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The Problem of a Competitive Spirit… it is not heavenly!
Thoughts which draw me to Jesus, and to the Cross…
13 Joshua was near Jericho when he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a sword in his hand. Joshua went to him and asked, “Are you a friend or an enemy?”
14 The man answered, “I am neither. I have come as the commander of the LORD’s army.”
Then Joshua bowed facedown on the ground and asked, “Does my master have a command for me, his servant?”
15 The commander of the LORD’s army answered, “Take off your sandals, because the place where you are standing is holy.” So Joshua did. Joshua 5:13-15 NCV
The very word “religion” comes from the Latin “religare” or “religio,” which means “relationship,” or “binding relationship,” or “binding-back relationship.” It is not healthy, holy, or safe to laugh at God’s pole in that relationship, but it is very healthy and even holy to laugh at ourselves. In fact it is unhealthy not to.
Awake! awake, and praise the Lord!
Dismiss your griefs and cares;
A sacred feast He doth afford—
A table here prepares.
Our hungry souls may now be fed,
And taste of heavenly meat;
Christ’s body is our living bread—
His flesh we now may eat.
Whether I like it or not, I am more than a bit competitive! It may not be on a basketball or volleyball court anymore, or in a Tae Kwon Doe dojang, but there is something about engaging with other people with the intent and determination to win that matters to me. I ant to blame the environment, growing up in a sports focused country, where our heroes, once found on battlefields are found in sports stadiums. ( I can argue the competitiveness draws men into and sees them succeed in battle as well.)
These days, competition is found in social media– as people argue about “my” sports teams, or bash “my” political views, or “my” religious views. In the latter two cases, the views don’t even have to be mine – I grieve and want to fight when someone treats either Biden or Trump without respect, or when someone takes a religious leader’s comments out of context or twists them. I see the words, and into battle I go, not interested in discourse as much as showing that I am right. (And by right, do I mean superior?)
Into my world comes Joshua, and the story of his meeting Jesus – the commander of the Lord’s Armies. I so understand Joshua’s comment – “you are on my side, right!?” For if the COmmander is on the other side, then I am in the wrong, and I do not like that! The Commanders reply take Joshua by surprise, and turns Joshua’s world upside down. A lesson I need to learn- and relearn, and apply, and start again.
Peter Kreeft, the great philosopher/apologist, makes the same kind of point with his comments about religion. (Which I lvoed and filed away for those who “hate religion” but love “relationships.”) He reminds me that I need to laugh at myself! That I am the part of the relationship that has the capacity to be in total flux, We get blown about , stressed out, get narcisstic (me?) The grace of God, what Kreeft refers to His pole – is stable, and tied to it through our religion/the relationship we are bound into, keeps us safe, and if we thought about it, dwelling in His peace!
This is where the Luther Hymn finds its meaning, defining a place ofr us, where we know the strength of our being bound to God. It is in the Lord’s Supper, the Eucharist, the place where we meet God, and He shows us His love, as we remember Jesus, broken and His blood poured out–for us. FOR US ALL!
We don’t have to compete at the altar to be the most loved, or to receive the greatest reward, or to even have a spot! Indeed, our desire grows to be to see all at that altar. Our enemy is no longer our adversary, but the demonic that would deny the gospel being shared with someone we will come to love. Imagine the joy found in the broken relationship healing at the altar, and then completely healed before the throne. The one we compete with singing God’s praises next to us, the voices being one. This is heaven, this place at the altar, where we feast with God, together!
That’s a vision that will be so incredibly awesome we will laugh and cry, with joy! May God help us to see it! AMEN!
Kreeft, Peter. Ha!: A Christian Philosophy of Humor (p. 68). St. Augustine’s Press. Kindle Edition.
Luther, Martin, and John Hunt. 1853. The Spiritual Songs of Martin Luther: From the German. Translated by Thomas Clark. London: Hamilton, Adams, and Co.
Do We Take The Liturgy and Preaching Too Seriously?
Thoughts which drive me closer to Jesus, and to the Cross!
13 Whoever acts without mercy will be judged without mercy but mercy can afford to laugh at judgement.
James 2:13 (NJB)
In the Baroque period the liturgy used to include the risus paschalis, the Easter laughter. The Easter homily had to contain a story which made people laugh, so that the church resounded with a joyful laughter. That may be a somewhat superficial form of Christian joy. But is there not something very beautiful and appropriate about laughter becoming a liturgical symbol?
Therefore as in the preceding verses the passion and death of Christ are prophesied, so in this verse his resurrection is predicted, though by a somewhat obscure allusion. Who would have thought, while Christ was suffering and the Jews triumphing, that God was laughing at them all the while! So also while we are oppressed, how shall we believe that God is holding our adversaries in derision, when it seems to us as though we were held in derision both by God and men? What a power of faith is required in all these words!
In my office hangs a copy of the painting entitled Jesus laughing.
I often thought of it as a reaction to something Peter said, or when some well-meaning rabbi complimented Him on His understanding of scripture.
The words of Luther gave me another insight–as the Father endures watching the Son endue the cross…there is a slight grin on His face, a grin like the A-Team’s Colonel as he says, “I love it when a plan comes together.” In that same moment, as Jesus screams it is finished, a victory cry through the pain can be slightly heard…
The God who tells us to rejoice without ceasing himself rejoices without ceasing.
This attitude needs, no, it has to invade our liturgy, to invade our preaching. The joyous laughter that knows that no matter what, the plan of God will succeed, and the people of God are His. We are HIS!
That is why when Pope Benedict XVI, one of the greatest theologians and teachers on the liturgy brings up laughter, but only from his own perspective. He brought up the history of the liturgy, and the fact that the rubrics required laughter in the homily! For the very reason that this was a celebration–a time when laughter is more than appropriate!
Do you think Simeon, when holding the baby Jesus, knowing He was the Messiah, wasn’t giggling with laughter? Do you not think the disciples were laughing and crying in the upper room when Jesus appeared? That Thomas, on His knees, wasn’t smiling–even as Jesus said he could touch his wrists and put his hand in Jesus’ side.
This is part of our minsitry, this odd, paradoxical sense of humour in the midst of complete reverence and awe of the God who comes to us, to die for us, to use all of His power to save and re-create us… which brings God the greatest joy, and glee.. and laughter!
Joseph Ratzinger, Behold The Pierced One: An Approach to a Spiritual Christology, trans. Graham Harrison (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 1986), 119–120.
Martin Luther and John Sander, Devotional Readings from Luther’s Works for Every Day of the Year (Rock Island, IL: Augustana Book Concern, 1915), 391.
