On God's Weakness: Christmas letter to the Order of Jesus Christ Reconciler

 

Feast of the Holy Innocents

Greetings in the name of God Emmanuel, incarnate as Jesus of Nazareth, the Christ,

As we celebrate the season of Christmas this year, we are in still in the midst of the COVID 19 pandemic.  Though the vaccines brought about some form of a return to normalcy, for a variety of reasons the virus has continued to spread and mutate: wealth and poverty differentials between nation states, vaccine hesitancy among poor and marginalized groups, the refusal to get vaccinated by anti-vaxers, and the nature of viruses to rapidly mutate. The latest major mutation of the virus leads to a more virulent strain of COVID-19, though the rate of hospitalization and rate of mortality is still unclear compared to other strains. This isn’t all we are dealing with as we celebrate Christmas.  There is the political turmoil in the U.S. and many nations. The world order of the Pax-Americana is strained if not waning. Then there are, most likely, things in our personal lives, which may leave us feeling less than celebratory.

I, Abba of the Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler, feel quite overwhelmed. As I write this I don’t know what wisdom or insight I might have to share with us this Christmastide.  As I continue to recover from my fall off a ladder over a year ago now, and grieving the death of my mother, and dealing with all the logistics and economy of a person’s passing, I don’t feel up to being Abba of an order. I’m stumbling along without any great sight into what is to come, or where we might be going as an order.

Even so, as we remember that in the person Jesus of Nazareth, God comes to us as Emmanuel, God with us, isn’t this what we celebrate, God meeting us in our weakness? Christmas isn’t about human achievement, or human celebration, or human insight. Rather, God comes as one of us inn our very weakness and vulnerability, as a fetus and then an infant! The deliverance that Mary proclaims in her Magnificat, comes not from God coming with force like God did when delivering Israel from bondage in Egypt, but God becomes human flesh, starting out in the deep vulnerable dependence at the beginning of a human life.

This work of God is known to women, the poor, shepherds, and foreign astrologers from outside of the Roman Empire.  God doesn’t become human by being born to an imperial, royal, or patrician family.  The incarnation is largely unnoticed, insignificant in the realm of empires, rulers, and the wealthy.  Thus, God’s deliverance and liberation aren’t readily noticed, nor easily recognized.  It is hidden in God being with us in our most human vulnerable spaces.  God comes among those who have the least reason to celebrate.

The season of Christmas begins with three feasts following up on Christmas day. These feasts invite us into the messy and mystical dimensions of this season.  On the 26^th the second day of Christmas we remember the martyrdom of Saint Stephen, Deacon and First Martyr. On the Third day of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of Saint John Apostle and Theologian, who points us toward the loving dance of the Holy Trinity. On the 4^th day of Christmas we celebrate the Feast of the Holy Innocents, remembering those infants slaughtered by King Herod. These three feasts invite us to see Christmas as something other than a “happy” celebration. God come in human flesh stirs up a reaction: those who seek to control the world are confronted with something beyond them, and death and oppression are used in an attempt to regain control. This reality is reflected in today’s feast as well as our current headlines. The celebration of Christmas embraces a great deal.

To the mind overtaken by thoughts and impulses of control and power over others and the cosmos the incarnation is hidden from view.  Even those who suffer at the hands of the wealthy and powerful, God’s coming in human flesh being joined to creation can be hard to see its relevance or how it can free from oppression (This is especially so when the oppressor claims the name of Christ and Christian).

This is not to say that there is no way to see and find the work of God in Jesus Christ in our world and circumstances. But it can be very difficult. Following after that work of God in Jesus Christ, while it liberates, also often leads us into difficult situations in which we are facing death.

In the first four days of Christmas we are confronted with human responses to the mystery of God with us. God comes to us in God’s Glory, which isn’t the glory of human power and wealth. These responses are often violent and following Christ doesn’t necessarily preserve us from suffering under that violence.

In the mystery proclaimed by St John the apostle, we need to confront our own violent and sinful reactions to God come to us in this way, where God gives up control and power over others and circumstances. There is something liberating in letting go of the idea that we can control anything. But it also, leaves things feeling unstable and uncertain. I know that in myself there’s something that rebels against that instability. There is something dissatisfying in the focus on what today will bring, rather than some grand scheme that I can live into and execute. Yet, rarely does a long range plan become fully implemented. While we want to believe that we or some human we admire or elect might have such ability to see all possibilities and plan accordingly and keep things stable, history tells a different tale of human ability. Even when we believe ourselves to have the knowledge to plan and implement security, things soon fall apart.

In the midst of suffering and oppression and genocidal violence, the question of where is God arises. In moments like that of the slaughter of the infants and toddlers in Bethlehem, God with us feels like abandonment. God with us flees as a refuge dependent on human parents to keep them safe.

So then where is the hope, If God is with us and for us, but in being so has also relinquished a type of control and power over the world? Are we left to the power of death and desire to have power over others? The answer to this question isn’t found in the coming of God to us as the infant Jesus of Nazareth.  The answer comes in whom Jesus is, Jesus’ whole life and his death, resurrection and ascension.

But God’s ultimate answer to death and violence begins here.   And so with the shepherds, the magi, and Mary we can contemplate and celebrate even as things aren’t yet fully unveiled. At Christmas we are contemplating a portion of the mystery of our faith and God’s revelation to us in Jesus of Nazareth. God with us comes to us vulnerable and relinquishing control and power over others. In this we learn something of God’s love, power, and glory. The longer we  live with this revelation the more unsettling and disconcerting it becomes.

In the love an grace of Jesus Christ, Emmanuel,

Basil Irenaeus

Abba

Order of Jesus Christ, Reconciler

Easter thoughts on Brother Lawrence and Practicing the Presence of God

We are now a few days into the season of Easter. I had intended to write reflections over the whole of Lent on Brother Lawrence and Practicing the Presence of God. I obviously did not. In part because the more I read the more I realized that the simple life Brother Lawrence exhorts and the simplicity of practicing God's presence in everything and at all times was very difficult. for the last three weeks of Lent resting in God's love and remaining aware of god's presence became a real struggle as I realized how little I am mindful of God in my daily activities and as I realized how I could so easily be distracted away from resting in God's love.

Brother Lawrence is honest about both the simplicity and the difficulty of this way of life. He repeatedly says how he will fail to live this from moment to moment but he has learned to become aware of this and simply confess it to God and then continue on without self-chastisement. I found this was part of the struggle to simply let go of attempting to be perfect in practicing the presence of God and resting in God's love.

Now on the other side of Lent and Holy Week in this season of focused celebration on Jesus Christ's resurrection, I see how Brother Lawrence's life is infused with the fullness of Holy Week and Easter. Brother Lawrence trusts fully that all has been accomplished in Christ but also understands that the Christian life is both Cross and resurrection. The struggle and the achievement aren't simply mine I enter into what Christ did and in Faith I find that what I do is not enough but that God raises me up out of my failure if I trust in What God has done in Jesus Christ. In the face of the Cross and resurrection my own failures become invisible and I am able to move beyond them and not be mired down in the moments where I do not see or fail to remain aware of God and trust in God's love.

Lenten Reflection on Brother Lawerence

For my holy reading during Lent I am reading selections from Brother Lawrence. I have decided to occasionally post some of my thoughts that arise from that meditative reading. A major (perhaps the) emphasis in Brother Lawrence's life and thought is practicing the presence of God, in fact that is the name of the work that is a collection of his sayings. So it is not surprising that the first installment of these Lenten reflections is on the awareness of God's presence and what distracts us from that awareness.

In what I read today Brother Lawrence speaks of keeping a sense of God's presence through continually conversing with God. We quit this conversation to think of "trifles and fooleries". We can remove ourselves from the sense of God's presence by replacing a devotion for God for a devotion to other amusements and trivial things. However, all this can be misunderstood unless we hear this not as an abstracted reflection but as coming from one who could find a sense of God's presence in peeling potatoes or in other simple menial and seemingly meaningless activities. If one remembers this about Brother Lawrence's life then we realize that what makes something an empty amusement, or a trifle or foolery isn't necessarily in the activity or thought itself but in how the one approaches and engages the activity or thought. Does one's washing dishes, or driving or small talk consume one so that there is no means to retain the sense of God's presence in the activity? There may be activities that to do them would simply be antagonistic to retaining a sense of God's presence but such activities would have to be in themselves set against God. However, I do not think such activities are addressed in what I read from Brother Lawrence today. Rather "trivial devotions", "trifles" and "fooleries" have to do with approaching otherwise neutral actions, activities, and thoughts without seeking to be in continual conversation with God. In other words the above named activities are as Brother Lawrence describes if we allow them to distract us from seeking to be continually aware of God's presence and in conversation with God. We can allow certain activities to cause us to put God over there in those things and not here with me right now in what I presently do, in so doing the activity has lost its explicit connection to that which enlivens all things and makes them true beautiful and alive. When we do this we have fallen into "trifles" and "fooleries" as the activity takes over our consciousness and becomes our devotion.

I am aware that so often during the day this is exactly what I allow what I do to become. Even work in and for the community or as pastor of Reconciler becomes trifles and fooleries, when all my attention and devotion is given over to them without a thought for God's presence. It is so easy for what we do or think to consume us and drive away our sense of being in God's presence. This is why there is Lent, and spiritual disciplines and the liturgy, because we need reminders and means for practicing the presence of God.