Hear the Ancient Wisdom. Charles Ringma
Christian life without tradition and assume Christianity can be wholly reinvented. The second, at the other extreme of the continuum, is to live the whole of one’s Christian life simply bounded by Christian tradition.
There are much more creative ways to live. These are: to be fully aware of the Spirit’s renewing and creative energy; to be deeply immersed in the biblical story; to respect the church’s long march in history; and to respond to the issues of our day. To integrate these various dimensions makes the Christian life sustainable, exiting, relevant, and orthodox.
St. Basil, in giving Christian advice, points out that it is important to listen to the wisdom of the past. But he goes on to say, “Do not surrender your mind as if it were a ship’s rudder answering to control. No; take what suits you, and learn to discard the rest.”81 Thus, he points us to a creative reappropriation of the past and not to a dull conformity.
Here is the call to discernment for which we need the Spirit’s
guidance to gain humility and courage. And courage is always needed when one seeks to be relevant.
Thought
Eat the fish but leave the bones. Hold fast to the good of the past and
daringly embrace the new.
John 20:23
March 23
Sin Bearer
Jesus is the great sin bearer who in his own body took to himself the sin and suffering of the world. Such a task is beyond us. But we can carry the burdens of another person.
There are burdens a person should bring only to the foot of the cross. Only Christ can take up these burdens, concerns, failures, and sins. And in the very act of laying these things down there can be release and forgiveness. The great exchange Martin Luther so often wrote about can take place. God takes our sin, but gives us his forgiveness.
But there are some burdens one may take up on another person’s behalf. It is possible to believe for another when his or her faith wavers. It is possible to intercede for another when her or his prayer life is all but abandoned. It is appropriate to comfort when the other is grief stricken. It is possible to be there for another.
St. Catherine of Siena used to say to sinners who came to her, “Have no fear, I will take the burden of your sins.”82
This does not mean she saw herself in the place of Jesus the Savior. Rather, it was that the person coming for help could not see the Savior’s forgiveness and embrace. St. Catherine then in faith, prayer, and suffering “carried” that person to Jesus.
This is the power of intercessory prayer. It is the power of radical identification. It is being willing to stand in another person’s place.
Prayer
Lord, help me and give me the grace to be there for others, and to carry others to you. Amen.
Mark 10:21
March 24
The Challenge of Relinquishment
The Christian’s life is gaining a new life in Christ. It is also about leaving behind an old way of life. And it also has to do with the art of relinquishment.
The English medieval Christian mystic Richard Rolle made this
challenge: “Take heed also: to seek more than enough is foul covetousness; to keep back necessaries is frailty; but to forsake all things is perfectness.”83
All of this is a challenge for us Christians in the twenty-first
century. We think we never have enough. We believe what is ours is for us alone. And we have the idea that God is supposed to give us things, not us giving anything to God.
It is true the Christian life is about receiving much: salvation, the gift of eternal life, the gift of the Spirit. But it is also about giving. Living the Christian life has to do with giving ourselves to God and to the purposes of God’s kingdom and to the love and service of the neighbor.
In giving ourselves to God and the neighbor we learn the art of
relinquishment. For some this is being generous with financial resources. For others it is being hospitable. For others again it is mentoring or helping others. For some it is not marrying. For others it is relinquishing a career trajectory. For some it is giving all of one’s possessions.
There is no formula here, only acts of love and generosity and self-giving. Here the manifold promptings of the Spirit come to startling clarity in the various ways in which we can honor God.
Thought
In self-giving we follow the way of Christ.
Luke 12:31
March 25
The Seeking Heart
Living the Christian life is receiving the grace of God in Christ. It is living a life of faith, discipleship, and service. It is participating in the Christian church and it is living in the hope of a new heaven and a new earth. But it also has to do with the seeking heart.
In the modern world it does not take much for us to become bored and disinterested. This can be in our love life, our jobs, our interests, our
relationships, and even in our life of faith.
At this point in the twenty-first century there are many Christians, in the West at least, who are quite bored with the church, hardly ever read Scripture, and have no interest in theological reflection. They are only
interested in God being the magical extra in their lives.
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