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Play & Righteousness
Sermon by Rev. Kevin Baxter
for Sunday, October 22, 2006
Our gospel lesson for the day is, I believe, one of the more often told Bible stories, especially when we talk about humility or structures of remuneration. Our tradition joins with a myriad of Christian churches that view this passage as a condemnation of selfishness and greed, both in intent and action. It is a mistake to jump to the rash opinion that any church can actually exist by the judgment of works or intent alone. Churches that believe in salvation by works believe that the works are just an external sign of an internal shift. Those who believe in salvation by faith generally believe that any internal shift will cause an external shift. But the method of salvation is not an issue, for both these men had faith and did do good works. The question at stake here is the motivation or incentive to do good or have faith.
I have to admit that asking the question as motivation or incentive is a little difficult and disturbing for me. I believe I struggle with it because it sheds light on the fact that I am not where I would like to be; it is not faith that is the question. After all, children believe in their parents or their schoolteachers without existential doubt (though this does come with the modern teens first foray into philosophy). The incentives or motivation for actions when interacting with parents are usually based on a reward and punishment model.
Johan Huizinga put forth a thoughtful examination of play in his work Homo Ludens. Huzinga puts forth a thesis that play is one of the only activities that humanity does as an end in, and of, itself. We are not attempting to get anything from playing but play. What is the difference between a game of street ball and a professional ballgame? The street ball kids rarely caresif they have enough players; they will improvise with ghost players. The street ball kid seems to have little difficulty pausing the game for a passing car. No schedule, no pay, no referee -- the street ball experience is a whole world away from the contract negotiations and playing time requirements of the professional athlete. The reward is the activity itself.
This concept brings floods of event rushing back into my mind. One particular day in my high school years, a group of friends came over to my house so that we could play a game. It was a very elaborate game with miniature soldiers and buildings. We spent the afternoon setting up a ten foot by four foot board with all the trees, mountains, and structures we could find. We then spent hours figuring out who got to use what pieces in their armies. By late evening, we had done all the set-up, but lacked the time to play the game. Yet, it did not really matter to us; the true play had been accomplished. I cannot imagine a grounds crew being satisfied by all their work setting up a playing field on which a game was never played.
Much in the same vein, William James, in his book The Variety of Religious Experience, examines what he has titled, “saintliness.” In this chapter/essay, he examines the qualities that seemed to be present in the people who are considered the “saints” of our society. He posits four basic steps to saintliness. The first step is a transcendence of the importance of the physical world, followed by a desire to follow the transcendent’s flow or power. A sense of freedom and happiness from the disintegration of the selfish aspect of our selves is followed by a shift toward charity in our emotional center.
Now, these four traits manifest themselves on the surface through things such as asceticism, purity, charity, and what James calls “strength of soul”, which is the trait I want to look at for a moment. Strength of soul is what many people would refer to as righteousness. It is a sense of holy calling that transcends doctrine.
Doctrine is essentially an external law code that is taught to people in hopes that it will be internalized. One generally follows doctrine out of a place of respect for or faith in God. This is not to say that doctrine is lowly but that it is an aspect of truth or of our rational mind. With in the very term “doctrine”, there is an assessment of good or bad happening.
With James’s concept of strength of soul, we see a different attitude occurring. James says, “Fears and anxieties go, and blissful equanimity takes their place. Come heaven, come hell, it makes no difference.” It is a strength of conviction or of calling that is so intense that reward is put aside. Like a notion of play, the activity becomes its own end. The person is acting from such love that the will is physically pushed into action.
It is an amazing thing when this happens. I am sure that almost every person has moments of this in their life, but it is hard to really live in that state constantly. When I was a rescue worker, I believe I experienced this fairly often in a very vivid way. Our station bell or buzzer would sound. Without a thought to the value of good or evil, I would jump out of my seat and run to the printer to get our run sheet. From that moment on, in many ways, I was running on sheer training without a thought of labeling what I was doing. Often, by the time we were dropping a patient off at the hospital, they were very grateful and full of compliments. My thoughts were usually something like, “well, I didn’t really do all that much.” Then the paper work came. The second that hit my hand, I was transformed into legal mind. I would then write down everything I did and examine it my head questioning if it was right or wrong. The mood always was spoiled in the end.
Part of me thinks it is odd but there is a tension in our faith. We are called to a life of use which does work with this kind of model of loss of self. On the other hand, we are taught about it and we try to understand it through a rational channel. The moment we examine what we are doing to see if our actions are good or evil, we have spoiled a true and perfect state. But we are told to examine what it is we are doing in order to attempt to reach that perfect state of use.
This is where the two brothers are, in our story. They have faith and they are doing works, but they have not taken the next step. They are working on reformation, but they are not quite able to take the final step into true spiritual regeneration. They are standing on the banks of the Jordan River looking at the Promised Land. How then do we take that final step if the understanding, which has taken us this far, is not capable of helping us into the water?
The odd thing is that we must turn from the very thing that has brought us thus far. What we need to do is stop and listen -- listen for a calling. Our time in the desert is trial and temptation and it is also training. But we must put our training into good use. We started out unaware. We then learned we were ignorant and incompetent. We question and study, act and live, training us for the day when we hear our calling. We become “consciously” competent. Only after significant work, do we realize (hopefully one day) that we have become unconsciously competent. This competency model is used generally for trained skills, like driving or tying knots. We must remember that a good life in our church is one that is derived from trained practice. We practice choosing the neighbor, the Lord, or ourselves over and over and over again.
When we look back at how we played when we were younger, I would assume we had a common trait. I know of no child who pretends to be the one who was rightfully cut from a team, the cowboy who couldn’t ride a horse or shoot, or a person who could only dress ugly or cook poorly. I would make the oddest concoctions and, regardless of its taste, it would be the greatest thing made. In our hearts, we are all trying to fulfill that sense of greatness that is in each of us, especially when we realize that we are great because we are a vessel that can channel the Love and Wisdom of the Lord. We search to attain our greatness; we seek that sense of purity and strength of spirit we had in our innocence, but we search so much that we often are not paying attention to our hearts and the call of the Lord.
To play and to be righteous contain a common element. It is beyond faith and it is beyond works. It is a loss of self in the moment after our head has done its work. It is a loss of the self, as we become part of a larger self, the Lord’s body—the universal human and creation itself. It is life itself.
Amen.
Copyright 2006 byKevin Baxter
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