50 ways to leave your lover
Human beings, including Jesus’ disciples, have become artful in developing ways in which to escape from the all-encompassing claims of God in Jesus. Any discussion about true encounters with God must therefore include ways in which we try and avoid him, to qualify the God relationship, to ameliorate the tension he creates in our lives. I have found the analysis of Paul Minear in his brilliant book Eyes of Faith extremely useful, and so I use his material as a basis for this reflection. Note how the all-encompassing nature of existential monotheism comes to the fore here. According to Minear, we try escape God by….
1. Idolatry
Making our own gods according to our own image and likeness. One of the basic urges of idolatry is man’s desire to initiate his own relationship to God and thereby control God. “Man worships idols precisely because of his ability to see them, to know them, to have power over them. But he can never observe God in the same way in which he can reflect on the beauty and power of his idol.” In becoming idolaters, we try diminish the power and presence of God in our lives, minimize his impact on us. It’s an ancient dodge.
2. Vacating the arena
Attempting to leave the arena of engagement and become a spectator, thereby trying to reverse the roles God becomes the actor and we become the critical observer. We try to become “investigators of God’s claims.” But this attempt to escape is futile because God cannot (and will not) simply be observed by us. He can only be truly known by existential involvement. Key knowledge is denied to the detached observer in precisely those questions that are the most decisive in determining his destiny. Besides, a person cannot forgive themselves of their own sins, or even keep death away. God cannot be dodged by these means. “Existential concern expels speculative detachment.”
3. Simply trying to hide
But in reality there is nowhere to hide. When God invade our lives he forces us out of our corners and into the arena. And besides we cannot hide from God anyway, for as the Psalmist writes, “Where can I flee from your presence?” (Ps.139:7). We carry the issues deep within us. No human can fully evade the issue of God.
4. Through religiosity
We try to escape God by attempting to “...preserve mementoes of God’s former visits in ritual and law, to idolize these, to substitute legal observance and cultic sacrifice for ‘knowledge of God…The religious person is also inclined to speak of God in the third person, albeit with apparent reverence, and thus to remove himself from the magnetic field of divine compulsions. Man can forget God in the very act of speaking of him.” Religion is one of the biggest cop-outs known to the human. It objectifies God and thus seeks to control him.
5. Building compartments and allowing only a partial rule by God
The dodger in this way consents to God’s authority in the area where that seems desirable, but at the same time tries to maintain his autonomy in other areas. “But God does not respect these man-made fences. Man’s total existence is known by him. When he speaks, he claims total sovereignty.”
6. Creating false dualisms
Trying to erect walls between the sacred and the secular and confining God to the sacred realm. But there is no such concept of ‘religion’ in the Scriptures “…for there is no experience which as such can be defined as religious, and no experience which lies outside of the divine radius. [But] God does not call man to endorse a religion, but to view all life religiously, i.e., in its relation to God.”
7. Trying to draw a line between flesh and spirit, between physical and spiritual reality
But the biblical God is the Creator of both body and spirit. In every personal encounter he forces us to participate as a unit. He does not draw the false line between flesh and spirit and deal with one in isolation. We are to offer our bodies as living sacrifices.
8. Trying to draw false distinctions between private and public life
We try to distinguish between events of significance to the individual and those having social impact. But in a real way, “…every event is social because it takes place within the web of personal relations and involves, in however small a compass, issues of ultimate concern.”
In tacking these attempts to hide, the biblical writers “…fight against any false separation of sacred from the secular, against any reduction in the territory under divine rule.” And as disciples, we are called, not to escape from God, but to fully engage him, to actually become like him. We are the people of the way of Jesus, and as Stussen and Gushee point out, when this way “…is thinned down, marginalized or avoided, then churches and Christians lose their antibodies against infection by secular ideologies that manipulate Christians into serving some other lord. We fear precisely that kind of idolatry now.”
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Interesting stuff. I wonder if we should understand all of the 10 commndments in this way?
Alan,
Thanks for making us aware of Minear’s work. This is good stuff. I particularly like his comments on religion.
It is much easier to follow a rule than to love one’s enemies or pursue justice, mercy, and the greater matters of the law. It makes one feel secure, righteous, even while pursuing an unrighteous life. The evidence of this is overwhelming, as people conduct witch hunts against people with whom they have doctrinal disagreements. In following their “religion” (human rules and conclusions), they resort to mean-spiritedness, entrapment, destruction of unity, gossip, and more to destroy their “opponents” (fellow Christians), with behavior that shows they believe the ends justify the means.
I say “they,” but this is a danger that we all face in “religion.” We should always check ourselves and make sure that pursuing justice and mercy are our primary acts of “religion.”
That’s pretty insightful. Does he actually have 50 points in the book or is it just these 8 points expanded on? I found it interesting to try think of what the opposites of the points might be - kind of like “50 ways to embrace your lover”. Really helpful and fun for all the family.
I usually find that when someone has the kind of insight that shows here in Minear’s writing, that they have struggled to have a handle on those things which are pulling them in different directions. All too often, I find the things I feel competent to comment on are those I have or are struggling with the most! Unfortunately.
James, the 50 ways is my terminology…remember the song?
I think the biggest way in the Western world is busyness… and filling any spare moment with TV, radio, reading, blogging!
There needs to be enough space in our lives to hear from the God who wishes to fill every moment.
Touche Jan. And welcome back stranger!
Janet, I read you comment and thought of Pentecost. Jesus left, but before he left he was asked if this was when he was going to restore the Kingdom and Israel and make everything really spectacular for all involved.
He told the disciples he didn’t know about all that but that they were supposed to wait in Jerusalem until the Spirit came. So they waited. They gathered together every day and they prayed. They filled the days after the most amazing moment in history with quiet openness.
Then the Spirit came, and they couldn’t help it.
I wonder if all those missteps come from our asking the question “is this when you are going to restore the kingdom?”, giving the answer yes, and not waiting or remaining open to God. They are signs of being a zealot, not being a disciple and so lack real power.
Two movements in Israel during the 1st century. One to restore the physical Kingdom was crushed by Rome. The other to participate in the Kingdom of God soon filled Rome and beyond. I think the church, oddly enough, got a taste of power and has drifted into the former mode rather than staying in the latter.
Guilty as charged on all counts!!! (yes, I have been busy lately).
That’s a great reflection Patrick… very challenging.
I was reflecting this morning on this passage in Chronicles (as you do…)
II Chronicles 36
: 20 “He carried into exile to Babylon the remnant, who escaped from the sword, and they became servants to him and his sons until the kingdom of Persia came to power. 21 The land enjoyed its sabbath rests; all the time of its desolation it rested, until the seventy years were completed in fulfillment of the word of the LORD spoken by Jeremiah.”
I wondered whether people sometimes fall apart with chronic illness or deep depression as a kind of “forced sabbath” catch up… just as the land of Israel had enforced Sabbaths by the harshest of harsh means.
I think with throwing out legalism over sabbath observance (good) we have often neglected a holy rythym of rest and remembrance. (bad) I think “modernist” thought and the mantra of “productivity” have influenced us Westerners more deeply than we imagine.
Mmmm….
My spiritual director has been pointing me to the writings of Brother Lawrence… famous for “practicing God’s presence” while busy with monastery duties… which dovetails rather nicely with Paul Minear’s reflections. As a sample:
Brother Lawrence emphasized that all physical and mental disciplines and exercises were useless, unless they served to arrive at the union with God by love. He had well considered this. He found that the shortest way to go straight to God was by a continual exercise of love and doing all things for His sake.
Also, he noted that there was a great difference between acts of the intellect and acts of the will. Acts of the intellect were comparatively of little value. Acts of the will were all important. Our only business was to love and delight ourselves in God.
He then said that all possible kinds of self-sacrifice, if they were void of the love of God, could not efface a single sin. Instead, we ought, without anxiety, expect the pardon of our sins from the blood of Jesus Christ, endeavoring only to love Him with all our heart. He noted that God seemed to have granted the greatest favors to the greatest sinners as more proof of His mercy.
Brother Lawrence said the greatest pains or pleasures of this world were nothing compared to what he had experienced of both kinds in a spiritual state. As a result he feared nothing, desiring only one thing of God - that he might not offend Him. He said he carried no guilt because, “When I fail in my duty, I readily acknowledge it, saying, I am used to do so. I shall never do otherwise if I am left to myself. If I do not fail, then I immediately give God thanks, acknowledging that it comes from Him.”
Hello Janet! Yes, isn’t Brother Lawrence wonderful?
Thanks, too, for that thoughtful comment, Patrick…
And I would say that the issue goes beyond productivity as efficiency to technology as slave-driver/idol. Faster is not always (ever?) better or more effective. And the wanton consumption of resources without thought for rest and rejuvination is terrible stewardship.
I am processing all of this through Eugene Peterson’s “Eat This Book”…and I’m taking time to savor it
This morning as I sat with the lord I found myself thinking about surrender.. how it requires an inner death (Ro.12:1,2) and becoming a sacrifice. “If any man would follow me let him deny himself..”
And I realized.. I mostly sit on the edge of that cliff and gaze over the side. Perhaps occasionally I’ve made my way partly down the mountain..
When I read the lives of great men and women of God I recognize that quality in their lives.. of surrender or consecration. And I have even met a few of these people during the course of my life. But my sense is that they are fewer in my generation than perhaps any time in history.
And when you meet them.. you know it. Just being in the presence of a person like this is a challenge. And not because they are in your face and condemning you.. but because there is a light and a lightness in them, often a warmth and a beauty.. you know they have been with Jesus.
Anonymous as cherubs over the crib of God,
White seeds are floating,
Out of my burst pod,
What power had I,
Before I learned yield?
Shatter me great wind…
I shall posess the field…
Richard Wilbur “The Milkweed”
Wow Len, great stuff. Love the poem.
Really good stuff. Yeah, I’m like one of those people who consistently try to follow Jesus. But to have really stepped over the edge and stayed there, like Len says, that’s another matter. Good words here.
I especially like the thought about how we try to domesticate God and make a god according to what we want. This is partly why all of scripture is so important and so needed by us. Once we seriously read that, we’ll have to give up trying to figure God out and leave it at that.
If thou couldst empty all thyself of self,
Like to a shell dishabited,
Then might He find thee on the Ocean shelf,
And say — “This is not dead,” —
And fill thee with Himself instead.
But thou art all replete with very thou,
And hast such shrewd activity,
That, when He comes, He says — “This is enow
Unto itself — ‘Twere better let it be:
It is so small and full, there is no room for Me.”
Thomas Brown