Two Visions of Paradise

Aug 12^th, 2012 (Pentecost +11) John 6:35, 41-51

Any organization that offers a service, or a product, or an experience of some kind to the public needs to grapple with the basic question of what it is that people want.

Back in my 20s, when I was in university, I lived for a couple of years in Rochester, New York, the home of Eastman Kodak Corporation, which at the time, was an outrageously successful organization. George Eastman, the founder of Kodak, invented photographic film that could be stored on roles. Then, four years later, in 1888, he invented a camera that could use that film, and revolutionized the entire industry. Kodak's success built Rochester into the beautiful city that it is today... the company made enormous contributions to higher education, to science, to music and the arts, and, of course, to business. For Rochester, Kodak was the ultimate symbol of its success and stability.

And so it was quite a shock to many, in January of this year, when Kodak filed for bankruptcy. Many business analysts identified the key factor in Kodak's fall from greatness as their failure to grasp the significance of one of their own inventions back in 1975 – the digital camera. In part, because of their great success in film,they were unable to imagine a world in which film would become relatively unimportant. Film was what they knew. And film was what they stuck to. Until it was too late.

I was reminded of this story by a colleague in the Diocese (Gary Nicolosi) who had also witnessed Kodak's great success and influence in Rochester. And the question that he was asking was whether or not Kodak's story had any relevance for us in the Church of the 21^st century. Could the Church, by being overly attached to certain forms, which no longer communicated the Gospel to our present culture, end up going the way of Kodak? Or, to put it in more positive terms: is the Church that really thrives in this 21^st century going to be a Church that can discern in what new ways God's Spirit is communicating to this particular generation of human beings?

It's a provocative question. I'm quite sure it's true that any organization needs to be conscious of what it is that the public want. And yet, at the same time, the Church is not just any organization.

I certainly don't have all the answers about what kinds of changes we should be considering in the form of our services and the form of how we communicate the Gospel. Do I think we should have an exceptional website? Yes. Very definitely. Do I think we should be serving coffee and croissants in the pews on Sunday mornings, as some churches are doing? No. I don't think so. I might be wrong, though, so I'm open to discussion.

My greatest concern in all of this is that we not get the “cart before the horse.” Because if we're no longer developing that core awareness of what it is to worship God in Christ through the Holy Spirit, and actually doing that, then it really doesn't matter if we're as successful as Walmart.

Our ancient Christian wisdom tradition offers us a helpful perspective on what it is that people “out there”, and people “in here”, all human beings... want most of all. In a word, we want paradise. We long for paradise. Biblical spirituality, from the very beginning, is grounded in this desire. And the human predicament, as our wisdom tradition describes it, has to do with the tension that exists between two very different visions of paradise.

In today's gospel, Jesus said to those assembled: “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never be hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. This is, very clearly, a vision of paradise. A vision of absolute, perfect contentment, in which there is never an unfulfilled need. (Words like “always” and “never” are good clues that a vision of paradise is being addressed.)

This particular vision is what we might call a “Paradise of Communion.” The fulfillment that it describes is all mediated through a communion with Jesus, the Christ, the Human Face of God.

From other places in the Scriptural witness (e.g., John 15; Rom 6:3-8; Eph 4:13; Phil 4:13; Col 1:13-22) we learn that this personal communion with the Living Christ “upgrades” our personal communion with ourselves and with others to that same level of radical acceptance and love that is present in Jesus.

Consciously, actively engaging in this “Paradise of Communion” is the heart of what it means to “practice” Christianity. It is the spiritual dynamic behind the healing and reconciliation that we enjoy ourselves and are thus able to offer to others.

This “Paradise of Communion” is in sharp contrast with the alternative vision of paradise portrayed in the parable of Eden by the characters, Adam and Eve. Their alternative vision was what we might call a “Paradise of Control.” It was a very clever invention, indeed. An error that is often made in the Church is to think that the characters of Adam and Eve were somehow not very clever. But that is not the case at all.

They were spiritually naïve, yes, but they were extraordinarily clever. They didn't have to observe the created order too long before they understood the principle of change that was woven into every level of their lives. A flower that they appreciated the beauty of one day, wasn't there the next day. Or at least it wasn't the same. It's color started to fade. Its petals started to dry and fall to the ground. And eventually what was once a beautiful flower would crumble altogether and become just part of the soil.

Just like us, it didn't take them long to figure out that literally everything in this created, temporal world had a beginning, a middle, and an end. And that fact can be very unpleasant, if not painful, when we become very attached to the flower, or the animal, or the person in question staying the same. If we didn't really like a particular kind of flower, we might be comforted by the fact that it was not eternal. We wouldn't mind the principle of change having its way with such undesirable things.

And so... being at least as clever as we are, the characters of Adam and Eve figure out that what would make this little world much more to their liking would be if they had control over the principle of change. If they were no longer subject to it, but, instead it was subject to them... Now that would be paradise (or so they imagined).

Then, they could simply make it so that nothing ever happened in the world that they didn't want to happen – so their favorite flowers would always be in bloom and never die; and if there were plants or animals that they didn't much care for, they could make them die more quickly, or perhaps just never let them come into existence in the first place. It was this heady combination of extraordinary cleverness and spiritual immaturity, that led them to envision a Paradise of Control in which nothing would ever happen unless they wanted it to happen.

I don't know about you, but I can sure relate to this desire for a Paradise of Control, where I would get to choose what experiences happen and don't happen. Telemarketers would never call me at supper time; actually, no, I think I would have them never call me at all. Every driver on earth would use their turn signals. And whenever my cat was outside, skunks would only spray lilac scented air-freshener. And, of course, none of the people whom I seek to love - including myself and you - would ever have accidents, or get sick, or die. So, basically it would be a world in which “never was heard a discouraging word, and the sky was not be cloudy all day.”

You can sense what a very different vision of paradise this is. Because in the Biblical vision, in what we are calling a “Paradise of Communion,” it is ok to not feel ok 100% of the time. Living in a Paradise of Communion is not about getting rid of everything that I would rather not experience; on the contrary, it is about growing in relationship, in such a way that when I do experience pain, loss, frustration, conflict, illness, and the like... I can respond to those conditions in a way that makes life better, for me and for all those persons whose lives are affected by my actions.

Any organization needs to wrestle with the question of what it is that people want. But, as the church, we are also called to wrestle with larger questions. We are called to discern which desires are actually worth cultivating, because they lead to the genuine fulfillment of our lives and the lives of others. We are called to offer something more than an illusory “Paradise of Control.” They can get that anywhere. We are called to offer people “in here” and “out there” something more than just the same old manna that our ancestors ate in the wilderness. We are called to offer them a genuine Paradise of Communion, just as Jesus did in today's Gospel reading.