sun and rain to dogs and frogs, red carnations and the Galatians, long shopping-cart lines and glorious rows of Ponderosa pines. Your body is the temple of God, so is the forest, so is the ski slope, so is the ocean. Everything is sacred because God saw to create and sustain it and call it good. GOOD! The creator of the universe has now and for all eternity called you and all creation, “good,” and if that doesn’t bring you to tears you’re not really hearing it.

This week as you are walking around, try calling the other people and things you meet, “thou.” Not just the trees and pets in your life, but that guy who cut you off in traffic, the boss that fired you 10 years ago, and the protester holding up a sign that makes you cringe with awkward secondhand embarrassment. I’ve really enjoyed taking on this as a simple spiritual practice I can do anywhere at any time. It’s a great and holy feeling to recognize God is eternally with you in all things.