The eCrozier

What do you think agnostics think of our Lenten practices? They see our “Ashes-to-Go” set up on street corners. They hear of our fasting or “giving things up for Lent.” What do you think they make of it? They may well scratch their heads and just think we’re the strangest people on earth. “What” we do during Lent and “how” we go about doing it doesn’t make much sense to them. That’s because most of what they hear and see from us is the “what” and the “how” of Lent and not the “why” undergirding it. If we don’t address with them the “why,” then we don’t have much chance of engaging them with the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Yet, much of the church remains stuck on the “what” and the “how” of faith. We rarely ever approach the “why,” which has to do with our baptismal identity (forgiven sinners who have died in Christ) and purpose (redeemed sinners sent by Christ into the world). My hunch is that’s true because it’s less risky. We’re more comfortable staying with the mechanics of the season of Lent and its ascetical practices. Don’t get me wrong, those are important practices that nurture our Christian faith. But they remain confined to “what” we do and “how” we do it. They “work” for us because we in the church assume in such practices the “why” that underpins them. Yet, no one I’ve ever known has been moved to a new spiritual place by only addressing the “what” and the “how” of their lives. Those sorts of questions appeal primarily to our cerebral cortex, the rational part of our brains. The “why” question, however, addresses the limbic part of our brain. That’s the part that appeals to our human need and desire for identity and purpose. For a fuller exploration of this line of thinking, see Simon Sinek’s Ted Talk at https://www.ted.com/talks/simon_sinek_how_great_leaders_inspire_action.

My son Charley operates a small pet services business in Washington, D.C. that among other things will walk your dog for you because you are too busy to do so yourself. His business is growing. That’s not because the service he provides isn’t also provided by others. There are plenty of others offering such services. Also, it’s not because he and his employees necessarily provide better service than other similar businesses. In other words, the “what” and the “how” of his business isn’t really that much different than what others provide. The reason his business is thriving is that everything they do proclaims: “We really love dogs!” He’s in the business not merely because he walks dogs (the what) or because he walks dogs really well (the how), but because he loves dogs (the why). That appeals to his clients who also love their dogs. His clients want to be part of a business that loves dogs as much as they do. He focuses on the “why” and then the “what” and the “how.”

I’m not opposed to doing things like “Ashes-to-Go” or similar efforts to connect the Christian faith to where people are, especially if they provide us an opportunity to get to the “why” of people’s lives. But I’m skeptical such efforts do. I think they just make us feel better about ourselves, that we’re really reaching folk on the level of their identity in life and their purpose in the world. What needs to happen is this: We need to engage folk deeply on the “why” of their lives. We need to listen to their life stories, their hopes and fears, and then to talk with them about Jesus because he answers their “why” question of identity and purpose directly.

+Scott

Lent begins in Mark’s Gospel in the wilderness where Jesus is in a struggle between God’s Spirit that leads to life and the power of evil that leads to death. In that struggle, wild beasts and angels surround him. He’s in the middle of what would devour and destroy him and what would bring him light and life. This is our struggle, too. And it’s tempting for us to see the struggle as outside ourselves, believing that good or evil are waiting to step into the void.

In the 1970s, Flip Wilson had a TV show where he played a character named Geraldine. When Geraldine did something naughty she’d shout: “the devil made me do it.” It was never her fault. She was always innocent. After all, the Devil made her do it. But this distorts our view. It treats our agency as if we’re no more than toddlers incapable of taking responsibility for our actions. Since the evil is outside us, we would always choose the good if we were left alone to choose.

This is actually an old heresy called Manichaeism, named for its founder Manichaeus, a 3^rd Century A.D. Persian mystic. It holds that there’s a cosmic struggle between good and evil where God and Satan battle for our devotion. Our calling is to resist the forces of darkness and become enlightened by the Spirit of God. If this sounds familiar, it’s because many faithful people have adopted this Manichaen heresy to some extent. This heresy presumes the evil we face exists only outside ourselves. With such a presumption, we conveniently paint a good and evil picture of the world where some are evil and some are good; and where we usually place ourselves among the good. In such a worldview, there’s no room for self-examination and repentance because evil exists apart from us. We’re just victims of evil forces. Put simply, the Devil made us do it.

Of course, such a struggle between good and evil does take place, but it’s inside each of us. This is what the Church has taught for 2000 years. We’re all mixed bags. We’re capable of great acts of goodness as well as acts that we must call sin. Are we born that way? Or do we learn both the good and the evil? There is Bibli­cal and psychological evidence on both sides. Is it nurture or nature that forms us?

The Church comes down squarely in the middle of this debate. We emphasize the discipleship process because we know that the way one becomes a disciple of Jesus is by learning from others what that looks like. But we also hold the belief in what’s called original sin. Our human nature is “fallen” like Adam and Eve. We rebel against living under God’s gracious rule. So we follow Jesus know­ing full well that we’re rebels under God’s rule. The way to live faithfully, as the mixed bags we are, is to discipline our lives in such ways that we learn to live Good News.

This is why the Season of Lent is such a gift to us. This season helps us recognize the truth about ourselves. It helps us name the wilderness in which we live. Sometimes, I think the wilderness is a safe, attractive place to be. But I’m a fool to think that. The Biblical understanding of the wilderness isn’t some desert oasis like Palm Springs. Rather, the Gospel word for wilderness means “a place of terror, a place that destroys.” Alone I’ll more often than not consciously or subconsciously opt for death – for the wilderness is a harsh place and I’ll end up losing the struggle. But our baptism in God’s grace gives us real hope in the struggle because our baptism grafts us on to the Body of Christ. It’s impossible to be alone after baptism. Jesus didn’t go it alone in the wilderness. He had the ministry of angels. We, too, have angels around us on all sides. Some we can’t see, but most we can. They’re our sisters and brothers in Christ.

+Scott