Monthly Archives: February 2010

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The other side of a sermon on being holy

If there is good to be found in everything, is there also evil? Are sin and evil the same thing? Matthew 7:11 “If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” We tend to gloss over the, “though you are evil” part, but it actually speaks to us even more deeply about the need to seek and do good. There exists in every opportunity, in every choice the ability within our freewill that we have been given to choose evil, to choose good or to remain neutral and allow others and circumstance to choose for us. The fall of humankind in stories from all over the world is most often the result of the inability to resist temptation. That doesn’t always mean to choose evil, but in the case of the Biblical story it is actually the giving in to temptation which leads to the knowledge of what is good and what is evil and ultimately to the choice which would have to made from that point forward.

The giving in to temptation, eating from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, is considered to be the original sin. According to Augustine and what followed from him as the doctrine of “Original Sin,” every human inherits this sin and is therefore born sinful. In the Genesis story it builds until the time of Noah when, “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Gen. 6:5 God started over with the flood, but people constantly forget the good and chose evil instead and so we remain in need of redemption and of something to hold onto which reminds of the good. To sin is to turn away from God, or as it is often defined, “that which separates us from God.” The struggle is and will always be to choose good over evil, to rise above our temptations. The inherent sinfulness or propensity for evil within us does not deny that at the same time there exists also within us inherent good and a desire to do good, but instead it places the duality of our inward nature at odds with itself and forces us to constantly choose and to be what we hope to be rather than what we could become if we give in to the constant temptations which surround us.
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Out of place and stuck in time

It’s not exactly tourist season in Washington DC, but as always there were plenty tour groups walking around DC today. The thing that was funny to me though was how underdressed I felt walking around in my jeans and coat, because even the tourists were wearing ties (I do have mine packed so I guess I will be prepared if I go into DC again, but that’s not why I’m here). I am always struck by the monumental (literally) sense of history that exists in DC. I have been to much older places in the world, but in places like Rome and Paris the cities have such a different feel as though their history is a part of them and it’s still alive but in DC it can feel awkward like the whole place is a museum. At the same time though it’s also where the governance is suppose to be getting done and the real history that exists here is more recent. People come here and I think they can get stuck in the atmosphere of these pristine white marble temples/government buildings and like most museums there is this feeling that you shouldn’t really touch anything. To be fair though, a lot of the buildings actually are museums and they are pretty incredible and more inviting than the government buildings. At the Supreme Court building they have this huge wide staircase that when deserted is pretty imposing and uninviting (which is kind of the point of the design as a larger than life entry portal for the “Temple of Justice” based on the ancient temples of Grease and Rome). I suppose it could be just that there weren’t tourists wondering around in shorts and tank tops all over the place and the snow does have it’s own effect, but whatever it was, it felt different than on previous visits.

Despite the feeling that it was there to look at and take pictures of and not to actually go into I decided to cross the expanse and enter the halls of justice. The court room is really not that big considering how big the things that happen there are. The most interesting feature in the room is the frieze that borders the walls near the ceiling. Acknowledging the great law givers in history, the frieze features the characters of Hammurabi, Moses, Confucius, Muhammad (yes I realize the problem with depicting him, but the respect for what he brought to the world in terms of law and justice has to count for something), Charlemagne and Napoleon amongst others. You have to appreciate the way it gives the proper due to these important figures from every corner of the globe. For any seeker of justice this is a special place dedicated to interpreting law and establishing a precedent for justice with far reaching ramifications.
Ultimately DC and the neighborhoods that surround it are an amazing place to be. Even on a cold day when the buildings look even colder and the formality of dress seems a bit oppressive, you know that there is life and you can sense that things are always happening here. There are people and cultures represented from all over the world. You can find any kind of food, art, clothing and whatever else from any place you can think of. There is a museum seemingly for almost anything from Air and Space to Modern Art to the Spy Museum (where you can test yourself to see if you would be a good spy) to Asian, African, European, Native American and plenty of other kinds of art. My last stop on this very brief visit to DC was of course the Methodist Building which sits right next to the Supreme Court and is the only non-governmental building on Capital Hill. If you stop in you can probably get a tour including the chapel where Martin Luther King Jr., Desmond Tutu, and others have preached, where many have worshiped where some landmark celebrations have taken place (you can find some of the history at: http://www.umc-gbcs.org/site/c.frLJK2PKLqF/b.3791391/). I look forward to every chance I have to be in this place.
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The competitive fire of expectations

As I rounded the corner about halfway through my run I caught a rare glimpse of another runner up ahead (I tend to run at odd times and in a year and a half I have seen another runner only perhaps ten times). They were running along the same path about a quarter mile ahead of me and instantly my competitive instinct kicked in and I found another gear as if this other runner and I were in some kind of race (which they clearly knew nothing about). In mere moments I had closed the distance by half and my heart rate actually slowed as if my whole being had fallen into a methodical rhythm when much to my chagrin the other runner turned off onto a side road and my exhilarating surge of adrenaline quickly subsided. Almost as quickly as it had started, just like that the chase was over and I was back to my solitary and contemplative run (which is actually what I prefer, but the thrill of trying to overtake a competitor certainly awakened something within me). I freely admit to my extremely competitive nature, but what struck me about this was that it was more reflex than thought. My body responded without any prompting from my thoughts and clearly my instinct was to catch anyone who was ahead of me. Running, like any endurance sport, is mostly mental. Like that fact that for me, no matter how hard I have run, something clicks in my mind and I always have to finish stronger than I started. Training is important, but being willing to hurt is more important and I believe that a personal expectation that you can win is what separates the good from the elite. I am by no means placing myself among the elite, but I do understand the mindset that is required.

In life I believe it is the same. Being competitive is one thing, and from some perspectives it certainly is a component of achievement, but more than competitiveness I believe achievement takes the expectation that you can accomplish whatever you set out to do. In competition you have to believe you can win or you never will. In life even if the competition is with yourself (perhaps especially when it is) you have to believe, even expect that you can do something or you probably won’t. I am not saying it doesn’t happen that a person with very low expectations of themselves exceeds them, but that is the exception not the rule. My own personal expectations of myself are incredibly high and my own competition with those expectations is what drives me. My father (who I respect perhaps more than anyone else) once told me that my expectations are both my greatest flaw and my greatest attribute. I have to admit it felt good to know that my competitive fire still burns strong and though some may see it as arrogant I refuse to apologize for the expectations I hold for myself which push me to believe that anything is possible. The trick for me is to allow a change in expectations to be simply that. If you have high expectations sometimes you will fail, but every failure teaches us more about what we can do and we can choose to dwell on the failure or we can choose to adjust and to constantly seek our new goal. If we believe in ourselves we will tend to succeed more often than we fail and our failures will come to be seen as simply learnings along the path as we discover our true direction.
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Anthropomorphism

Anthropomorphism

I asked my daughter the other day how the tires of her stroller got covered in mud and her response was, “Bob (the stroller is made by “Baby On Board” and has always been known as Bob) likes the mud.” Having a name is one thing, but having likes and dislikes is something new and it made me think of all the ways that we anthropomorphize things. Perhaps the objects we most often ascribe human traits to are our cars, but if we really think about it, we do it with all sorts of things. “The washing machine is acting up.” “I think my computer is mad at me.” People give names to their guitars (B. B. King’s “Lucille” is one of the more famous examples of this) and have quasi love affairs with their instruments. There are commercials running where people have conversations with their bed or their car after traveling, we have talking geckos, dancing peanuts (complete with top hat and monocle) and any number of other things we animate and make like us. In a manner of speaking you could say that it is an attempt at relationalism in the sense that we are personifying these things so that we can relate to them by seeing them in our own image.

From a faith perspective we do the same thing with God as well, limiting God and trying to comprehend things from within the scope of our own understanding. It is one thing to think in theanthropic terms seeing the divine in the human and the qualities and attributes, which are both, but it is another thing entirely when we create God in our image instead of the other way around. For Christians, both Jesus himself and Paul pushed us to see the divine in each other and showed us that as we relate to each other we relate to God, but they were both careful not to limit God into only being seen in us. Again, it is a relational thing in a sense of trying to understand God better by quantifying God in human terms, but as I often quote one of my favorite theologians, Nicholas of Cusa said, “If we could understand everything about God, God would not be so impressive as God.”

It makes sense and being able to relate is something special. Feeling like you know God better because of any way that you feel you can relate is probably a good thing. There is something to be said though in our ability or inability to relate to things that are not like us. We should be able to relate without having to make them like us. We should be able to see something as different and understand that that’s okay. In terms of god we need to accept that we don’t get to know everything. On the other hand, maybe Bob really does like the mud and what do I know.

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Special connecions

There is something very special about a relationship in which you can go for months or even years without talking and then when you do you quickly slip into your old rhythm as though you had spoken every day. You miss them when you don’t talk and there are always thoughts of picking up the phone and calling, but then you get distracted, you get busy, you end up with some reason you can’t and then a week goes by…a month…more until finally one of you makes that call, sends that email, you manage to be in the same place, whatever and you pick things up because the connection and the foundation is so strong that the saying, “absence makes the heart grow fonder” holds true. This is not true for every relationship, but for the special ones the connection really can be so strong that time is not so much of a barrier. If we find a relationship like this, cherish it and be thankful because they are all too rare in our lives. We should never take it for granted, but instead take advantage of whatever chance we get to be in connection with each other. Technology has made it so much easier to connect, but we still have to do it and be intentional about it. I am personally more thankful than I could express for the several relationships I have which are like this. If you are one of those people in my life you have my love and gratitude for the gift you give me by being you and I look forward to whenever we will connect again.