HerbEly

Hiding Doesn’t Work for Charlie Brown - or for Us

There is, to my mind, a convergence between a recent Peanuts cartoon and the scripture readings for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time (September 4, 2016).  In the cartoon:

Lucy: "Why are you hiding under the bed?"

Charlie: "School starts next week."

Lucy: "You hid under the bed last year and it didn't work."

Charlie: "I'm better at it now."

In Luke 14:23 we hear Jesus saying "...anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple." This seems to be an impossibly hard saying. A few, like Francis of Assisi, have taken it literally. Others, like Francis de Sales, advocate a life of devotion compatible with the life of a soldier, prince, tradesman or married woman. Even these must come to terms with Luke 14:23 in a spiritual, if not literal, sense.

     In the cartoon Charlie Brown gives us a clue. He has adopted a behavior that protects him from an apparently hostile world. He fools himself into thinking that, even though it didn't work last year, he can make it work this year. He clings to what Thomas Keating calls "programs for happiness" - those behaviors that we adopt to protect basic needs. At some point in life we discover that those programs no longer work for us. They worked before, but now they are self-defeating. At that point we can cling to them even more tightly. Ben Franklin defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. Charlie Brown is clinging to his behavior of hiding from trouble even though he knows it won't work. 

     The gospel give us a different choice. We can renounce our preferred behavior and take the chance of turning over our life to the care of God. Most of us will not do this until, unlike Charlie, we recognize our insanity. When we do, we will find a new freedom and a new happiness. We will be able to march out of our home and go to school.

    The gospel choice only looks hard while we are hiding under the bed.

 

On the Proper Motives for Accepting Honor and Recognition

    In the scriptures for the Twenty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 28, 2016) we hear the story from Luke about a wedding reception in which a guest chooses a place of high honor at the table. Jesus advises that we not seek the highest place, lest we be asked to clear the table for a more distinguished guest. (I saw this happen a few years back. A couple left in a huff because they did not get the table they thought they deserved. The situation was discreetly hushed up and the other guests barely noticed.)

   I have been a loyal member of the institutional church, a long term civilian employee of the US Army and active in civic organizations. The temptation of lusting after the perquisites of position and symbols of prestige and power is familiar to me. I can name teachers, civic leaders and executives who have used their prestige to benefit the public more than themselves. On the other hand, we can all name celebrities who will inflict harm on the public to gain honor and recognition.

    The wedding guest who was asked to move to a less prestigious seat risked more than just embarrassment. The greater risk came after he left.  Then he would have been tempted to resentment and the desire for revenge.

     Is it wrong to seek symbols of prestige and power? There are times when it is appropriate. St. Francis de Sales writes:

“…good men seeking to grow in grace can take their natural rank and position, so long as they are not engrossed by such things, and do not involve themselves in anxiety, contention or ill-will on their account. I am not speaking here of those whose position is public, or even of certain special private persons whose dignity may be important. In all such cases each man must move in his own sphere, with prudence and discretion, together with charity and courtesy.”

 

Training for Entry

Here are two reflections on the scriptures for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time (Aug 21, 2016). Taking advantage of the three year cycle, I’m repeating blog postings from 2013 and 2010.

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August 21, 2013

 

From Tarshish Through the Narrow Gate

 

On the 21st. Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 25th) the lectionary readings pairs Is 66:18-21 with the Gospel reading (Lk 13:22-30.) Isaiah writes that brothers and sisters from far away (and unlikely) nations will find their way to Jerusalem.  This includes places such as Tarshish. Some of them, the LORD says: "I will take as priests and Levites." In the Gospel we are reminded that many will think that they are deserving to enter. But the gate is narrow, some self-satisfied souls will find that their attitudes and behaviors disqualify them for entry. On the other hand, people will come from the east, west, north and south and recline at table in the kingdom of God.

 

I'm reminded that St. Augustine, trained in the elegant rhetoric of Cicero, was initially repulsed by the scripture. How could people accept such crude and inelegant prose. It took a deep conversion for him to realize that God speaks to all people and that deep truths are often found in crude languages spoken by people from unlikely places.

 

We need to strive to be ready to enter. The people we look down upon as being foreigners, unlettered or simply strange may gain entry ahead of us.

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August 19, 2010

 

 

Three Images of God as Father

 

    The readings for the 21st Sunday in Ordinary Time focus on entering through the narrow gate, how we should maintain our spiritual fitness, and how we will be surprised when we find that some unlikely people make it through the gate.

 

    The second reading, Hebrews 12:5-13, emphasizes the discipline of training. When we read "Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?" We (or at least I) tend to move over towards that old time religion image of God as the stern disciplinarian in the sky. This is a contrast of the image conveyed by the name of God as abba - the word little children use to call out to their daddy. It also contrasts with the image of the father who eagerly welcomes the return of a son who has betrayed him.

 

    The contrast can be resolved by looking at the word discipline as training for an athletic event. (I'm told that this is much closer to the meaning of the original Greek.) Last week we saw an example of how a good trainer/coach might act. When the Nationals played the Arizona Diamondbacks, Stephen Strassburg overthrew first base costing two unearned runs. The coach, I'm sure, did not say "Stephen, God is punishing you for the baseball sin of rushing your throw." He probably said, "Stephen, you were in a hurry and paid a price for your mistake. Next time set your feet and then throw."

 

    From that perspective we can agree with Hebrews that "Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

 

    By doing that we are striving "to enter through the narrow gate" and will find that we are "strong enough."

 

How Should Christians Live When We Are Aliens in Our Own Culture?

This blog posting below is from the Twentieth Sunday on August 14, three years ago. The scene is different in Europe and the United States now. Still we would do well to live by the words of Jeremiah 29.
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On the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 18th) we will hear an uncomfortable and challenging message. It was felt more deeply in the first 400 years of Christianity than it is today. The challenge is still present. It is just different. The selection from Jer 38 tells us how Jeremiah warned the Israelites that their city would be conquered as a result of their failure to keep the Law. For this unpopular message, he was punished and barely escaped with his life. In the Gospel (Luke 12:49-53) Jesus, having fundamentally reinterpreted the Law, warns that following Him will lead to division. Families will be divided against one another. 

For the early Christians, following Christ meant changing one's ethnic identity. For changing their message, Jewish Christians would no longer be united to Judaism. Roman and Greeks had to give up identification with their own people and religious practices - sometimes at risk of life and livelihood. Often they risked separation from family.
In modern America and Europe we have learned how to tolerate deep differences over religious messages under a code of tolerance. In many ways this is a good thing. The history of warfare over religious and ideological differences is not likely to be repeated. Yet deep differences remain and Christians often feel as if they are living in enemy occupied territory as C.S. Lewis writes. Our values differ in deep and fundamental ways, often invisible to the predominant culture. 

To put it another way, we are exiles in a city as alien as ancient Babylon was to the Jews. Jeremiah wrote the Jews who were exiled in Babylon. We Christians are not in a physical exile. Yet we live in a society that has values as alien to ours as the Babylonians were to the Jews. We can be said to be in internal exile. Here is what Jeremiah wrote:

This is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says to all those I carried into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon:  “Build houses and settle down; plant gardens and eat what they produce. Marry and have sons and daughters; find wives for your sons and give your daughters in marriage, so that they too may have sons and daughters. Increase in number there; do not decrease. Also, seek the peace and prosperity of the city to which I have carried you into exile. Pray to the Lord for it, because if it prospers, you too will prosper.” Yes, this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “Do not let the prophets and diviners among you deceive you. Do not listen to the dreams you encourage them to have. They are prophesying lies to you in my name. I have not sent them,” declares the Lord.

As modern Christians we need to remember that our values are in conflict with our society. The question is: how do we deal with it? The gospel warns us that there will be times when families and friends will be divided over basic values. (As an example consider the message implied in the words pro-life and anti-abortion in the news media.)  I'm inclined towards Jeremiah's view. We live in this society and should help it prosper and survive. At the same time we must never lose sight of our core values and consider ways to assert them while preserving a level of "domestic tranquillity." It is not up to us to end our exile by forcing a change in society's values. It is up to us to hold to our message and live by it.

Aretha sings “People, Get Ready.”

The scripture readings for Nineteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time (August 7, 2016) remind of us of Aretha Franklin’s song People, Get Ready, 

"People get ready, for the train to Jordan

It's picking up passengers from coast to coast

Faith is the key, open the doors and board 'em

There's hope for all among his loved the most"

For many of us the doors to faith seem closed and it is not clear how they can be opened. On August 4, 2010 I offered this approach:

    We read in Luke 12 that "...if the master had known when the thief was coming, he would long have let his house be  broken into." Good words, but the question for us is "how do maintain the motivation to be prepared when there is no urgent challenge?" This is especially true when we don't even see a challenge on the horizon.

     The challenge isn't on the horizon; it is inside of us. In The Human Condition: Contemplation and Transformation Thomas Keating  tells of hearing a woman holocaust survivor tell how her experience led her to found a humanitarian organization to prevent such horrors from being repeated.  She remarked "You know, I couldn't have started that organization unless I knew that, with the situation just a little different, I could have done the same thing the Nazi's did to my parents and others in the concentration camps." I was reminded of my struggle to understand a shooter could have murdered 32 others at Virginia Tech on April 16th,  2007. Somewhere in the aftermath I ran across this quote from Alexander Solzhenitsyn: "But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?" 

      Keating goes on to describe how regular prayer and reflection will help us locate that line. When we do, we can become aware of our constant need to seek help and maintain readiness. We realize our basic goodness as well as the tremendous energy that resides in our "shadow side." The possibilities for spiritual (and physical) progress are immense.

 

    As the Sunday's gospel reminds us, we need to seek progress not perfection. If we think we've achieved perfection our effort will slacken. Then the thief will show up and we won't be ready.