rishi
Solving Problems
Posted on: 08/03/2010 11:07
Solving Problems
(Luke 12:13-21)
In the view of life that we learn from our Christian tradition, there are two basic realms that make up all that is—all of reality:
On the one hand:
- There is the created realm—which includes all of creation:
a) Some created things we can perceive with our five senses—like trees and mountains; animals and human beings; the smell of fresh cut grass on a summer day and the roar of the ocean as its waves roll back and forth.
b) Other created things we cannot perceive with our five senses, but only with our minds. Invisible things, like thoughts and intentions; feelings and dreams; hopes and theories. These are still created things, but they have a more subtle nature that requires a deeper kind of perception.
c) But, in the end, whether they are subtle or more obvious, the key characteristic that is shared by all things in the created realm is that they are finite. They exist within the limits of space and time. Whether we are talking about a stone or an idea or a bird or a human being. existence has a beginning, a middle, and an end. That's just the way things are in the created realm.[1]
On the other hand:
- There is the uncreated realm, which, in a way, is much simpler; because it has a population of One (or actually Three-in-one); it is the realm of that Mystery we call “God”, and other traditions call by other names. God is the Un-created, the One that was never born and never dies. The One that simply is. Completely unbound by time and space.
From the Christian point of view, why this distinction between these two realms is so very important, is because there is a crucial relationship between them.
The Source of all created things, including you and I, is that Uncreated Mystery we call “God”. And for that reason, the entire created realm draws its meaning and purpose, its health and happiness... from its Uncreated Source, from God.
It's such an important point that the great theologians of the church, like Augustine and Aquinas, used to say that if it were not for the reality of God present right here and now, you and I would not even be able to lift a finger, much less live justly, and in peace. We would not even “be” at all.
And, where this way of thinking really gets interesting, is when we, as created beings, discover that the more conscious and accepting we are of our radical dependence on the Uncreated One we call “God,”... the more we begin to let go, and relax into it.... we become actual co-operators with God in the mystery of life, right here and now, within our simple everyday experiences.
Of course, there is a flipside to this... when we don't 'get' the distinction between these two realms, we are at high risk of relating to things in the created realm, as though they were divine, as though they were uncreated and eternal. We fall, in other words, into the error of the archetypal Adam and Eve, who imagined that the key to their ultimate wellbeing was contained in a piece of fruit. In our day we might more easily fall into the error of imagining that the key to our ultimate well being can be found at Walmart or at the latest online matchmaking service; or perhaps at some University; or maybe wherever we buy our RRSPs or our chardonay or our organic vegetables. Not that there aren't good things to be found in all of these places. Without a doubt, there are. But if we mistake any of these created, temporal goods with the ultimate, uncreated source of our life's meaning and happiness, something gets twisted in our humanity. And the more we pursue these temporal things, with a view to squeezing eternal satisfactions out of them, the more deeply frustrated we become, and the more our humanity is deformed, by the poisons of greed (we just can't get enough) and hatred (we just can't let anyone stand in our way.).
It's an ancient philosophy and an easy one to remember—two realms, like two hands, belong together. But it's quite an unusual way of thinking about life. At least, it's not the way that we are trained to think in our contemporary culture. The reason that I wanted to give that little summary of traditional Christian philosophy is because having it in mind sheds a different light on today's gospel reading about the tragedy of “those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich toward God.”
When we relate to things in the created realm as though they were the eternal sources of our wellbeing, it twists our humanity somehow; it ignites the destructive emotions of greed and hatred.
I don't know if you've noticed this in your life as I have in mine, but greed never seems to arise alone; hatred always seems to be right behind it, lurking in the shadows. They're like companion emotions. If we want evidence of that, just put an obstacle in the path of greed, and notice what happens. And it also seems that, wherever greed and hatred are found, sooner or later suffering follows.
It's helpful, I find, to keep these things in mind, as we hear in today's gospel about this man in the crowd who has a problem with his family inheritance that he wants Jesus to fix for him. And Jesus says to him, essentially – “Wait a minute, friend, back off... that's not what I do.” And he turns back to the crowd and proceeds to give a teaching on greed. Do you find you're taken back by Jesus' response? What kind of pastoral caregiving is that? Aren't we supposed to never say “no” to meeting the needs of someone with a problem? What kind of example is Jesus setting for us here?
It is actually a great lesson in pastoral caregiving that is difficult for us to learn: that the problem a person presents to be “fixed” is not always the real problem. And fixing a false problem is not always the best, the most caring, response.
I suspect that if this troubled man in the crowd had instead cried out to Jesus, something like:
“Teacher, my brother is getting more money than I am, and I'm so green with envy that I could kill him... Can you help me?”
he probably would have received a very different response. Because that would have been something that Jesus could work with. Then, Jesus could have helped him understand how he was hoping to get something from created things that created things simply cannot provide... and that was filling him with greed, clouding his judgment, and leading him to act in ways that made his life worse instead of better... and how the remedy for that affliction was in finding his way back to the One on whom we, and all things, truly do depend.
Some problems are just not “fixable” when our horizon is limited to the created realm. And we can waste a lot of time and energy when we try to fix the unfixable. What we need instead is to have our horizon broadened, which is precisely what Jesus does...with the parable about our great need to get rich toward God.
~
One of my favorite magazines is the New Yorker, not because of the articles, but for the cartoons. They really do have great cartoons.
Recently I saw one with two men sitting on a bench in Central Park. They were unshaven and clothed in such a way that made it obvious that they were, if not homeless, having a very difficult time. And one of men says to the other:
“You know, my life wasn't always like this. I fought my way up in the system; I didn't let any thing or any one stand in my way, until I was the CEO of a Fortune 500 Company. I had a lovely wife, and two lovely children, and a lovely Irish Setter. I had a beautiful home on Park Avenue, and a summer house in Conneticut. We would spent Christmas in England most years. It was like something out of Dickens.”
And he went on and on, until finally the other man stopped him, and, with a puzzled expression on his face, asked him, “What on earth happened? How did you end up here?
And the former CEO, with his brows furrowed in a look of disgust and rage, mumbled, “I switched to decaf.”
Now, maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I suspect that if Jesus were ministering to this man in the cartoon in Central Park, he probably would not see the man's “switching to decaf” as the “real problem” that needed to be addressed in his life. He might indeed take the man out to Starbucks for a cup of good caffeinated coffee, but their conversation, I imagine, would sooner or later get around to the issue of how nothing can destroy a life from the inside out like greed and hatred.
Of course.... that's all very easy to say, as a kind of platitude, isn't it? But if we're going to be real... we have to acknowledge that the emotions of greed and hatred—disturbing & destructive as they may be—are a part of our lives, because, after all, life isn't easy.
Even for babies, life isn't easy. We often romanticize their lives as being idyllic, a kind of paradise. But think about it... ... a baby is lying there in his crib, just enjoying the simple sensation of touching a soft cotton blanket with his fingers, and all-of-a-sudden... out of nowhere... his diaper is wet...and uncomfortable... and he can't think about anything else... and there's nothing he can do to get back that wonderful moment that he was just having, before things got all wet..... so he cries. Maybe screams.
Or, imagine, a baby is cuddling up with her favorite stuffed animal, having her afternoon nap, blissfully off in dreamland . . ., and suddenly a fire engine races by on the street below, and jolts her little body into full tilt AWAKE... long before she was ready to be there... and there's nothing she can do to make it go away and to make the blissful dreams come back. So she cries... maybe clenches her little fists and pounds the mattress as she screams.
Even sweet, innocent little babies feel greed and hatred. How could they not?
As infants, our parents try to protect us from frustration as much as possible, but some things are simply beyond even their control. It is true that, in time, through the maturation process and with the help of our parents, we learn how to gain more control over many of life’s frustrations. And we learn a broader array of strategies for coping, beyond simply crying. But the nature of life itself—its tendency to keep changing on us—never changes. And so, no matter how much skill we develop at preventing the frustration of unwanted changes, we continue to find that often in life things are still not as we wish they were, not as we feel they should be.
Our kids sometimes imagine that all of this will change once they become adults, once they're in charge of their own lives – that then there won't be any more unwanted changes to stir up these disturbing emotions. ... But it doesn't quite work out that way, does it?
It's really not that different for us adults when you think about it.... one moment we may be enjoying a relaxing moment of privacy, and, suddenly, a person who we are not particularly fond of pops by, or a telemarketer calls, or the pain in our knee starts acting up. So many of life’s unwanted changes remain beyond our control. And actually, when it comes to the most profoundly difficult conditions in life—such as our physical decline, the loss of our loved ones, and our own impending death—we ultimately lack any real control at all. They are unpreventable and unfixable.
Of course, there are times when things in life are exactly the way that we wish them to be. But then, always, something happens. Something changes. The beautiful sense of harmony and order that we were enjoying is disrupted, replaced by something unexpected. And of course we hate it when we lose what we want. And of course we're greedy to get it back. Who wouldn't be?
So we may well wonder: “Where does Jesus get off, suggesting in his parables that we should somehow be able to rise above these disturbing emotions? Doesn't he realize that life is not that easy?”
You know.... If God doesn't want us to be plagued with greed and hatred, then why doesn't God make life easier for us? There's an idea... If God would just make everything happen that we wish would happen.... everything would be fine. Just make it so that no experience would end sooner than we want it to end, or last longer than we want it to last. And there would be no more greed and hatred in the world.
Problem solved!
It would still be the created realm... but kind of magical... no wet diapers; no fire engines at nap time; no telemarketers calling during supper; no annoying visitors; no illnesses; no loss of loved ones; and so on... so basically a realm where nothing would happen except what we want to happen. Would that be paradise?
Or would it actually be a psychotic kind of world where no one could ever really grow?
I think the teachings of Jesus clearly suggest that to try to remake the created realm into our own magical little empire, where nothing happens that we don't want to happen... is not the way to find freedom from the destructive forces of greed and hatred.
What is the way, then? What can I do with my greed? And its flipside, hatred?
I could just cast it out there somewhere.... where it would no doubt do harm to some innocent person. And that also wouldn't really free me from it either. In fact, when we act out our greed and hatred it just seems to increase our disturbance.
I could hide it, even deeper, in here somewhere.... hide it even from myself... But, though hidden, it would no doubt continue exerting its destructive effects... And the moment I become less guarded for a moment, it might slip out. When we repress our greed and hatred, it also just seems to increase our disturbance.
So what's a person to do?
One of my favorite Anglican authors, Evelyn Underhill, said that... A very practical thing to do when you are standing or kneeling or sitting here, at this altar, (or at any altar, or even at an altar in your mind) is to realize... that symbolically, you are positioned at “the frontier of an unseen world”—the realm of the Uncreated.
And so, her suggestion about what to do with our inevitable greed and hatred, to keep it from destroying us and those around us, is to offer it up, and leave it there on the altar for the only One who can take it and neutralize its destructiveness... leave it all there...for the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Let it become part of an act of true worship, and you will find yourself becoming increasing free from its power. It will take more than one visit to the altar, but, in time, you will discover praise and thanksgiving in that very place, where once only greed and hatred could be found.
Thanks be to God.
[1] Several issues come up here, such as (a) the meaning of the “immortal soul;” (b) alternative visions of the created realm as imbued with the uncreated realm in such a way that creation has no real end; it just keeps recycling.
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