Freedom from force and compulsion

One thought continues to arise in my mind and heart, more and more strongly. And, that thought is: FORCE AND COMPULSION OF ALL KINDS, AND AT ALL LEVELS OF HUMAN LIFE, ARE AGAINST THE MOVEMENT OF GOD'S SPIRIT, AND AGAINST THE NATURE OF GOD'S SPIRIT. And, against everything that is good and deep and beautiful in human life.

Whether it is a personal compulsion that I have to exercise three times a day, or a personal compulsion that I have every part of the house clean before a guest can visit, or that I have to make everybody happy before I can relax (which means I can never relax), or more dark compulsive thoughts, these bind our hearts and minds, keeping us from the freedom of God's Spirit. Whether it is a parent reverting to threats and physical force - not as some last, desperation attempt to get control when it is lost - but, as a normal part of child-rearing; whether it is a teacher using shame and blame techniques to motivate students; whether it is governments passing more and more laws to try to force citizens into a certain mold; whether it is launching military campaigns whenever we feel a little threatened; whether it is using violent, abrasive language to try and "win" every debate with another, all of these practices are in a sense the choosing of violence over seeking understanding.

It seems to me that the great difference between God and the way religious people have portrayed God so often is that the real God is averse to using force, whereas religious people like to portray God as if he is all about force. The Gospel accounts in the New Testament about Jesus really agree on one thing very, very much, and that one thing is: Jesus did not try to compel people to follow him (rather he warned them how hard it would be); Jesus did not use force against anyone to get them to do anything; Jesus opposed the coercive teachings of the religious leaders of his day. And, well, there is God and who God is shown to be through Jesus. God was shown to be the opposite of violence; the absolute opposite of a coercer. For, "even though humanity was opposed to the ways of God," God didn't declare war on humanity, conquer us, and then put us in training camps to reprogram us. No, God bore our sicknesses, and evils in his very self, breaking the hold of compulsions and violence and oppressions of all sorts. God sought to reach humanity at the depths of our darkened hearts with a love that went deeper than our pain, deeper than our hatred, deeper than our pettiness, calling out from the depths of God's Spirit, to the depths of our spirits, Creator to creature, from the goodness and dignity and glory of the Creator to the goodness and dignity of the creature.

And, yes, it is a powerful and resounding call that comes to us from the heart of God, and when we hear it in our depths, we can't help but respond. But, this response is not some compulsion, but is the greatest release and joyful liberation. As we understand that the center and power of all reality is this overwhelming joyful love, our hearts rejoice and we become more alive than we have ever been before.

Who Causes Evil?

There are good things and bad things that happen to us. Sometimes we have a large role in creating the good and bad we experience, but sometimes we don't. And, even when we largely give shape to what comes to us, we have been formed by so many things that went before us.

We are certainly agents that can affect our environment, even shape it, as we are shaped by it. But, we never have the chance to extripate ourselves from our environment: social, psychological, spiritual, physical, political, and make decisions without being pushed and pulled by forces we cannot fathom or control.

In thinking on things like this, I invariably think about God's relationship to what happens in this world. I feel that God is in about everything, but not "in control" the way God is often presented in Western Christianity. To hear many preachers, you would think that God just sits back at the switchboard and causes this and that to happen. And, though it may seem bad to us, it is all good in the end as it is all part of God's masterplan. Well, I just don't see things that way, nor do I experience them that way. And, not too many of those who wrote the Bible seemed to either.

Presbyterians are afraid to give too much credence to evil, and we are also afraid to punch any holes in our doctrine of providence. But, Jesus suffering and crucifixion, might be understood to reveal just how much in rebellion this world is and just how much evil lurks on earth in defiance of the goodness of God. In the resurrection, God says "NO" to the evil in this world, especially because of Jesus suffering and obedience to God as Jesus defied the powers of evil. But, the evil is strong. So strong, that though God struck a blow against its power over humans, the victory has not yet come. Sin still covers the earth, and stirs humans to twisted and distorted and violent living. Death follows in the wake of sin.

I really like the realism of the last book of the Bible. Most mainline Christians really hate Revelation. But, that's because they think things are really pretty good and we are just going to step right off of the earth to heaven through the passageway we call death. And, I guess things are at times pretty good for mainline Protestants in the U.S. - if they can pretend through the pain. But, things aren't good at all for many other people around the globe, as they watch their children die from starvation or civil wars. As they find their daughters raped and beaten during wars. No, for many, many people, life on earth can be a hell. And, the answer to all this comes not in heaven, but in God's coming to earth - fully and finally, bringing judgement and redemption.

To many people my talk probably sounds like science fiction. Yes, it is like science fiction. That's why I love science fiction, because it is one of the closest portrayals of the way things really are that we have in our imagination and writing. Life is really a lot more like "The Lord of the Rings"than contemporary understanding makes it out to be. And, life for me is a lot more interesting than it is for good, solid people that never stray from "common sense." I really like to think that God blesses us with "uncommon sense" so that we can see the glory that is hidden in the present.

I really like "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings," because - to me - Tolkien's portrayal of Middle Earth is just "so realistic." The outcome does seem in doubt at times, but something deep within, something so good, just convinces you that the good will triumph - even though everything seems to point the other way. The simple goodness of little Hobbit trying to fulfill his destiny. The truth that it is only one so humble that has a chance really taking on the powers of evil that break humans.

O, yeah, I was going to talk about who causes evil. Well, in the deepest part of me, I think that God does not. I think that God is fully good, not good and bad. We traffic in evil; God does not. But, God's way of overcoming evil is not too easy to understand. We want God to be like the military and come and force evil out. But, problem is evil has grown within us along with our good, so the eradication of it would mean the eradication of us. We have to learn to live with it in God's patience and God's Spirit. And, to overcome it in time as the good becomes ever stronger.

When You are Trying to Help

If you would help someone deal with her bad characteristics/practices, you do best to encourage that person in her good characteristics/practices. That way, the person who is strengthened in her goodness gains leverage over against the evil in her, whereas if you directly criticize the bad, all you do is call attention to it without helping her marshall the good resources within her. By calling atttention to it, you may strengthen its power as well, causing a person to think that is what defines her.

It is only in a very trusting relationship that direct criticism can have a good effect, and even in those relationships, it is best to try strengthening the good as the first strategy in helping.

Figuring Out What You're Responsible For

It takes some real thought and experience to decide what you are responsible for in life. In fact, it is something that I guess is never really settled in life. We figure and refigure about this.

If my friend is in trouble, how much responsibility do I feel to take their side. What will I do practically to help, if I can. If a stranger is in need, how much responsibility do I feel and what will I do? Will I just think of their trouble and walk on, or will I perhaps, stop, and talk to them, and then decide whether to take any further action.

Or, say I have caused somewhat of a conflict. Should I just move on and let everybody deal with it however they choose to, or should I try to smooth things over?

I know someone who is really struggling. Should I just think kindly of them or actually contact them? When I pray for someone, when does my prayer become false because as the 'Housemartins' used to sing: "It's time to end the prayer. Listen what I'm saying. Get up off of those knees!"

Clearly, the answer varies from situation to situation. In some ways, I am responsible for everything - for all my fellow humans in this world. Or, at least I owe others something, whatever that may mean in this situation or that. But, I am also limited. How I define my limitations in relation to my fellow humans' needs determines my character.

To feel some burden or responsibility for others troubles, even when you haven't caused them, is to feel some of the Spirit of God in your soul. But, as Paul says, we "bear this heavenly treasure in earthen vessels." How to bear this holy love and burden in pots of clay, that is the question.

But, for this post, I want to conclude by saying that looking out at others' trouble and walling yourself off from it by saying: "it's not my problem," just seems against the Spirit of God in this world. In the next post, I want to get a little farther into this question about what it means to live with concern for others while coming to terms with your own personal limitations/needs.

Fat Tuesday/Ash Wednesday

What have I ever given up for Lent? Nothing. I don't give up things for Lent. Not that it wouldn't do me some good to give up this or that for Lent. But, I don't go in for that kind of thing.

In fact, I really don't do anything that I don't want to do. I realized that about myself a few years ago. The real key to life is figuring out those good things you like to do, and focus on them. There are always good things you are attracted to. Of course, there may be some destructive/bad things you are attracted to as well. The trick is loving what builds up life, and learning to despise what tears down life. Once you do that, it is just a matter of doing what you really love.

Rules and Principles

Seems I can't get off of this subject. I don't like rules, but am very committed to principles. But, what's the difference? A principle does not tell you exactly what to do in any particular situation, but gives you the type of understanding necessary to figure out what to do in a variety of situations.

A doctor who really understands the principles of medicine can take on about any patient and get some idea of how to go about diagnosing and treating that person. A doctor who doesn't really understand the principles of medicine must match up certain symptoms to certain disease descriptions, and if he or she can't match them up real easily, then the doctor is in trouble. Lawyers who don't understand the principles of legal thinking have the same problem. And, it's probably that way with difficult mechanical problems as well as other areas of life.

It seems to me that the religious people Jesus was criticizing were obsessed with rules: tithing mint,dill and cummin, but had lost touch with the deepest principles of faith: justice, mercy, and love. Of course, Jesus didn't say to throw out all the rules, but to understand that rules are meant to serve guiding principles, whereas the rule-obsessed twist principles around to serve and justify their rules.

Once Jesus criticized those who said they were "tithing," giving money at the temple, and thus had nothing left to support their own parents. Jesus described this as getting things backwards. Serving the commandment of humans (temple tax) and ignoring the commandment of God (honor father and mother). Or, another time, some religious rule-oriented people complained about Jesus laboring on the Sabbath and his disciples gathering food on the Sabbath. Turns out, the Sabbath Commandment is obeyed when you understand and honor the deep principle in it: God created the Sabbath rest to serve the well-being of human beings, not human beings to serve the Sabbath.

In the 60's there was a book written by Joseph Fletcher called: "Situation Ethics." Now, a lot of conservatives got all mad about that book, saying that it simply allowed a person to create their own moral rules in every new situation. Of course, if this is what situation ethics is, a way of allowing us to justify our action by coming up with a rule that allows us to do whatever we want to do, then I guess I can understand the complaint. But, a life lived with moral integrity is always a life that adapts its deep principles of living to new situations. So, I don't see escape from a certain type of situation ethics. The real key is the commitment of a person to deep principles of living that find a way to truth and justice and decency in all sorts of situations.

Rules and principles. If you read through Jesus' teachings in the New Testament, it doesn't look like he prescribed many rules, but he taught principles that could only be understood if lived. And, since he lived the principles he taught, it really gives us a feel for what he meant and what living in the way he lived could mean for us.

God's way in Christ does not first bind us to rules or a book, but binds us to a Person, a relationship, a holy mystery at the core of life. The Book points to that, and awakens a sense of that. In the end, faith is not first of all about following certain rules or even about following certain principles. It is first of all about following this way of Jesus, this way opened on earth by the love of God. We learn certain principles on this way and some rules as well. But, I think we have to start like the disciples started: by throwing down (or, at least suspending) our rules and principles and seeing if there aren't some other ways of living - holy and creative ways that come from God and not from us.

Paul is such a great example of the freedom that comes from that. Of course, he got "thrown down" on Damascus Road when confronted by the Risen Jesus, who said: "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?!" I imagine that that question asked by Jesus hit deeper and harder than the temporary blindness Paul experienced. As Paul later said in a letter to the Philippians, "I learned to count all of my religious rules, principles, and attainments as shit compared to knowing Christ.:" (my paraphrase). Paul was given a new core of life, a new energy and vitality in his thinking and feeling and living. And, he comes up with an amazing 'Situation Ethics' around the deep principle of love as demonstrated in the life and death of Jesus.

How far is it from Maryville, Tennessee to Cape Town, South Africa?

It feels like such a long way on some days, and then at other times, it seems real near. My daughter, Lisa is in Capetown for her spring semester and a little beyond that. As I hear from Lisa about it, and read her blog posts, I sometimes feel like I am there, like my heart is as much there as right here. I am also reading Nelson Mandela's autobiography. What a life he has lived! It really makes me remember what a sacred and wonderful thing it is to be a human being.

As I think about South Africa, I begin thinking of patriotism and what it means. Why would I love my own country more than South Africa? Why would I yearn for freedom and justice in my own country more than I yearn for freedom and justice for South Africa?

I guess I know this country, or at least some of it, pretty well. My history is bound to this country of the United States. I really love our Constitution, and especially the deep distrust of authority that is at the very heart of our country's most authoritative law. But, as I have followed the history of South Africa in my reading, I feel a deep hope that God will bring about great mercy and peace and justice and freedom and joy to a people who were oppressed for so, so long. The history of non-white South Africans parallels the history of black Americans in many ways. And, as I have felt my heart moved by the experience of black Americans, I feel a similar yearning before God for a land far away, a land where my daughter is living right now.

It's not real easy to speak about what it feels like to be a white person but feel deeply bound to black people in the very depths of one's soul through one's second-hand experience of black history. I really don't like to go on about it. It's really hard to explain it to white people, not too hard to speak about to black people because you don't have to say much. Black people in our country just seem to get it. I guess when you've had people against you so much, it's not real hard to tell when somebody is not against you. And, that's all I've ever felt that black people asked for from white people. I don't know one black person who wants some special deal from white people. The black people I know rate white people pretty highly if they are half-way decent. Black people, in general, are real easy on white people. That's one thing white people in the U.S. don't get at all. I wonder how it is in South Africa where white people are a minority.