March 20, 2008...11:31 am
Fully Integrated
One of the earliest heresies to face the church was that of Gnosticism. Gnostics were essentially dualists. Their beliefs varied, but they basically saw a disconnect between the body and the spirit. Some even thought the God of the Old Testament to be evil because he created matter and the God of the New Testament to be good because he is only spiritual. Thus the “Real You” was the spiritual you simply trapped in a physical body waiting to escape after death.
Dualistic concepts have never entirely left the church. When Constantine gave us a merged church and culture, the meaning of being a disciple of Jesus was lost. Only very spiritual people took Jesus’ teachings seriously. They were monks living secluded lives. Everyone else was simply supposed to have the kind of heart that Jesus was after. That is, spiritual things became internalized and did not necessarily play themselves out in life. So Augustine (4th century theologian) said of Jesus’ teaching on turning the other cheek, “…what is here required is not a bodily action but an inward disposition.”
Ever since the reformation (1500’s) western Christianity has practiced a subtle dualism. We only need to note how we speak of “Spiritual” things as opposed to “Secular” things. People involved in ministry have “Spiritual” careers, but a banker simply does “Secular” work. It seems that most Christians still imagine that when we are resurrected that we will be in some “Spiritual” form like Casper the friendly ghost, despite Paul’s comments to the contrary (See 1 Cor. 15).
This dualism shows itself in our rituals (or lack of). Martin Luther and other reformers struggled to overcome a “Work’s oriented” theology. However, in some reactions that followed the practice of rituals was robbed of meaning (ironically enough, Luther kept them). For instance, at some point someone decided that connecting baptism to salvation is some kind of work for salvation. So what one needed to do was get away from the physical (“Secular”) and simply invite Jesus into your heart (“Spiritual”).
Dualism has been seen in our attitudes about spiritual places. In Churches of Christ we never worshiped in sanctuaries, but in auditoriums. We consistently stated “The church is not the building!” And yet we got upset over what things took place in the building. What’s more, we thought it important to dress a special way when we came into the building at the holy (Spiritual) hour on Sunday morning. In the past some have not been allowed to pass the Lord’s Supper unless they were in holy garb (wearing a tie).
If the church building is a holy place and Sunday morning is a holy time, then everywhere else and everyplace else must be secular. So there is one way a person is to behave in the secular environment and another to behave in the spiritual environment. Not that anyone would state such, but we do live in the world and have to operate on the world’s standards.
So Jesus can’t really go everywhere. At least that seems to be the thought process. To be spiritual one is to be kind and considerate. But such actions may get you run over at work, so you have to set your Christian virtue off to the side for the “Spiritual” place and time of Sunday morning and conduct business in the “Secular” place in “Secular” ways.
This can be more difficult in some jobs than in others. Obviously it is incompatible with Jesus for one to be a prostitute or a hit man. But other jobs may also be in conflict. I have already stated that I could no longer serve in the military where I would be expected to kill. I cannot separate the “Spiritual” from the “Secular”. One must carefully weigh the implications in his/her own situation.
Dualism also shows itself in matters such as money. Jesus told us not to store up wealth for ourselves on earth, but surely he was simply talking about the attitude of our hearts. “It’s really an internal, spiritual thing”, we imagine. “It’s really our attitude about money that matters”. “As long as it is not controlling me.” But if we hoard it and accumulate more and more for ourselves, is it not controlling us? How does one separate the “Secular” me from the “Spiritual” me in such situations?
Jesus has called us to follow him as whole beings – mind, body, and spirit. This means that everything is spiritual! Our work, school and leisure lives are every bit as spiritual as our lives on Sunday morning at the church building. Our marriages, love-making, banking, cooking and cleaning are all spiritual activities. There is no unspiritual activity (though some are BAD spiritual activities). All of life is spiritual. Thus the apostle Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices to God (Rom. 12:1).
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