This post from Kayla over at inward-outward echoes the theme I was trying to articulate last night, re: my July 4 question (even though the focus of my question was on the “reactions” that befit those of us in the church as we witness the human and environmental carnage of the 6 and a half years of Bush). But INTERDEPEDENCE is the key theme.
My version of independence is about each of us knowing ourselves well enough that we can find our belonging in the whole human family. Perhaps the better word for what I’m wanting to celebrate and live more deeply into is Interdependence.
If independence encourages me to be and do whatever I want to be and do, then interdependence calls me to a deeper awareness of who I am as one vital part of the whole, no more and no less important than others. Interdependence is what Jesus was offering the rich young (independent) man who asked what more he needed to do to enter the kingdom of God. At the moment of not being able to do what Jesus asked – sell what he owned personally and disperse it among the human family – the young man saw very clearly what he was dependent on in order to maintain his independence. It was a significant learning moment.
Are we ready for that kind of instruction? What are we dependent on to the point of being unable to accept an offer of interdependence? Part of the membership commitment of The Church of the Saviour churches says we will give ourselves ‘unreservedly and with abandon.’ This isn’t a pledge to take on more tasks for the church or to be in more prayer groups, but to climb into the rich young ruler’s story and listen for what else we need to lay down in order to belong more deeply to the family.
The thing that strikes me is how narcissistic the Bush administration is. Totally devoid of any “discipline”. All arguments about environmental responsibility are countered with “that’s too financially restricting”. Since the years of the “energy crisis” in the mid 70’s, the political atmosphere has bled “Live and be merry” instead of some semblance of an effort at self-discipline as a world citizenry (of course, this is extremely narrowed in the USA to “US citizen”). So we’ve had 30 some odd years of acting as if we had plenty (even acting as if things are fine seems to be encouraged, since it is “well known” that optimism is “good for the economy”). This is the point at which capitalism becomes savage capitalism.
Interdependence has come to be recognized, albeit at a very elementary level, around the world as all the more important after 9/11. Some recognition that endless cycles of blame, paranoia, “self-defense” which seems to warrant “pre-emption”; these things have been getting recognized by even the most secular.
Interdependence and the pursuit of ways to experience this bring to our consciousness the humanity of the “other”. Christians have always known this (at least they’re supposed to, even though American Christians have seemingly shut this off in favor of nationalism that nowadays tells them that “our security” is the highest value. It really suggests to me that these are actually “American first” and “Christian” a distant second. And “American” at that is defined in the media who parrot the “values” and the “spirituality” of American liturgy.
American economics separates us into little independent consumer groups, and we fill our socializing with tales of our latest or upcoming vacations, or our latest gadgets. And as I’ve said before, this seems no different in the churches.
Our very church life seems dependent on the expectations of “congenial socializing” of the wider culture. There is little sign of the “unreservedly and with abandon” in our “efforts” to be a different kind of gathering; indeed to even live as if we are a gathering. The gathering is instead centered on the “event”, with pockets of freely associating clumps of people socializing around this hub of events on the basis of economic status, political leanings, and cultural interests.
