The Way - The Natural
I was educated as a pastor out of a tradition (Calvinist) that espoused the idea that we human beings were “totally depraved.” This essentially means that we are rotten to the core. It is a bit more nuanced than that, but that’s the gist of it. And there’s a lot of evidence pointing to that reality - after all, we human beings are capable of some of the worst imaginable things. I remember the stark reality of this as I stood next to a tree with a horrific history when visiting one of the Killing Fields sites in Cambodia in 2011. History shows this reality time and time again and sadly this will likely continue.
At the same time, however, history is full of examples of people (of all faiths and no faith) doing some of the most amazing, sacrificial, beautiful, and altruistic things. I see the ways that people courageously give their lives or place them in harm’s way to save others. I am humbled by the voices of those who speak for the voiceless and the people who just quietly serve and make change day by day.
In the Jewish and Christian traditions, the Creation story in Genesis has a remarkable statement about the creation of humans. In Genesis 1 we read of God creating humankind in God’s own image and then later how God looked at ALL of creation and declared that it was “exceedingly good.” I always imagine a sense of God looking at all of it and simply sitting back and saying, “WOW!”
It is only after this that we have the second origin story where we read of the man and the woman in the Garden and how they were the first to break a command of God. It is this story that is foundational to the idea of the total depravity of humankind - from this point on, sin was always in the picture.
While that may be true...I have come to really hold to the idea that beneath that reality is how we were originally created. That sense of WOW...that’s who we are at the core. We are not rotten to the core with nothing redeemable within but instead sinfulness can be that which can cover up who we truly are. And it is out of this reality that we can continue to do the beautiful, the sacrificial, amazing, and altruistic regardless of faith or no-faith.
When I read the words of the Sermon on the Mount, I don’t read it as us trying to forge a new, never-been-trod path but instead us walking a path that is natural because it is us walking the path of who we ultimately are and who we can be. And on days like today when I listen to a podcast describing what doctors are facing in Gaza hospitals and I despair of the human condition, I remember what Rachel Held Evans said, “On the days and nights when I believe this story that we call Christianity, I cannot entirely make sense of the storyline...” This is similar - on the days and nights that I am confronted by the reality of the evils we humans do to one another, I believe that I have to choose to believe the deeper truth of that original goodness within us all and that a path like this is the path God created us to travel.
This is the third of the “Way” images we used for our congregation in our exploration of the Sermon on the Mount. You can find the others below: