25 February 2014 - vestigial vices

25 February 2014 - vestigial vices

But they remained silent.
For they had been discussing among themselves on the way
who was the greatest.

Even among the disciples we see the vestigial form of the vices that give rise to even the greatest of sins.  We see the self-centered passion which gives rise even to wars.

Where do the wars and where do the conflicts among you come from?
Is it not from your passions that make war within your members?
You covet but do not possess.
You kill and envy but you cannot obtain;
you fight and wage war.

We see ourselves pursuing passions at the expense of our relationship with God.  We find in ourselves the adulterous hearts which cheat on God with the world.  Here's the crux of the matter: we try to have it both ways.  We live as though our passions, hobbies, and pursuits are our God.  We dedicate ourselves to these and plan around them as though in worship.  At the same time we try spend Sunday and perhaps our prayer times during the week acknowledging the true God, LORD of heaven and earth.

Do you not know that to be a lover of the world means enmity with God?
Yet how do we decide how to use our time?  Are these decisions really subject to God's will?  He's not content to have only a part of our heart, a sharing of custody with the world.  He wants all that we are.  It isn't that things we pursue are necessarily wrong in themselves, though that may be.  They are wrong when they steal our hearts, preventing us from finding fulfillment in God.  Which is why Scripture says, "The spirit that he has made to dwell in us tends toward jealousy?"

There is only one way out of this.  We need to stop trying to be first, the top priority, and the greatest, even from the point of view of our own decisions and discernment. Our passions are ultimately harmful not only for others but for ourselves.  They prevent us from being truly open to the blessings which God desires to give, the only true source of happiness and joy.

“If anyone wishes to be first,
he shall be the last of all and the servant of all.”

We are called to have hearts open to relationship, open to receive even those from whom we stand to gain nothing.

Taking a child, he placed it in their midst,
and putting his arms around it, he said to them,
“Whoever receives one child such as this in my name, receives me;
and whoever receives me,
receives not me but the One who sent me.”

Somehow opening our hearts to the least of our brothers and sisters allows us to receive more and more of God himself.  Why is this?  Perhaps because, although we stand to gain so much from our relationship with God, he is trying to lead us beyond this sort of mercenary relationship.  He is trying to guide us from a love which is fundamentally mired in selfishness to a love which is Christlike, strong even when there is no benefit to oneself, no reciprocity, or even no appreciation.

This, of course, is the love which Jesus shows for us on the cross.  This is the love which can love even one's enemies.  "God resists the proud" because he loves us too much to let us continue in our pride, separated from his love.  That is why he calls us to cleanse ourselves, to purify ourselves, and to humble ourselves.  We may even need "to lament, to mourn, to weep" as we separate ourselves from the things which we worship which are not God.  (Lent, anyone?)  He calls us to do this because he calls us to "Draw near".  He promises that if we do "he will draw near" too us.  It is all about relationship, affections rising from the impersonal to the personal, from things to God himself.

Rather than seeking the solace which the world promises but cannot provide let us entrust our cares to God.

Cast your care upon the LORD,
and he will support you;
never will he permit the just man to be disturbed.