Unearned Love

Well, it is 4:00 a.m., so what's a guy to do but think about God?
This morning I will do that under the good Lutheran theme of "unearned love."

I am a Lutheran parish pastor serving on the East Side of Saint Paul, Minnesota.

I’ve been here nearly four years and loving it!

I grew up in upstate New York (God’s country!) went to graduate school in New Mexico (geochemistry,) where I met my Minnesota, Norwegian wife, and then worked and lived in the San Francisco Bay Area for six years before going to seminary in Dubuque, Iowa.

I've been in parish ministry since 1984, and I have learned that "God's name is gravity."

This is the rubric under which I think about “grace.”

Grace is not limited to a woman's name or to what we might call a prayer of thanksgiving at mealtime (“table grace…”)

Simply put, grace is unearned love. 

Grace is love that is unmerited; it is love that cannot be earned like a merit badge in scouting.

Grace is free love, and it is God's defining characteristic.

I say that it is God's habit; God habitualy loves freely. This is God's nature.

I will even suggest that Gravity is God's name.

Remember Moses at the burning bush? God did not want to give up God’s name… it was a power issue…

I began thinking about this  in the seminary in the 1980’s while considering gender issues and the name of God. Well, I think God’s name is “gravity.”

Okay, so I am a little weird… And of course I’m writing a little tongue in cheek, but only a little.

Consider this: 

F is the gravitational force between two objects: m¹ and m².

G is a fudge factor: the universal gravitational constant.

r is the distance between the two objects: mass 1 and mass 2.

So do you get it? … This is amazing!

Just because m₁ & m₂ exist,…                                                                    

         they attract one another and (!) the closer they get, the stronger the attraction!

Thank you Sir Isaac Newton...

To say that God’s name is Gravity is to suggest that just because you exist, God is attracted to you: God loves you! This is God’s nature, God’s habit… its just the way God is.

          God has a habit of loving you.

Nota bene: gravity is not static. It may seem that way when presented as a mathematical formula…

But no, this attraction is a real mover, and it opens doors we do not even know exist.

For example, did you know that gravity allows the bubbles to rise in the water?

It's true; bubbles rise not because there is some separate bouyant force; it is simply "differential gravity." There is less mass in the bubble of exhaled air and more mass in the equivalent volume of water, so the force on the water is greater, and it displaces the air.

Likewise, gravity makes it possible for eagles to soar.

The same principle is in effect. Cold air is denser (gravity has a stronger "pull") and displaces the warmer air causing an updraft on which the eagle can soar.

Gravity allows eagles to soar and bubbles to rise in water; gravity also opens doors we don’t know exist…
but maybe that should wait for another post.
For now I will just repeat: God's name is Gravity, and it is in God's nature to love you without any cause on your part. Yes, it is a leap from gravity to love, but that is to think about incarnation, and that, too, must wait for another blog posting.
The sun is beginning to come up (yes, that, too, is done with Gravity,) and I must get off to other work.

New Start

I am just beginning to set up this site and learning what blogging is about. As I am a something of an "old dog," it may take a bit to get into a rhythm. Or, just as likely, I may discover that I do not have time to maintain a regular blogsite.
My hope is that I will have a bit of fun trying to give my theological thesis that God's name is "Gravity," more development and illustration. Much of what I've constructed to date has been prompted by the need to prepare messages ("rollos") for a lay-led Christian renewal movement called Via de Cristo (aka Cursillo.) These messages have evolved over the past ten years and could use some more shaping. Maybe a blogsite will help me be more careful in the crafting of this thesis, and maybe the comments of visitors will encourage or discourage this line of thought.
I'll take the risk.