Sarx

laine Pagles made a big deal about the various passages in Paul that sound rather Gnostic. One such comes up tomorrow in the Revised Common Lectionary for Proper 9, Year A, quoting from Paul’s Epistle to the Romans:

For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it.
Romans 7:18

This quickly leads to the Neo-Gnostic ideas of Calvin - that all flesh is evil - and promptly away from the notion that God became flesh. The same Greek word, sarx, is used by Paul for grossness and by John for glory. The Schools of Paul and John may seem to be at war here.

For much of the last 25 years I’ve sought love in one form or another. Until 1999 or so, pretty much every relationship into which I’ve entered ended the same way: I would get too intense (or too attached, or too whatever) and the other party would walk away. After 1999, all that changed. I became the one who did the walking away. In fact, my time in San Francisco is littered with people I hurt by not taking them as seriously as they were talking me: and only after the fact can I see it. After so long wanting to be in such a serious relationship, I became the person who drew first blood. I didn’t realise that I had done this, as I say, until after the fact. I don’t offer that as an excuse for myself. I think the only excuse I have is my own defences kicked in.

I still remember four… five… gah. the list keeps getting higher: of people that I hurt whom I’d dearly wished to have been friends with - rather than hurting. And who, even now, eye me with suspicion.

But no matter how many times I said what I really want (even in Therapy) I did the very thing I hated. The thing that I said I would not do, I did. Over and over again. Tom, Chris, Louie, Edgar, Russ, Ed, Alex… these men may or may not have forgiven me. But it took a lot more for me to learn my lesson than just promising not to do it again. I have to struggle daily to not be that asshole they knew so well.

Paul sees sin - defined as the thing that cuts us off from God and each other - is like that.

In his passage Paul gives us the answer - as does John in his Gospel. It is that God becomes Sarx. The issue is that Sarx is sundered from God. It’s like a family tree: this tendency to be disconnected is something we inherit from our parents, somethign strengthened by our culture. But God has returned part of the original vine to the plant - grafted the original back on to the root, so that humanity may grow, again, without that disconnect. We still have sarx, here: but it’s purpose is new, restated, restarted, rebooted, even.

But it’s not magical. It takes work: “work out your salvation” says James. We need to exercise our spiritual muscles daily, to keep our physical muscles in line. Paul reminds us it’s easy to forget to go to the gym. It’s easy to forget to pray, to pass up the opportunity to do the right thing, to turn a blind eye.

But that’s what we always do.

Jesus calls us to something else: a world where the flesh does what is right and is holy, is reconnected with God. A world where forgiveness, love, charity, peace are normal - not abnormal. A world where relationships take work - and deserve the work they take, and are worth the work we put into them. Not just relationships with our lover, but with everyone we meet from the Bedroom to the Boardroom.

How freaking scary is that?

I’ve only learned to not be an ass. I’ve not yet learned to be otherwise. I need to get busy.