Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God.
Richard Rohr's Daily Meditation
Christ surrounded by angels and saints (detail). Mosaic of a Ravennate italian-byzantine workshop, completed within 526 AD by the so-called
"Christ surrounded by Angels and Saints" (detail). Mosaic of a Ravennate Italian-Byzantine workshop, completed 526 AD by the
so-called "Master of Sant'Apollinare," Basilica of Sant'Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, Italy.
  
Jesus: Human and Divine
Love, Not Atonement
Friday, March 20, 2015  

The common Christian reading of the Bible is that Jesus "died for our sins"--either to pay a debt to the devil (common in the first millennium) or to pay a debt to God the Father (proposed by Anselm of Canterbury, 1033-1109). Anselm's infamous Cur Deus Homo has been called "the most unfortunately successful piece of theology ever written." My hero, Franciscan philosopher and theologian John Duns Scotus (1266-1308), agreed with neither of these understandings. Scotus was not guided by the Temple language of debt, atonement, or blood sacrifice (understandably used in the Gospels and by Paul). He was inspired by the high level cosmic hymns in the first chapters of Colossians and Ephesians and the first chapter of John's Gospel.

 

After Anselm, Christians have paid a huge price for what theologians called "substitutionary atonement theory"--the strange idea that before God could love us God needed and demanded Jesus to be a blood sacrifice to atone for our sin-drenched humanity. With that view, salvation depends upon a problem instead of a divine proclamation about the core nature of reality. As if God could need payment, and even a very violent transaction, to be able to love and accept "his" own children--a message that those with an angry, distant, absent, or abusive father were already far too programmed to believe.

 

For Scotus, the incarnation of God and the redemption of the world could never be a mere mop-up exercise in response to human sinfulness, but the proactive work of God from the very beginning. We were "chosen in Christ before the world was made," as the hymn in Ephesians puts it (1:4). Our sin could not possibly be the motive for the divine incarnation, but only perfect love and divine self-revelation! For Scotus, God never merely reacts, but always supremely and freely acts, and always acts totally out of love. Scotus was very Trinitarian.

 

The best way I can summarize how Scotus tried to change the old notion of retributive justice is this: Jesus did not come to change the mind of God about humanity (it did not need changing)! Jesus came to change the mind of humanity about God. God in Jesus moved people beyond the counting, weighing, and punishing model, that the ego prefers, to the utterly new world that Jesus offered, where God's abundance has made any economy of merit, sacrifice, reparation, or atonement both unhelpful and unnecessary. Jesus undid "once and for all" (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10) all notions of human and animal sacrifice and replaced them with his new economy of grace, which is the very heart of the gospel revolution. Jesus was meant to be a game changer for the human psyche and for religion itself. When we begin negatively, or focused on the problem, we never get out of the hamster wheel. To this day we begin with and continue to focus on sin, when the crucified one was pointing us toward a primal solidarity with the very suffering of God and all of creation. This changes everything. Change the starting point, change the trajectory!

 

We all need to know that God does not love us because we are good; God loves us because God is good. Nothing humans can do will ever decrease or increase God's eternal eagerness to love.

Gateway to Silence
Jesus came to show God's love.
A webcast with Richard Rohr, OFM

 

Rediscovering the Wisdom of Early Christianity

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

5:00-6:30 p.m. Mountain Time

 

Fr. Richard re-introduces us to the largely forgotten roots of our
Christian faith--the Desert Fathers and Mothers and the Eastern
Fathers of the Church. He helps us reclaim ancient teachings such as
the prayer of quiet, the mutuality of Trinity, universal restoration,
and a simple spirituality of transformation into Christ.

 

Register at cac.org

 

Register by Friday, April 10, 2015 to participate in the live webcast and/or to view the replay. The replay will become available approximately one week following the live webcast
and will remain available for 30 days
only to those who register in advance.

Last chance to register!

 

Breathing Under Water: A Spiritual Study of the Twelve Steps

April 8-June 3, 2015

 

A self-paced, online course for anyone
who seeks greater freedom and wholeness

 

Learn more at cac.org  

 

Registration closes March 25 or when course reaches capacity.

2015 Daily Meditation Theme

Richard Rohr's meditations this year explore his "Wisdom Lineage," the teachers, texts, and traditions that have most influenced his spirituality. Read an introduction to the year's theme and view a list of the elements of Fr. Richard's lineage in CAC's January newsletter, the Mendicant.  

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