Heeding the Call- A Short Reflection
My father is a very smart man.
Ever since I can remember he has always had to dress up for work. I do not have a clear idea as to what my father does for a living, but I do know it always has something to do with I.T. One day a few years ago we were having a discussion about work and some of the projects he was working on. He was vague about them, mostly because he knew that his relatively stupid son would not be able to follow. He told me that he was dealing with a number of salespeople who were trying to sell his company software and other technologies and, because of the current management systems in place, various heads of departments were buying from these salespeople directly without consulting him or his department. My father was noticeably annoyed at this. He paused at one point and told me something.
“Remember, their goal is not your goal.”
He explained, a salesperson has a different goal than the company they are selling to. The salesperson’s goal is to make money. The companies’ goal is to secure the best product they can find to meet their needs. The salesperson wins or has the upper hand when they manage to trick the company into thinking that their goal is the same as the companies’. This was exactly what was happening at my father’s company and this is why he was annoyed.
Their Goal is Not Your Goal
In the Book of Philippians, Saint Paul spends a lot of time talking about the goal of Christ. In the third chapter he talks about the goal of the Christian. He says
“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death, if somehow I may attain the resurrection from the dead.” (Verses 10 and 11, NRSV)
This is what he calls the “heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.” (verse 14) Some may think that this call is abstract but Paul see’s this goal as something very concrete. He connects the heavenly call of God directly to knowing Christ, his life, his suffering, and his resurrection. Because of this, the goal that Paul is talking about cannot be separated from the manner of life that Christ embodied. If I may put it in another way, the heavenly call of God is knowing Christ so intimately that we becoming participants in the life, suffering, death, and resurrection of Christ.
I think that much of Christianity in this part of the world has been tricked into thinking that our goal is the goal of the Powers that Be. We see this trickery made manifest in a number of ways but it is at its most loud and visible in the public square. We see Christians and churches aligning with political candidates and ideologies that have little to no resemblance to Jesus Christ because we have been led to believe that they share our same goals. We have watched the churches’ public witness become little more than a voice trying to police sexuality rather than as a real agent for change in a broken world. The goal of safety has paralyzed us from being holy risk takers, the goal of wealth has kept our gaze away from the poor, the goal of peace has soured us on justice. What is worse, in our adopting these goals over the true goal of Jesus Christ we have failed to demonstrate God’s unfathomable love for all people, especially the most vulnerable in the world.
Disruption- Strive With Me
What this rather preachy post is trying to remind us is this: Do not be fooled. Their goal is not the same as your goal. The various goals of the Powers and Principalities only lead to one outcome: death, in all its forms. The goal of Christ that Saint Paul calls us to take up is a goal of radical transformation both personally and socially. It calls for our reorienting away from these worldly goals and our being made new so that we can strive towards the heavenly call of God. This striving, the struggle against the competing goals of the world, is enough to cause disruption among the powers. Refuse to fall in line, and strive to partake of the life of Christ Jesus.
Come, Holy Spirit. Grant us grace to strive toward the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus. Let the very act of our devotion to this goal be enough to loosen the sway of the competing goals of the world. Amen
Be on the lookout for a larger and more comprehensive post from Ethan on idolatry. Coming out soon…
