Wonder and Tragedy: Thoughts Inspired by “The Tree of Life”

Last updated on: December 13, 2011 at 10:49 am by Bruce Epperly

Wonder and Tragedy: Thoughts Inspired by “The Tree of Life” 2011-12-13T10:49:37-06:00 Bruce Epperly

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

At the heart of the nature of things, there are always the dream of youth and the harvest of tragedy. The Adventure of the Universe starts with the dream and reaps tragic beauty. This is the union of Zest with Peace: – That the suffering attains its end in a Harmony of Harmonies. The immediate experience of this Final Fact, with its union of Youth and Tragedy, is the sense of peace. In this way the World receives its persuasion toward s such perfections as are possible for its diverse individual occasions. (Alfred North Whitehead, Adventures of Ideas, 296)

Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? (Job 38:3)

Here we are – mere mortals in the immensity of the cosmos. Galaxies are born and die in the maternity ward of evolution. Our automobiles drink the fluid of the great dinosaurs that roamed the earth. At just the last moment in this immense cosmic journey, we came upon the scene, creating and destroying and creating again – given the power to be partners in evolution but often turning the gift into a curse by our greed and consumption. Still on rare moments, we get over ourselves and shiver as we ask, like the wise one gazing at the heavens “what are we that you are mindful us?” (Psalm 8)

Glory is all around – heaven and earth are filled with God’s glory – and heaven and earth are perpetually perishing, evolving, emerging, dying, and being reborn. And, once in awhile we notice, take off our shoes, at the holiness of it all, cells as well as souls.

Have we, as the film “The Tree of Life” suggests, dishonored God’s glory by our failure to be amazed? Radical amazement is at the heart of spirituality, so says Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, and yet we walk through the day, living in black and white when rainbows and fireflies surround us, and when every breath is a miracle. Like Jacob, every so often we awaken from the dream of our preoccupations and exclaim, “God was in this place and I did not know it!” This place – every place – is Beth-El, the gateway to heaven. We are the gateway to heaven.

Life is perpetual perishing, as the philosopher Alfred North Whitehead asserts, and the greatest evil is the reality that nothing lasts. If we try to hold onto the moment, it slips through our grasp only to be succeeded by another unique moment – “time like an ever-flowing stream bears all its children away.” These days, boomers, like me, are discovering our mortality. Of course, we’ve been living by the illusion that aging happens to other people – that our redefining of aging doesn’t include infirmity and death. But, we are swept along in the stream of life that will eventually take our planet and solar system. Our friends are dying of cancer and we fear the onset of Alzheimer’s whenever we forget an acquaintance’s name.

Tragedy abounds amid the wonder. It is a wild universe. Beauty and suffering live side by side in our lives and in the evolutionary process. A number of my closest friends have incurable cancer. And, of course, children die daily of starvation and violence, even in our own land.

Take notice, number your days and gain a heart of wisdom. But, yet there is great beauty amid the perpetual perishing and, though we are inconsequential in a universe of 125 billion galaxies, we are yet divine stardust, carrying the image of the Great Adventurer. The doctrine of divine omnipresence reminds us that every place is the center of the universe and every cell the object of God’s care. In a world of perpetual perishing, we perish and yet live evermore in God’s memory. Perhaps, more than that, we continue an adventure in God’s companionship, evolving in relationship to our creaturely companions as well as earlier versions of ourselves.

When Mary Oliver gazed transfixed by a grasshopper, she discovered the meaning of prayer – pausing, noticing, opening, and yielding to the amazing uniqueness of this grasshopper viewed by this persons at this unrepeatable moment of time. Still amazed, she asks herself and us, amid the swirling the universe and the death and birth of each moment, “what is it that you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

If doctrine is worth anything, its role is to awaken us to the wonder of the world, to enable us to experience the holiness of each breath and every moment, and to respond as partners in bringing beauty to our world. Living doctrine – and most doctrines are more dead than alive – gives us life and hope and refreshes our spirit for our adventures ahead. Emerging faith aims to be lively, experiential, and life-transforming. It points at the divine, without claiming to encompass God, and discovers God through all the senses. The whole earth is full of God’s glory!

Previous Post

December 12, 2011

Mary...re-imagining Advent

Next Post

December 13, 2011 And Our Eyes At Last Shall See Him

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Addiction Advent Atheism Authority Bible Cartoons Christian Year Christmas church church planting Civil Rights Community Contemplative Spirituality Culture emerging church Empire Eschatology Evangelism Events Gender Healing Humanism Islam Justice Kingdom Lent Movement Building Multi-Faith Music mysticism New Wave Emergence origins Personal Poetry politics Prayer Preaching Privilege Racism Religious naturalism Resurrection salvation SKEPTIMERGENT Theology Trauma Uncategorized

Select a Month December 2017 November 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 October 2014 September 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 July 2012 June 2012 May 2012 April 2012 March 2012 February 2012 January 2012 December 2011 November 2011

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

How long did Israel wander in the wilderness after leaving Egypt?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Forty years Five years Seventy years Ten years