Where Is God?
The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Matthew 22:39 NASB
Second – In biblical thought, you can’t have the first without the second. You can’t love God with all your heart unless you also love your neighbor as yourself. Yeshua rightly points the scribe to both answers to the same question. Why? Because one answer alone is insufficient. Sacks notes, “ . . . for Judaism the great spiritual challenge is not so much finding God within oneself as finding God within the other, the stranger.”[1] We might think that we could fulfill the first great commandment without reference to another person, but this is not so. I do not find God by looking within. That is a Greek philosophical concept based in part on a mild egoism, that is, that the true center of my being is found in me. But Hebrew thought is radically different. The real center of who I am is found in the other, not in me. Adam was the first to discover this unbreakable truth of human existence. He becomes ish because she is ishshah. He becomes self-aware in the presence of another. His identity is intimately tied to the existence of the other.
Yeshua’s rabbinic insight cannot be overlooked. The Shema must include the other. God is found in the stranger, the one who is not me. Luzzatto’s analysis of this fundamental religious truth makes it clear that my own self-consciousness is other-dependent. The more I attempt to remove myself from others, the less human I become. And that does not mean moving to an island. It means creating the walls of separation that divide me from others. “If faith is what makes us human, then those who do not share my faith are less than fully human. From this equation flowed the Crusades, the Inquisitions, the jihads, the pogroms, the blood of human sacrifice through the ages.”[2]
Sacks translates Exodus 3:14 as, “I will be where I will be.” The variation is important. God is not where I want to find Him. He is not my exclusive genie, relegated to my temple, my prayer group, my study or my Shabbat circle. God is where He wishes to be, and if Yeshua’s insight offers us any reconsideration, we will admit that the God of our Messiah shows up in some very strange places. In the ditch by the side of the road in Samaria, in the leper’s house, in the prostitute’s bed, in the widow’s suffering, in the tomb of a friend, in the palace of a pagan. If we even begin to think that God is our God found in our assembly, we will march down the road of the oppressor—and God will leave us to build our own empires of difference.
Of course you want to love God with your all. But perhaps you will need to re-evaluate how you do that. Perhaps you need to step away from the comfort of those who are like you and seek God where He is found, in the life of one not like you. Doesn’t He say, “You will find me when you seek me with all your heart?” Did you think that was about mediation?
Topical Index: stranger, great commandment, Matthew 22:39, Exodus 3:14
[1] Ibid., p. 96.
[2] Jonathan Sacks, Radical Then, Radical Now, p. 89.
Yes, I did.
But I don’t anymore!! 🙂
Thanks for this one, Skip. Another eye opener
If I find myself in the other, then to hate another is to hate myself. Hmm. Conversely, if I am beating up on myself, those around me are going to suffer from those blows. It is truly difficult and unpleasant to be around someone who is being hard on themselves. You find yourself cringing with them, and you can’t get away fast enough. I can see now the manipulation people reflexively practice who put themselves down around others, thus prompting others to say “that is not true” just to cut down on the unpleasantness. This is ego-stroking with another’s hand, using the fact that others reside partly in you. Nasty!
I am so tied to all others that I become real at the exact same rate that they do. The real factor of identity, then, lies in the space between us. To the extent that that space is connected is the extent that existence is possible. It truly is about the space in between.
If I have to look in another to find myself, then this brings a new meaning to the command to love them AS I love myself. To love the other, then, IS to love myself! LOL! I better get to work!
Good morning laurita, I was just sharing with some friends on fb a video of a root web that I was planting in and made mention that one of the reasons our foods nutritional value has decreased is in large part due to the “isolation” of plants via the modern planting methods. The plants “share” and exchange nutrients through the root systems if they are intertwined but in isolation they have a very limited accessibility to the full range of things needed to make them whole. (gen. day 2, “dry ground” which can mean to “wick”) Even though they look like their supposed to, they lack what’s necessary. (both innately and what they give) Perhaps that is applicable here. The divisions that are driven between peoples manifest in many ways but it goes deeper, in reality it diminishes our humanishness, ahh, I wonder what that does to our made in His image.
YHWH bless you and keep you…….
“The real factor of identity, then, lies in the space between us………… It truly is about the space in between.”
Thank you for reducing the space between us to zero at your home last week. We so enjoyed our time with you on our return to Canada last night and to find your insightful posting to TW late this morning. It is so apropos to Skip’s question Where Is God? We know She lives in Georgia. Thanks again. We better get to work too! I will start by reading your (and Skip’s) book 31.
Robert, I would be highly interested to see that video, if you could send me a link. My email is lauritahayes at gmail dot com. I do know that in undisturbed soils the heavy lifting of the nutrient exchange is accomplished in large part by the symbiotic microbial communities that cluster on plant roots. The plant collects and synthesizes sunlight via chlorophyll and nitrogen via air, among other ‘goodies’, and shares these with these communities, who in turn, transform inorganic minerals and other nutrients from the soil that the plant cannot uptake. And then they trade. In the process, the bacteria get their sugar, the plant gets the nitrogen and minerals it needs transformed into organic forms, and everybody is happy. We are not even talking about what is happening with the plants who live next door. Certain weeds only show up when the soil is in such a state that only they can put back what has been depleted. Certainly a better way to understand weeds. I really enjoy sharing stuff like this with you and Thomas Elsinger and John Offutt and others. Nature truly is the best mirror to see what the pattern is.
Penny and George, I really think you took a fair portion of that Holy Spirit with you to Canada, but it sure was fun! Let’s do it again!
It’s just a video of a small pitch fork full of dirt from my garden. It was the comments concerning it that are “relevant” to today’s discussion. If you’re still interested if be more than happy to share it with you, comments and all. ?
That’s even better!
Hi Skip and Others,
I have a dear friend of over 40 years who will go down in my memory bank as one to repeatedly remind me and others: “Your job is to fit in God’s program, right where you are.” I saw a glimpse of fitting in with God’s program in our recent Bible study on the book of Ruth or Reut if you prefer. Respect for difference of opinion was the end result and work of the Holy Spirit. Your sentence: “If faith is what makes us human, then those who do not share my faith are less than fully human. From this equasion flowed the crusades, the inquisitions, the jihads, the pogroms, the blood of human sacrifice through the ages.”
In my geography this means living a Hebraic perspective of faith by personal choice – that is foreign, new, or not embraced by a majority who adhere to other world views or faith-wise, replacement theology. Thanks for stating my friend’s exhort so clearly!
David R
Hello Skip. Once again we have followed the same thought patterns. I connected 1 John 4:20 with the commands Here we are told we simply cannot love God, who we cannot see, if we do not love our brother, who we can see. The two commandments are inseparable. It was the subject of my post this morning. Nice to know I am not alone.
¿Dónde está Dios?
Y el segundo es semejante: Amarás a tu prójimo como a ti mismo. Mateo 22:39
Segundo – En el pensamiento bíblico, no puedes tener el primero sin el segundo. No puedes amar a Dios con todo tu corazón a menos que también ames a tu prójimo como a ti mismo. Yeshua Señala correctamente al escriba a ambas respuestas a la misma pregunta. ¿Por qué? Porque solo una respuesta es insuficiente. Sacks señala, “… para el judaísmo el gran desafío espiritual no es encontrar a Dios dentro de uno mismo si no dentro de otro, el extraño”. [1] Podemos pensar que podemos cumplir el primer gran mandamiento sin relación con otra persona, pero no es así. No encuentro a Dios al buscar dentro. Ese es un concepto filosófico griego basado en parte en un leve egoísmo, Quiere decir, qué el verdadero centro de mi ser se encuentra en mí. El pensamiento hebreo es radicalmente diferente. El verdadero centro de quién soy se encuentra en otro, no en mí. Adán fue el primero en descubrir esta inquebrantable verdad de la existencia humana. Él se convierte en ish porque ella es ishshah. El se vuelve consciente de sí mismo ante la presencia de otro. Su identidad está íntimamente ligada a la existencia de la otra.
La comprensión rabínica de Yeshua no puede ser ignorada. El Shema debe incluir al otro. Dios se encuentra en el extraño, el que no está conmigo. El análisis de Luzzatto de esta verdad religiosa fundamental deja claro que mi propia auto-conciencia es dependiente de otro. Cuanto más trato de alejarme de los demás, menos humano me vuelvo. Y eso no significa mudarse a una isla. Significa crear los muros de separación que me separan de los demás. “Si la fe es lo que nos hace humanos, entonces los que no comparten mi fe son menos que humanos. A partir de esta ecuación nacieron las Cruzadas, la Inquisición, las guerras santas, los pogromos, la sangre de los sacrificios humanos a través de los siglos”. [2]
Sacks traduce Éxodo 3:14 como, “Estaré donde Estaré”. La variación es importante. Dios no está donde yo lo quiero encontrar. No es mi genio exclusivo, relegado a mi iglesia, mi grupo de oración, mi estudio, o mi círculo de Shabat. Dios está donde Él desea estar, y si la opinión de Yeshua nos ofrece alguna reconsideración, admitiremos que el Dios de nuestro Mesías aparece en algunos lugares muy extraños. Al lado de la zanja de la carretera en Samaria, en la casa del leproso, en la cama de la prostituta, en el sufrimiento de la viuda, en la tumba de un amigo, en el palacio de un pagano. Si siquiera empezamos a pensar que Dios es nuestro Dios el que se encuentra en nuestra asamblea, marcháremos por el camino del opresor, y Dios nos dejara construir nuestros propios imperios de diferencia.
Por supuesto que deseas amar a Dios con todo tu ser. Pero tal vez tendrás que re-evaluar cómo se hace eso. Tal vez necesitas alejarte de la comodidad de los que son como usted y buscar a Dios, donde Él se encuentra, en la vida de que no es como tú. ¿Acaso no dice Él, “Me encontrarán, cuando me busquen de todo corazón”? ¿Creíste que se trataba de meditación?
Topical Index: stranger, great commandment, Matthew 22:39, Exodus 3:14
[1] Ibid., p. 96.
[2] Jonathan Sacks, Radical Then, Radical Now, p. 89.