Wednesday's thoughts

The sermons for Sunday August 17Th presents the ideas of Process Theologian Alfred North Whitehead. The following is a brief introduction of his ideas:

So much theology presents us with an image or idea of God that is difficult to follow and difficult to apply. It's impossible to believe in a God whose nature is beyond what we can grasp with our logic. If, for example, we are told that God's will is such that everything that happens conforms to it, how can we believe in a God who would bring about human suffering or death? Is it God's will that our loved ones die? Does God bring about death? Illness? Misfortune?

Does God make the good things that happen to us come about? When we are given a good medical report after a medical crisis, was it God's will that we were healed? What about the person in the hospital bed beside us who didn't have the same good fortune?

Whitehead sees God in the matrix of relationships that make up the universe as we know it. He believes God is not a being who is supernaturally above us. He sees God as a part of the natural world and is part of life was we experience it. He believes God is in the process that is moving toward a distant point of coming together of all things and it is generated by the power of love. God does not control us nor does God exercise coercive power over us. We can resist the process/God or we can strive to line up our lives with it. We can be part of the process of goodness and love.

Whitehead believes Jesus is the example of what the process is moving toward. He represents the concern for the outcast; the attention given to the least of these; the identification of the Kingdom of God with the spirit of a child; and the reign of God in the healing of a troubled heart.

God is not a power over us; but a presence with us and within us. God is not a "holy other" but a "wholeness having become aware of itself".

How do we experience God?
In the spirit of adventure that is what life can become
In the interactive relationships that make life worth living
In the working together with others to make the world what it can become
In the passing flux of temporal things
In the rendering to the common good some degree of eternal greatness


Whitehead's ideas can be liberating and exciting and can help make the reality of God active in our lives. We can come to see our faith in a whole new way.

If you have thoughts on this write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to have others read your thoughts click on the box below.

I look forward to hearing from you.


Charles Schuster