When life's routines are shaken up

Today's Tuesday Men's Bible Study ranged far and wide from the passage from Romans, chapter 10.

A friend taught me a useful way to respond to upsets, irritations and frustrations, and all manner of surprise that causes a negative feeling. Rather than a knee-jerk reaction, far better to say, "thank you, Lord," as a way to acknowledge that good things may come after the bad ones. What at first seems to be an unwanted change in plans intended or expectations dashed sometimes turns out for the best in hindsight or even right at the time that reactions take place. By braking one's speedy life and frictionless pursuit of happiness, there comes a break in the routine, normal, taken-for-granted picture of the world. Outside forces may have caused your predicament and the "thank you, Lord" response, but it is possible to do something similar by deliberately shaking up your accustomed routines. For example, digital fasting is a way to stop spending time scrolling the Internet and endless headline news. Fasting from making complaints, from snacking after 7 p.m., from caffeine, from meat, and so on: all of these examples alter the accustomed habits of doing, being, seeing, and thinking.

A couple of reflections on pausing from ordinary routines come to mind. One is the determination and focus that sometimes comes from the fresh perspective glimpsed during the break from normal patterns. W.A. Mozart is credited with saying something like, "music is in the silences between the notes," which is to say both the sound and its absence work together; one without the other does not produce the experience of music. A parallel might be for Bible scripture: the translated ink on the pages alone is not where the full meaning is. The white space and the reverberations to read between the lines; the non-verbal surroundings for the text also is important to pay attention to.

Continuing on the theme of putting the brakes on ordinary doing and thinking in order to break the routinization of daily experience, several ideas come from stopping to scrutinize how much of God's creation is not about language and logical arguments. One is the statement that scripture is the breath of God: in Genesis God spoke, "let there be light." And Jesus as the flesh and blood form of God on planet Earth is called "the word made flesh," or "the Word of God." The making of Adam comes from breathing spirit into his mortal body. So this breath of God does double duty: breath for respiration and life, but also breath to form syllables and words (and worlds). Again, like the earlier paragraph, though, verbal things are only a small part of the larger creation. The scripture is one thing, but what is unspoken and can be felt between the lines is also important to see and hear. A curious property of words - ordinary conversation or scriptural passages - is that you can be the listener or the speaker: when you understand and agree with a statement you can "own it" (take responsibility or ownership for caring for it) but you are not the owner/author/Creator. So it is possible to embrace God's word (text of the Bible, but also Jesus, the Word of God) and to "own it" even though it does not fully belong to you.

Going further with this idea about holding onto a teaching (owning it) but not grabbing it in a vise-like death grip, that technique of "holding lightly" seems to work well for the scriptures and by extension for all the relationships to fellow believers, too. In other words, rather than to memorize the Bible or to cling to a set of rules or Biblical Laws, it is far healthier to hold lightly your Bible knowledge and your Life knowledge, too: be confident but at the same time be open to doubt and wider meaning (that one cannot know all). In terms of words and logic it sure does look like a contradiction, but "knowing" God's word really can be certain (one's unbroken relationship to the scriptures) AND uncertain at the same time (leaving open the possibility that there is more to it than first understood). You may feel you've arrived but somehow you're not there yet. This seeming paradox between owning and not being the owner; between being confident and also allowing doubt and vigilance does produce some cognitive tension. The saying from President Ronald Reagon springs to mind when he spoke of USSR agreements to reduce the nuclear warheads for both sides. He said, "trust but verify." In Christianity that might be "have faith but be always vigilant for false prophets.

Tension allows "productive discomfort" -- that is, things like irritation, hurtful words, careless actions (or neglected actions) may increase the tension in one's life, but having "thank you, Lord" moments may stir reflection and deliberation so that the ordinary way of seeing things can be viewed in a new light. With one's mind open to seeing things a new way a sequence of meanings can follow: to put on the brakes and pause your routine is to be present with the people and other living things around you. To be present is to pay better attention and to respect (literally re+spectate; to take a 2nd look) the people and other living things that you may have overlooked or somehow taken for granted. Pausing from one's busy routines allows you to be humble (less of Ego and more of everything around you) and from there to feel grateful for your connection to everything around you. In other words, fasting or another "thank you, Lord" pause from routines produces respect, humility, and gratitude for a change; less self-absorption and more other-attention. And by getting into the habit of encountering the people and places of one's days from this position of respect - humility - gratitude then the habit of "holding lightly" one's own place in the scheme of things comes to feel natural and desirable, too. There is no need to "let God take care of everything" or the opposite extreme, to "leave God to the Sabbath and oneself being in charge of everything." In-between these extremes of "God's in charge" and "I'm in charge" is this middle way of holding lightly: being in the driver's seat of one's life, but always listening for direction coming from God's Will to be done, too. 

All in all, the six men on Zoom this morning covered a lot of ground. These reflections are just a fraction of the meanings woven together during the discussion.

Outsider religious way versus seat of power

 The roots of the Jesus Movement to fulfill the teachings of YHWH center on houses of worshipers meeting secretly, since neither the Establishment of Jewish leaders, nor by extension the Roman occupiers wanted to see something that did not conform to peaceful social order and status quo. Later, the early church spread along the trade and transportation routes around the Mediterranean basin and attracted not only Jews far from Jerusalem's sway, but other God-fearers, as well as pagans - citizens of Rome, its slaves, and those from inside and outside the Empire.

The status of outlaw sect of Judaism changed overnight with the declaration by Constantine at the beginning of the 4th century C.E. that Christianity would be the State Religion of the Empire and that he would be its champion in the wide world (the Edict of Milan in 313, which declared tolerance for Christianity in the Roman Empire). His pledge to do this if YHWH would allow military victory thus was fulfilled after defeating the attackers at the battle of Milvian Bridge.

From now on the followers of The Way could own property, govern themselves openly, establish schools of learning and all the things that make a group of people an organization and perpetuate it until at last becoming a self-sustaining institution. Hierarchies grew, buildings were endowed, traditions of knowledge expanded, and doctrinal hairs were split ever more finely. With power comes corruption. Reforms came and sometimes gained traction. Sects splintered and power in the World grew bigger and bigger.

Importantly, Jesus answered Pilate by saying "my kingdom is not of this world." And a good deal of the meaning behind the phrase of the Lord's Prayer, "...Thy will be done; on Earth as in Heaven," is about one's own heart. That is, the Kingdom is not something standing on the surface of the planet, but instead dwells within each practitioner's own heart: the person's attitudes, habits of talking, strength of relationships, daily exercise of care for others, expressions of humility and also unshakeable faith, and so on. Therefore, the watershed begun with Constantine the Great to bring Christ-followers into the light of the world to freely worship and evangelize, is a mixed blessing and curse. The blessing is the reduction in persecution. The curse is the accumulating power, generation by generation, that imposes temptation and corruption.

Given the choice of fringe religion and mainstream institution, perhaps most would opt for today's model. But maybe there is a third way, neither institutionalized rigidity nor small-time desperation. Perhaps the sweetest form of The Way is to be in the World but not of the World; blessed by the material well-being and physical abundance that may be put to good use, but not redirected from stewardship of God's creation and distracted by stewardship of "stuff" bought or bequeathed from the faithful.

The question remains: can it still be Christianity when there is wealth and power and prominence involved?

Jesus as the model, St. Paul as the coach

So much of the 2nd (New) Testament seems to be comprised of letters from Paul to the various congregations and synagogues around the Mediterranean who knew him. He offers encouragement, admonition or correction, and instruction to guide them, either in reply to things they brought to him, or in his circular, general teaching letters. While there were many things in common between both men, clearly they play different parts, both then and now, for those who follow the Way, narrow though it is.

Authors in many decades have lined up the words and meanings of each teacher to see if the message from Jesus and the demonstration of God's love by Jesus somehow is filtered in particular ways, due to Paul's own biographical pattern and life themes.Their formative experiences were not so far apart in time, although Paul (Saul) is from Tarsus to the north of today's Israel, while Jesus is from Nazareth, still within the orbit of greater Jerusalem. Saul had privileges in education and refinements of life, while Jesus grew up with modest means. Maybe most striking of all is the fact that Paul persecuted the Jesus followers at every turn until the point of his dramatic conversion on the road to Damascus. Jesus and those who came after his time and public ministry were the object of punishment for officials like Saul.

For those early congregations that Paul fostered, he was regarded as the nearest thing to the flesh and blood Lord and Savior; lamb of God. And so it is natural that they would model themselves on Paul's example in his person, as much as they would aspire to be like Jesus in the stories passed down. So instead of comparing and contrasting the Jesus message in the lens of Paul versus in the lens of Jesus as committed to print in centuries after Paul's time, perhaps it makes more sense to separate their functions: Jesus as model for each person to look to like a homing beacon, Paul as Paraclete - one who walks alongside a person to encourage and share what burdens there may be.

"Be like Jesus," or "follow Paul's advice about what to seek after (positive examples) and what to avoid (negative examples)" may be heard. But inundated by consumer culture and the urge for "liberty," "low maintenance," "convenience" or fun, "path of least resistance," and "least restrictive environment," modern minds can easily be distracted from Paul's guidance or Jesus' example. The surrounding society invites us to search for our identity, find out who we are, or just "be yourself."

Going back to the imagery of the Bible, we are meant to be God's person, not our own impression of what might be interesting or likely to attract peer accolades. To be God's person means to produce "good fruit"; Fruits of the Spirit come from a particular tree. These attributes that grow from such a Jesus-rooted tree will not appear on other trees. We grow into the person God wants us to be; fulfilling our fully integrated ("you are the branches, I am the vine"), God-fearing and loving selves. We incline always to seek to be closer to God and to be loving of neighbor as also of ourselves.

The modern currents, flows, and undertows swirling around us may pull us toward the easiest, most pleasant, or least uncomfortable path, but whether the way is convenient or it carries friction, that is incidental to being God's person in the wide World. Sometimes the modern society and God's way may happen to run together; other times they may intersect as the paths cross, or the roads may be diametrically opposed (mutually exclusive) to each other. No matter what the surrounding society may urge, it should first be God's way that we seek and if it happens to coincide with the society's culture and language, so be it. Where the two ways differ so be it. also.

Ephesians 5:3-10, being warry of self-satisfaction

In the weekly Men's Bible Study we heard the list of old habits that the recipients of Paul's letter were wont to do. This is followed by reference to living in the light and not wallowing in the dark.

³ But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people. ⁴ Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving. ⁵ For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person—such a person is an idolater—has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.^{[a] 6} Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. ⁷ Therefore do not be partners with them.
⁸ For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light ⁹ (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) ¹⁰ and find out what pleases the Lord.  [source at Bible Gateway.com from NIV]

The distinction of light and darkness reminds me of Barbara Brown Taylor's book, Learning to Walk in the Dark, about all the important developments noted in the Bible that *do* require dark. Elsewhere in the Bible there is reference to darkness and light being identical in God's knowing: there is little  difference since all is known to God, with or without photons to stimulate one's visual cortex.

Continuing on the theme of light, visibility, seeing-as-knowing (at least among mortals), it seems that perfect vision leads a person to believe that everything has been grasped; to see is to know. And yet there is much the eyeball misses: the old guy searching in vain for something right in front of him, the person disregarding pandemic preventative measures because the virus is invisible to the naked eye, the edges of the visible light spectrum that are just beyond human capacity (but which dogs can see; and the things that birds can 'see' but not with light to perceive the Earth's magnetic lines). The line from St. Exupery's book, The Little Prince, sums up the limitations of the visual senses that lead a person to assess and judge in confidence the appearances that present themselves: "It is only with the heart that one can truly see."

By extension, also the book of James emphasizes deeds over words. This form of engaging others can change one's heart as a side-effect, but rote good deeds do not "make merit" or improve one's Godliness, since only by grace (not by works) is a person forgiven and salvation advanced. A person who is preoccupied with doing good deeds can easily be lead to the sense of achievement and rest: that all efforts are completed and all duties are fulfilled; vigilance can be relaxed, and the awareness of opportunities to lend a hand can dim.

A third instance for a person to be led to believe that a goal has been accomplished is with knowledge; it could be the Gnostic game of "secret knowledge" (if only I knew the key Bible passage, mysterious number, or symbolic meaning, then my spiritual growth can reach perfection), or it could be more pedestrian knowledge gained by memorizing, reading commentators, taking part in seminars, and so on. All three of these instances - seeing in the light, accomplishing tangible results in one's deeds, and adding to one's store of knowledge - have some value as a process that leads to something else, but can also be a danger in leading the person to self-satisfaction, perceiving the goal has been attained and therefore that no further (self) examination is needed.

In the end, the premise upon which God knows all the creatures, including each person, is love; or maybe a better translation is something Buddhism's Loving-kindess, an agape basis for caring for self and others. Once a person accepts this fundamental relationship of belongingness, then strangers are not really strangers, but instead are in the same family of God that everyone and everything belongs to. There is the instruction to strive to move one's heart and being ever closer to God's ways and will; and to take Jesus as a flesh-and-blood role model. But knowing that Jesus is infinitely closer to God's ways than we are, or could be, a better first step would be to see among one's peers some examples of habits, routines, phrases and aspirations that are closer to our own - ideally a step or two ahead of our own condition, but not in the pinnacle position of Rabbi Jesus. Even when it is not immediately clear how to be more like Jesus, at least there are many temptations and distractions to discard and disallow: knowing how NOT to be like Jesus reduces the universe of possible ways to be. Then the remaining alternatives in this narrowed field come into sharper focus.