The Last Sound and Romans 12

The Last Sound is a beautiful podcast episode exploring sound and nature. It is worth listening to for so many levels and I hope you would take time to listen.

One of the segments in the story speaks of how is it possible for so many different animals and insects to communicate in nature. Over time, life has discovered a sort of frequency or range that different animals and insects us in order to communicate. This allows for crickets to be able to be heard even as bears roar loudly over them. Or for birds to hear one another through the symphony of other bird songs. Every animal communicates in a bound range so they can be heard and they can hear others.

Every animal respects the boundaries of the frequencies except one. Human beings.

Humans run amok over the sound board that is nature. We know that noise pollution is something we speak about, however we seem to make little efforts to address this pollution (other than complain that it is too loud). We complain about all the noise on the news or internet. We try to discern the signals from the noise but we all assume that noise is part of life. We tolerate noise that runs over all the frequencies of communication and in some cases we believe that overcoming all the noise makes you a good communicator.

If you are able to speak the loudest or with the most incendiary comments, if you are getting clicks and likes and ratings, then you must be a good communicator. When really you could be a communication pollutant.

There is a little line in Romans 12 where Paul writes, “Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.”

It is common to learn that communication is about controlling the narrative or dominating the airwaves. It is about getting your message to “cut through” and “penetrate the market.” It is about being louder. It is about being bold and definitive. It is not about harmony. It is not about respecting the frequency range of another person, but about speaking over them. Be it “mansplaning” or “cancel culture” we have taken the gift of communication and turned it into a megaphone that overtakes the chorus of voices.

I do not know much about music, but I know harmony means that you do not always sing the melody. That there are other notes that are sung, but your voice is still heard. The melody and harmonies complement one another and make the other richer and fuller.

Christians are called to live in harmony (not unison). We do not demand others to join in the song we are singing and expect them to sing the way we sing. We are the ones asked to moderate our voices to harmonize with those around us.

When life is too noisy people flee and go on vacation or step away from a place as a way to find that peace we long for. Could it be that many people are leaving Christianity (and organized religion on the whole) because it is too noisy, loud and not teaching harmony?

Consuming our Neighbors

The following story is inspired by Tim Vivian’s translation of an ancient story from the desert wisdom.

A widow had a son who she could not keep fed. The son would eat pounds of bread each day. He hunger was so insatiable that the son would even turn to his excrement. She was fearful that her son would eat through all that she was left with but also was fearful that if she did not feed her son he would die. The widow took the boy to a holy man, Abba Macarius, who, it was said, could heal the boy. When Macarius heard how much the boy was fed each day, he grew angry.

He said, “Do you know why your son was so hungry? When his father died you were left with a large inheritance, more than you needed to live your days. You have not shared your abundance with those in need. Scripture teaches that we will be judged and treated the way we judge and treat others. Your son’s hunger is the result of your stinginess towards others. Cut in half what you feed him and then give the other half to the poor, powerless and infirm who live near you. Only then will your son’s hunger will subside.”

The widow had more than she new what to do with so she gave it to her son in excess. In doing so, her son was eating more than the bread but eating away at the lifeline that the poor and powerless could have for survival. Macarius’ teaching is as old as wisdom: when we practice generosity we discover that we have more than we need and stinginess corrodes the community. When we are generous we do not “run out”. However, if we remain stingy and focus only on our own desires then we will in fact consume all that we have, including our neighbors.

In the debates of what should or what should we not give to people who are un/under-employed, this story rings in my ears. If we believe that our abundance cannot be given away to others in need, because we will run out of the abundance we have inherited or that our gift will be squandered, then we will in fact run out of our inheritance. However, if we were generous with our inheritance with those in need we may discover that there will be more than enough.

The Telos and The Scopos

The second chapter of John Cassian’s work entitled “The Conferences of Desert Fathers” begins with Abba Moses expressing the following:

All the arts and sciences, said he (Moses), have some goal or mark; and end or aim of their own, on which the diligent pursuer of each has his eye, and so endures all sorts of toils and dangers and losses, cheerfully and with equanimity.

Then in chapter four Moses is to have said:

The end of our profession indeed, as I said, is the kingdom of God or the kingdom of heaven; but the immediate aim or goal, is purity of heart, without which no one can gain that end: fixing our gaze then steadily on this goal, as if on a definite mark, let us direct our course as straight towards it as possible, and if our thoughts wander somewhat from this let us revert to our gaze upon it, and check them accurately as by a sure standard, which will always bring back all our efforts to this one mark, and will show at once if our mind has wandered ever so little from the direction marked out for it.

Abba Moses taught the end is the kingdom of God while the goal is purity of heart. What that means is that Abba Moses thought that in order to reach the end (Kingdom of God) we must focus on the goal (purity of heart). We cannot reach the Kingdom of God without purity of heart but if we have purity of heart we are more likely to reach the Kingdom of God.

The difference in the telos and the scopos is made clearer by the Stoic Arius who said that the scopos is the target we shoot for while the telos is hitting the target. I think of it like a golfer hitting the ball is scopos while the cup is the telos.

The UMC spends a lot of her time working to achieve the end (make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world) and we are failing. Not because it is an incorrect ends/telos (although we only adopted this mission statement in full just twelve years ago), but because paradoxically we are more likely to hit the target if we focus on our scopos, not our telos. A golfer is more likely able to land the ball near the cup (telos) if they focus on hitting the ball (scopos). In fact taking your eyes off the ball and looking at the cup is a detriment to actually getting the ball into the cup! The golfer who focuses on the ball (scopos) and not the cup (telos), has to trust that by doing so they will get closer to their telos.

Many in the universal Church are fascinated at landing the ball in the cup that there is little time given to focus on the stance, ball, swing and follow through.

Focusing on making disciples for the transformation of the world then is like focusing on the cup and not on the ball. We are focused on the scorecard and not on the swing. We are focused on something that, regardless of its virtue, decreases our chances to actually land the ball well.

Rather than focusing on the end, the cup, the making disciples, I wonder if we were to shift our eyes and focus on that which will be more helpful to reach the same ends? What if were to take the advice of Abba Moses and have the goal of purity of heart. Or perhaps Jesus who said, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8)

It is my conviction that pastors are much more interested in cultivating the heart of a person than to make a disciples, because a disciple can still betray and deny Jesus, but one who is the heart of Christ cannot do anything but love like Christ. What would a Church look like if we were to focus on cultivating purity of heart?

“But”, Richard Beck says, “hearts aren’t easily changed. You can’t change hearts with pep talks, protests, podcasts, Facebook rants, tweets, or a really good sermon. Hearts require spiritual formation through habits and practices that directly address the social and psychological dynamics at work that keep us from seeing and welcoming each other.”