You may be familiar with the brilliant 20th-century mathematician Alan Turing. He is credited with coining the term “morphogenesis,” which describes how biological organisms develop
shape. It also became the foundational concept of chaos theory. Some scientists have even leveraged its conceptual power to work on what is being deemed a “theory of everything.”
(Interestingly, they have never arrived at an answer for why it’s so hard for some people to let go of old, unhealthy religious baggage.)
When I first heard the term morphogenesis, I said, “Stop. You had me at morph.” Because that’s all of life––constantly changing, evolving, and, well, morphing. The morph is always
influencing the next thing. Genesis is never just a hard-and-fast-genesis; it’s an evolution out of what-was-there-before-genesis.
This is true even with the biblical genesis. That’s right; the biblical writers didn’t necessarily subscribe to a God living outside of time, stepping in and creating from nothing. Rather, it’s
more like a God present in the middle of the ongoing chaos in such a way that it allows life to be catalyzed. So, think less of a God saying “Voilà!” as he flips on the lights of time and
creation* and more of a God who energizes ongoing morphogenesis!*
And so, out of the chaos that is the 21st century, that is our economic reality, racist, sexist, homophobic environments, ecological crisis, and the church’s collusion with nationalism, lots of
new and different faith communities are emerging (thankfully). One of those communities is opentable.network which is helping faith leaders to become people of love within communities
of love.
If you’re looking for a place where you might stay connected with others who are going through 21st century change, find resources, and have opportunity to be credentialed for ministry, then
opentable.network might be for you.
However you choose to get involved, we hope you’ll stay open to the movement of the spirit, which by faith, we believe longs to help all of us morph into healthier people. “If the concept God has any validity or any use,” James Baldwin said, “it can only be to make us larger, freer, and more loving. If God cannot do this, then it is time we got rid of Him.” (Amen, and not only
larger, freer, and more loving individuals but larger, freer, and more loving religious systems as well.)
Here’s to the morphogenesis of faith communities, religious systems, and our whole world. Maybe love really is in the process of making all things new.
*For one thing, where did a light switch come from? Meaning something would have been created before “creation.” And for another thing, in the act of flipping and voilà’ing wouldn’t a
measure of time have to be experienced? Meaning some time would have been passing before the creation of time!
**Catherine Keller, following Speiser, following Rashi translates the first three sentences of Genesis as (1) When Elohim began to create heaven and earth (2) at which time the earth was
tohu vabohu, darkness was on the face of the deep and the ruach was moving upon the face of the waters (3) then God said, “Let there be light …”
