Why do we give the worst things all of the attention?

St. Columba’s Episcopal Church and Retreat House - Inverness, CA

Why do we always aim to impress, defend against, and cater to the worst people (and things) in our lives? Why do we give so much of our precious attention to that which opposes us? Why do we first pay mind to the mytho-poetic (albeit real) ‘powers and principalities’?

Well, my hope rests on the notion that this much is true…

The good news of the cross is that those powers and principalities have been ontologically uprooted.¹

They’re still there, yes.

But the foundation has been uprooted beneath them. The only power they have over us is the power we give them. And the only reason we give them any power is because of the illusion that we all live under (also known as ‘Sin’). This is the illusion that we are separate from God. Separate from Ultimate wholeness and enoughness.

This is why the reading from St. Paul’s letters to the Romans in Sunday’s lectionary text is so profound…

No longer present your members to sin as instruments of wickedness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and present your members to God as instruments of righteousness. For sin will have no dominion over you, since you are not under law but under grace.

Romans 6:13-14

Sin… Separation from Wholeness… Estrangement from God… Imprisonment to powers and principalities… However you want to frame the only real ontological ‘problem’ that we encounter in the human experience…

It only exists because our brains are wired to give it power it doesn’t really have. We act out of lack and scarcity because we have a really hard time trusting the abundance, security, and sureness that can only come from realizing that we are wholly loved, accepted, and continually made new in Christ.

I think a big part of the problem is due to our wiring that goes back to the stone age. Our brains have evolved, yes, but they’re still finely tuned to scope out and run from that saber-toothed tiger who lurks in the bushes.

Our world has changed in many ways,
but our ancient brain makeup
still carries an existential fear
of being kicked out of the tribal circle
far away from food, fire, and fellowship.

This is why the powers and principalities of the world have us imprisoned.

But…

If we realize that we don’t need to pay them any mind
and God turns us to the love that is given to us in Christ,
they’ll crumble into the sand on which they stand.

Yes, they will whisper convincingly their accusations into our inner ears… But if we can be turned to the newness, wholeness, and acceptance imputed (given) to us - free of charge - by the God we are shown in Christ…

Then we can walk in the light of the resurrection.

Again, St. Paul said it best…

So what advantage did you then get from the things of which you now are ashamed? The end of those things is death.

But now that you have been freed from sin and enslaved to God, the advantage you get is sanctification. The end is eternal life.

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6:21-23

You know this… If you live long enough, you will do a lot of things that you will regret. And also, you will bear the brunt of others who do things that they, too, will regret (or not). Life is terribly hard. Things get messy. We muck things up in more ways than we’ll ever know.

It’s easy to think that God holds these things against us. But when I read Paul’s letter, I see an image of a different God. I see God like a more loving version of myself when my daughter used to throw temper tantrums in the isle of Target when she was three and couldn’t get what she wanted (basically everything in the toy section).² Even as a grown adult, I fall into these tantrums - they just look different now.

And in my fits of rage and despair,
at my very worst moments,

I see God lovingly standing back and letting me kick, flail, and slam my head against the metal shelving.

And then…
When I am done and the tantrum passes and calm returns…

God sweeps me up into His arms and tells me He loves me. He takes away my Sin and gives me wholeness. He reclaims and renames me even while I’ve made a mess of things.

All of the kicking and screaming is like smoke.
It is nothing in God’s economy
and vanishes into the nothingness from where it came.
And in the end, it only leads to death.

But in God’s love, I am given new life.
Forgiveness.
Mercy.
And the most steadfast love I can ever imagine.

In short, I am given back to myself.

This is the only true reality.

Amen.

As Ever,
Jonas

1. Yes, the crucifixion of Christ is a historical event. But the historicity of it is a mere symbol of what has been true all along… The ever-loving God revealed in Christ Jesus has always been in charge. And God’s thrust has always been, “I love you.” Evil has never had solid ground to stand on - even in the millions and billions of years prior to the crucifixion of Jesus. You have never not been whole and loved by God, the very ground of your being.

2. They warned us of the ‘terrible two’s, but the ‘terrible threes’ were far more sinister.