Humans are Both/And

When I was working through the Women Speak of God class, I was particularly impressed by George Harkness.  Her view of faith is so interesting, but so is her view of human nature. I've always see the paradoxes in how we see Jesus, but she talks about the paradoxes of human nature, and for me, they made a lot of sense. 

Looking Harkness’ list:

• Humans are both nature and spirit – I think in church we are often more concerned with spirit for our members and with nature (the needs of the body) when working to serve those outside the church. We don’t talk much about the connection between body and spirit in the church, and while we are comfortable providing food for children and meals for the homeless, we don’t talk to them much about spiritual needs. I know we need to make sure someone is fed – no doubt – but do we go any farther than that?
• Humans are both free and bound – Do we think much about human limitations?  We are quick to judge, but slower to remember the stresses placed on people by work, family life, health, etc. We don’t talk much about time management or self care.  We are, thankfully, forgiven of our sin, and can find the assurance of that freedom, but we are also limited.
• Humans are both children of God and sinners – I’m glad we do speak often – in education and in worship – about people as children of God. We don’t speak much about people as sinners, though. One of the things that connects this piece of human nature to Wesley for me is that he recognized that we are always sinners. We are working toward perfection in love through God's grace, but we need to learn to trust God more and continue to reach for grace.
• Humans are both transient and eternal – We might miss this one entirely. We very rarely talk about death in church (I mean, what better place would there be?), and we don’t often think about life eternal.  Funerals – that is the only place we seem to tackle this paradox.

More Ourselves than Ever

If you read the blog, this post may sounds familiar. I took a post I had written for the blog and adapted it to be used as a Conference Lenten devotional. Since it is a little different than before (hopefully more polished), I'm posting it here in its finished form.

Have you ever said, “I’m only human, after all.” We say it when we make a mistake. We say it when we sin, as if our humanity creates in us an inability to choose to follow the leadership of God. We say it as if our humanity is an acceptable and understandable excuse for our selfishness and self-centeredness.

I’m listening to a series of lectures about the work of C.S. Lewis. In the lectures, Dr. Louis Markos speaks of Lewis’s assertion that when we choose sin over obedience to God, we lose a small piece of our humanity. “Each time we choose ourselves or our sins over God and others, each time we close another inner door on the life-giving (but also revealing) light of Christ, we surrender another spark of our humanity. We (literally) dehumanize ourselves.”

The truth is it is not our humanity that causes us to sin. We are created in the image of God – human and good. The sanctifying grace of God – through the Spirit of God living in us - does not make us less human; it moves us closer to the humanity that God created. God’s sanctifying grace moves us toward the perfection and wholeness of true humanity.

In the Screwtape Letters, written by C. S. Lewis, Screwtape, a senior demon, writes to his nephew, Wormwood, a junior tempter, “When He [God] talks of their losing their selves, He means only abandoning the clamor of self-will; once they have done that, He really gives them back all their personality, and boasts (I am afraid, sincerely) that when they are wholly His they will be more themselves than ever.”

Prayer: Creating, sustaining God, help us to become more ourselves than ever. Forgive us when we choose to disobey, and move us closer to what you have created us to be. We pray in your son’s name, Amen.

Why is Lying Bad?

Why is lying bad for you?

Don't misunderstand me. I'm not saying that lying is good, and I'm not asking why it is bad to lie. I know - and you know - that lying creates mistrust, it is unloving, and it breaks the relationships between people.

But, if I lie to help myself out of a bad situation, or to make something easier (for me or someone else), or whatever other reason we might use to justify lying - why is it bad for me?

Buechner says that nothing marks us as human as much as speech. Think how hard it is to learn to speak a language fluently. We take it for granted, but speech is incredibly complicated and is a gift that we have to enable us to communicate with each other. With speech we can build people up, we can express our love for them, we can teach, entertain, and connect through language - and so much more than I'm listing. Our speech helps to make us human - it is an incredible gift.

Think about the post I used yesterday. When we sin, we dehumanize ourselves. When we lie, we are using this incredible gift in a way that eats away at our humanity. You've seen it, and so have I. Tell one lie, and it is easier to tell another. Each lie degrades the integrity of our speech - and makes us less than we were before. Buechner says, "What makes lying an evil is less that the world is mischievously deceived by it than that we are sorely dehumanized by it."

Humanity

I'm listening to a series of lectures by Louis Markos (University of Michigan) about C.S. Lewis. Very interesting stuff!  The lecture about The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce started me thinking about what I'm writing about in this post.

Have you ever heard (or ever said), when confronted with sin, "He's only human"? Or "I'm only human"? Dr. Markos put a spin on that for me in this lecture.  

In heaven, we reach the culmination of our humanity.  In heaven, our humanity - our identity - our personality - are not lost. They are transformed into what they were intended to be when we were created. 

When we choose to sin, each time, we lose a little piece of our humanity. We move farther and farther away from what we were intended to be - what we were created to be.

So blaming our sin on our humanity is the opposite of what God intended. Our humanity is what we were meant to become, and our sin decreases it.

I like the metaphor that Markos describes from Lewis' writing.  Heaven is huge - full of potential and fulfillment. Hell is tiny, shriveled and small. He said, "If a bird in heaven were to eat hell, he would hardly even notice it."