In the Lindisfarne Community we are currently looking at our common understandings. Our first understanding is
To be as Christ to others. To find Christ in others.
I have pondered the twin ideas of doing and being. To be Christlike is to act in a certain way, and it is to be a certain kind of person. A few years ago it was popular, in some circles, to wear jewelry with the WWJD logo. "What would Jesus do?" The fad seems to have faded. Yet, the intent was a good one. The idea of the jewelry was to remind the wearer to try to act in the way Jesus would act. What would that be? Wearers of the jewelry were left to puzzle it out for themselves. My guess would be that WWJD is to read the life and teaching of Jesus, get a feeling for the way Jesus acted in different circumstances, and try to imitate the actions. The task is difficult in two ways.
The first difficulty is how do you get to the actual actions of Jesus. The documents about Jesus we have are short, selective and open to many interpretations. Take, for example, the story of Jesus driving the money-changes from the temple. Was he acting violently? Should we emulate that interpretation? But what about other ways of reading the story? Check out the commentaries and you will see the problem. WWJD? It's open to interpretation!
The second difficulty is this: when you have arrived at your best interpretation, how do you actually do it? Putting WWJD into practice is another matter altogether. It is here that we arrive at conclusions like: "This is too hard!" "I've failed again!" "It's impossible!" The WWJD jewelry becomes embarrassing to wear. It's like wearing a clerical collar and getting road rage. (Best to slip the little white insert off before you drive!) I wonder how many pieces of WWJD jewelry are languishing at the bottom of drawers under the socks or underwear?
To act in a certain way is a noble and necessary idea. It can only be done when you are a certain kind of person. That brings me from doing to being.
To "be as Christ" is an ambiguous phrase. You can read "doing" into it. You can also read "being" into it. Here it becomes a little more esoteric. To be as Christ is a form of Christ-mysticism. There are a number of ways folk have wrestled with this historically. Here is one way. There is a "spark of the divine" in all. This small beginning for many folk (most perhaps?) remains small and undeveloped. For others, the small beginning grows slowly through spiritual discipline. How we get to start on the Way is a mystery. For some, a life crisis will be the immediate cause. For others, it is a chance meeting, or reading a book that catches the imagination, or a thousand other gateways. In whatever way it begins it is always a gift. To fan the spark into a flame takes time, discipline, practice. This was the genius of monasticism and is still the heart of what we call the new monasticism.
This Christ-mysticism is to find the Christ within. When our Buddhist friends speak of the "Buddha nature" I think they are speaking of the same thing. Thich Nhat Hanh leads us this way in his wonderful "Living Buddha, Living Christ."
The point is that we can only begin to "do as Jesus did" when we "become as Christ is" though the disciplines of the spiritual life. It's a long term project. Don't confuse religious zeal with developed inner divinity.
To find Christ in others is to look for this small beginning in them. It is in all. In some it is very difficult to see, but it is there. It is most difficult to see when the actions of others are far from Christlike. The temptation is to write them off. A good friend of ours, Randy Vickers, had a wonderful (if time consuming) habit. He wanted to bring a little happiness to each person he met, and made a point of not leaving a conversation until the other person had smiled at least once. I recall one visit to J.C. Penney's that took a while. The dour shop assistant resisted Randy's kindness for the longest time. She did smile in the end, but it was a marathon! I think this was Randy finding Christ within, a connection of spirit to spirit.
+Ab. Andy
1. As a Christian community we seek above all else to be Christlike—to be as Christ to those we meet; to find Christ within them. Over the years we have deepened our understanding of what that means to us. Our understandings are those things we aspire toward as we follow Christ and seek to keep the community Rule. They are at the core of who we are and seek to become. They are not a list of do’s and don’ts; nor are they a list of self-congratulations, “look at us we’ve made it!” At their heart they are our prayer. We see these understandings in the life of Jesus; shining, precious gems, winsome, lovely, drawing us out of ourselves and towards Christ.Much of our discussion has been about what it might mean to be Christlike, and the conversation has been very fruitful. I have learned much from community members.
To be as Christ to others. To find Christ in others.
I have pondered the twin ideas of doing and being. To be Christlike is to act in a certain way, and it is to be a certain kind of person. A few years ago it was popular, in some circles, to wear jewelry with the WWJD logo. "What would Jesus do?" The fad seems to have faded. Yet, the intent was a good one. The idea of the jewelry was to remind the wearer to try to act in the way Jesus would act. What would that be? Wearers of the jewelry were left to puzzle it out for themselves. My guess would be that WWJD is to read the life and teaching of Jesus, get a feeling for the way Jesus acted in different circumstances, and try to imitate the actions. The task is difficult in two ways.
The first difficulty is how do you get to the actual actions of Jesus. The documents about Jesus we have are short, selective and open to many interpretations. Take, for example, the story of Jesus driving the money-changes from the temple. Was he acting violently? Should we emulate that interpretation? But what about other ways of reading the story? Check out the commentaries and you will see the problem. WWJD? It's open to interpretation!
The second difficulty is this: when you have arrived at your best interpretation, how do you actually do it? Putting WWJD into practice is another matter altogether. It is here that we arrive at conclusions like: "This is too hard!" "I've failed again!" "It's impossible!" The WWJD jewelry becomes embarrassing to wear. It's like wearing a clerical collar and getting road rage. (Best to slip the little white insert off before you drive!) I wonder how many pieces of WWJD jewelry are languishing at the bottom of drawers under the socks or underwear?
To act in a certain way is a noble and necessary idea. It can only be done when you are a certain kind of person. That brings me from doing to being.
To "be as Christ" is an ambiguous phrase. You can read "doing" into it. You can also read "being" into it. Here it becomes a little more esoteric. To be as Christ is a form of Christ-mysticism. There are a number of ways folk have wrestled with this historically. Here is one way. There is a "spark of the divine" in all. This small beginning for many folk (most perhaps?) remains small and undeveloped. For others, the small beginning grows slowly through spiritual discipline. How we get to start on the Way is a mystery. For some, a life crisis will be the immediate cause. For others, it is a chance meeting, or reading a book that catches the imagination, or a thousand other gateways. In whatever way it begins it is always a gift. To fan the spark into a flame takes time, discipline, practice. This was the genius of monasticism and is still the heart of what we call the new monasticism.
This Christ-mysticism is to find the Christ within. When our Buddhist friends speak of the "Buddha nature" I think they are speaking of the same thing. Thich Nhat Hanh leads us this way in his wonderful "Living Buddha, Living Christ."
The point is that we can only begin to "do as Jesus did" when we "become as Christ is" though the disciplines of the spiritual life. It's a long term project. Don't confuse religious zeal with developed inner divinity.
To find Christ in others is to look for this small beginning in them. It is in all. In some it is very difficult to see, but it is there. It is most difficult to see when the actions of others are far from Christlike. The temptation is to write them off. A good friend of ours, Randy Vickers, had a wonderful (if time consuming) habit. He wanted to bring a little happiness to each person he met, and made a point of not leaving a conversation until the other person had smiled at least once. I recall one visit to J.C. Penney's that took a while. The dour shop assistant resisted Randy's kindness for the longest time. She did smile in the end, but it was a marathon! I think this was Randy finding Christ within, a connection of spirit to spirit.
+Ab. Andy