Non-Competitive Transcendence!

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Exodus 3:2

2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed.

 
 

Allow me to use a ten-dollar term today: “non-competitive transcendence.” I first heard the Roman Catholic Bishop Robert Barron use this term years ago, and I’ve loved it ever since.

If I want to sit in the seat you’re sitting in, you will have to move before I can sit there. If I want to park my car in your parking space, your car will have to move. This is because we live in a finite world and for me to be where you are, you’ll have to give way. We are “competing” so to speak for the finite resources of the world.

In the Greek myths, when Zeus shows up the same thing happens: people have to get out of the way. There is lightning and violence when the gods arrive. Why? Because the gods are part of this world, and so they are also competing for its finite resources.

Note, however, that when the Lord shows up, he is not competing with us. This is because God is not the biggest part of Creation; rather, God is not part of Creation at all—God made Creation. In fact, the first sentence of the Bible tells us that there is God, and then there is everything else.

So, when the Lord appears to Moses in the bush, the bush is burning but not consumed. In other words, God’s presence doesn’t take anything away from the bush—God’s presence is a non-competitive transcendence.

Why does this matter?

I’m convinced that the primary reason people today refuse to believe in God is because they are afraid that if they do so, they will lose their freedom. But this is to misunderstand God! When God comes close to us, we become more of who we are—we become more free, not less.

In traditional Eastern Orthodox iconography, the Virgin Mary is sometimes portrayed in the midst of the burning bush? Why? Because she was the vessel that contained the Son of God, but she wasn’t consumed by the fiery glory of God! Isn’t that a lovely image?

Don’t be afraid to trust God today—his will for you is freedom and joy, and the only way you’ll find it is in him.

P.S. Try to work “non-competitive transcendence” into a conversation today. I’ll be so proud!