Killing our(self)

 “Be careful not to do your ‘acts of righteousness’ before men, to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” (Matthew 6:1-4)

In the Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard explains what it looks like to possess the type of “Kingdom Heart” Jesus speaks of in the Sermon on the Mount. “To succeed in keeping the law we must aim at something other and something more,” says Willard. “One must aim to become the kind of person from whom the deeds of the law naturally flow. The apple tree naturally produces apples because of it’s inner nature (143).

He later expounds on this saying “We must never forget that Jesus points beyond action to the source of the action in character. This is the general principle that governs all he says. The kind of people who have been so transformed by their daily walk with God that good deeds naturally flow from their character are precisely the kind of people whose left hand would not know what their right hand was doing — as, for example when driving one’s own car or speaking one’s native language. What they do, they do naturally, often automatically, simply because of what they are pervasively and internally (192).”

Peter Rollins furthers this discussion in  ”How (not) to speak of God.” 

“The love that arises from God is a love that loves anonymously, a love that acts without self-centered reflections, that gives without thought. Our lives should be full of acts of love of this kind, and yet, by definition, they will be invisible to us. As Meiser Eckhart once said:

When one can do the works of virtue without preparing, by willing to do them, and bring to completion some great and righteous matter without giving it a thought – when the deed of virtue seems to happen by itself, simply because one loved goodness and for not other reason, then one is perfectly virtuous and not before. 

Rollins continues “….. what is important  for Eckhart is not to think correctly, or to work hard, buter rather to engage in the type of concrete ego-death by which the divine is invited to enter the place which we have laid down. The hope is that in doing so, love will flow from us.” 

He adds “…to be a Christian is to be born of love, transformed by love and committed to transforming the world with love. This is not somehow done by working ourselves up and trying to find the right way of thinking and acting, but rather in letting go and opening up the transformative power of God. In so doing, we will not merely sit around describing God to the world, but rather, we will become the iconic spaces in which God is made manifest in the world (75).”

When we feel down that our “good works” aren’t good enough for God,  when we feel that we don’t have the energy or ability to love, may we be reminded that we need not try to muster up love from within ourselves. The love we have to offer the world arises from the spirit that indwells us as we lay down our life and offer it to God and to the world. May we all be(come) the kind of people who naturally do what is right. 

I have written a second part to this post, it can be found here.

How (not) to speak of God

 

Much of the early content I’ll be exploring in future posts comes from “How (not) to speak of God” by Peter Rollins. I was introduced to this book from my church, Mosaic, and have been reading and re-reading it for the past week and a half. The book itself can in the same sentence makes me cringe (due to things my church tradition has taught me to believe) and make my heart burn (due to the the fact his observations cut to the heart of Jesus mission and message) at the same time. 

Rollins explores such ideas as a/theism, believing in the right way, and the prejudice of love. I could not do justice to these ideas here, so if you are curious, read the book. He effectively uses parables to express ideas. He explains how God is concealed in revelation, and how doubt is central to faith. The most profound aspect of this book is its ability to show that two seemingly opposite things can coexist and work in tension with each other. This kind of thinking is more eastern than western, more Hebrew than Greek. 

If I have any critcism of this book, it is that at times he makes it seem as though none of our efforts to understand God will every help us reach any conclusions. While that isn’t his ultimate point,  I will say that I’ve found a careful study of the original background of the text can have incredible implications for how we read it. While history/background in and of itself can be subjective, I still think studying the context of the scriptures is critical. I also found the second section of this book to be a little strange. It is comprised of 10 service descriptions from his community. I can’t say I resonated with many of these services. I like his ideas a lot, maybe just not the way he is going about fleshing them out in services.  I’m not saying they are wrong, or that there is only one way to do a service, I’m Just saying they didn’t impact me the way his ideas did. 

That being said, I highly recommend this book to anyone with an open mind who desires to be transformed into a more loving person. Much of it is brilliant and very thought provoking.