Previous Post – Scared: A Novel At The Edge Of The World
This Sunday evening at Little Flowers I will be continuing our series on our community vows & values. We have already explored our shared commitment to Simplicity, embrace a number of individual and community practices as a result. This week we will continue with my exploring the discipline of Submission. We will look at it over a couple of weeks, pursuing value that we will walk out together.
Our Vow of Submission is inspired by the monastic Vow of Obedience. Both of these words- submission and obedience- can draw responses from all spectrums, most of them less than positive. Whether it brings to mind abusive hierarchies or imbalanced gender requirements, most of us can identify with the cringe factor these words cause. However, beyond their misuses and abuses, this vow holds so much for us as we seek to be Christ’s Body to a watching world.
Through the familiarity of common usage, we can too often lose sight of what it means to follow Jesus as our Lord. It can become dangerously easy in our evangelical zeal to call people to declare Jesus as Lord in order to be saved, without truly articulating that beyond mere declaration is the absolute submission of our whole selves to the purposes of Christ. When it is addressed, we sometimes reduce it to basic moral living and spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible reading. While these are all important, the life and teachings of Christ, built upon the foundation the story of God found in Scripture, clearly show us that we are called to lives far more demanding and sacrificial. Consider the Parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10). After Jesus affirms that eternal life can be had if we love God and love our neighbour as ourselves, he is asked, “Who is my neighbour?”. The parable comes in reply.
I recently realized how quickly I dismissed the priest and the Levite as the bad guy, identifying instead with the Samaritan. And yet, with more consideration I realized that the choices of the first two men were not so unreasonable. The road was clearly dangerous and these men had many people who depended on them. Consider a similar scenario in our own world- I live in an inner city community that poses many such threats. Obedience to Christ’s call of loving our neighbour is a costly one, potentially our very lives. It was the outcast, “heretic” Samaritan who risked it all for a person who might otherwise have reject him.
But Jesus does not directly answer the question “Who is my neighbour?”, but instead asks, “Which of the three men was a neighbour to the injured man?”. Clearly the only answer is the Samaritan, which the lawyer states. Jesus finally answers the “neighbour” question by saying “Go and do the same”. The lawyer does not ask what he must do to be obedient to God. Instead, his original question is about eternal life and his follow up question are aimed at discovering his minimal obligation for salvation. And this is where he misses the point.
Jesus turns the table with his answer. Jesus shows that obedience is not about fulfilling some external obligations, but rather the externals are a result of the internal transformation of our hearts. Obedience leads to being transformed from the inside out into the Body of Christ, not hoops we must jump through for our own benefit. Just as we are called to be loving, compassion and grace-filled neighbours, that which Christ calls us to obey comes as His expression of love, compassion and grace to us, seeking to restore us to His intention for all Creation.
God also calls us to be submitted to one another as His united Body. In my next post I will explore this community dynamic of submission.
Oh, I like this as a vow/commitment. Mutual submission resonates well, and it seems to fit our needs more than obedience to an abbot (or other representative of Christ).
Thanks for this Jamie. The next two Sunday themes for me are “submit” and “obedience” – I’m preaching on Ephesians 5. Very challenging texts. I look forward to your next post!
Thanks Pat. In my next post I will explore mutual submission within community more specifically. As I begin my own process of entering into a Franciscan Third Order, I also believe there is a place for submission to an abbot, etc., but I think we would agree that they are not meant to “rule” in hierarchy, but to serve and lead. More on that later!
Peace,
Jamie
Thanks for commenting Matt. Feel free to share your thoughts/discoveries here and in the next post too. I think this is a much needed theme to explore.
Peace,
Jamie
So true that obedience is not about fulfilling external obligations, but rather the result of transformation- always ongoing.
Because of reading Wright (I’m making my way through “Justification” now), my take on the Lawyer’s question is that he’s not asking about how someone can finally end up with God. The “eternal life” discussion among 1st century Jews wasn’t about time, but rather about status- that is, how one shows that one is a member of the people of God who will last into the age to come. The priest and Levite would be obvious, as they are tightly bound to the Temple, the center of Jewish identity.
His follow-up question would be more like, “Give me some details, please,” and Jesus leads him to the radical, subversive act of self-giving love, which is not only how God is, but also identifies his people, those who will last into the age to come- (Be perfect, y’all, the *same way* that God is perfect.)- not morally sinless, but with self-giving love at the center of one’s being, aimed toward those one would least expect it to be aimed at: the ones who by definition are outsiders. Love, compassion and grace-filled, indeed- and at great cost. Very appropriate for your community.
God bless you on your journey to becoming a Tertiary. I considered that at a couple of points in my life, as well as becoming a Benedictine oblate (Kathleen Norris influence). Our common direction is “backward” in time
I will be chrismated Orthodox on O. Pentecost morning (June 7). Email me if you want to talk… Talk or no, I appreciate your prayers…
Dana
Hey Dana,
Thanks for the great input. There is so much we can learn when we understand the context. For example, the posture of the lawyer to Jesus, as well as the structure of his questions demonstrated he was a) placing himself in the teacher position over Jesus, and b ) he was testing Jesus more than seeking a genuine answer. Jesus used the opportunity to turn the tables. I love it!
Thanks also for your encouragement in respect the my postulancy into the Company of Jesus – Franciscan Third Order. I am also excited to hear of you upcoming event! Many blessings. Several of my closest friends are becoming Ortho. I’d love to email more about it, so expect a letter soon.
Peace,
Jamie
It’s funny how cultural values impact us so much. I watched the Tale of Despereaux with my boys a couple of nights ago. In the mouse culture, fear was prized; bravery was despised. Americans and the West prize individualism and self-rule; we despise submission. Even though Jesus teaches us differently, we seem controlled by our world’s cultural values rather than the Kingdom’s.
Hey Bryan,
So very true. It is critical that we learn to recognize our blind spots in this regard. That is why we are so much in need of each other (which is a great lead into my next post!).
Peace,
Jamie
Jamie,
This is wonderful … thanks for posting on the Way you’re walking with your community there. DF
Thank you, David. That is encouraging.
Peace,
Jamie
I was wondering if you could provide a personal perspective or some insights on this article specifically or this topic in general.
Thanks
Donald Whitney and Spiritual Disciplines
http://cicministry.org/commentary/issue111.htm
Hey Bob,
Well, there are so many ways this works out (and my next post will probably focus more on our community expressions), but one core thing that works out of this is that are committed to developing lives of obedience to the teachings of Christ that grow out of love, not fear or obligation. To that end we view rules and structures as only necessary to serve that end, needing to be different for different people.
Peace,
Jamie
[...] Previous Post – Our Vow of Submission [...]