When our species first stood up and looked around it’s unlikely that we differentiated ourselves from the rest of the creatures. We were just one species among many trying to get enough food and shelter to live to see another day. But around the time of the agricultural revolution—perhaps eight to ten thousand years ago—it had dawned on us that we possessed unusual powers that distinguished us from animals. For one thing, we could domesticate them, and get them to help us with our work. We could clear forests, and grow crops, which meant that we didn’t have to be nomads, unlike the other animals that had to follow the seasons to get their food. We could stay put by growing our own food. We had the power to dam up rivers and divert water for irrigation. We could store up grain and food as a hedge against drought. We possessed this thing called language, which meant that we could not only communicate with each other, but we could use to language to exchange goods and services, and learn from other cultures. Most importantly perhaps is that we had the gift of conscious awareness, unlike other creatures. We could think about life, about purpose, and about the nature of reality.
In the words of the Psalmist, we concluded that we were made “a little lower than God”. A single God emerged in our consciousness, around 2800 years ago, who was sovereign over all the tribal gods and nature spirits. Monotheism—religions that claimed that there was only one, true God—emerged. This God was Lord of nature, as well as the tribal gods and natural spirits. And with the arrival of these monotheistic religions, including the Jewish and Christian religions, we began to believe that whatever powers over nature we possessed were a gift from this one, true God.
“What is man that you are mindful of him?” (Psalm 8). God is mindful in a particular way, in this apparent power over nature, in the power to name animals, domesticate them, and use them for our own ends.
“You have given him dominion over the works of your hands, you have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen, and also beasts of the field, the birds of heavens, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the sea” (8:6-8)
Just as this one God is sovereign over human beings, so human beings are sovereign over nature. This is what it means to be made in God’s image, according to the biblical writers. This is our uniqueness understood from within a traditional or mythic worldview. It is the power to rule over. Like God, we are to exercise our power benevolently, graciously, and mercifully. And the way to do that is through obedience to the one, true God. Obedience, understood as keeping the law and the commandments, enabled us to rule over nature as God rules over us. Disobedience results in violence, the abuse of power, and pride in our own power.
Obedience to this one God is how those creatures who were “a little lower than God” kept themselves from abusing their power. The challenge is that over time, as worldviews evolved from mythic to modern, there was no need for God. Our strategy for constraining our considerable power was jettisoned along with that God. And this happened at a time when our powers were exponentially increasing. We are today so powerful and so successful as a species that we now threaten life on the planet.
In the modern era, during the Industrial Revolution, we also disconnected from nature. In this state of disconnection, we began to think of nature mechanistically. We alone were alive and conscious. Nature was dead, unfeeling, little more than a thing that was there for one reason only, and that was to be an economic resource. Without God, we lost our source of accountability and ethical foundation. We went forth with our technological, scientific, engineering prowess outside of any of the constraints of our pre-modern ancestors, and conquered nature. In the Western democratic world, there was no external God to offer obedience to, and our ethical intelligence didn’t keep up with cleverness as a species. There are many dignities associated with the modern era. But we are just beginning to awaken to indignities, hopefully before it’s too late.
Some believe that by returning to a traditional worldview, we’ll regain our sanity as a species and curtail our God-like powers. Fundamentalist and conservative approaches to religion advocate for a return to the religion of our forefathers.
But there truly is no going back, I’m afraid. It’s a non-starter for anybody functioning from a modern or postmodern consciousness to offer obeisance to an external sky-God—or else. For good or for ill we are left with ever-increasing powers, and left with the problem of figuring out how to use them in a way that doesn’t destroy ourselves and life on the planet.
We are made “a little less than God” and this means not curtailing, but harnessing, our powers for good. In truth, the human species in the 21st century is approaching the point where we have appropriated most forms of power than we once associated with God alone. There is no use in denying these powers. These powers are good. They are God-given gifts.
In the prologue of John’s gospel, the author contends that this is exactly Jesus’ gift to the human species. He gave us the “power to be children of God” (John 1:13), power to create, power to love, and the power to be responsible for life. As I said, these powers once belonged to God alone. But we’re now realizing that they belong to us. The effective and responsible use of these powers is the vocation of those who imagine themselves to be “children of God”. We are inheritors of divine powers.
For example, science has confirmed that we possess the powers of the universe. We are expressions of the creativity of the universe, and so it doesn’t make any sense to try and deny our capacity for innovation and creativity. In us, the face of God shines out. Our life project, should we care to accept the assignment, is the evolution of evolution itself. This is not a power that the Psalmist could even have imagined when he wrote that we are made a little lower than God. Today, we know that it’s true. We are responsible as a species for where the evolutionary process is headed. God empowers us to give birth to the future, for good or for ill. We are quite literally what God is doing or not doing. I think that the church, even the progressive church, is living with a bit of a hangover from pre-modern days. We limit our God-given power out of a false sense of humility. We’re called to be co-creating a new heaven and a new Earth, but by and large we’re waiting for God to do it.
The refusal to exercise the full extent of one’s creative and loving intelligence is itself an ego trip. It’s a refusal to accept reality. What I mean is that the ego, or small self, simply doesn’t know how to dream that big. It’s too much. It’s overwhelming. Our little selves are satisfied with survival. We can handle that much on our own. But being co-creators of the Kingdom of God? We shrink from the calling, and then idealize our contraction.
I dreamed recently that I was running the marathon in the Olympic Games. I was in the lead for the gold medal with one other guy. I caught up to him, and gave him some words of encouragement, like, c’mon let’s really give it on these last couple of laps. In the dream, I sincerely wanted us both to shine, and go for the glory. But this other guy realized that he couldn’t keep up. So he took a short cut. He cheated, crossed the line ahead of me, and took the gold medal. The officials eventually found out, and it was taken away from him. But I interpret the behavior of my challenger in the dream as the action of my small self. My ego can’t keep up with the scope of the dream of my soul. It’s too much. So, I’m tempted to cheat. My ego wants to finesse the glory without actually having to step up and finish the race.
This is not because I’m bad. And if you are setting the bar for your New Year’s resolutions too low this year, it’s not because you are bad. It’s that we haven’t discovered the key to owning our identity as being made a little less than God.
You see, there is a true sense in which our life is not our own. We are shot through with an impulse to serve something much bigger than our instincts to survive, to acquire status, and to procreate. The universe actually wants to evolve through us, and God is in that impulse. The universe wants to transcend itself. It wants to show up with ever more creativity, more loving intelligence, and more empathy. To stay with the metaphor of my dream, this is the race we are running with our lives. The secret to gaining the energy, vitality, and resilience to run that particular race until the day we die is to consciously awaken to the impulse to serve something bigger than our instinct to conserve the status quo.
At our planet turns toward the year 2012, it is simply no longer an option to conserve the status quo. Too much is at stake. It’s all hands on deck for the transformation of our personal lives, our communities, and our social systems. There is an urgency that is calling us, as many of our social and planetary systems are breaking. This urgency is also a great opportunity to align ourselves with a vocation that is planetary in scope. There is a planetary shift that is underway, and if we’re not in service of that shift, we’re not going to find our soul’s purpose. It’s why we’re alive at this time, in this age.
If we’re imagining that it’s about us and all the projects of the small self, we simply don’t have the stamina to see it through. The projects of the ego are not big enough for our soul. This insight and orientation that we are consciously here to serve something more than our own happiness unlocks a floodgate of divine energy. We are given power to become children of God. We receive power to realize the promise, and unlock the evolutionary code, that is built into our genes and into our minds. What elicits the divine creativity and love? What opens us to an eternal Source of vitality that will see us through and dare I say, save our planet and us? It’s a heart to serve the big shift in planetary consciousness—to give our lives to being that shift.
When we set our New Year’s resolutions typically they revolve around projects of the ego. Maybe this is why we so rarely realize our resolutions. We don’t have the discipline to see them through, because if we’re honest about it, we don’t care enough to realize them. And we don’t care enough, because they are not in service to a project that is bigger than ego. This means that we don’t open the door to the Source. There’s not enough purpose to unlock the divine evolutionary code, and release the vitality of reality.
In our day, it is not obedience to, or fear of, an external God that motivates us and keeps our powers in check. It’s an interior alignment with Spirit’s project. The strategy is not to limit our god-like powers. It is rather to unleash them in service of the health of the planet, a just society, and spiritual fulfillment. This doesn’t mean that we have to radically alter our New Year’s resolution. You may be resolved to lose weight. That’s a wonderful goal. But do it so that you will have more vitality and energy to be of service to a world that needs you to show up in all your radiant beauty. It’s just a different orientation. Sit down with each of your resolutions and set them in the context of the bigger picture—how do they serve the whole. It’s a subtle thing. The desire to evolve spiritually, for example, can even be hijacked by the small self, can’t it? Our only reason to consciously evolve is to be a more effective conduit for Spirit’s transformation of the world.
Jesus continues to be our model. This passage from Philippians is a great summary of the good news of Christ. Jesus emptied himself, not counting equality with God a thing to be grasped, but rather took the form of a servant. Jesus didn’t become small as a way of dealing with his divine powers. That’s not what being humble means. True humility simply means standing in the truth. Jesus healed the sick, made bold pronouncements that the Kingdom of God was present in him, and through him, and started a movement that changed the world. He didn’t hold back because he knew he was in service of something bigger than himself. Once you know that, in your bones, let ‘er rip. You gain the energy and vitality necessary to finish the race. Notice that because Jesus knew his life wasn’t his own, and knew this with unwavering clarity, he is portrayed in our tradition as being lifted up and seated at God’s right hand. Serve and be lifted up. Declare your willingness to serve our planetary shift, and be lifted up. Orient yourself daily through spiritual practice to this divine project, and you will be lifted up—not a reward for good behavior. Being lifted up to sit at the right hand of God is a metaphor of realization of truth.
Happy New Year my friends, and may we be united as a community of faith, in the blessed privilege of serving the vision of revealing and realizing the realm of God on our stunning home planet.
