The Life of Service

William Temple wrote that “Christianity is the most avowedly materialistic of all the great religions.”  What he meant was that the Christian faith is never satisfied with, nor is it about just some inner state of personal spiritualism—it is concerned with and is all about caring for people.  The Christian faith may include a sense of personal salvation, but it also includes being aware of every person as the object of God’s care.  As Elton Trueblood wrote, “I cannot be wholly saved unless my brother (my sister) is saved because, in the unforgettable words of John Donne, ‘I am involved in mankind.’” Christianity, while it is spiritual, must always be more than spiritual.  To paraphrase the oft-quoted words of Paul in I Corinthians 13, If I speak with the tongues of men or of angels, or have the gift of prophecy, and know all hidden truths and have a faith strong enough to move mountains, or dole out all that I possess, but have no love, I am nothing.

In other words, a religious faith is about loving and serving our brothers and sisters everywhere, regardless of creed, race, gender, nationality, etc.,  because this faith is representative of, and is rooted in, the “Love at the Heart of Things:—a God who loves.  Everyone who serves is a minister, a priest, a rabbi, an imam, caring, loving, and serving his or her fellow human beings.

Since the color of our personal world in recent days has turned to Teal (the color for ovarian cancer awareness) we have witnessed this life of service (this faith—whether professed or not) exercised and  demonstrated in the healthcare professionals we have encountered, including physicians, nurses, aids, technicians, and receptionists.  They have ministered to us in both spirit, mind, and body, and we will be forever grateful for their care (which we have felt to be genuine and sincere and not merely professional).  We have also observed this ministry being given not just to us, but to each and every person under their care.

The response to the people devastated by Hurricane Dorian, in the Bahamas and elsewhere, is an example of this ministry, emphasizing in our time Lincoln’s words:  “Nothing stamped with the Divine image and likeness was sent into the world to be trodden on, and degraded, and imbruted by its fellows.”  When we get hold of this reality (Love at the Heart of Things) there is never such a being as an illegal alien, a refugee, or an infidel.  When we get hold of this and begin to exercise our own ministry, “Behold,” says the God of Love, “I am doing a new thing (through you), can you not perceive it?”

Finding God Where We Are

Arthur Clutton-Brock visits me this morning with this message:

“Christ has been misunderstood by those who think of Him as offering a consolation prize.  He told them how to keep the fire living in the grate; told them that the fire itself was of the same nature with the stars.  He promised them a passion freed from its cage; seeing it not a danger to the soul but the soul itself, passionate for that which is not itself, the soul become all a lover and finding everywhere the scent and beauty, the allurement, of that which it loves.  He knew the error of those philosophers who see nothing between their own lonely selves and God in an infinite distance; for Him man is not a lonely spirit on the earth, lonely in his private search for a far distant God.  God is to be found and seen, not through an illimitable vacancy between Himself and the spirit of man, but in and through all things that stir men to love.  He is to be seen in the light of a cottage window as well as in the sun or the stars.

Only those who know this escape from the dullness and routine of life.  Blake has told us that Satan is the god of things that are not, “the lost traveller’s dream under the hill.”  He is the god of the rainbow in the next field but one, in seeking whom men miss the true God in the meadow where they stand….Christ tells us to value men and things for their own sake; we must have a passion for men if we are to have one for God.  ‘Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of these little ones, ye have done it unto me.’  It is not only of conduct that these words are true.  If we are to understand Christianity, we must extend them and say—Inasmuch as ye have seen one of these little ones, ye have seen me; and Inasmuch as ye have understood one of these little ones, ye have understood me.  God is revealed to us in the known, not hidden in the unknown; and we have to find Him were we are.”

Christian Narcissism

A self-centered culture produces a self-centered religion.  The Christian religion has become tainted with it.  When a preoccupation with self dominates the culture it also shapes the character of our religion.  The gospel message is reshaped and molded to suit our selfish needs.  Jesus is available to help us.  It isn’t a matter of Jesus changing our lives, but more a matter of Jesus being around to improve our lives.  Jesus will make us happier, more self-satisfied, more prosperous, and provide us with a heavenly home in the end, and most important, Jesus is around to protect us and save us from all harm (us/me, not necessarily “them”).

 An alleged Christian wrote about the devastation caused by Hurricane Dorian, reporting the fact that many homes and lives had been lost, but fortunately their family and home was spared.  This report was followed by the sentence, “God is good!”  Good to whom?  God is good to me!  I am entitled to be spared, to be healed, to be safe—the implication being that God is mine.  Beware of Christian narcissism.

Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen?

“Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” is an African-American spiritual song. It originated sometime during the period of slavery here in the U.S., but it wasn’t published until 1867. The traditional lyrics are:

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve been through

Nobody knows my sorrow

Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen…

Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down

Oh, yes, Lord

Sometimes I’m almost to the ground

Oh, yes, Lord

Although you see me going ‘long so

I have my troubles here below.

Most of us are familiar with the newer version, “Nobody knows the trouble I see, nobody knows but Jesus.”  That’s not true!  With 7.7 billion people populating this world there are many others besides Jesus who DO KNOW “the trouble I’ve been through” and the trouble you’ve been through, who DO KNOW my sorrow and your sorrow.  They know because they are going through those troubles too.

On July 17, 2019, my wife, Cherie (Cher), was diagnosed with ovarian cancer.  It was a shock. We had no idea.  We have now joined the company of thousands of others, WHO DO KNOW, and are wrestling with this disease, going through the trauma of chemotherapy and all that such treatment entails.  And now you know—and we can no longer say,“Nobody knows, but Jesus.” Nor could we say, “No One Knows, but Jesus” even before telling you. The American Cancer Society estimated that there would be 22,000-plus new cases of ovarian cancer diagnosed in the U.S. this year.  That means over 22,000 women know the trouble we are experiencing—not just Jesus!

There is a saying, “Minor surgery is when it is happening to you, and Major surgery is when it is happening to me.”  I understand this attitude, but I want to resist it—because I know that “Jesus loves the little children, all the children in the world, Red, brown, yellow, Black and white.  They are precious in His sight.  Jesus loves the little children of the world.” And all those little children have their troubles too.  None of those troubles are minor—they are all major!

“You are not alone,” a friend assured me a few days ago.  It is true.  We are not alone in our troubles, not only because Jesus knows, but because everybody knows—all 7.7 billion people know.  No one is immune to trouble, disease, or sorrow.  We live in the company of the perplexed and the troubled.  We are not alone.

Character Matters

I can’t imagine what it must have been like for Jim Mattis during his tenure as the former Secretary of Defense in the Trump administration.  I often wondered how he managed, and I was always comforted by the fact that he was there.  Perhaps I’ll find out more about that when I read his new book, Call Sign Chaos:  Learning to Lead.  In reading reviews of the book (which was begun in 2013), however, it seems to be more of a leadership manual than an account of his time as defense secretary.

Jim Mattis spent forty years in the Marines.  His record appears to be without blemish (though like all of us, he has some blemishes). He served as commander in Afghanistan, and once served as the supreme commander in charge of NATO transformation.  He was head of Central Command under President Obama, and most recently served as defense secretary until his resignation in December 2018.

In 2017, in an impromptu encounter with U.S. troops in Jordan, Mattis tells the soldiers,  “Our country right now, it’s got problems we don’t have in the military.  You just have to hold the line until our country gets back to understanding and respecting each other and showing it.”  That little speech became a YouTube sensation—and I was impressed by Mattis’ courage—and most of all, his character, and because of his “character” I figured he wouldn’t last long under the 45th president.

Mr. Trump began to apply his usual public bullying techniques several months before Mattis’ submitted his resignation.  He suggested that Mattis might be a Democrat.  In regard to NATO, Trump said, “I think I know more about it than he does.”  Trump has always implied that he knew more than the “generals” about everything and anything—but this attack was personal.  He was attacking his own secretary of defense and attempting to denigrate a man who had served his country for over forty years (and Trump brags about respecting “his” military!).

How did Mattis respond?  In a recent NPR interview, when asked about his relationship with Trump, Mattis said, “I don’t discuss sitting presidents…I believe you owe a period of quiet”  (which is what an apolitical military person does). In that interview Mattis stressed the need to work closely with allies, making this iconic statement:  “Throughout history, we see nations with allies thrive, and nations without allies wither.”  

I wish Jim Mattis were still at the Pentagon—but I know how difficult it must have been for a man of character to work with a president who seems to lack any semblance of character.

Hard-Headedness

Twenty-five years ago Humpty-Dumpty (me) had a great fall when the ladder that had taken me to the dormer of the former Yokefellow Center slipped—with me on it!  Not a single Labor Day goes by without my thinking of that moment. It was quite traumatic.  As the ladder went one way, I went another, bouncing off the porch roof and then to the ground.  I have no “Serpent” to blame—the fall just happened.  The helicopter ride to Shock Trauma—the surgeries that followed—grow dim with the passage of time.  I live with titanium strips screwed together in my right cheek and a plastic eye socket, thanks to a renowned plastic surgeon who just happened to be on duty that day.  I’ve always been told I’m a little hard-headed—that  Labor Day fall—twenty-five years ago—confirmed that observation.

There was another “Fall” eons ago, so the Book of Genesis tells us.  It was a real disaster.  Adam (father of all humankind) and Eve (mother of all humankind) were a bit hard-headed just like me.  God created, so the story goes, stars, plants, and animals. These objects were not given the freedom or choice to be anything but what they were.  A lion is a lion.  A star is a star. 

But then, God created Adam and Eve and gave them the freedom to choose.  They could be what God wanted them to be or they could choose to go their own way (the gift of freedom is the nature of Love).  Enticed by the serpent, Eve chose to eat of the fruit and talked Adam into doing the same, thinking that by doing so they might become “as gods, knowing absolutely what is good and what is evil.”  (If that isn’t “hard-headedness, I don’t know what is). According to the story, this “Fall” brought enmity among human kind, made work a curse, and the world a broken place.  Eve blamed the serpent, Adam blamed Eve.  Cain kills Abel. All blame God.  Hard-headedness separated them, and continues to separate us from God, from our neighbors, and from ourselves.

The story of the first “Fall” (fact, fiction, myth) continues.  We’ve survived going our own way, and look at what we have created.  We are as hard-headed as ever!

Jesus Is More Than Jesus

Browsing through a hymnal this morning it became clear to me that we have, especially through our hymns, made Jesus our God.  I know, I know, we have the doctrine of the Trinity (Three in One) and the idea that Jesus was God’s Son, sent to “save us from our sins” by dying on a cross, as a substitute, as a sacrifice—like unto the slaughter of the unblemished lamb in Old Testament times—to atone for our sin.  This has become the focus of faith for many Christians—“Christ died for me” and that is why He came.  In having this focus, we make Jesus less than the Jesus of the New Testament.

Now I am convinced that Jesus is more than Jesus.  With the early Christians I see Him as the Logos, the Word of God, God’s expression, the incarnation of God.  But if Jesus only came to die in order to save my puny soul and yours, we have narrowed down, minimized, and perhaps even missed, the tremendous import and meaning of his coming.  The New Testament says Jesus is more than Jesus:  He reveals the Spirit of the Living God in whom we too live and move and have our being, and that Spirit can work in us just as in Jesus.  Now that is good news—gospel!

Jesus is more than Jesus.  He is not simply a teacher and a personal ideal, he is not just the sacrificed Lamb, Jesus is the pioneer of a new age on earth for all mankind.  The New Testament proclaims this good news.  Jesus is more than Jesus.  He is more than a teacher, more than an example: “he opened the gates of a new age, changed B.C. to A.D., introduced into history a new force, let loose in the world a new dynamic that can, and does, and will, change human life and transform human relationships” (Fosdick).

If Jesus were only a teacher, telling us what we ought to do, if he were only an individual ideal, telling us to be like himself, what would that do?  Jesus is more than that.  He is “the pioneer,” says the New Testament, of the world’s salvation (not just the salvation of my soul or yours).  Jesus is the Messiah of a new humanity.  He inaugurated a new age (he pioneered it) and we are living in it.  The old order is passing away, and the new order is coming into being. Jesus is more than the Jesus we have focused on.  And that gives me hope!