The Mystical Path

Friday, February 14, 2025

The condition of mysticism will never be over, for we are of it. We never feel at home elsewhere, but only in the serenity and comfort of our communion with God. We may attempt to make excuses for this state, hoping that it would finally go away and we would then we able to function well in the “real” world. Yet, not only has this never been meant to be, we must no longer yearn for what we are not.  
—Beverly Lanzetta, Path of the Heart 

Theologian Beverly Lanzetta writes of the universal nature of mystical longing: 

In religious traditions, the word “mysticism” refers to a direct experience of Divine Presence, and to the highest levels of union with Divine Mystery. It also includes the human longing for the ultimate, and the path the soul follows toward intimacy with God. It implies that the mystical quest is intrinsic to human nature—that our souls are constituted to turn toward the divine light as a plant turns toward the sun…. The impetus of one’s entire being never rests until it rests in God. This internal movement toward divine communion—rather than our daily distraction—is the essence of spirituality. When our hearts are diverted from the quest for meaning and love, we suffer. When we experience the true longing of the soul, seeking union with the divine—we know the meaning of life itself and are illuminated by the light of peace.  

Yet, haven’t most of us attempted to make excuses for this deep, interior longing, hoping that it would finally go away and we would be able to function in the “real” world?… We tell ourselves we are not worthy of communion; we’re not capable. Yet despite our denial, the mystical heartbeat never abates; its lifeblood courses through our veins, calling us home.  

When we focus on this one essential need, we discover the soul’s passion to belong to God. And it is this insistent tug from the infinite that guides our souls on the mystic quest and compels openness of heart.  

Lanzetta encourages us to nurture our mystical longing for God through all the challenges we face: 

Through this pursuit of devotion to God, you will at times grieve over abandoning what society considers necessary for material and professional survival. Daily you will struggle to reconcile the tension between what is socially practical and your desire to give your heart to the quest. Then the false self will resist: “I must be practical, I must take care of my survival needs, I must not give too much.” These are the voices that obstruct the soul’s desire, even as it experiences the inner light and is consumed by a need for love.  

No doubt some will view spiritual longing as impractical. But, mystically, the passion for the Divine is extremely practical; in fact, it is the only practicality. For the soul’s longing to rest in God [is] a road map and a key to unlocking the true self.  

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5 On Friday; John Chaffee

1.

“Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter.“

– Isaiah 5:20, 8th Century Prophetic Text

Several years ago, I did a chapter-by-chapter read-through of the book of Isaiah.  It was during that first year of COVID-19, and much was happening worldwide.

During that time, I read a commentary on Isaiah straight through while I was teaching it.  Teaching is always the best way to learn a topic thoroughly.  I discovered that the book of Isaiah contained so much timeless wisdom that it became one of my favorite books of the Hebrew Scriptures.  Alongside Job, the two of them are probably the books I reflect on the most often.

Jeremiah talks about the need for a New Covenant because Israel had botched the previous one so terribly that God essentially divorced Israel.  Ezekiel preaches about the need to return to true holiness and the need for a New Temple.  Isaiah takes a different turn, saying that Israel’s exile is a New Exodus that will somehow lead to a New Creation.

All the prophets maintain the need to call things truthfully what they are.  Only by looking at the world honestly can we truly assess if we are heading for our demise.  The problem that every generation must face is whether or not it is calling good as evil and evil as good, and we are prone to listening to people with the loudest microphones or the largest bank accounts the most.

2.

“To those who ask us from whence we have come or whom we have for a leader, we say that we have come in accordance with the counsels of Jesus to cut down our warlike and arrogant swords of argument into plowshares, and we convert into sickles the spears we formerly used in fighting.

For we no longer take ‘sword against a nation, nor do we learn ‘anymore to make war, having become sons of peace for the sake of Jesus, who is our leader.”

– Origen of Alexandria, 2nd Century Early Church Father

It boggles my mind how Western Christianity seems to have a fixation on weapons.

I saw a clip about a year ago where a tank drove out over some cars in a Christian men’s conference stadium.  Guns were being displayed, and fireworks/pyrotechnics were alongside the American flag.  The ordeal made me think, “This is not what Jesus had in mind.”

Origen, a controversial figure in the Early Church and the first person to develop a systematic theology, disapproved of war and violence. He also disapproved of nations using violence against one another.

It is hard to believe that some consider America a Christian nation when we have the largest military budget in the world.

Something has gone terribly wrong, and the only solution is a profound return to the red lettering of the Bible.

If you want to read an interesting book on this topic, I highly recommend Jesus for President: Politics for Ordinary Radicals by Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw.

 

3.

“‘Gospels of Sin Management’ presume a Christ with no serious work other than redeeming humankind. They foster “vampire Christians” who only want a little blood for their sins but have nothing more to do with Jesus until heaven.“

– Dallas Willard, American Philosopher & Theologian

This past Monday, I sat down with a mentor over dinner.  We had not seen each other in almost a year.  (Life has just been that busy.)

Nearly 3 hours of catching up happened.  I honestly enjoyed it and needed it.

One fascinating thing is that we lamented/commented/acknowledged that the conventional understanding of Christianity and Church attendance is built around morality.  We go to Church because our morals are out of wack, or we want to be encouraged to continue being moral.  Perhaps some enjoy the community and the songs.  All of these things are good, but they are a fraction of what the whole thing is supposed to be about.

Jesus lays claim to everything in our lives.  Either Jesus means everything, or Jesus means nothing.  Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes about this in the first few chapters of his book Discipleship (aka The Cost of Discipleship).

The scope of God’s redemption plan is so much larger than simply creating moral people who hold the door open for each other at the gas station.  It is so strange to me because in all my years of Church work, the more I started to teach and preach beyond simplistic morality lessons, the more I was told I was being “disruptive” or even “doing the devil’s work.”

If we have a current understanding of Church and Christianity that does not dive into the fullness of what it means to be human, to engage the topics of redeeming the earth, reconciling world conflicts, enacting mercy, and helping the least of these…

Well, then we shouldn’t be surprised if people eventually find that definition of the faith as vacuous and not worthy of our time.

4.

“Hey, sorry I missed your text. I am processing a non-stop 24/7 onslaught of information with a brain designed to eat berries in a cave.“

– A Meme from the Internet

Man, isn’t this the truth.

This Lent, I have some ideas for what I want to do, and it will likely mean pulling back hard from all forms of media.

5.

“You can resolve to live your life with integrity. Let your credo be this: Let the lie come into the world, let it even triumph. But not through me.“

– Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, Russian Nobel Prize Winner

Solzhenitsyn’s book, The Gulag Archipelago, is considered the single piece of literature that brought down Communism.

In it, he considers falsehood the prime sin and the ability to tell the truth as the prime metric for whether or not someone has integrity.

It is the inability to tell the truth that can snowball into a whole avalanche of destruction, lead to oppressive regimes, abuse of power, and full-scale war.  All of these things can be avoided if there is the deliberate choice to always tell the truth, even in the smallest things.

If Jesus says that the “Truth will make you free, ” we can probably argue the inverse… “Untruth will take your freedom.”

 

Public Mystics

Thursday, February 13, 2025

Dr. Barbara Holmes describes what it means to be a “public mystic,” someone whose experience of the divine leads them to take action on behalf of others: 

There is within the human spirit a source of renewal, courage, and ingenuity that equips us to fulfill our purpose here on earth. Howard Thurman refers to this powerful interiority as “the sound of the genuine within.” This deeply contemplative wellspring strengthens both individuals and entire communities as they seek freedom…. 

When I was growing up, most of the mystics that I was introduced to were of European lineage. Although their messages of faith, personal salvation, and the love of God continue to bless me to this day, I needed more. I needed leadership that lifted and protected the community; I wanted to see women and men who looked like me leading freedom’s charge…. 

In Joy Unspeakable, I refer to public mystics as leaders who embody the ineffable while attending to the ordinary, those who host the transcendent, the mystical, and the mundane while engaged in pragmatic justice-seeking acts. [1] 

Spiritual director Therese Taylor-Stinson upholds Harriet Tubman as a model of a “public mystic”:  

Like Mama Harriet, we must learn to embrace the ways of our ancestors, connect with the Supreme, and find the internal freedom to do our part to lead our people, our communities—the inhabitants of this planet—to freedom and a new way of being….  

We can all be mystics. We should all know our mystical gifts are meant for our use in community. Our relationship with the Supreme is evidenced through our public interests in loving our neighbors. Sister Harriet is still speaking to us, along with other ancestors. Just as Harriet, in her treks to freedom, drew on many sources of the mystical to answer the sound of the genuine in herself, encouraging internal freedom in her charges as she led them to be physically free from brutal enslavement, we too must be in tune with the resources available to us today and the necessity for emotional freedom to even enjoy the rights of physical freedom. The mystical calls us to Ubuntu (“I am because we are”). That gives us the charge to become public mystics so that we may all endure…. Come with me across the bridge to freedom, and don’t forget to see and experience the beautiful falls of love, peace, beauty, and community along the way! [2]  

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Sara Young Jesus Calling

Jesus Calling: February 13

Peace be with you! Ever since the resurrection, this has been My watchword to those who yearn for Me. As you sit quietly, let My Peace settle over you and enfold you in My loving presence. To provide this radiant Peace for you, I died a criminal’s death. Receive My Peace abundantly and thankfully. It is a rare treasure, dazzling in delicate beauty yet strong enough to withstand all onslaughts. Wear My Peace with regal dignity. It will keep your heart and mind close to Mine. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

John 20:19-21 NLT

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.”

John 14:27 NLT

27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.

God in You

Mystic theologian Howard Thurman (1899–1981) describes the freedom each of us possess to experience the divine:  

The claim of the mystic is, at last, that you don’t need anything to bring you to God. You don’t need a mediator. You don’t need an institution. You don’t need a ceremony or a ritual. God is in me, and the ladder from the earth to sky is available. So, I can ascend my own altar stairs wherever I am, under any circumstances, and the key to the understanding of the experience, and to the experience itself, is never in the hands of any other human being.  

When I love people, then I find God in me. Whether I bow my knee at any altar doesn’t make any difference, the God in me begins to move up through the corridors of my mind and my emotions … and moves out from me and broods over you….  

If you love somebody, you never give that person up. Isn’t it interesting how Jesus always insisted upon this, and how completely we have missed it in our doctrine? Nothing that I can do can kill the God in me. Nothing. Nothing. Since I can’t destroy it, perhaps if I listen, if I can become still enough, I will hear it whisper to me the precise word I need to take away so much of my unhappiness and my misery and my pessimism about the nature of life and the meaning of my own life. If I can be still so that the God in me can get on the march, I don’t need any priest, I don’t need any preacher, I don’t even need any church. All these will help perhaps, but I don’t need them. At last God is in me, and if I find God in me, when I come to church, I’ll find God in the church. The burden of proof at last is on the vitality of my own awareness. [1] 

James Finley turns to the mystics as teachers who reveal how to abide in God’s love.   

Mystics are men and women, who, through mystical experiences are touched by the realization that down in the deep-down depths of things, God is welling up and giving Herself away in and as every breath and heartbeat. They taste that oneness, and in moments, when we taste that oneness, we’re like a momentary mystic. The mystics are teachers, because they bear witness that it’s possible to be habitually established in that oneness, instead of merely experiencing a little, momentary flash of it—God resting in us resting in God.  

In the mystical experience, the depths of God, by the generosity of God, have been given to me as the depths of myself. That experience of oneness is God’s infinite identification with me—with God’s own life—in my nothingness without God. Love is never imposed, it’s always offered, so once I’ve tasted that spiritual experience, then I have to freely give myself to the love that gives itself to me. In the reciprocity of love, then destiny is fulfilled. That’s the real story of our lives—where we are in the reciprocity of love. [2] 

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The Idol of Mission: The Shadow Side of Service

Click Here for Audio The Parable of the Prodigal Son is one of the most beloved and well-known stories in the Bible. We often focus on the son who left his father to selfishly pursue his desires, but it’s critical to remember that Jesus was telling the story to a group of Pharisees—religious leaders who would have identified much more with the older son in the parable. This older, obedient son refused to celebrate when his rebellious younger brother came home. When the father begged the older son to join the party, the son was furious.“Look, all these years I have served you,” he said, “and I never disobeyed your command, yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!” Many people sympathize with the older son. His anger seemed justifiable. Why should the disobedient son get a party while the obedient son gets nothing? But we must look more closely. Notice where the older son roots his significance: “All these years I have served you, and I never disobeyed your command.” The older son obeyed, and for his obedience, he expected a reward. This attitude of entitlement is often linked to the Idol of Mission. It’s the view that I deserve a reward for my hard work.In this way, the older son is not that different from the younger son. Neither boy was particularly interested in a relationship with the father. Instead, both were focused on what they might get from him. Both felt entitled and demanded the fulfillment of their desires. The younger son simply took what he desired, and the older son, being a more patient and self-disciplined person, worked for it. Jesus told this story at a gathering of very devoted religious people who drew a great deal of significance from their obedience to God. They were men devoted to the false god of mission. Was Jesus saying there is something wrong with serving God or faithful obedience? Of course not. The problem comes when we find our significance and worth in it.In the parable, Jesus was not diminishing the older son’s service, just as he was not endorsing the younger son’s sinfulness. Rather, he was showing that pouring our lives into activities, even godly ones, is not the center of the Christian life—God is. And what our heavenly Father desires most from us is not our service but our presence. DAILY SCRIPTURE JOHN 5:39–40 LUKE 15:11–32 WEEKLY PRAYER Ignatius Loyola (1495–1556) Lord Jesus Christ, fill us, we pray, with your light and life, that we may reveal your wondrous glory. Grant that your love may so fill our lives that we may count nothing too small to do for you, nothing too much to give and nothing too hard to bear. Amen.

Translator of the mystics and spiritual guide Mirabai Starr shares her definition of mystical experience: 

A mystic is someone who skips over the intermediaries (ordained clergy, prescribed prayers, rigid belief systems) and goes straight to God. Meaning, someone who experiences the divine as an intimate encounter rather than an article of faith…. Mysticism is not about concepts; it is about communion with ultimate reality. And ultimate reality is not some faraway prize we claim when we have proved ourselves worthy to perceive it. Ultimate reality blooms at the heart of regular life. It shines through the cracks of our daily struggles and sings from the core of our deepest desires.  

A mystic knows beyond ideas, feels deeper than emotions, is fundamentally changed by that which is unchanging. Mysticism is a way of seeing—beyond the turmoil, the rights and wrongs, the good guys and villains—to the radiant heart of things. [1] 

On the Everything Belongs podcast, Starr explores how receiving divine love through mystical experience strengthens the mystic’s commitment to others:  

Mystical experiences brim from all kinds of moments in any given day. This is not a rarefied, specialized, meritocracy-based reality; it’s not about some belief that I’m espousing or buying into. It’s not even necessarily about a practice that I’m engaged in, although there are some practices that are fairly reliable for opening the heart. A mystical experience is an experience of the heart opening—out of that open heart flows the parts of us that are often in the way of a direct experience of the divine and into that open heart flows grace, that sacred substance, that mercifully helps me forget for a moment that I am separate.  

For me, the mystical path is not fluffy. This love of which I speak is what I think Jesus was referring to by the “narrow gate” (Matthew 7:13–14). It’s rigorous and demanding. This is a love that welcomes all that we are. As Richard Rohr so often teaches us, everything belongs in this love, but we have to show up for it and we have to do our work. Fr. Thomas Keating also taught me that this path of love requires courage and fortitude because it’s so much easier to actually just keep your heart closed. The thing about living with your heart open—and this is part of where the rigor comes in—is that it’s harder to “otherize.” It’s harder to make “the other” evil and wrong and stupid, and all of the things that we’re tempted to judge people for on a daily basis in small and larger ways. This mystical disarming of the heart creates a felt experience of our unity with all beings.… 

The sacred is always brimming from the heart of everything. If what it means to be a mystic is to walk through this world looking through the eyes of love, then anything and everything that we do with the intention and attention on the sacred, including our most difficult experiences, counts and belongs. [2

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Learning from the Mystics: St. Teresa of Avila. (from John Chaffee)

Quote of the Week: “For the love of God, friends, let us benefit from our faults and learn from our mistakes.  Then our imperfections will clear our vision, as the mud healed the blind man when our Spouse placed it on his eyes.  By witnessing our transgressions we are able to surrender ourselves to the mercy of our Beloved so that he can draw goodness out of our negativity and we can be even more pleasing to him.”- From Interior Castle, 6.4. Reflection  St. Teresa of Avila is a curious figure.  Not only because she led a remarkable life, but also because she wrote remarkable things.  Toward the top of the list is her insight that we can be thankful for our sins and mistakes. To many, this makes no holy sense.  To those with eyes to see and ears to hear, it is deeply sensible. Our sins and our mistakes, while they can certainly be repented of, are also gifts and teachers.  They can humble us as well as to teach us.  They, when responded to properly, tear down our pride, hubris, and defense mechanisms and display to us how we are still immature in the life of faith.  “As the mud healed the blind man…”  The “mud” of our transgression might be the very thing that God can use to bring us back to a larger fullness, wholeness, and holiness.  To be sure, this is a paradox.  However, God has the ability to reclaim, redeem and reconcile anything, and that includes even our own transgressions that have the potential to take us further away from God. As St. Teresa of Avila says, out of divine mercy our Beloved “can draw goodness out of our negativity and we can be even more pleasing to him.” Prayer  Dear God, grant us the courage and the fortitude to look directly at our own transgressions, sins and mistakes.  Help us to rest in the fact that these things do not inhibit Your love for us, and instead come to realize that these are the very things from which You wish to heal us.  Help us to overcome our own pride and hubris, to take on the role of a student, and learn from our mistakes.  In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen and amen.

Life Overview of St. Teresa of Avila:  Who is She: St. Teresa of Avila Where: Born in Avila, Spain. Died in Salamanca, Spain.  When: 1515-1582AD  Why She is Important: She was a member of the Carmelite order, and sought to help reform the Catholic church of her day along with St. John o of the Cross.  Most Known For: St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle was considered a classic relatively quickly.  Using the local imagery of castles, she wrote about spiritual marriage with God as “mansions/rooms” within the human soul in which the innermost “mansion/room” is where the Lord already sits enthroned. Notable Works to Check Out: Interior Castle |  The Way of Perfection |  The Book of My Life

What is Mysticism?

Richard Rohr describes how we can demystify the word mysticism:   

The meaning of the word mysticism needs to be clarified. The word has been used in so many different ways that it tends to lead to mystification. As its Greek root form mu (closed eyes or lips) implies, mysticism is pointing to something that is somehow hidden and cannot be easily seen or talked about. A mystic reveals that which is hidden to most of us, yet it is almost invariably what we also hope and imagine to be true. It seems reality, at its hidden and deepest levels, is always very good—better than most of us can imagine!  

I use the word mysticism in a very traditional and classic sense. It’s not to indicate something esoteric and widely unavailable to ordinary people. It does, however, point to something that is only available to individuals who go beyond the surface and exterior, those who experience the inner grace and connectivity of all things. As Jesus, Paul, and Bonaventure each said in their own way, mysticism is often foolishness to the educated and obvious to the simple.  

I emphasize connectivity because that is the unteachable gift I always see in true mystics. This is what makes them different from other people. It’s also a quality that makes them seem rare. Mystics know and enjoy the connected core of reality that is hidden to those who neither desire it nor search for it. “What you seek is what you get” (see Matthew 7:7–8). Joy is also intrinsic to mysticism. When deep joy is not present in our lives, we might well be “religious,” but we’re definitely not mystics.  

Ironically, authentic mystics would be the first to say that they didn’t seek this intuition at all. What seems secret to the rest of us is somehow both totally given and utterly apparent to them. They could not seek it because they did not know it was missing in the first place! However, reading the lives of mystics can reveal whether some enlightened seeking came first, or some unmerited giving came first. All we know, and all they know, is that they are inside of an immense and wonderful secret, which seems to be hidden from or denied by most of the rest of us.  

Mystics look out from different eyes that see the grace in all things and the deep connection between all things. Less mature mystics may recognize the connection between some or most things (for example, people who can only see the inner connection between other Christians and cannot extend that to outsiders or “sinners” as Jesus did). There are a lot of “mini mystics” floating around, but they’re often problematic because half of the truth can often be foolishly mistaken for the full truth.  

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Why Mysticism Matters

Sunday, February 9, 2025

Father Richard Rohr explains why the wisdom of the mystics is important to the future of Christianity and the healing of our souls:   

In the early 1960s, the Jesuit theologian Karl Rahner suggested that if Western Christianity did not rediscover its mystical foundations, we might as well close the doors of the churches because we had lost the primary reason for our existence. We don’t need to be afraid of the word “mystic.” It simply means one who has moved from mere belief or belonging systems about God to actual inner experience. All spiritual traditions at their mature levels agree that such a movement is possible, desirable, and even available to everyone.  

Until someone has had some level of inner religious experience, there is no point in asking them to follow the ethical ideals of Jesus or to really understand Christian doctrines beyond the formulaic level. We quite simply don’t have the power to follow any gospel ideal—such as loving others, forgiving enemies, living simply and nonviolently, or humble use of power—except in and through union with God. Nor do doctrines like the Trinity, the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, salvation, or the mystery of incarnation have meaning that actually changes our lives. Without inner experience of the Divine, these are merely ideas in books. Without having what Bill Wilson of Alcoholics Anonymous called “a vital spiritual experience,” nothing authentically new or life-giving happens. [1]  

Scholar Elaine Heath emphasizes that the inner experience of the mystics is connected to their concern for the outer world:  

Mysticism, contrary to popular belief, is not essentially about private numinous experiences…. Christian mysticism is about the holy transformation of the mystic by God, so that the mystic becomes instrumental in the holy transformation of God’s people. This transformation always results in missional action in the world…. 

Those who could properly be called the great Christian mystics, such as St. John of the Cross, attained a radical degree of holy transformation as a result of their encounters with the Triune God. That is, their inward transformation resulted in an outward life of extraordinary impact on the world…. Christian mysticism … is the God-initiated experience of being moved beyond oneself into greater depths of divine love. This movement results in an inward transformation of wholeness and integration and an outward life of holiness, an increasing love of God and neighbor. [2]  

Father Richard concludes:  

For the great mystics of all religions, God is always experienced as abiding in their own soul and, in seeming contradiction, as totally transcendent and mysterious at the same time! God is both intimate and ultimate, no longer “out there,” though not just “in here,” either. When we know that we are living tabernacles of the Great Transcendence, the gap is forever overcome in our very existence. We gain a tremendous respect for ourselves (and others), while also knowing this is a totally free gift from God. This may be experienced as deep peace and contentment, an ultimate sense of being at home. [3]  

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Sara Young Jesus Calling 2.19.25

Jesus Calling: February 10th, 2025

Jesus Calling: February 10

     Trust Me enough to spend ample time with Me, pushing back the demands of the day. Refuse to feel guilty about something that is so pleasing to Me, the King of the universe. Because I am omnipotent, I am able to bend time and events in your favor. You will find that you can accomplish more in less time, after you have given yourself to Me in rich communion. Also, as you align yourself with My perspective, you can sort out what is important and what is not.

     Don’t fall into the trap of being constantly on the go. Many, many things people do in My Name have no value in My kingdom. To avoid doing meaningless works, stay in continual communication with Me. I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Luke 10:41-42

41 But the Lord said to her, “My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! 42 There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her.”

Psalm 32:8 NLT

8 The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.

    I will advise you and watch over you.

Look to the Margins

Friday, February 7, 2025

The prophets continue to invite us into this fearless commitment to the values of liberation, love, and justice. They model these values as far more important than the desire to control, know, or get caught up in respectability politics. The prophet knows their calling is not tidy, pretty, or neat. It is a trudge through the mud of life alongside the few who believe in the same values and hold the same commitments.   
—Cassidy Hall, “Queering Prophecy” 

Author and podcaster Cassidy Hall suggests that we might use the word “queer” to describe the strange, out-of-the-box ways of thinking and acting that characterized many of the prophets:  

The prophetic rarely comes from the usual suspects. It emerges from the odd or strange and typically from groups on the margins of society. In this way, some might say the prophetic is queer. The etymological roots of the word queer come from sixteenth-century Scots, when the word meant things like odd, strange, transverse, or oblique. It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century (1894) that the word began to reference sexuality.  

Historically, the prophets often enact strange things—out of the box of what is deemed normal or acceptable in their society. Ezekiel ate a scroll and prophesied over dry bones (Ezekiel 3 and 37). Miriam rebelled against Pharaoh’s edict and pulled out a tambourine to lead women in a victory song (Exodus 15). Their calling requires these beautifully odd expressions that subvert the dominative and normative in order for their messages to be heard. Their wisdom frequently comes from their lived experience on the margins, and, time and time again, they are misunderstood. 

What might happen if we queered the way we look at prophesy? Queering something forces us to remove our own anticipations or desired outcomes. Queering separates us from domination because it is concerned with some of the very same values of the prophet: liberation, interconnection, love, justice, and even wonder. What could it mean to engage with the prophetic in our midst without the need to name or claim it as such? What if this commitment could allow us to enter into a depth we couldn’t otherwise reach?  

Thomas Merton wrote that in order to know or understand the will of the Divine, “we have to participate, in some manner, in the vision of the prophets: [people] who were always alive to the divine light concealed in the opacity of things and events, and who sometimes saw glimpses of that light where other [people] saw nothing but ordinary happenings.” [1] 

Where, I wonder, are the ordinary happenings I am passing over for the sake of my own comfort, ease, or control? We need not only look to the margins—the outcasts of society—but we also look to those who make us uncomfortable, those we might be avoiding, and the issues we might rather opt out of, because when we queer prophecy, we release a need to know or name and instead engage more closely with prophetic values and Spirit’s movement in our midst.  

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5 On Friday John Chaffee

1.

“One of the first signs of being a saint may well be the fact that other people do not know what to make of him.“

– Thomas Merton, Trappist Monk

I told someone in a spiritual direction session about a month ago, “The most spiritually mature person was crucified naked for being the most spiritually mature person.”

There is a strange paradox that the deeper we dive into true holiness and true Christlikeness, the more we will be ostracized, scapegoated, dismissed, and even killed.  At the same time, our response to such treatment will increasingly be, “Forgive them; they do not know what they are doing.”  (Luke 23:34)

Within the Christian tradition, there is the idea of the Holy Fool.  I loved that idea so much that it was the main idea behind my fourth book, The Wonderstanding of Father Simeon.  True saints are not venerated, at least not while they are living.

2.

“If these things are looked at literally, not only will the understanding of those who seek God be dim, but their concept of him will also be inappropriate.“

– Gregory of Nyssa in The Life of Moses

Literalism is simply the first mode of biblical interpretation.  It is also the lowest.  This is not to say that literalism is bad.  I only mean that it is the foundation of understanding.  It is important to restate what the text might say word for word and report its contents.

However, literalism does not help us glean wisdom from the Hebrew Scriptures or the Greek New Testament.  We must use analogy, metaphor, symbolism, archetypes, teleology, rhetoric, and more for that.  These other tools help us to take the timely issues of the Bible and translate them into timeless wisdom that helps every generation.

Here, Gregory of Nyssa warns people that literalism might lead them to interpretations in which God could rightfully be called a monster.  If we ever have an understanding of the Bible that leads us to think God is more of a monster than we would be if we were in God’s shoes, then we have failed the interpretive task.

3.

“No one is saved alone; we are only saved together.“

– Pope Francis in Fratelli Tutti

I am utterly convinced that this is true.

There are many passages that speak about the reconciliation, renewal, and restoration of all.  However, I believe that we were trained not to notice those passages.  Or, worse, we were told those passages should not be discussed in Church (as was mandated of me when I did Church work).  The scope of God’s redemption plan has always been everyone and everything everywhere from all of time; it is just that we do not always have eyes to see or ears to hear it.

If you are interested in this line of thought, I created a video series on the topic of “What is the Gospel?”

4.

“If you feel pain, You are alive. If you feel other people’s pain, you are a human being.“

– Leo Tolstoy, Russian Author

Last week, I talked with a co-worker who knows my background in Church work.

He said to me, “I learned something religious yesterday.  I didn’t know that empathy was a sin.”

My reply?

“That’s hogwash.  I guarantee that if anyone was empathetic, it was an Ancient Near Eastern carpenter turned travelling rabbi.”

Something is desperately wrong with American Christianity if the politicians have more ability to define the faith than those who went to school to study the Scriptures.

For the record, empathy is not mutually exclusive to accountability, truth, or grace.

If God condescended from the heavens to show empathetic solidarity with humanity, then it is a distortion of the Gospel to tell people it is a sin to show empathetic solidarity with one another.

5.

“It takes courage to rest and play in a world where exhaustion is a status symbol.“

– Brene Brown, Social Worker

Our perpetual exhaustion does not glorify God.

This world subtly seduces us into dehumanizing habits and cycles of behavior.  Not only that, but we are applauded and celebrated with higher paychecks for denying ourselves our humanity.  It is sinister and diabolical.

This is why philosopher Ken Wilber calls spirituality a “tender science”; it helps us reconnect with our deepest parts and establish rhythms and habits of rehumanization in a dehumanizing world.

Our Scriptures are quite clear about this—that God is never impressed with prayers when actions are not informed by them. Nor does God spare us from the consequences of our deeds which always, in the end, matter more than the words we pray. 
—Bishop Mariann Budde, homily, A Service of Prayer for the Nation 

Rabbi Nahum Ward-Lev considers how the Hebrew prophets warned against idolatry, cautioning against the pursuit of power and control instead of trust in the living presence of God: 

The prophets saw that idolatry and dominating power are two aspects of the same phenomenon. Both are attempts to exert excessive control: to control God in one case and dominate other people in the other…. Idolatry is a flight from both God and relationship with God’s Creation.  

The biblical prophets called out the many false idols that people grab hold of in attempts to feel substantial, secure, and in control. These idols include power, wealth, fame, beauty, knowledge, and possessions. For the prophets, these idols were a double abomination. First, people inevitably resort to multiple forms of oppression—lies, manipulation, bribery, forced labor, theft, murder—in pursuit of these idols. Second, bowing down to these false deities ultimately distances people from Living Presence (God) and from life itself. 

Over two millennia ago, these biblical prophets envisioned a different world, a world pressing to be born. In place of imperial culture, the prophets articulated another way of living in God’s Creation. Countering extraction, force, and separation, the prophets lifted up trust, right relationship, and becoming. In prophetic understanding, these three qualities embodied the way of faithfulness to Living Presence, the way of aliveness. 

Trust in life itself is essential to aliveness. The prophets repeatedly admonished the people for trusting in wealth and influence, for seeking security in power and possessions—trusting in extraction. Instead, they called people to trust Living Presence by trusting the gift of life, the God-given gift of unfolding, unexpected, ever-creating life. Rather than seeking more things, the prophets called for seeking the more in life. Rather than seeking to be in maximal control of life, the prophets called people to participate in the fullness of life. This is the response to the desire to extract: receive and appreciate the more within life itself. 

In Creation as it truly is—a world that consists of multiple layers of interdependent relationships—the call of life is to live in right relationship, not to maximize control. Undue control deadens relationships…. For the prophets, full participation in life cannot be derived from oppressive relationships in which one party exerts undue control over another or extracts in a way that diminishes the other. Fullness flows only from relationships in which all parties have age-appropriate agency. Fullness in relationship emerges from the flourishing nurtured within mutually beneficial relationships. The entry ticket to every relationship is vulnerability to hurt, rejection, and loss. A truly rich life requires that we embrace this vulnerability, that we properly manage our desire for control—that we trust life. 

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Jesus Calling: Sara Young

Come to Me and Rest. I am all about you, to bless and restore. Breathe Me in with each breath. The way just ahead of you is very steep. Slow down and cling tightly to My hand. I am teaching you a difficult lesson, learned only by hardship.  

     Lift up empty hands of faith to receive My precious Presence. Light, Life, Joy, and Peace flow freely through this gift. When your focus turns away from Me, you grasp for other things. You drop the glowing gift of My Presence as you reach for lifeless ashes. Return to Me; regain My Presence. 

RELATED SCRIPTURE: 

Matthew 11:28-29

28 Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

1st Timothy 2:8 NLT

8 In every place of worship, I want men to pray with holy hands lifted up to God, free from anger and controversy.

In The Tears of Things, Richard Rohr identifies the elusive nature of prophetic leadership:  

The normal power systems of our world worship themselves and not God. For that reason, prophets almost never hold official positions, like that of king, priest, or elder. However, neither do they dismiss the proper roles that rulers and priests play in maintaining the basic order of society. A good example is when Jesus on several occasions, after healing people completely outside the temple system, still tells them to follow its rules (see Luke 17:14; Matthew 8:4). Elsewhere he critiques religious leaders loudly and publicly, but in the end, he does not set up an antagonism. He does not cash in on another group’s failure, as I would be tempted to do. Everything finally belongs.  

Throughout history, we have waited for the charismatic prophet and the institutional leader to come together in the same person, but it happens only rarely, as with King David after he submitted to the prophet Nathan. Later in history, we saw more leaders who managed to perform both roles at once: individuals like Thomas Becket, the archbishop of Canterbury; Queen Elizabeth of Hungary; Mother Katharine Drexel of Philadelphia; and Óscar Romero, the archbishop of San Salvador, all of whom were institutional people who nevertheless operated in a critical distance from their church role to be faithful to their own call. In our time, Pope Francis is an amazing and most rare example of one who can operate as both high priest and high prophet (not without his critics, however). 

Often, prophets emerge from the rank and file, paying the dues of their group so they can later critique it and not be seen as outsiders. They have shown themselves not to be iconoclasts, but legitimate reformers from within. They are in fact “exciters” of the critical mass, always wise beyond their years and living by higher values that are foreign to their contemporaries. They seem to lead just by living their lives and do not need any honorific titles or initials after their names.  

There are plenty of prophets among us now in every church and society, and it is vitally important that we listen to them, support them, and protect them. Often, they are not formally aligned with religion, yet they are deeply influenced by its deepest values, like the “heroes” CNN celebrates each year, or those who work tirelessly for women’s rights, children’s rights, and human rights without much notice or reward. I deliberately do not begin to name them specifically, because there are so many of them. Like the Suffering Servant of Isaiah, they 

Do not cry out or shout aloud, 
or make their voice heard in the streets; 
But faithfully they bring true justice 
refusing to be wavered or crushed, 
until true justice is established on earth. 
—Isaiah 42:2–4 

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The Idol of Mission: Calling vs. Treasure

After a miraculous conversion, Paul was called by God to carry the message of Jesus throughout the Roman Empire well beyond the Jewish community where the earliest Christians emerged. This calling would occupy the remainder of Paul’s life as he tenaciously and faithfully took the gospel from city to city. He proclaimed the good news, taught converts, planted churches, and raised up leaders to take his place before moving on. Along the way, he faced unimaginable difficulties including beatings, imprisonment, and shipwrecks, and through it all Paul refers to himself as a “servant of Christ Jesus.” When in prison he calls himself a “prisoner for Christ Jesus.” Paul strove to see others come to know Christ. He said, “I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some. I do this all for the sake of the gospel.” Paul was a man on a mission. The mission of Christ dominated his life, but it did not define his life.A careful reading of Paul’s letters reveals something remarkable—everything in the Apostle’s life, including God’s mission, took a backseat to his paramount goal: God himself. While in prison and unable to accomplish more for God, Paul wrote to the church in Philippi saying, “I count everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him.” Paul valued his personal connection with Christ above all else, which is why he found joy even while in chains. When Paul expresses his deepest desire for others, it is not that they would do more for God or transform the world for Christ and his kingdom, as good as such service may be. Instead, he prays that they might know God’s immeasurable love in Christ.Paul, the most celebrated missionary in history, understood that his calling was not the same as his treasure. His calling was to be a missionary. His treasure was Christ himself. DAILY SCRIPTURE 1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-23 EPHESIANS 3:14–19 WEEKLY PRAYER. Ignatius Loyola (1495–1556) Lord Jesus Christ, fill us, we pray, with your light and life, that we may reveal your wondrous glory. Grant that your love may so fill our lives that we may count nothing too small to do for you, nothing too much to give and nothing too hard to bear. Amen.

The Prophet-Mystic

In an essay for ONEING: The Path of the Prophet, Mirabai Starr describes grief as the thread which draws together the work of prophets and mystics:  

Our religious conditioning has carved a gulf between the prophet and the mystic, just as we have between action and contemplation and between transcendence and immanence. It’s easy to buy into the illusion that these two spiritual orientations are fundamentally and mutually exclusive. But you can, of course, be both a prophet and a mystic. You can be, and probably are, a prophet-mystic. 

Fr. Richard Rohr has often declared that the most important word in the title of the organization he founded, the Center for Action and Contemplation, is “and.” We are activists and contemplatives. We are prophets and mystics. We access momentary nondual states, especially in silence, and we carry the fruits we harvest in such moments back into the world to nourish ourselves and feed the hungry. 

The key to living as a prophet-mystic is showing up for what is, no matter how heartbreaking or laborious, how fraught with seemingly intractable conflict and how tempting it might be to meditate or pray our way out of the pain. Contemplative practices train us to befriend reality, to become intimate with all things by offering them our complete attention. In this way, the prophet and the mystic occupy the same broken-open space. The nexus is grief. The mystic has tasted the grace of direct experience of the sacred and then seemingly lost the connection. She feels the pain of separation from the divine and longs for union. The prophet has perceived the brokenness of the world and is incapable of unseeing it. He feels the pain of injustice and cannot help but protest. But the mystic cannot jump to union without spending time in the emptiness of longing. The prophet must sit in helplessness before stepping up and speaking out. 

Many years ago, my friend [Fr.] William Hart McNichols (quoting the wild woman theologian Adrienne von Speyr) told me that “the prophets are inconsolable.” I will never forget that. At the time, I still harbored a dualistic sense of political versus spiritual and fancied myself more a contemplative than an activist, even though I grew up in a family that was passionately engaged in protesting the Vietnam War. In our secular Jewish family, the Berrigan brothers, radical Catholic priests dedicated to peace and justice, were revered as heroes, on the same level as Abraham Joshua Heschel or Angela Davis. While I was never at home in the political arena, with its absolute judgments of right and wrong and fixed delineations between victims and perpetrators, I was proud of my parents’ social conscience. But it all felt somewhat disconnected from the heart. Then, years later, Fr. Bill built that bridge for me. The prophets, like the mystics, responded from the holy ground of the broken heart.  

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Learning from the Mystics: St. Teresa of Avila

Quote of the Week: “Our intellects, no matter how sharp, can no more grasp this than they can comprehend God.  It is said, though, that he created us in his own image.  If this is true (which it is), there is no point wearing ourselves out trying to fathom the great beauty of this castle (our soul) with our mere minds. Even though the castle (the soul) is a created thing, there is a vast difference between Creator and creature, so the fact that they soul is made in God’s image means that it is impossible for us to understand her sublime dignity and loveliness.”- From Interior Castle, 1.21Reflection  This quote brought me to misty-eyed tears the first time I read it.  Never before had a piece brought me to tears.  Theology had never done it, but St. Teresa’s word here in her spiritual classic, Interior Castle, did so in the first two pages. Systematic theology is good and fine, however, to talk about the interior life in such poetic terms is not exactly the domain of theology.  In the 1200s there was a split that happened as Aristotle was rediscovered in the academic world. Many began to study “scholastic theology” in the universities, while the monasteries studied “monastic theology.”   Monastic theology is understood as being more poetic, imaginal, symbolic, etc.  St. Teresa of Avila’s magnum opus, Interior Castle, is monastic theology. Often, Christian theology is built upon the brokenness of humanity.  However, St. Teresa of Avila starts off Interior Castle with a strong statement of the infinite beauty, worth and dignity of the human person.  This is the launchpad, this is the starting point, this is where she chooses to establish humanity… as being in the image of God.  For St. Teresa of Avila and many others, to begin anywhere else than being the Image of God is to lay the wrong foundation. Prayer  Beloved, grant us that we might have the proper starting point.  Help us to rest in as well as begin from the reality that we are made in Your image.  Allow this truth to speak to our deepest parts, to remind us of our own infinite beauty, worth and dignity as well as that of other people.  May this be the starting point of our every moment and action.  In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen and amen.

Life Overview of St. Teresa of Avila:  Who is She: St. Teresa of Avila Where: Born in Avila, Spain. Died in Salamanca, Spain.  When: 1515-1582AD  Why She is Important: She was a member of the Carmelite order, and sought to help reform the Catholic church of her day along with St. John of the Cross.  Most Known For: St. Teresa of Avila’s Interior Castle was considered a classic relatively quickly.  Using the local imagery of castles, she wrote about spiritual marriage with God as “mansions/rooms” within the human soul in which the innermost “mansion/room” is where the Lord already sits enthroned. Notable Works to Check Out: Interior Castle | The Way of Perfection | The Book of My Life

The Idol of Mission: Effectiveness is Not Faithfulness

As modern, post-enlightenment, Industrial Age, capitalist people we tend to celebrate values like efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness. Fortunes can be made by shaving a few minutes or pennies from a manufacturing process or market strategy. I’m writing this at an airport as I wait to board a Southwest Airlines flight—a company that has thrived on being efficient. Southwest was a tiny startup airline in the 1970s that disrupted the entire industry with the “10-minute turn.” Realizing planes only make money when they are in the air, Southwest cut the time on the ground to unload and reload a plane to just 10 minutes. The profits quickly followed. Our culture rewards effectiveness.The same celebration of effectiveness can be seen in the modern church, but this has a dark side. When missional effectiveness becomes paramount, we can mistakingly equate effectiveness with faithfulness. We can fool ourselves into believing God is pleased with us simply because we are accomplishing measurable things in his name. (ABC’s) A remarkable story in the Old Testament reveals the dangers of confusing effectiveness and faithfulness.When God’s people were in the wilderness without food or water they complained to Moses. Turning to the Lord for a solution, Moses was commanded to speak to a rock and water would flow from it for the people to drink, but Moses disobeyed God’s command. Rather than speaking to the rock, he struck it twice with his staff. The Lord punished Moses severely for his irreverence and disobedience by forbidding him from entering the Promised Land. Instead, Moses died within sight of it. The story appears straightforward, except for what happened when Moses disobeyed—the water flowed abundantly from the rock! He still performed a miracle, or, more accurately, God still performed a miracle through an unfaithful leader. From a human point of view, Moses’ ministry was incredibly effective, full of power, and praised by the people, but from God’s point of view, Moses was a failure—his ministry at the waters of Meribah was rejected.Moses shows us that it is entirely possible to be effective but unfaithful. Likewise, Jesus’ ministry was perceived to be utterly ineffective as he hung on the cross, was rejected by his people, and was humiliated, but we know it was his ultimate act of faithfulness to the Father. We must be careful not to confuse effectiveness with faithfulness because doing so may cause us to praise what God condemns and reject what God affirms. DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 7:21–23 NUMBERS 20:10–13 WEEKLY PRAYER Ignatius Loyola (1495–1556) Lord Jesus Christ, fill us, we pray, with your light and life, that we may reveal your wondrous glory. Grant that your love may so fill our lives that we may count nothing too small to do for you, nothing too much to give and nothing too hard to bear. Amen.

In his forthcoming book The Tears of Things, Father Richard Rohr challenges the stereotypical Christian understanding of a prophet:  

When we picture a prophet of the Old Testament—and there are many of them, more than thirty, including seven women—most of us imagine an angry, wild-haired person ranting and raving at the people of Israel for their many sins or predicting future doom. Some of the prophets did just that, but my years of study, conversation, and contemplation have shown me that this prevailing image is not the truest or most important reality of their work, calling, or messages. [1]  

Rohr explores the path that prophets revealed in Scripture:  

Until we move on from that common stereotype, we won’t recognize the prophets as truth speakers who have walked a journey to where truth has led them. This journey leads the prophets to an immense sadness, shared with God, about the human situation. Unless we allow Scripture to reveal this developmental understanding, we can’t get there. We just look for isolated verses that fit our needs, and most of the isolated statements in the first half of every prophet’s life are angry.  

The prophets rage against sin as if they were above or better than it—then move into solidarity with it. Please understand that sin is not as much malice as woundedness. Sin is suffering. Sin is sadness. Many of us have learned this truth from studying addictions, where it’s become more clear that sin deserves pity, not judgment. 

Sin is also the personal experience of the tragic absurdity of reality. It leads us to compassion. We must have compassion for the self, for how incapable we are of love, of mercy, of forgiveness. Our love is not infinite like God’s love. It’s measured—and usually measured out according to deservedness. But that’s not how YHWH treats ancient Israel, which was always unfaithful to the covenant. God is forever faithful. That’s the only consistent pattern. 

Eventually, the prophet stops standing above, apart from, or superior to reality and enters into solidarity with human suffering and human sinfulness. Jesus does this throughout his life by touching lepers and eating with sinners. He goes out of his way to bless those who are hurting. But we don’t know how to do that as long as we place ourselves higher than another, believing we’re not sinners or fellow sufferers. [2]  

My favorite thing about the prophetic books of the Bible is that they show a whole series of people in evolution of their understanding of God. Like most of us, the prophets started not only with judgmentalism and anger but also with a superiority complex of placing themselves above others. Then, in various ways, that outlook falls apart over the course of their writings. They move from that anger and judgmentalism to a reordered awareness in which they become more like God: more patient like God, more forgiving like God, more loving like God. [3]  

The Role of the Prophets

In The Tears of Things Richard Rohr offers a history of Israel’s prophets and the unique role they played:   

The prophets called Israel many times to return to the covenant God made with them at Mount Sinai. After leading the people out of Egyptian slavery, God supplied the law, including the Ten Commandments, that was meant to govern and shape their lives in the Promised Land. They were to refrain from lying, stealing, committing adultery, and so on.  

This was Morality 101, the basic order without which a society cannot maintain itself. But the people usually fell short, often disastrously so. They substituted purity codes and performance for the spirit of that law. They forgot not only what they had promised but also how much and how deeply YHWH cared for them. There was a deep need, then and now, for someone who would call the people to return to God and to justice. Someone who would warn them, critique them, and reveal God’s heart to them. We call them prophets, and every religion needs them.  

For hundreds of pivotal years—starting around 1300 BCE and continuing through the eras of Israel’s kingdom, exile, and conquest—prophets like Samuel, Jonah, Amos, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel performed this utterly important task. Besides being truth tellers, they were radical change agents, messengers of divine revelation, teachers of a moral alternative, and deconstructors of every prevailing order. Both Isaiah 21 and Ezekiel 3 describe a prophet as a “sentry” or a “watcher,” whose job is to hold Israel maddeningly honest, and to stop them from relying on arms, money, lies, and power to keep themselves safe and in control.  

In this way, they introduced a completely novel role into ancient religion: an officially licensed critic, a devil’s advocate who names and exposes their own group’s shadow side! Few cultures, if any, develop such a counterintuitive role. By nature, civilization is intent on success and building and has little time for self-critique. We disparage the other team and work ceaselessly to prove loyalty to our own.  

The same dynamics operate today, with those in power or trying to gain power more interested in protecting their own interests and positions than in seeking justice. We must be eternally conscious of this fact: For the untransformed self, religion is the most dangerous temptation of all. Our egos, when they are validated by religion, are given full permission to enslave, segregate, demean, defraud, and inflate—because all bases are covered with pre-ascribed virtue and a supposed hatred of evil. This is what the prophets expose in their wholesale assault on temple worship, priestly classes, self-serving commandments, and intergenerational wealth. “Be very careful here!” they keep shouting. The prophets know that religion is the best and that religion also risks being the worst. We love to choose sides and declare ourselves sinless and pure and orthodox (“right”), with little evidence that it is true. This is always a surprise to everyone except the prophets.  

The Idol of Mission: Beware the Lie of Missionalism

Click Here for Audio I’ve already quoted Tim Keller a number of times in this series on idolatry, but it’s worth repeating his very helpful definition. He said, “An idol is usually a very good thing that we make into an ultimate thing.” That certainly applies to the church’s favorite idol—the mission of God. The goodness of God’s mission in the world is beyond argument. The reconciliation of all things to him through the cross is a beautiful and inspiring message, and that he invites us to participate in this work is stunning. The mission of God is a very, very good thing.But it is not the ultimate thing. It too can be twisted into an idol that we value more than God himself. Sadly, in our efforts to elevate the goodness and importance of God’s mission, we can unknowingly turn it into a false god that comes to define our lives and value. It’s especially tempting to those within Christian communities who long for significance. The best way to be affirmed in many churches is to devote yourself to Christ’s mission. After all, achieving great things for God is much easier to see and celebrate than developing a deep life with him. If a Christian community celebrates accomplishments more than character, it’s a pretty good indication that Christ’s mission has come to replace Christ himself. Gordon MacDonald coined a term for this temptation. He calls it “missionalism.” It is “the belief that the worth of one’s life is determined by the achievement of a grand objective.” He continues:“Missionalism starts slowly and gains a foothold in the leader’s attitude. Before long the mission controls almost everything: time, relationships, health, spiritual depth, ethics, and convictions. In advanced stages, missionalism means doing whatever it takes to solve the problem. In its worst iteration, the end always justifies the means. The family goes; health is sacrificed; integrity is jeopardized; God-connection is limited.” Ultimately, missionalism is rooted in the lie that your worth is proportional to your impact. It’s a lie that the church often celebrates, but our Lord never does. Remember, when Jesus was baptized by John, the voice of God the Father declared, “This is my beloved Son with whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17). At this point in his life, Jesus hadn’t yet preached a sermon, he hadn’t called a disciple, he hadn’t performed a miracle, or overcome temptation in the wilderness. He hadn’t confronted the Pharisees or endured the cross. In fact, he had not yet accomplished anything we might label “missional.” And yet, he still had the Father’s love and approval. It’s a reminder that while God’s mission is important, abiding in the love of God himself is ultimate. DAILY SCRIPTURE MATTHEW 3:13-17 1 CORINTHIANS 13:1-13 WEEKLY PRAYERIgnatius Loyola (1495–1556)  Lord Jesus Christ, fill us, we pray, with your light and life, that we may reveal your wondrous glory. Grant that your love may so fill our lives that we may count nothing too small to do for you, nothing too much to give and nothing too hard to bear. Amen.