Here I Am
Humanity’s Distinct Invitation to Co-Creation with the Holy Spirit in Evolution & Revolution
My professor called this paper “wide reaching” which was, I think, a very kind way of saying I crammed a few too many elephants into one circus. I’m exploring a lot of concepts here, but the heart of what I wanted to say is that my understanding of dominion is one of stewardship, not domination, that the unique position of humanity as creators amidst creation is one of care, not entitlement, and that humanity has a call, a responsibility, to be tender and loving as God is tender and loving to us.
How do we understand suffering? In the book of Job, Job loses his family, status, even his bodily health. Friends tell him this must be the result of some sin he has committed against God, but Job knows himself. He is “blameless and upright,”(Job 1:1) and so Job cries out to heaven, demanding answers. “In desperation he challenges God to appear in court to answer for the divine misdeed of sending such trouble to an innocent man…the divine voice begins putting a series of questions to Job: ‘Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?’”(Johnson, 150) Translation: dear human, have a little context. God’s not being dismissive of Job’s plight; clearly he cares dearly about him, or they wouldn’t be having this conversation. Rather, God is reminding Job that reality is not under Job’s control. It’s a bittersweet truth for human beings, that we have a place in the universe. Bitter because it is only a place; limited, finite, temporary, uncertain. Sweet because what a gift to have a place at all. In this tension between humanity’s distinct will and ultimate powerlessness, the Holy Spirit invites us to co-creation.
It matters that Job knows himself and knows God, and he clings to the difficult truth that both are blameless in his suffering. God commends Job’s faith and trust. “It should be noted that God compliments Job for insisting that his suffering was not a punishment for sin. Job is correct on this point. But the meaning of his travail is hidden in the wider mystery of creation’s magnificence.”(Johnson, 151) So suffering cannot be understood as simple cause/effect: bad humans have bad times. Suffering, pain and death are difficult facts of this reality as all creation experiences it. There is some suffering people are helpless to alleviate or understand; it can only be lamented.
But not all suffering is veiled in mystery. Often the sources of suffering can be known or discovered. “The existence of the world is exclusively a result of God’s will, but what happens in the world is not exclusively an expression of God’s will.”(Hegstad, 89) Consider the following:
According to a recent study by the Williams Institute at UCLA, 42% of transgender adults in the United States have attempted suicide. Research by the Trevor Project revealed that “anti-transgender laws significantly increased incidents of past-year suicide attempts among transgender and nonbinary youth by as much as 72%.” Citing wide ranging studies and provider testimonies, a 2022 article by the Innovative Clinic of Neuroscience defended the “paramount role of the provider in establishing gender-affirming care.” The “cure” to gender dysphoria is giving life, physically, socially, to one’s authentic identity. Denial, rejection and oppression generate harmful outcomes.
10 million Black people were enslaved in America. Centuries of tremendous suffering have not been adequately met with comfort and repair, but instead with denial and continued oppression, the maintenance of white supremacy in the forms of lynching terror, segregation, mass incarceration; the same sin in new forms. According to the NAACP, only 13% of the general population in America is white, yet 35% of individuals executed under the death penalty in the last 40 years were Black.
Climate change is a reality and the decimation of habitats and systems is inflicting a genocide on creation. “Estimate estimates vary widely, but the rate of extinction now stands at upwards of hundreds of species a day, as compared to the natural historical erasure of one to five a year.” (Johnson, 190) Droughts and floods spasm across the planet, driven by the greed and violence of the fossil fuel industry. In Between the World and Me Coates writes, “Once, the Dreamer’s parameters were caged by technology and by the limits of horsepower and wind. But the Dreamers have improved themselves, and the damning of seas for voltage, the extraction of coal, the transmuting of oil into food, have enabled an expansion in plunder with no known precedent. And this revolution has freed the Dreamers to plunder not just the bodies of humans but the body of Earth itself. The Earth is not our creation. (Coates, 150) These are not Biblical floods. “This time the asteroid is us.” (Johnson, 190)
Life itself is threatened. Beloved creation groans. “Crosses keep on being set up in history. It is not just individuals who hang there, but whole social groups… their suffering is not natural, but due to the way society is organized and run for the benefit of a privileged few.” (Johnson, 123) Scripture reveals that Christ not only empathizes with the suffering of the world, but enters into and shares it. “As long as you did it to one of the least of these siblings of mine, you did it to me.”(Matt 25:40). This suffering, unlike the suffering of Job, is not mysterious, nor is it a result of natural, inevitable forces, but is a result of the systematic sins of human beings. “Dying on some court schedule or some prison schedule ain’t right. People are supposed to die on God's schedule.” (Stevenson, 312) Frequent metaphors used to comprehend the Holy Spirit are water, as a source of life, and wind, or breath, as sustaining. To watch pristine waters polluted for profit, to hear George Floyd’s final words, “I can’t breathe,” is to receive a spiritual assignment. There is an inherent wrongness to this pain.
The church has played no small part in the history which led to this reality, perpetuating and maintaining hierarchies. Now theologians must set to work repairing, as the Laudato Si names it, “a disfigured gospel,” a theology haunted by anthropocentrism and dualism.
How did we get here? One of the key ideas held by ancient Greek philosophy is that the world is composed of two realities: spirit and matter.
“Spirit was more valuable because it is closer to divinity, which is pure spirit… using this yardstick, ancient thinkers drew up a picture of the world that ranked all beings in an arrangement called the hierarchy of being. At the lowest level and most distant from the divine are nonliving things such as rocks that are simply composed of matter…. At the pinnacle of life on earth or human beings with an abundance of spirit, being composed of body and soul, a powerful, rational soul within an intelligent mind and will.” (Johnson, 170)
Early Christianity was born into this language and culture of dualism and so the philosophies of the time were imbued in Scripture.
Now, there is an important distinction to be made between what the Bible says and what the Bible means. The early introduction of dualistic understandings created a separation of spirit and matter. However, these understandings are contradictory to both the fact of Jesus taking on flesh and the work of the Holy Spirit as sustainer.
What is the Christian creation story? Much like America’s telling of the Civil Rights Movement, the story of Creation has been oversimplified and robbed of truth. It is said the American Civil Rights Movement is often described as if it happened over the course of a weekend; Rosa Parks sat on a bus, everyone went on a march, Martin Luther King Jr. gave a speech, and the matter, rarely named explicitly as white supremacy, was closed. Similarly, when considering Biblical creation stories, “people often assume that after this initial spark of God’s creative activity everything rolled along on its own. It is almost as though the Creator’s rest on the seventh day extended into a long retirement. What gets overlooked in this shortsighted view is the truth that the act of creation is ongoing. The living God continuously creates.”(Johnson, 4) “Teaching about creation has usually focused only on the origin of things. It is likewise a shame that when the term ‘supernatural’ is used, it tends to confine the presence of God to places, times, and sacramental actions that are holy while everything else is simply ‘natural.’ This tends to lead to locating the experience of God on Sunday but not Monday, in church but not in the rest of the city or country. Frankly, such a divided world does not exist.” (Johnson, 73) Such oversimplifications rob us of the richer truth; creation is active, a continual outpouring of love.
No metaphor for the Creator can be adequate or complete, but nuance can expand understanding. In fact, to be dissatisfied with a small god is a theological responsibility. Rather than a Clockwork Universe, a natural world made and sent ticking apart from the Creator, a person might imagine their relationship to the Creator as the relationship between a singer and a song. “The music of creating entails that an unbroken outpouring of divine goodness upholds the existence of the world in every instant, while creatures exist with an absolute reliance on this life-giving power for their own existence and action.” (Johnson, 5) Creation is not a past event, but present, ongoing, and constant. Further, the metaphor of the relationship between the Composer or the Conductor, and each musician: God empowers and invites the creativity of Creation. Creation is not static but acting. “God creates the world by empowering the world to make itself. Far from compelling the world to develop according to a pre-designed plan, the Spirit continually calls it forth to a fresh and unexpected future.” (21) Psalm 150:6 calls, “O let everything that breathes praise God!” God is the Creator of creators.
What does it mean that Jesus existed bodily in history? “It is important to know that the gospel does not say the Word became a human being (Greek anthropos), or a male person (Greek aner), but flesh (Greek sarx), a broader reality. Sarx or flesh connotes the finite quality of the bodily, material world which, while beautiful, is also fragile, vulnerable, prone to trouble and sin, and perishable, the very opposite of divine majesty.”(Johnson, 114) And Jesus’ ministry was all about bodies: Jesus healed bodies, fed bodies, told bodies to find rest. More than that, Jesus noticed all the bodies of the world. His parables and stories are full of plants, animals, landscapes, even ones without apparent value to human beings. “The gaze of Jesus which noticed a field of wildflowers and a pair of sparrows for sale in the market also looked up upon human beings with interested love. It is striking how the gospels depict him, noticing people on the margins of a cultural group, those who, like wildflowers and sparrows, could be dismissed as a little account.” (Johnson, 107) God in the flesh proves, “It is not only souls that are important. Physical bodies, gifted with dignity, also matter to God: all bodies, not only those beautiful and full of life, but also those damaged, violated, starving, dying bodies of humankind and otherkind alike.” (Johnson, 118) “We are beckoned by Christ to be the humans we are, the bodies we are.” (Mercedes, 90) The gospel message undoes the duality imposed by humanity, the misunderstanding of incompatibility between the world with all its fleshy flaws, and the Spirit.
Now, if an all-powerful God created all things, and God also promised to create a new heaven and a new earth where all problems are solved and sin no longer exists, why can’t humanity rest carefree until that happens? This is the question of dominion.
According to Genesis, God was quite busy on the sixth day, creating “creatures of every kind” and “humankind in our image.” (Note these creations occurred together; man and animal.) God then tells humankind, “have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth…I have given you every plant yielding seed…every tree with seed in its fruit; you shall have them for food.” (Gen 1:28-29) This is the passage which is often used to theologically defend the violent plunder of the earth’s resources, the Manifest Destiny go-to, but “in its original context, this divine commission gives humans a special responsibility to take good care of all the rest. Over time and especially in the modern era, however, the meaning of dominion has shifted to mean domination.” (Johnson, 9) While humanity exists in a particular place in creation, it is still within and inseparable from creation. Human’s unique abilities do not exempt them from natural law but rather bestow the responsibility of stewardship.
Viewed in this light, humanity is created to be uniquely responsive creatures within God’s continual creation, answering to the call of the Holy Spirit which sustains and catalyzes change. Humanity alone is capable of sin; humanity alone is capable of ignoring or answering the Spirit’s continual invitation to encounter. Only humans get to practice consent.
The transformational potential of this continual outpouring of love is embodied in the lives of transgender people.
“In contrast to theologies that emphasize God’s original creation, many transgender Christians celebrate the promise that God continues to make all things new, and that humans are God’s created co-creators…While many theologies tell Christians to give up one’s self for the sake of others, transgender Christians demonstrate how each person must steadfastly love (hesed) themselves as part of loving God and the world. Next, though Christian theologians often have taught that the body (matter) is separate from the mind (spirit), transgender Christians live out the biblical witness that humans are a coherent unity of mud-breath, body-mind. Finally, while some Christian communities minimize the work of the Holy Spirit, transgender Christians welcome the Spirit who gives plurality, newness, unity, unpredictability, and freedom.” (Lowe, 28-29)
This is the force which recognizes the difference between reality as it is and reality as God intends. In much the same way, the Holy Spirit continually nourished and inspired the imaginations of enslaved Black people, reminding them of their innate dignity, pointing towards God’s justice and peace, despite the contradictory messages of the world. This activity is apparent in the work of the Civil Rights Movement and in the spirituals; a sustaining breath, an outpouring of hope and trust, a catalyst of forward momentum. To love one’s neighbors as one’s self, one must know and love the self. This is how Job knew his suffering was not a punishment. This is how God’s beloved creation co-creates authentic identity despite oppression. The small, still voice within is believed; God is love, and we have been made in God’s image.
Philosophies of the hierarchy of being are part of Christianity’s complex history. In the church’s long history of permitting, exacerbating and justifying dehumanization, it is clear that “the hierarchy of being also turned inward in a devastating way on the human community and was used to rank human beings themselves.” (Johnson, 161) By placing themselves above the rest of God’s beloved creation, self-elevated humans made dehumanization possible. The call to dominion was disfigured into permission to dominate both creation and fellow humans. Now humanity must “deconstruct the architecture of our imagination.” (Johnson, 173) The nearness of the Holy Spirit must be recalled because “the Christian gospel is more than a transcendent reality, more than ‘going to heaven when I die, to shout salvation as I fly.’ It is also an imminent reality — a powerful liberating presence among the poor right now in their midst.”(Cone, 155) Hierarchy demands the delay of justice but the Holy Spirit moves here and now.
Early centuries of Christian theology gave rise to the idea that there are two books that reveal the heart of the holy mystery. “One book, obviously, is the Bible. The other book of revelation is the book of nature.” (Johnson, 180) Natural forces, seasons and whales, the puzzle of tectonic plates and evolution of specialized bird beaks: these are living, ongoing masterpieces of the Creator. And God’s creativity is seen, not merely in the fact of the diversity of species, but in the balance of species, in their relationship to the environment, in needs met, in relationships. It is not just the impressive parade of animals walking two by two into the ark; it is God continually providing reality to each of them; the foxes with dens, the birds with nests, the flow of seasons, a place and a time for all things. All creation belongs. In this second book it is apparent that God prefers something to nothing; God prefers diversity to monotony; God prefers evolution and growth to stagnation. And a Creator who bestows agency to the created thus prefers liberty, freedom, and authentic choice.
Human beings are not passive creations, but in-relationship; with self, with neighbor, and with God. Relationships involve exchange, and exchange with the Holy Spirit breathes new life into humanity. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation.”(1 Corinthians 5:17) “And when an individual lives out a novel gender expression or embodied identity, this affirms their innovation and authenticity as God’s co-created creature.” (Lowe, 30) This is the activity of the Holy Spirit, a continual invitation to co-creation, to enter into the universal song.
The Holy Spirit prompts and invites, stirring human imaginations towards the unimaginable future, towards something as strange as hope. Throughout the Bible are stories of those called by the Spirit who answer, “Here I am.” They consent to co-creation, to new life.
“Not all human beings respond to the promptings of their conscience or to the call of the Spirit with a generous ‘Here I am.’ The human response is complex and never coerced. The call to act justly, love tenderly, and walk humbly with your God may be accepted but it may also be refused. Ravaging harm is done by humans to other people and to the earth in acts that religious language calls sin. Even here the call of the living God does not quit. The gift is not like the transgression. ‘Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more,’ declared the apostle Paul in view of Christ crucified and risen (Rom 5:20). In a more contemporary vein the theologian Karl Barth put it this way: "God says ‘Yes'; we say ‘No'; God says 'Nevertheless.’" The tough loving-kindness and faithfulness of the Creator is without end, ceaselessly calling, comforting, and challenging humans onto the right path, opening up the future.” (Johnson, 35)
Suffering is inevitable, but only humanity inflicts such unnatural suffering upon the world. Therefore humanity receives a distinct responsibility and opportunity to alleviate and repair that same suffering. Humanity is not merely in the waiting room to a spiritual salvation, not alienated from a world that must be escaped, abandoned, subdued or dominated. God’s presence is here now. Only humanity is able to consent to the Holy Spirit’s invitation to renewal, justice, mercy, and love, to co-create a new reality. This activity is empowered by the Spirit and embodied in the flesh. The invitation is continual. Humanity alone has the choice to remain silent when the Spirit calls, or to answer, “here I am.”
Sources:
Johnson, Elizabeth A. Come, Have Breakfast. Orbis Books, 21 Feb. 2024.
Kim, Grace Ji-Sun, and Shaw, Susan M. Intersectional Theology : An Introductory Guide. Minneapolis, Mn, Fortress Press, 2018.
Hegstad, Harald. God, the World, and Hope. Wipf and Stock, 31 Oct. 2018.
Lowe, Mary Elise. “From the Same Spirit: Receiving the Theological Gifts of Transgender Christians”
Stevenson, Bryan. Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption. New York, Spiegel & Grau, 21 Oct. 2014.
Cone, James H. The Cross and the Lynching Tree. Maryknoll, NY, Orbis Books, 2013.
Coates, Ta-Nehisi. Between the World and Me. New York, Spiegel & Grau, 14 July 2015.
Peterson, Cheryl M.. The Holy Spirit in the Christian Life : The Spirit's Work for, in, and Through Us, Baker Academic, 2024. ProQuest Ebook Central.
Mercedes, Anna. “Who are you? Christ and the Imperative of Subjectivity.” Transformative Lutheran Theologies. Augsburg Fortress, 2010.
Brown Douglas, Kelly, "Marginalized people, liberating perspectives: a womanist approach to biblical interpretation," from I Found God in Me: A Womanist Biblical Hermeneutics Reader, ed. Mitzi J. Smith (Wipf & Stock, 2015)
Moe-Lobeda, Cynthia D. “Decolonizing the Privileged” Decolonizing Ecotheology, Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2022