On being yeast

I think I can safely say that the first week of 2021, at least for those of us in the United States, has been tumultuous. Don't worry, this post is not a dissection of the events of this past week. I will just say that my hope is this past week put into bold relief the need citizen of the United States have to come together. This does not require everyone to agree on everything.

Healthy democracies require disagreement, debate, and, yes, compromise. It does require us to agree on some fundamental things. I hope more than a slight majority of my fellow citizens now grasp this. I also hope that we now collectively see why keeping political discourse civil is so important.

Because I posted the first Friday traditio of this still-new year on New Year's Day, this is the second of 2021. A thought occurred to me this week that what precedes the so-called Kenotic Hymn in the second chapter of Saint Paul's Letter to Philippians is important and often neglected. The hymn, which begins in verse with verse 6- "Who though he was in the form of God..."- is precisely that, a hymn. This means it was sung by early Christians and subsequently used by the apostle to highlight an important point he was trying to make. The first five verses provide the context for the hymn, give you the reason why Paul used it.

What is that point? The answer to this question lies in the first five verses of this chapter:

If there is any encouragement in Christ, any solace in love, any participation in the Spirit, any compassion and mercy, complete my joy by being of the same mind, with the same love, united in heart, thinking one thing. Do nothing out of selfishness or out of vainglory; rather, humbly regard others as more important than yourselves, each looking out not for his own interests, but [also] everyone for those of others. Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus...

The heart of this passage seems to be the exhortation to "humbly regard others as more important than yourselves." Doing this is how you imitate Jesus, who, even though he was God, did not lord his divinity over the world but rather served the world like a slave, not a master. Yes, it is very difficult because, at a very deep level, we are programmed, to use a technological metaphor, to act out of selfishness, putting our own interests first.

To be clear, this is a Christian thing, not a secular thing. Paul addressed his letter to the Church in ancient Philippi, not to everyone. This is one more lesson, too, that the Church is not to seek worldly power and dominion. What many Christians in the U.S. today mistake as persecution is merely the loss of political power, of cultural hegemony, of having sway and having it their way. In reality, these losses should be celebrated, not lamented. The lowest ebbs in Church history have been when the Church has sought and attained political power.

You see, Christianity, like Kierkegaard noted in virtually all his works, is not only something that should not be imposed, Christianity that is Christianity cannot be imposed. Christendom is a perversion of Christianity. Rather than lament, Christians should see our present circumstances as an opportunity to follow Jesus more faithfully, which means putting ourselves at the service of others. As Pope Francis often notes, too often the Church has become self-serving, too worried about preserving itself, its institutions, and, therefore, not focused on serving others, especially those most in need. This is the only way to regain the Church's lost credibility.

This is not to say that Christians should hole up, separate ourselves, refuse to participate in the political and cultural aspects of the societies in which we live, including running for and holding elected offices. Far from it! It is about how we participate and how we serve the common good, not whether or not we ought to do so. We are to do so but in a way consistent with the teachings of Christ, who said: “To what shall I compare the kingdom of God? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed [in] with three measures of wheat flour until the whole batch of dough was leavened” (Luke 13:20-21). While I fully embrace preaching the Gospel and making disciples of all nations, I sometimes think the Church does better where Christians are in the minority.

It was kind of difficult coming up with the song for our traditio today but Lauren Daigle's acoustic cover of Matt Maher's "Lord, I Need You" strikes me as a good one: