A Deep Necessity for the Highest Potential
Glad you didn’t give up on me. Coffee’s still warm so let’s push on. When in my memory I see that neon cross bearing the words “Jesus Saves” it serves to remind me of something I reluctantly admit: I need help. For no matter how hard I’ve tried I have not lived up to my own expectations, much less God’s. The humbling truth to which I have reluctantly arrived is: my efforts at making myself ‘good enough’ have and will always fall short. Spiritually speaking, I concluded a long time ago that if it is all up to me, I'm toast.
Like the climbers plucked from the mountain peak in a snow storm, being "saved" is the sudden awareness that we've reached a point where we can't manufacture our own rescue. It means we can in no way, with whatever strength of character or amount of good deeds dig ourselves out, pull ourselves up, or re-create ourselves in a fashion that would measure up to the image intended at creation by the Spiritual Being from which all of life flows. The potential posited in each of us can be delightfully challenging and at the same time horribly overwhelming.
Anselm was right to understand the Apostle Paul as saying there is nothing we humans can do that will balance the scales of the injustice. Anselm is right again in believing that only God can do that. But here is where I think Anselm misses the mark for a modern world. We humans are so drawn to the dramatic; we can’t take our eyes off the train wreck, the race cars crashing around the track, or help ourselves from gawking at an accident on the freeway. In our rush to the most horrific part of the Jesus story, the cruelty and injustice of his death, we miss the significance of what Jesus taught by his life.
Anselm created a spiritual analogy that spoke clearly to his culture. As long as the world accepted the ancient thinking that reality is first and foremost spiritual his analogy continued to be effective. But for a modern world that is more and more turning to a scientific reality there is something missing. Modern thinkers need that which is concrete, visible and tested. That's what I see in the humanness of Jesus' life and how in his teachings he mirrored God's nature.
In the story of his life,long before the tragedy of the cross, Jesus shows that overcoming temptation and evil is possible. Paul makes the comparison that Jesus is the “new Adam”. That in Jesus we find one like Adam only this one gets it right. The life of Jesus then leads us to the conclusion that in our human nature there is that possibility of overcoming evil and, even though we may never live up to it, we should never cease striving for anything less than what God intends. I like what the Apostle Paul says, “The good that I intend to do I don’t and the evil I try to avoid is exactly what I end up doing. What can deliver me?” Paul concludes, “Thank God, through Jesus Christ.” Jesus gives us reason for hope.
You are right if you think this sounds familiar since Abelard, just a century after Anselm, said much the same thing. Abelard contended that it is Jesus’ life and his commitment to principles of right and justice in the face of death that serve as a moral inspiration for us to live up to nothing less than the best of our human potential.
But is inspiration really enough? And is this really any different than what Girard has suggested that it is in the “ah-hah” moment when our eyes are opened and we see in Jesus that “scapegoating” and violence are not the way to human freedom or salvation?
But what if…What if that which saves us and puts us right has nothing to do with the degree to which we are inspired by Jesus’ morality, courage, or willingness to give himself for a cause? What other purpose might Jesus' life and death served?
Here's a thought: What if Jesus’ teachings and life are about declaring or, to borrow Roger Haight's expression, a "symbol" of what has been the reality of our relationship with God from the beginning of creation?
Okay, better make another pot this is going to be more than a two cup conversation. Be right back.
Like the climbers plucked from the mountain peak in a snow storm, being "saved" is the sudden awareness that we've reached a point where we can't manufacture our own rescue. It means we can in no way, with whatever strength of character or amount of good deeds dig ourselves out, pull ourselves up, or re-create ourselves in a fashion that would measure up to the image intended at creation by the Spiritual Being from which all of life flows. The potential posited in each of us can be delightfully challenging and at the same time horribly overwhelming.
Anselm was right to understand the Apostle Paul as saying there is nothing we humans can do that will balance the scales of the injustice. Anselm is right again in believing that only God can do that. But here is where I think Anselm misses the mark for a modern world. We humans are so drawn to the dramatic; we can’t take our eyes off the train wreck, the race cars crashing around the track, or help ourselves from gawking at an accident on the freeway. In our rush to the most horrific part of the Jesus story, the cruelty and injustice of his death, we miss the significance of what Jesus taught by his life.
Anselm created a spiritual analogy that spoke clearly to his culture. As long as the world accepted the ancient thinking that reality is first and foremost spiritual his analogy continued to be effective. But for a modern world that is more and more turning to a scientific reality there is something missing. Modern thinkers need that which is concrete, visible and tested. That's what I see in the humanness of Jesus' life and how in his teachings he mirrored God's nature.
In the story of his life,long before the tragedy of the cross, Jesus shows that overcoming temptation and evil is possible. Paul makes the comparison that Jesus is the “new Adam”. That in Jesus we find one like Adam only this one gets it right. The life of Jesus then leads us to the conclusion that in our human nature there is that possibility of overcoming evil and, even though we may never live up to it, we should never cease striving for anything less than what God intends. I like what the Apostle Paul says, “The good that I intend to do I don’t and the evil I try to avoid is exactly what I end up doing. What can deliver me?” Paul concludes, “Thank God, through Jesus Christ.” Jesus gives us reason for hope.
You are right if you think this sounds familiar since Abelard, just a century after Anselm, said much the same thing. Abelard contended that it is Jesus’ life and his commitment to principles of right and justice in the face of death that serve as a moral inspiration for us to live up to nothing less than the best of our human potential.
But is inspiration really enough? And is this really any different than what Girard has suggested that it is in the “ah-hah” moment when our eyes are opened and we see in Jesus that “scapegoating” and violence are not the way to human freedom or salvation?
But what if…What if that which saves us and puts us right has nothing to do with the degree to which we are inspired by Jesus’ morality, courage, or willingness to give himself for a cause? What other purpose might Jesus' life and death served?
Here's a thought: What if Jesus’ teachings and life are about declaring or, to borrow Roger Haight's expression, a "symbol" of what has been the reality of our relationship with God from the beginning of creation?
Okay, better make another pot this is going to be more than a two cup conversation. Be right back.
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