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The suggestion in the movie "Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter... and Spring" that being truly spiritual is to cast off all human passions is a commonly held belief in many religious traditions. The ascetic experience of withdrawal is to separate ourselves from the world in order to discover spirituality. It is the basis for the monastery and the convent, alongside our prevailing notion of church: which takes place inside a somewhat strange and alien building. It is built in some sense on the otherness of God, and the need to recognise that there are aspects to the character of God which are apart from who we are.
The problem is that there are not many of us who can afford that lifestyle: either economically or personally. We are built for community and for relationship with other humans. The implication that to be spiritual is to deny our humanity is a strange yet not unfamiliar call.
In reflecting on the story of Jesus and the raising of Lazarus last Sunday night (see Image of the Week), we truncated the story so that we did not hear the part about Lazarus being raised. In the absence of that stands an interesting dialogue between Jesus and Martha, and the obvious unwillingness of Mary to come and meet Jesus. They are both clearly in grief at Lazarus' death - one which Jesus could have (in their minds) clearly have prevented. Why did Jesus wait until Lazarus had died before coming to them? Why does he talk to Martha about resurrection in the street at their first meeting? And what does this have to do with my opening remarks?
Plenty. Jesus spoke to Martha and then Mary in the context of their emotional pain. When he spoke of Lazarus being raised, Martha's response was of the classic theological persuasion: "I know that in the last day..." Nice, dispassionate, distant theology. Implication: this distant hope must have something to do with what I am feeling right now, but it isn't helping. When Jesus follows up by questioning Martha as to whether she believed that Lazarus would live again, Martha's response is classical evangelical-ese: "I believe you are the Christ, the Son of God". There is no expectation - from Martha or Mary - that Jesus would do anything. In an other-world spirituality, why would we?
Yet Jesus' response challenges this: he expresses his emotions, then responds with the raising of Lazarus. There is a passion in this story which is quintessentially human and equally divine.
This story is but one of many which build a bridge between human experience and divine. To be christian is to be engaged with the world, to be immersed in human passion, human emotion, human desire, not to be immune to it. God in Christ entered our world and suffered with it as well as under it. The call to 'love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind and all your strength' is all-embracing, not sub-human. Sure, we need to recognise the 'otherness' of God, but at the same time affirming the incarnation of God into human experience.
Isn't that partly the story of Easter also?
Posted by gary at March 17, 2005 05:01 PM
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