The Little Friar

CS Lewis once remarked : True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. When it comes to humility I think a lot of Christians tend to work with the wrong idea. The idea that many seem to have is that humility involves thinking less about yourself, to have a negative or even morbid self-concept. Justification for this sort of thing comes from texts like Philippians 2.3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Humility, it seems, is considering others as "better" than yourself. And if others are better than you it stands to reason that you are "worse".  Humility, in this view, is having that sort of morbid self-concept:  Others are "better" than me. But is that what Paul is saying in Philippians 2.3? The word translated as “better” in this text is hyperechontas from the root hyperecho . The word (in various forms) occurs only four other times in t...

Random thought:  Perhaps the greatest sign that a theologian is growing in grace -- the stronger one's theological convictions, the greater one's love for those who differ with you.  

Of all the sins, there are some the Christian community most tolerates.  This one is on that tolerable list.   Some months ago, I cared enough about a friend to confront her judgmentalism (Matthew 18 only matters and is possible in a context of care, outside that it's just judgmentalism).  Her critical spirit and condemning attitude was pervading nearly everything -- as judgmentalism will do.  It had even led her to believe this this judgmental spirit was a "discerning spirit", as if she could see others as God sees them.  So I warned her.  That's dangerously close to blasphemy -- assuming our judgments are God's judgments.  It is a dangerous spiritual path for Christians to walk, I said.  And she responded by instantly severing our friendship.  I was judging her, she said, and she had no room for judgmental people.   We haven't spoken in months.  Today, as I prayed for her and her family, I thought of Paul's admonitions in 1 Corith...

Some weeks ago  I wrote about the relationship between self-esteem and servanthood.  The observation I made then was that we often fail to humble ourselves to take on the form of a servant (Philippians 2.6-8) because we are struggling to secure self-esteem.  Somewhat paradoxically, it takes a lot of ego-strength to be humble -- to let others go first, to take the last place, to "wash feet", and to allow others to get the praise, recognition, and accolades. We struggle with this.  Not because we are wicked but because our sense of self-worth is built upon praise, compliments, attention, respect and popularity.  Thus we engage in what psychologists have called "excessive reassurance seeking", constantly taking the temperature of our social network to verify that we are being noticed, approved of, and included.  As I wrote then, this struggle for significance is made even more difficult if you lack what this culture defines as "valuable", "worthy", ...

According to social psychologists, it's becoming easier to see our individual discipline and effort to be immune from the shortcomings we find in others.  That this self-inflating moral bias is even stronger when it comes to moral judgments we make about others' behaviors.    Culture, religious belief and experience all help shape a person's sense of moral standing in relation to others, psychologists say.  According to this theory of the holier-than-thou effect , more moral behavior is related to situation than to character.  So the problem with the effect is that we blame character flaws -- and then highlight  those flaws -- over against our own kindnesses to self in the same situation.  According to psychologists, that's the only way to diminish the holier-than-thou effect:  Share similar experiences.  I write often here about humility.  My go-to definition for what humility is, is taken from Paul's principle:  "Don't push your w...

I was talking this morning with a friend about Jesus' second Greatest Commandment ("Love your neighbor as yourself").  Particularly, a friend asked a question about it in relation to self-esteem.  Generally, her interpretation of what Jesus said rings widely true in the Church these says:  You  have to love yourself  first , and  then , once you love yourself, you can love your neighbor.  In this formulation, self-love functions as a prerequisite for the love of others.  And you often hear it described as a two-stage process: Stage One:  Love yourself Stage Two:  Love others In one sense, I agree with this.  It's hard to really love others if you've got a catastrophically bad self-esteem.  In those cases what looks like love might actually be, underneath, a fearful, servile dependency.  So in that sense, I get it. But, I don't think this is what Jesus is saying.  I don't think Jesus has this very recent, Western psych...

"Jesus stopped ..." (Matthew 20.32; Mark 10.32).  Those words always give me pause each time I read them.  I've been thinking of my strengths and weaknesses as a pastor lately, so what follows is an extended thought about one of my personal weaknesses.  I tend to work on a pace that borders on insane.  I walk fast between places.  I focus on projects with a red-hot intensity.  And I typically don't view interruptions favorably.  Sure, I don't say anything, but internally such interruptions create chaos for a moment.  So in those words, I'm given a spiritual pause.  Literally.  That's because, in those two little words -- "Jesus stopped" -- there's a spiritual discipline particularly important for pastors.  It's the spiritual practice of interrupt-ability :  The ability to be interrupted for the Kingdom's work.  Basically, interruptibility is a form of welcome and hospitality .  It's a way of making room for others. ...

Most folks agree that one of the deepest spiritual problems in Christianity is egoism.   Me, me, me -- that's the source of sin.  So the spiritual practices that cause me to diminish  myself in order to "work out" my salvation are at the core of being Christian.  Those practices have their biblical foundation in the NT ideas of kenosis  and servanthood.  Kenosis  is embodied spirituality.  Just as Jesus "emptied himself" (Philippians 2) and John "decreased, in order that Jesus might increase" (John 3),  kenosis is captured by themes of service, submission, obedience, humility, and modesty.  Generally, the idea of "servanthood" captures the manifestation of kenosis .  The image of kenosis , therefore, is the towel.   From John 13: It was just before the Passover Feast.  Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father.  Having loved his own who were in the world, he now showed them th...

Nearly everyone who's anyone in theological circles loves to claim St Augustine as a theologian extraordinaire. We quote him often, finding within him a church father to ground any number of our ideas.  Since that's true, my fundamentalist brothers and sisters often find it odd that I quote Augustine to illustrate the absurdities of a strict biblical literalism.   Now to be honest, I think there's a place for a literal reading -- if by "literal" one means that the biblical text is restrained in its meanings by what the original audiences would have heard and read.  That kind of historically-grounded reading is at the heart of how I read the text.  That said, this historically-informed "literalism" often leads in directions that make me, my liberal friends, and  my conservative friends anxious.  Because it means approaching the Bible with a humble, listening ear, one that is grounded in the breadth and depth of truth that we find in history, science, econ...

" But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive ..." (James 3.17-18).  When it comes to thinking about wisdom in our culture, "submissive" is hardly associated with it.  That's because our culture tends to think "submissiveness" is one-directional and asymmetrical, where one group or person asks another group or person to submit.  In those instances you end up creating a power differential, with one group dominating and lording over another group.  That's not , I think, what James has in mind.  I think what James has in mind is what I call " the economy of submission ".   What's that? An economy of submission is the mutual, reciprocal, flowing  exchange of submission .  What's More, it's  an economy of gifts  freely given and received.  This is the notion of mutual submission, servant-heartedness, and koinonia.  The vision here isn't one group trying to get anot...

CS Lewis once remarked : True humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. When it comes to humility I think a lot of Christians tend to work with the wrong idea. The idea that many seem to have is that humility involves thinking less about yourself, to have a negative or even morbid self-concept.   Justification for this sort of thing comes from texts like Philippians 2.3: Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Humility, it seems, is considering others as "better" than yourself.  And if others are better than you it stands to reason that you are "worse".  Humility, in this view, is having that sort of morbid self-concept:  Others are "better" than me. But is that what Paul is saying in Philippians 2.3? The word translated as "better" in this text is hyperechontas from the root hyperecho .  The word (in vari...

The prophetic tradition proclaims that God desires "holiness, not sacrifice".  For most of us, though, holiness carries with it a number of responses, particularly psychological.  Most of us see holiness as exclusionary, that holiness calls for a withdrawal from the world. The basic claim I want to make:  Holiness is a means toward an end, not an end in itself.  Holiness is a bit of missional equipment, a missional tool.  What sort of tool? I take my cue here from Jesus, how he frames the relationship between holiness and mission in his High Priestly Prayer in John: My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.   Sanctify them by the truth ; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world .  For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified (John 17.15-19. emphasis added).   T...