Slave, Hired Hand, Friend - Relating to God

So many in the world now are experiencing a level of cloistering that we never imagined. We are all looking for “coping” mechanisms and hacks to navigate this new sense of being isolated. For Christians, there is a deep tradition of social distant practices which we in the Protestant world have sort of misunderstood and eschewed. Those are the practices developed by the Abbas/Ammas of the deserts of Syria and Egypt. These proto-monastics have many stories of how to be in relationship with one another and with God while practicing social distancing.

For those of us new to the disciplines of silence, solitude and mystery, it may be tempting to consider how we relate to God before we engage in these practices. Because how we understand our relationship with God, influences how we practice these disciplines. I find the Gregory of Nyssa had a decent way to think about different stages of how we relate to God.

First we could serve God or practices these disciplines out of fear, like a slave would do. Fear that if we do not then God will be displeased and we will bear the wrath of the Master. Gregory goes on to say that rather than that of a slave, sometimes we serve God or practices these disciplines like a hired hand looking for a reward or payment.

Perhaps you have experienced or seen these ways of being in relationship with God. That we should do things so that we don’t get punished or that we should do things for a heavenly reward. The motivation to do things in service for God may be motivating but it also dismisses how the incarnated God known as Jesus, calls us friend.

This is where Gregory suggests we should be serving God and practicing the disciplines - out of friendship with God. Out of pure love of God like that of a child who identifies God as their parent.

So this season of practicing different disciples, consider do you feel like you are slave, hired hand or friend of God. And do not forget that only one of those is Good News.

Letting Go of Righteousness

These past several days I, like you, have experienced a level of anxiety that is beyond my collective experience with anxiety. Of all the things that I have noticed in my inner life, I have noticed the presence of righteousness in a new way. Because I am anxious over the situation, I begin to read and listen to all sorts of voices, only to come to the conclusion that I am now an expert on the situation. I have been transformed into a world-class epidemiologist in just five days, and I know what is right and what is wrong about people’s actions and motives. And, because I am so confident in my judgement of right and wrong, I begin to feel more and more righteous in my actions (or non-actions). And the more righteous I feel the more I am able to condemn others for their actions (or non-actions).

I have noticed that my sense of righteousness is really just a veil that I use to separate myself as superior to others. Righteousness is the rationalization I use to justify my anger toward others and even the reasoning I lean on to cut people from my life. In the weaker moments, I find that I even am willing to kill a relationship under the banner of my own sense of righteousness. It is for this reason that perhaps what I, and maybe you feel, is “unholy righteousness.”

The more I am convinced of my own righteousness more consumed I am with anger. Of course the irony is that being consumed with anger moves us farther from righteousness. This is the cycle, allure and power of unholy righteousness. It makes you feel powerful while also accelerating anger and loneliness. The more angry and lonely I become the more I am sure that others are wrong, thus fueling my unholy righteousness.

So what to do in this unholy righteousness cycle? I do what I normally do in such times and look to the desert.

Abba Poemen said to Abba Isaac, “Let go of a small part of your righteousness and in a few days you will be at peace.”

There is wisdom in this to be sure. Letting go of many things leads to peace, even letting go of righteousness. Perhaps the lack of peace in our world is how addicted we all are to our (unholy) righteousness. Perhaps this season of a collective heighten anxiety will give us the courage to let go of a small part of our righteousness and discover the peace that passes all understanding was with us the whole time.

Quarantined, Set Apart, Sacred

Maybe you have been thinking about the idea of "being set apart" these days.

In religious terms, being "set apart" is another way of thinking about what is "sacred" or what is "holy." The sacred or the holy is that which is set apart. For some reason, I forget that being set apart does not mean it is better, but it is reserved for a certain purpose. Thus, we do not have tailgates in the Sanctuary, not because the Sanctuary is better than other places and cannot be “tainted by a party”, but because that place is set apart for certain purposes. 

What might it look like to consider this time where we are all set apart from one another as a sacred time? Many sacred moments in the Bible are scary. Maybe you can recall stories of humans encountering the sacred and holy and the words come to the human, "do not be afraid." This current set apart time is uniquely scary, for many of us and we are trying to not be afraid.

So to recap, we are set apart. We are a little fearful. We have voices reminding us to no be afraid. We are forced to listen more closely and gracefully than ever before. We are being called to do things in a new way. 

This may not be the ideal or dreamy picture we imagine, but is it possible that this time (like all time) is still sacred? 

May our time be sacred - even at 6 feet apart or digitally.