Newspaper Columns by Bishop Paul V. Marshall
Instant Gratification Takes Too Long
Bishop Paul V. Marshall
December 2000"Instant gratification takes too long," says Meryl Streep's character in Postcards from the Edge.
My favorite computer e-merchant offers only overnight and two-day shipping, apparently assuming that people who buy high tech want it now. If you buy it by ten at night you will have it the next morning. If you are not in a rush, you get it the day after. I love it.
I love it, but there is a shadow side to quick service: the illusion that life is like that. It is not unusual to find people for whom all questions are settled or who have quick answers. Among liberals and conservatives, we find people whose attitudes have hardened, who cannot discuss because they think there is nothing to be discussed.
That shadow may linger in me or in you. What are our hot issues where we think there is nothing to discuss? What beliefs do we hold that are not capable of the slightest nuance? Most of us might respond with irritation or even anger; terror that our hard-won beliefs may be illusions may lurk behind the anger.
This is not a conservative problem. My experience is that a threatened liberal is every bit as violent a "redneck" as a threatened conservative. We do not want our illusions of certainty challenged. We can become quite unattractive in their defense.
The temptation to eat the fruit of Eden was the promise of total knowledge. The apostle Paul knew what was given to him by faith, but also that "our knowledge is imperfect." Jesus told his disciples there were truths they were not ready to hear, and things that had not been revealed to him.
At first glance, Christmas does not seem to help. Into a world of beauty and violence, of wisdom and ignorance, comes an infant, as ambiguous a sign as ever was given. New life, but total vulnerability. Beauty, but cluelessness. A savior who needs nurturing, protection, and a lot of help with hygiene perplexes the seeker of quick answers. What do Christians see here?
As an adult, Jesus' bold claim, after uttering the usually misunderstood "The truth will set you free" was "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Being truth is different from having or knowing truth.
In that bold statement we hear again what the coming of the Child says: the primary truth is the relationship God offers to each individual and to society as a whole. Needing to care for an infant is the sign that humanity must treat reverently that which sustains it.
Any "truth" that justifies hatred or violence is not just a lie, but an abomination, tainting everything that touches it. Unfortunately, history and current events are packed with stories illustrating that point.
While the central teachings of most religions, and certainly Christianity, are fairly simple to repeat, the ongoing challenge is living into a relationship with the one who is Truth. The common use of the expression "spiritual journey" reflects the fact that relationship with God, like any relationship, develops over time.
There are light years of difference between those for whom religion is a set of ideas and those for whom it is a relationship. One great saint expressed this by defining theology as "faith seeking understanding."
Christmas invites us into relationship, to go on a journey, to have our perceptions transformed. As with any child's birth, Christmas is the beginning of adventure over constantly changing terrain where uncertainty is present but eclipsed by the joy of it all. Merry Christmas.
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