Christians Following Nietzsche

If there is a saying of the desert tradition that summarizes our time, I nominate the following:

Abba Anthony said, “A time is coming when men will go mad, and when they see someone who is not mad, they will attack him saying, ‘You are mad, you are not like us.‘”

Each week there is some news that comes up through the United Methodist Church news cycle that just baffles me. It is clearly much more complex and complicated than I could possibly understand and I feel like I am going mad (crazy).

Nietzsche is alive and well in the Church. Almost as an “unholy” spirit.

Where is the specter or Nietzsche you ask? Maybe you can piece it together when you read what Nietzsche says about power in his writing called “Antichrist”:

What is good?—Whatever augments the feeling of power, the will to power, power itself, in man.

What is evil?—Whatever springs from weakness.

What is happiness?—The feeling that power increases—that resistance is overcome. Not contentment, but more power; not peace at any price, but war; not virtue, but efficiency.

The acquisition and retention of power shows up in all sorts of obvious ways in the Church. When the pastor is the gatekeeper of all that is “godly” or when the church marries herself with government (such as Christian Nationalism). We see the elevation of power in the church in less subtle ways as well when the church leads by “empowering” others. To be clear it is not that empowering others goes to far, it is that empowering others does not go far enough. The Church of Jesus Christ is not to settle for empowering people but working to liberate people. Christ’s power liberates in service of the weak, Nietzsche’s power binds the weak to be in service.

When power becomes the chief value we seek we have to ask if we are following Christ or Nietzsche? Are we following the one who divested all power and became obedient to death (Philippians 2) or the one who said that happiness can be found through war and efficiency?

In case you wanted to know the last part of the Nietzsche quote here those lines ends:

The weak and the botched shall perish: first principle of our charity. And one should help them to it.

What is more harmful than any vice?—Practical sympathy for the botched and the weak—Christianity....

To that end, anyone in the church that is calling for the dismantling of the church. Anyone who is leading people to harden their stance and shun weakness. Anyone who is arguing for a church that is without any flaws or inconsistencies. Anyone who is lacking charity of spirit or presuming the worst intensions of another. These may be followers of Nietzsche.

Redemption for the Salt-less

Matthew 5:13 reads, “‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

Often this is understood as some sort of unique characteristic of the disciple of Jesus and that we are being cautioned to retain this characteristic (saltiness) otherwise we will be good for nothing and trampled under foot. We are cautioned to retain our saltiness so that we are useful to God and that our purpose is to “season” the world. This is a nice sermon.

However, this interpretation assumes that God would be the one tossing us aside if we loose our saltiness. And that seems a bit unlike God. Especially the God of Jesus who always redeems that which is thought to be unredeemable. Do you know who tosses out people to be trampled under foot? Humanity.

However, it is difficult to miss that salt was a common use of currency in the Roman army. The word “salary” comes from the word salt, so I wonder if Jesus is making a connection about the poor and the current economic system of the day. Could it be less that Jesus is not talking about some characteristic but a reflection that the poor were considered as expendable as salt. Could it be that these words of Jesus reflect the ways the rich view the poor? Could it be this is less about God’s actions and more about how humans treat other humans? Could it be that the salt of the earth verse is related to the ways people persecute others?

Consider context of the two previous statement Jesus makes prior to the salt comments:

‘Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. ‘Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Jesus says we are blessed when we are persecuted and that we are to rejoice when we are treated as such. Then Jesus says, “‘You are the salt of the earth; but if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.”

If salt is thrown out and trampled under foot then it is no longer good for taste. That means it cannot be used for human consumption or to be a product of the marketplace. Salt that looses its saltiness is no longer subject to the economic grind that values people only for what they can produce. Humans think the value of a person is in relationship to what they produce.

I am confident that God thinks differently.

God does not value humans on what we produce or contribute. God values humans because humans are God’s children. And as God’s children, we are called to be with and for one another. That is to say, we are to support and care for one another.

Salt that looses its saltiness is no longer good for the market because it has lost its economic value. However, I wonder if there is redemption for the salt-less?

Salt that has been baptized (that is salt that becomes saltwater) becomes a body makes it easier for people to float. The salt supports others regardless of how it tastes. Saltwater becomes a body of support for others who struggle. In this way, saltwater is not unlike what Jesus talks about in the next verses:

You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hidden. No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

Saltwater and light on a hill are not in service of themselves or gain value to what they add to the system. They are aids for others who are lost and struggling. The lift up those who are drowning. It lifts up the eyes of those who are lost.

For too long, Christians have tried to safeguard saltiness with a fear that loosing saltiness disappoints God. However, I wonder if this approach fails to imagine that God can redeem the salt-less?

Church is a Bagel

Pastors are asked a lot of different questions, but most questions are variations of categories of questions.

• There are questions in the “belief category” - “what does your church believe?”

• There are questions in the “vision category"” - '“what is the vision of your church?”

• There are the questions in the “tenure category” - “how long are you going to remain the pastor here?”

• There are the questions in the “ministry category” - “does your church have ‘X’ ministry?”

While there are dozens of categories and endless variations of questions, the vast majority of questions have the same underlying assumption that suggests what is most important. The assumption is that there is some thing that holds the groups together. That “some thing” could be a doctrine, vision statement, pastor, ministry, or some other thing. But the assumption is that there is something and that something is important to know.

And it makes sense to ask that question, because that is what just about every other organization would have. However, the church is not an organization but an organism, it is not a community but a communion.

As such, the thing that makes the Church the Church is not what it has, but what it lacks.

Christianity confesses that everyone is a sinner, everyone falls short, everyone is broken, everyone has some lack. Ironically it is that shared lack of “some thing” is what unites a Church. It is like what unites an AA group. It is their lack that unites the group - their lack of consuming alcohol or their lack of control or some other lack. What makes a bagel a bagel is not what it has but what it lacks. It lacks the center, there is a hole in the bagel If you were to fill the center then it would become a bun or something other than a bagel.

It is tempting to create, start and build a church that defined by what it has. Being a part of a group because of what you all have can feel powerful and it is even appropriate at time. But it is not appropriate for the Church because when we do this, we are no longer a church. It becomes something else (such as a ‘community’ or a ‘market’ or a ‘mob’). The defining feature of the church is that it is a communion of people who confess a lack. We lack the answers. We lack sight. We lack compassion. We lack perfection. We lack control.

The Church confesses that it needs a savior because it lacks the ability to save itself.

Many people in the world will try to point out your lack and then try to sell you something to fill that lack. The Church is the only place that I know of that confesses a lack as a feature not as a bug to be corrected.