The Pre-Existent Son of God

I'm the foaming Joel Thomas, formerly known as the ranting Joel Thomas. John couldn't decide whether to scalp me or ask me to dinner, so he invited me to guest blog, instead. John and I have become blogging buddies of a sort, but I don't think either one of us would claim it was all smooth sailing. However, we've learned to both accomodate and appreciate each other, except when we're almost "not speaking." Seriously, I am grateful for John with his sense of humor and grace. On an on-going basis, I guest blog semi-anonymously at Richard Hall's site Connexions.

WARNING: This post is not about homosexuality.

At Shane Raynor's Wesley Blog Rev. Karen Booth left a comment on Shane's post named Quotable as follows:

"The argument that Jesus never said anything about whatever only works if you aren't Trinitarian. If you are, if you truly believe Jesus was the pre-existent Son of God and that He, God and the Holy Spirit speak and work in tandem, then Jesus had plenty to say right from Genesis to Revelation, inclduding about homosexuality." I'm including a link to the original post, but again this post is speaking to the theology of the Trinity, not to homosexuality.

I agree with Rev. Booth in part, but not in whole. In my usual neo-orthodox way, I'm a Trinitarian with an asterisk. I've written elsewhere that my theology is to the left of "free will" and to the right of "open theism." I fully accept that the Logos or the Word, whose essence cannot be fully captured by mere human words, is that reason, truth and knowledge in its fullness that has existed co-eternally with God the Father from the beginning of time. The Logos truly was begotten, not made.

I do not agree that the "Logos" is an absolute substitute for "Jesus." The divine essence of Jesus has existed from the beginning, but his humanity has not, and without that humanity, the Logos isn't really Jesus. His humanity has existed only since the incarnation. I believe such incarnation changed not only us, but Jesus himself. I know many will object. God is unchanging. I have the sense of that: "As it was in the beginning, now and ever shall be, world without end." I believe that. That God's essential nature, in truths of justice and mercy, is constant I do not dispute. But something happened to God when manifest in the flesh. For at that time God not only knew humanity, He experienced it. Knowledge and experience are companions but they aren't the same. The Christ who ministered to lepers, ate with tax collectors, and held the children represents a movement not only in history but in God's relationship to us. It became personal. It was the very experience of being completely human, I think, that caused Jesus, in conformity to God's purposes and by the power of the Spirit, to move beyond "an-eye-for-an-eye" to a different standard of justice and mercy. We affected the incarnate Jesus such that He is, by the Logos becoming flesh, over and beyond what He was in the pre-existent state.

The idea that humans had an impact on the divine offends some people's sense of God's soverignty. For me, however, it confirms that sovereignty is more than power and control, it is purpose and reason in action toward redemption and reconciliation. On the one hand, Jesus could alter some of the earlier teachings while keeping to the moral law because of the prophets his Father called that pointed to a coming Savior who would usher in a different kind of Kingdom that is not of this world. But on the other hand, the accumulation of generations of human sweat, toil, suffering, and joys, as well as rebellion, punishment, and exile, interacted with Jesus at the human level such that God then not only knew, but experienced all truth and knowledge.

It is for that reason that we United Methodists can proclaim that despite the fact that the Hebrew Scriptures quite seem to approve of capital punishment, that we can make a faithful judgment that Jesus did not, even as he did not specifically condemn it. That makes Jesus different than the Word that existed when the Hebrew Scriptures were given. The Logos knew of pain and sorrow, disappointment and heartache, fear and anxiety, but had never experienced these life events. As Christ incarnate those things were thrust at him and he was changed, different, and transformed that we might have the possibility of being one with the Father in ways never open to us before.

I wrote that this post is not about homosexuality. OK, those who read very many of my comments know I often can't resist. The reason I believe that Pauline understandings of homosexual relationships don't have to be fixed for all time is the very idea of the Logos experiencing humanity in life, death and resurrection. I have come to believe, after faithful study, both of Scripture and science, along with intentional prayer, that Paul's ideal of community can in some circumstances best be achieved by the encouragment of committed monagomous homosexual relationships. The risen Christ and through the power he left behind in the Holy Spirit manifests God's ongoing revelation. God may do a new thing simply because he now experiences as well as knows.

Now if John reads this while he is away, I'll have to check to see if my posting privileges still exist,as it might represent theology that sends his head spinning in disgust. But hey, I do believe in the Virgin Birth, the atonement, miracles and the physical resurrection of Christ. ;-)