“The Twelve Steps and a Life Transformed”
Week 6 –Step 6 & 7: “Getting Ready to Let Go”
August 7, 2016
Romans 12: 1-2; 9-13; 18-21
Rev. Dr. Alan Bennett
Wall Street United Church
In our journey through the Twelve Steps of A.A., today we are exploring:
Step 6 – I am entirely ready to have God remove all my defects of
character.
Step 7 – Humbly Asked God to Remove All My Shortcomings
I want to begin by going back in time to a famous date in history. The
date is October 31, 1517. On that day a young Augustinian monk by the
name of Martin Luther walked down a street in Wittenberg Germany with a
hammer, a few nails and a piece of parchment. On the parchment was a
list of 95 grievances he had with the Church. Few bystanders, if any, took
notice as he nailed it to the Church door. For one thing, it was in Latin, a
language that only clergy and academia understood. Secondly, this was a
just normal way to engage in debate. Luther, who was a professor at the
University of Wittenberg, simply wished to discuss the points on his list with
other learned individuals.
But as sometimes happens, things did not go precisely as intended.
Luther got a far wider audience than he had ever anticipated. The reason
was that a generation earlier, in 1439, Johannes Gutenberg had developed
something called the moveable type printing press.
Not until our own time has there been such a
seismic shift in communication. Today experts are
saying that our modern internet combined with
pocket computers is the second such seismic shift
in communication.
Back in the 16th century what Gutenberg
made possible for the very first time in history was the mass production and
distribution of information. Books that were un-affordable could now be
cheaply produced within hours and shipped anywhere in Europe. Before
Gutenberg’s time it had taken many months for even a tiny number of
expensive copies of a manuscript to be reproduced. What happened in the
case of Martin Luther was that someone else, (it wasn't Luther himself,) got
hold of his manuscript, and had it printed. Within a month it was being read
all over Europe. And so it was quite by accident that the Protestant
Reformation began.
At its heart, the divide between Catholics and Protestants was not
that of corruption – although there was plenty of corruption in the Church at
the time – something which grieved not just Luther but a lot of other clergy
and academics back then. The word catholic means universal – one
universal Church under Rome was the desire of the hierarchy. The word
Protestant is the Latin for protester. So what you had in the 16th century
was a group of protesters upset with an established institution. Does it
sound a little bit modern?
So what was at the heart of the dispute? Luther had discovered,
actually rediscovered, the importance of grace as a gift of God that is freely
given. Grace is love that you do not expect or deserve that simply comes to
you. At times, we have all been on the receiving end of unexpected love. It
is a very humbling experience when it happens. In the New Testament the
Apostle Paul teaches about the grace of God through Christ, especially in
his letter to the Romans.
Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to
this grace in which we stand. (Romans 5:1)
For Martin Luther, rediscovering grace gave him a tremendous
freedom. He was deeply burdened with the idea that he could never be
worthy of God's love. And he tried. It was while reading the book of
Romans that he accepted, for the first time, deep in his heart that he did not
have to struggle and labour and sacrifice for God’s approval. It was, in fact,
already there – pre-paid. He had but to accept it in his heart. It took an
enormous load of guilt off his back. Luther finally understood that God
actually did love him. He didn’t have to somehow prove himself worthy. For
Luther, and the Protestant movement that followed him, this became their
central doctrine.
On the other side of the debate was Pope Leo X. He was Luther’s
great adversary. Leo came to emphasize the importance of working out our
salvation with fear and trembling, just as it says in Philippians 2:12 – which
are also the words of St. Paul in the Bible.
So what does all this have to do with the 12 step program? Step 6
contains a paradox. On the one hand it asks
us to face dead on, acknowledge and deal
with our issues, faults, struggles, excuses,
and roadblocks to recovery, but then goes
on to say that only God can remove them.
Richard Rohr says it’s a chicken and egg
kind of thing. Which comes first – grace or
responsibility? He goes on to quote an old
aphorism. I have to admit, I had never heard it before. It goes this way:
“No one catches the wild ass by running after him, yet only those who
run after the wild ass, ever catch him.”
It’s rather good isn’t it?
Rohr says, if both Luther and Pope Leo X had meditated on that old
adage, we might have avoided the intense bitterness and the bloodshed of
the 100 years that followed the Reformation. The paradox is that they were
both right. Sadly, at the time they not only misunderstood each other, they
totally refused to hear what the other was trying to say — something that
almost all Church historians agree upon today. Both became locked into an
“All or Nothing” mindset. It’s my way or the highway! The huge difficulty is
this. When religious faith gets stuck in a totally rationalist (Rohr calls it a
dualistic) mindset it becomes problematic and even dangerous.
A dualist or rationalist mindset is when people decide, “It's got to be
this or it’s that!” If a thing is totally black and white, with no shades of grey
and no compromise, then anyone who disagrees with you is at best wrong
and stupid, and at worst – is an enemy who has to be stopped. That’s
where ISIS, and Al-Qaida, and the Taliban are, but it’s not just them. There
are a ton of right-wing Christians (yes and some left-wing too) who are in
the same place. It is the same with right-wing Hindus in India. Religious
faith with that kind of mind set is unhealthy at best, and very often
dangerous. It's no wonder that so many atheists are making the claim that
religion is a huge problem in our world.
The point is this. The part of our freedom in Christ that comes from
pure grace and the part that is our responsibility cannot be separated. They
both rely on each other. And that is a huge paradox. It is not the only one.
Our Christian faith is full of paradoxes. The Trinity is the biggest. How can
God be three in one? I have been at conferences where non-Christians,
some Jewish, some Moslem, and some secular humanists, all just ridiculed
the idea. But we decided long ago that the Trinity was the only thing that
makes sense. We knew and still know God as Creator, we saw and still see
God in Christ in a totally unique way, and we still sense his Spirit alive in
our hearts today. We believe that Jesus was totally and completely human,
and yet we believe that the Spirit of God was deeply and uniquely within
him. How can anyone be both human and divine? It’s
a paradox. G.J. Chesterton described it as truth standing on its head to get
our attention.
The paradox in steps 6 and 7 is that we must fully own and admit our
defects of character but then, in effect, step back and do nothing until we
are entirely ready to let God take them away. It’s a bit like what they used
say in the army – “Hurry up and wait!” God’s gift of love is pure and free,
but to gain it we need to stand under it, which is what it means to
'understand.' Giving up control, paradoxically, leads to far greater control.
Ansel Adams (1902 –1984) who lived in the
first half of the last century was a photographer
and environmentalist. His pictures of
the American west, especially Yosemite Park, are
still widely used in calendars and posters.
Apparently Adams used to wait hours and days
for the perfect ideal light before taking a picture.
His famous comment was, “Chance favours the
prepared mind.” What this means for us today is waiting to let go can be
the work of weeks, months, even years. So many people I have talked with
have told me that until they were ready – God could never have changed
them. "I wasn’t ready back then" they will say. Then they will add, "Then the
Spirit came and flowed within me and allowed me to become the person I
am today."
Getting ready is the task of working things out in fear and trembling.
Letting go is allowing God to come and make the changes. We need both.
We cannot change ourselves: only God can. But God needs us to be
prepared, ready and open.
Most often this cannot be done alone. It takes help. It is a bit like the
story I read of the woman in her late fifties who went to New York City and
took the elevator up to the twenty-third floor of an apartment building and
knocked on the door. A beautiful receptionist wearing a full sari invited her
in. Incense wafted out into the hall. Indian music was playing. The beautiful
receptionist whispered, “You are here to see the great Guru, who knows all,
sees all, and understands all.” The woman hesitated and then said, “Ah,
just go and tell Sheldon his mother is here!” At times we can all be a
Sheldon and at that point we need somebody, like a mother, to say to us
“Who are you kidding?”
I want to close this talk with an old Persian parable. Once upon a
time there was a wealthy monarch who had four wives. He loved his 4th
wife the most. He gave her the finest robes and treated her to the best of
delicacies – nothing but the best. He also loved his 3rd wife. He often
showed her off to neighbouring kings when they came to visit. He was
deeply fond of wife number two. She was his confidant and was always
thoughtful and patient with him. Whenever the King faced a problem, he
would confide in her. She helped him get through a number of difficult
times. The King's first wife had always been a loyal partner and had made
great contributions in maintaining his kingdom. But, in truth, he did not love
his first wife. Although she loved him, he neglected her and hardly took
any notice of her.
The years passed, the King grew older, until the day came when he
fell gravely ill. The best physicians were called in. They could do nothing
and told him that his time was short. Deeply troubled at the thought of dying
alone, he called in his four wives. To his 4th wife he said, “You know that I
have loved you the best. I have showered you with the finest clothing and
goods that money can buy. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep
me company?"
“What?" replied wife number 4. “You’ve got to be kidding! No way!” She
turned and walked out. He was deeply hurt by her attitude. The King looked
at his 3rd wife and said, “I have also loved you all my life. Now that I'm
dying, will you follow me and keep me company?"
"No!" replied the 3rd wife. "I think not! Life is too good! When you die, I'm
going to find someone else." The king was stunned.
He turned to his 2nd wife and said, "I have always looked to you for advice
and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and
keep me company?"
"Sorry your Majesty,” she said, “but I cannot help you this time. The most I
can do is walk with you to your grave."
It was then that a sadder and wiser King heard a voice say “I'll go with you.
I'll follow you wherever you go.” The King looked up, and there was his first
wife. She was thin and emaciated from neglect. “My goodness,” said the
King, “I should have taken better care of you when I had the chance."
So what is the point of this very strange parable? The ancient
Persians would have explained it this way. In life we all have four partners
— four spouses if you like.
Our 4th spouse is our body. No matter how much time and effort we lavish
on making our ‘bod’ look good – and we all do – it will leave us when we
die. Our 3rd spouse is our possessions, status and wealth. When we die, it
will all go to others. Our 2nd is our family and friends. No matter how much
they have been there for us, the furthest they can go with us is to walk to
our grave.
So who is our 1st spouse? It is our soul within us. If you are
scientifically minded you might want to call it your DNA. I am talking about
the true unique, inner essence of yourself. There is a unique you - different
and unique from everyone else, and even from the physical body you
inhabit. Christians have traditionally referred to it as our soul. Very often we
neglect our soul, our authentic self, in pursuit of wealth, power or the
pleasures of this world. But your soul is the only thing that will follow you
wherever you go. So cultivate, strengthen and cherish your soul, for it is the
one part of you that will continue throughout eternity; follow you even to the
throne of God. And that is what faith is about – caring for your soul – the
deepest authentic part of you. Only when you do that can you care about
others.
Zechariah 4:6 says, “Not by might, nor by power, but by My spirit
says the Lord. You will succeed because of My Spirit.” Only God has the
power to heal and make us whole. And He will. Amen.