“The creating love of God teaches that love never dominates what it loves…How much of the world is damaged and how many people are among the walking wounded, because we have failed to appreciate the non-coercive character of God’s love?”
-Norman Wirzba, The Way of Love
God’s love never dominates.
If there is one thing the world needs to hear, it is this. God’s love never dominates. We cannot say it enough because we live in a world that acts like it is not the case. We’re told that God takes out His* wrath on His* son. We see priests and ministers, representatives of God, in almost every denomination dominating their people through physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. We hear Evangelicals alienate and other people who are different from them to try to dominate them.
**Using masculine language for God here because the people who profess this system of belief almost always use masculine language for God. Toxic masculinity is projected onto God through images of wrath. We are convinced, like Julian of Norwich, that in God, there is no wrath.
According to Elizabeth Johnson, “The symbol of God functions.” By that, she means that the words and symbols we use to describe God are the words and symbols that we try to take on in our lives. We believe in the kind of God we would like to become. In maintaining God’s dominance, God’s ass kicking power, God’s wrath, etc, the religious world is showing who it is they would like to become. The person they are shows the world the one in whom they truly place their faith, as well.
Perhaps all portrayals of God as one who seeks wrath, vengeance, and repayment are actually personal projections of insecure desires onto God.
What if God is the victim of our insecurities?
Which brings us back to the phrase the world needs to hear: God’s love never dominates. In this world that is so insecure and dominating, we need a reminder that God is not dominating or domineering. God is not wrathful or seeking vengeance. God will never coerce or convince. Coercion is the antithesis of the loving God we imagine here at the Holy Craft.
The most visible manifestation of God we have is Jesus, not because we are convinced that he is God’s only begotten son, but because he portrays a different kind of relationship. He had a unique relationship with his God. One based on compassion, comfort, union, and trust. He wasn’t afraid of his God. If he is one of our best pictures of God that we have (along with folks like the Dalai Llama, Gandhi, etc), it is important to look at how he never dominated. In fact, his weakness shows his inability to dominate.
Is God incapable of doing anything? Yes. God is incapable of dominating because God’s love never dominates.
Jesus shows his inability to dominate in the weakness he showed, even on the cross. In the moments of incredible suffering and injustice, Jesus was incapable of dominating his way off of it. He was incapable of inflicting wrath on those with his own blood on his hands. Have you seen the meme of cross-fit Jesus literally breaking himself off of the cross? (Photo below) That is the opposite of the Jesus we actually see in the Gospels. (Sidenote: Jesus is neither white, nor ripped.)
Instead, we see Jesus cry out in God-forsakenness saying, “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Then he took his last breath.
Does that look like the image of a God who is dominating or wrathful? No. Through Jesus, we see a compassionate God who knows no wrath or vengeance. We see an image of God who kneels down in the sand to take the attention off of a woman caught in adultery (by the way, where is the man?).
So what would it look like for people to actually start living as though their God could never dominate? What would it look like for people to start living as though their God’s power was in weakness? What if weakness is what it is all about? We would rid ourselves of a lot of hurt.
It would look like a collective movement of shedding power. The Greek word from the Christian tradition is kenosis, which is literally a self-emptying. Rather than having world leaders fighting to get to the top and then bragging about all of their power, it would look like them yielding to the needs of others. Rather than getting caught in the rat race of earning (because money=power), people could actually give themselves permission to follow their dreams and do what makes their hearts sing. It would look like no more student loan agencies holding their payments captive, trapping young college grads in meaningless, dead end jobs just to make the payments. It would look like no more power struggle between the haves and the have nots.
Our world could really use a God whose love never dominates.