{"id":38136,"date":"2024-09-04T14:17:39","date_gmt":"2024-09-04T21:17:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=38136"},"modified":"2024-09-04T14:17:39","modified_gmt":"2024-09-04T21:17:39","slug":"considering-gods-nature-when-diversity-creates-conflict","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/considering-gods-nature-when-diversity-creates-conflict\/","title":{"rendered":"Considering God&#8217;s Nature When Diversity Creates Conflict"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c6\">Marilynne Robinson\u2019s newest book,\u00a0<em><span class=\"c7\">Reading Genesis,<\/span><\/em>\u00a0is a rich exploration of the book of Genesis. She considers the academic interpretations and the literary interpretations from previous scholars through a unique lens. \u00a0Her approach to Genesis weaves themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture\u2013within her achingly beautiful writing, Robinson powerfully considers the profound meanings and promise of God\u2019s enduring covenant with humanity<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref1\" href=\"#ftnt1\">[1]<\/a><\/sup><span class=\"c0\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>What God&#8217;s Nature Offers Us<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\">\u00a0In light of our conversations last week surrounding the Middle East and the Israeli conflict, I find myself still asking the question of\u00a0<span class=\"c7\">how might Jesus instruct His followers<\/span>\u00a0who are created as \u201c \u00a0. . . a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a dedicated nation, God\u2019s own purchased, special people, that [we] may set forth the wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him Who called [us] out of darkness and into His marvelous light?\u201d<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref2\" href=\"#ftnt2\">[2]<\/a><\/sup><span class=\"c0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\">Whether or not we agree who is the heir of the covenant (The country of Israel, spiritual Israel or the Church), Robinson points out in her writings that in God\u2019s Oneness and Omnipotence, the God of the Universe offers a covenant that is \u201cindependent from its human bearers, even while it is profoundly associated with this fallible and vulnerable little clan. Its aloofness has to do with the nature of God, His faithfulness, first of all, which could not be absolute if it could be affected by the thoughts and actions of creatures so volatile as these mortals are. \u00a0A covenant, a bond of faithfulness, is the form of relationship The Lord offers humankind.\u201d<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref3\" href=\"#ftnt3\">[3]<\/a><\/sup><span class=\"c0\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\"><span class=\"c0\">I wonder how Robinson\u2019s perspective sits with you? Our Creator\u2019s Nature is independent, differing from ours? \u00a0<\/span><span class=\"c0\">How does God\u2019s Nature inform the way diversity creates conflict?<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\">While I was reading about our Christian political witness in an age of totalitarian terror and dysfunctional democracies in N.T. Wright\u2019s and Michael F. Bird\u2019s book, <em><span class=\"c7\">Jesus and the Powers<\/span><\/em><sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref4\" href=\"#ftnt4\">[4]<\/a><\/sup><span class=\"c0\">, it seemed like we were continuing a collective conversation from our posts last week. Here\u2019s where I resonated with the first three chapters. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ul class=\"c9 lst-kix_2rmi4hatj7j8-0 start\">\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\">Words describing our times: Precarious and Perilous.<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref5\" href=\"#ftnt5\">[5]<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\"><span class=\"c0\">The optimism of the early 1990s died in 2001.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\"><span class=\"c0\">America lacks the consensus and belief in a greater good that once characterized its political class.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\"><span class=\"c0\">Israel\u2019s vocation was to be a Kingdom of priests and light the nations.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\"><span class=\"c0\">The\u2019 Suffering Servant\u2019 was to embody both the vocation of Israel and the vocation of Israel\u2019s God by taking on the exile, shame and death to renew the covenant and creation.<\/span><\/li>\n<li class=\"c4 li-bullet-0\">The purpose of Israel and the Torah was to set forward the larger purposes of God. Mysteriously and ironically, Christ\u2019s crucifixion on the cross was what accomplished our Creator\u2019s greater purpose as now the \u2018powers\u2019 are reconciled.<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref6\" href=\"#ftnt6\">[6]<\/a><\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c6\">Wright and Bird articulate how Jesus\u2019 victory is celebrated because human beings could now be free to be the \u2018royal priesthood\u2019 through whom \u201cGod\u2019s wise, healing justice would be brought into the world.\u201d<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref7\" href=\"#ftnt7\">[7]<\/a><\/sup>\u00a0 With the \u2018powers\u2019 now reconciled, the authors assert God\u2019s intentions that humans should share in running the world, rising to the challenge of establishing and maintaining God\u2019s intention for a well-functioning human society.<sup><a id=\"ftnt_ref8\" href=\"#ftnt8\">[8]<\/a><\/sup><\/p>\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c6\"><strong><span class=\"c0\">How Might Jesus Instruct His Followers When So Much Diversity Creates Conflict?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\"><span class=\"c0\">Last January, Multnomah County, a progressive County in Oregon, invited me to do a 5 month long internship with them to complete my family law mediation hours for the state. \u00a0Each day I was assigned to work with a different mediator who would be my co-mediator. The mediators with whom I worked are diverse in sexual orientation, political affiliation, cultural awareness and ethnic background. Looking at optics, we share very little common ground and yet I was clearly welcomed on the team. With every high conflict case we mediated, another mediator and I would debrief afterwards. \u00a0We talked through what went well, where we made mistakes, and how we would write up the agreement. \u00a0On Thursdays, the entire team of mediators meet for 90 minutes while one person presents a difficult case and the rest of us ask consultation questions, clarify information while dissent and debate ensue. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c6\"><span class=\"c0\">After each Thursday meeting would end and my co-mediations would begin, I kept waiting for the other shoe to drop: the division of the team, criticism of leadership, talking about a colleague behind their backs, a power struggle. \u00a0Not once was a person punished for having a different view. As my relationship with my supervisor grew, I asked her outright during one of our one to one meetings: \u201cWhat\u2019s the secret to this team\u2019s unity?\u201d \u00a0Her response is something I wonder if Jesus might say to us today. \u201cWe come with the self-determination in that everything we do, we do for the children to have a stable life.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c3\"><strong>What is Your Self-Determination as a Leader?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\">As I finished reading\u00a0<em><span class=\"c7\">Jesus and the Powers<\/span><\/em><span class=\"c0\"><em>,<\/em> I saw how confident pluralism offered a political solution to the practical problem of our differences.\u00a0 Likewise, mediators can embrace differences because they are confident in their beliefs of family systems and they are independent of the conflict. In mediations, people are free to express diverse ideas, to dissent, to debate. Then, if all goes well, we come up with a plan on how to live with those differences.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c6\"><span class=\"c0\">As a royal priesthood, a chosen nation, might we choose to embrace pluralism because we are confident in our own beliefs that we aren\u2019t meant to be in power and that the Kingdom has come? \u00a0Is this a greater argument for church engagement as we know the Church is what sustains and helps build the Kingdom of God? Rather than turning away in our work, our communities, our families when diversity creates conflict, we can look for ways to come alongside people who think and live differently from us. In this way, what I learned from my time at Multnomah County was that building Jesus\u2019 Kingdom required me to confront powerful \u201cempires\u201d in all forms. The more self-differentiated I became, the more whole and healthy I showed up at work, the more freedom my clients experienced. \u00a0I don\u2019t understand it but in that very small example, I catch a glimpse of how different God\u2019s Nature is from ours and even in that vast difference, He loves us with an Everlasting Love.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c3\">\n<p class=\"c3 c8\">\n<p class=\"c3 c8\">\n<p class=\"c3 c8\">\n<hr class=\"c11\" \/>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt1\" href=\"#ftnt_ref1\">[1]<\/a><span class=\"c10\">\u00a0\u201cReading Genesis: Robinson, Marilynne: 9780374299408: Amazon.Com: Books.\u201d Accessed September 4, 2024.<\/span><span class=\"c10\"><a class=\"c12\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/url?q=https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Reading-Genesis-Marilynne-Robinson\/dp\/0374299404\/ref%3Dtmm_hrd_swatch_0?_encoding%3DUTF8%26dib_tag%3Dse%26dib%3DeyJ2IjoiMSJ9.2I3mFOj4kE7reMgDsKVO1dJe24E6CUmUOz5RvpydYxSZvusbVOu9WVHCNkZHLdZe0Ru_EIpbD1xJFO9MfI7qPgMZVBtoQAjDja299O0F3Gizc4yf2SnOsoVOKPVRIbt6Zx8UZOumyO9rzS2dkTiaql24EMKS_clor-pmQzYpYJ5lvvYlF6KNvMSaUQ7fbpvcroSxZftIKRz9HqImA6WVpRu4Qdl6qZQbeLE7MvTeoL0.1jvg3ww_u7NdkPRP4pnsv3p1yXzZqZyzkmIUC33XdOo%26qid%3D1725464832%26sr%3D1-1&amp;sa=D&amp;source=editors&amp;ust=1725487438506034&amp;usg=AOvVaw2PEU-8vdxgtYQrDHa99Su8\">\u00a0<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt2\" href=\"#ftnt_ref2\">[2]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0I Peter 2:9, AMP.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt3\" href=\"#ftnt_ref3\">[3]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0\u201cReading Genesis: Robinson, Marilynne: 9781250371850: Amazon.Com: Books.\u201d P. 144-45.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt4\" href=\"#ftnt_ref4\">[4]<\/a><span class=\"c10\">\u00a0Wright, N. T.\u00a0<\/span><span class=\"c7 c10\">Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness in an Age of Totalitarian Terror and Dysfunctional Democracies<\/span><span class=\"c5\">. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan Reflective, 2024.<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c1\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt5\" href=\"#ftnt_ref5\">[5]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0P. 4<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"c1\">\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt6\" href=\"#ftnt_ref6\">[6]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0P.59.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt7\" href=\"#ftnt_ref7\">[7]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0IBID.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p class=\"c2\"><a id=\"ftnt8\" href=\"#ftnt_ref8\">[8]<\/a><span class=\"c5\">\u00a0P. 60.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Marilynne Robinson\u2019s newest book,\u00a0Reading Genesis,\u00a0is a rich exploration of the book of Genesis. She considers the academic interpretations and the literary interpretations from previous scholars through a unique lens. \u00a0Her approach to Genesis weaves themes that resonate through the whole of Scripture\u2013within her achingly beautiful writing, Robinson powerfully considers the profound meanings and promise of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3253,3255,3242,3254,3252,3210,219],"class_list":["post-38136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-believe","tag-christianpoliticalwitness","tag-jesusandthepowers","tag-marilynnerobinson","tag-ntwright","tag-wright","tag-diversity","cohort-dlgp02"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38136"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38138,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38136\/revisions\/38138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}