In our last last post, on Matthew 6:1-7:7, I claimed that the point of the passage is that the fundamental issue we humans face, according to Jesus, is grasping after things such as honor and wealth— in other words, self-aggrandizement. Looked at from a 21st-century context, I think that is one reasonable summation of Jesus' first century message. But there is an obvious problem that we shouldn't walk past, which is the fine line between grasping after things and striving after them.If greedy, self-serving grasping after what we want is one crucial element in human nature, so too is striving after what we want. When we grasp and grab, we are at our worst. When we strive and struggle, we are at our best. When we strive for something, we have set a goal for ourselves to better ourselves or our situation. Working for a new home or striving to serve our community, these are good things. We grow, improve, and make a contribution to our society by striving after that which is better than what we have now, where we are now. Progress is built on striving.
The problem is that there is a gray area between grasping and striving where striving morphs into grasping. The desire to improve morphs into the darker desire to get what we think we deserve, at any cost. Striving involves an investment in our self, our ego. But Lord help us when self and ego are involved because they so easily take over and corrupt even our best intentions turning them into self-aggrandizement. We end up corrupting the very things we strive after.
Sadly, religion is at least as much a victim of this tension between striving and grasping as any other aspect of life. That is the point of Jesus' teachings about giving, praying, and fasting in secret (Matthew 6:1-18). It is good to give, pray, and fast—until it isn't because our goal in doing these things has been corrupted with grasping self-concerns. When we invest our self in something, that self wants something back for itself. Invest our self in our nearest Presbyterian church and soon enough our good 'ole self wants to be an elder and sit on the session. It resists changes the pastor wants to make 'cause it likes things the way they are. It gets caught up in gossip, petty behaviors, and a fearful protection of the institution of the church. It is after all "my" church.
I don't see any easy cure that keeps our greedy, grasping self in check as we strive to do good things for ourselves, our families, and our communities (including our church). Humility is hard, and even it can be corrupted by an aw-shucks false humility. The Buddhist idea of non-self, unfortunately, faces the same problem of the self worming its way underneath non-self corrupting one's best efforts to be selfless. We have to strive. We are in so many ways defined by what we strive for. Yet, what we strive for can end up consuming us and an oily, grasping pollution seeps into the very ground water of our striving.
Jesus said this stuff isn't easy. Stay tuned.
