In the Creation Business with God
Divine Human Cocreation
Writing of the work of God in continually creating an ever-evolving creation Meister Eckhart said: “St. Augustine says, ‘What does it avail me that this birth is always happening, if it does not happen in me? That it should happen in me is what matters.’ We shall therefore speak of this birth, of how it may take place in us. —Meister Eckhart (1260–1327)
Cocreation
Yes, let’s speak of this divine-human birthing that goes on in and through us. In the business world, co-creation is a strategy that brings different parties together (for instance, a company and a group of customers), in order to jointly produce a mutually valued outcome. It is a form of collaborative innovation where ideas are shared and improved together, rather than kept to oneself.
Add God to that definition and you have Spiritual Cocreation—partnering with God in the continuing creation of reality. Let’s see what Jesus, the Apostle Paul, Ken Wilber, and Richard Rohr have to say about this.
Jesus and the Call to Go Further
Jesus, a friend of mine—and of all, known and unknown—and primary mentor for many of us, said, “Very truly, I tell you, the one who believes in me will also do the works that I do and, in fact, will do greater works than these, because I am going to the Mother-Father” (John 14:12).
That’s an amazing statement about those of us who follow Jesus. Is it hyperbole? Was Jesus talking in metaphorical or spiritual terms? Or was he actually referring to his creative work in healing, calling out oppressive systems, and creating new paths to God and mystical consciousness (the release of the spirit in his followers)? Just how does that work with the rest of us mere mortals?
Jesus was saying here that we have now reached the point where, if we choose to follow the spiritual path, we can consciously evolve and create along with God! How else would we be able to do “greater works” unless they are new, creative actions?
Since we are created in God’s image, creativity is in our DNA. Then the life and teaching of Jesus released this DNA into a new level of evolutionary functioning at Pentecost. Subsequently, new followers of Jesus in the early church were always introduced to the “baptism of spirit” which was phenomenologically what we experience today as mystical and transcendent consciousness. This resulted in inner transformation and the impulse to transform the world into a more loving and just creation.
The Apostle Paul and the labor pains of creation
The Apostle Paul paints a graphic picture of the emergence of this cocreative partnership with God when he writes:
For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God . . . We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labor pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for . . . this glorious future (Rom 8: 19-23).
Creation itself sighs and groans for this along with us in our deep longings for a better future, not only for humans but for all of creation! Have you ever felt this in yourself and intuited in creation itself? Most of us have in one form or other. It is a profound yearning for a more meaningful life, a healthier world, and a universe moving to, in Teilhard’s words, “The Omega Point” of divine completion.
This “glorious future” very much includes us. We have a role to play. It is no passive waiting. Labor is a very active process to say the least! We are in partnership with God to create new worlds of reality. We enter into that process through being midwives of new creations through our copartnering with God.
Birth always brings about new life, and the pathways of life for the future will be ones of greater creativity, complexity, and integrated wholeness. Our capacity and ability to pioneer in this way will be directly related to the consciousness from which we operate. The old problems cannot be solved from the same level of consciousness that created them. We need to create from the divine DNA in tune with mystical and transcendent consciousness.
Ken Wilber and the Kosmic Grooves of Cocreation
Ken Wilber is the preeminent scholar of the Integral stage of human development and friend who wrote the Afterword to my most recent book. He writes in The Religion of Tomorrow:
“Kosmic habits or Kosmic grooves are newly emergent features in the Kosmos, and thus individuals [I would add collectives] at those structure-levels have a significant impact on how those (and higher) structures are actually formed and shaped as they continue to emerge and settle into the specific Kosmic structure-pattern. . . . You, in your very thoughts, actions, and behaviors, with your obvious interest in Integral, are contributing to the very form of tomorrow, the very structure of the leading-edge patterns of consciousness, culture, and evolution itself. Welcome, indeed, to your place in history— you are, right now, contributing to its very shape. This is a major difference in how Integral Theory views evolution compared with the standard Neo-Darwinian synthesis. In the standard Darwinian view, for evolution to occur, you need a random or chance mutation in genetic material in an extremely rare form that is not lethal.
“Your thoughts, actions, feelings, communications, interactions, and behaviors— can directly contribute to evolution . . . simply by adding something new and novel that hasn’t existed before (including thoughts, feelings, ideas). If your addition is occurring on [an integral level] then it is open to becoming part of the very structure of that level of consciousness.
“Simply think the highest thoughts you can; feel the deepest love you are capable of; reach up or down to the highest, or deepest, Divinity that you can experience; treat others with the tenderest of kindness and the most caring of compassion that you possibly can; and if you are anywhere near the leading edge of evolution (which you certainly are if you are interested in the subjects found in this and similar books), you will directly, immediately, and instantly contribute to what Whitehead called “an ultimate of the universe”— namely, the “creative advance into novelty.” In other words, you will contribute to evolution itself. Indeed, welcome to your place in history.
Richard Rohr and Creative Contribution
Richard is another friend and advocate of our partnering with God in continued creation who wrote the Forward to my most recent book. He writes:
“In the case of the cosmos, we can say that God as Creator is incarnate as the self-creating universe, including self-creating creatures within that universe, such as, for instance, ourselves as human beings. [Or, as I like to say, God creates things that create themselves.] Creativity itself is what’s evolving in the cosmos, and . . . we are in a position to realize ourselves as incarnate divine creativity. This has two effects. It makes the whole thing intensely meaningful . . . We are part of this, creative contributors to this. And this is the other effect: we bear some responsibility. We have to take our part in the work. We, for instance, are now in a position to do something about all the suffering . . . We are agents within the system and can have causal effects on other parts of the system.”
At Integral Christian Network, we are about partnering with God in creating new Kosmic grooves in the Universe. If you feel the urge to create in this way, join us.