Through Stained Glass: Salvation--Transformation--Enneagram-ation

A baptismal font that hangs on Adam's wall. Baptism is the
bond of unity in Jesus Christ. When we are baptized,
we are made one with Christ, with one another, and with
the Church of every time and place.

Have you found your true self yet?

Don’t worry; you’re not alone.

Salvation is the ongoing journey of living into our baptismal identity—the new creation we receive upon our baptism. In our baptisms, the old self—the self that is controlled by ego and the external demands of the world—dies, and the new self—the new creation guided by love and the Spirit—lives. In baptism we are given our original names:

Beloved.

The journey of living into our identity as God’s beloved is what Paul refers to in Philippians 2. When we discover our true selves, that’s when we live as residents of the reign of God. You are not asked to be me; nor am I asked to be you. You must embrace out your salvation, as I must workout mine. Together, however, we can help each other become who God has created us to be.

Embracing salvation is a journey—a death and resurrection experience. Jesus taught us that in order to find life, we must lose our lives. We lose our lives by emptying ourselves of all that gets in the way of Life. What gets in the way of Life are the ways we put ourselves against one another. Or the way we stand in our own way.

Jesus said it wouldn’t be easy. “The cup that I must drink, you must also drink.” The journey of salvation is not found in doctrines or correct information or even practicing the right morality. The journey of salvation is made daily, often slowly, with mystery as the guide. Even the disciples tried to make the journey about being right (see Mark 10.38). Jesus showed us the way to life, and he taught us the way of love by loving others. Only in selfless service to God through love of God and neighbor as ourselves will we truly experience the transformation Jesus spoke of when he said, “the truth will set you free.”

Here’s the thing: we cannot transform ourselves. Only God can do that. And anyone who has walked a great distance with God knows this reality. One theologian puts it this way:

“There are two utterly different forms of religion: one believes that God will love if I change; the other believes that God loves me so that I can change!”

Once we move past our egos—or the false self we’ve worked endlessly to create—we will discover the gift of our True Self.

What do we have to help us get back to where we once belonged? Scouts have a compass. Pirates have treasure maps. Christ has given us the Word. Wisdom presents us with the Enneagram. Where Meyers-Briggs and Strength Finder offer entertaining insights into our personality, it is the Enneagram that is concerned with change and making a turnaround. This kind of sounds like the word repent, huh? The Enneagram confronts us with compulsions and laws under which we live—usually without being aware of it—and it invites us to go beyond them… to take steps into the domain of freedom.

It’s here, in the freedom of our awareness and the awareness of our freedom, where we encounter our True Self.

Through Stained Glass: A Mid-Week Reflection-Fall-se Self

"What is your greatest obstacle to your deepest prayer?” This question posed by monks living in the Egyptian desert is as relevant today as it was in the fourth century. What blocks us from living out our deepest prayer is ourselves. Identifying how we block our own spiritual progress requires consistent self-observation, appropriate questions for self-reflection, and a supportive community. The Enneagram (ennea is Greek for nine) is an ancient map of process and self-discovery that is an effective tool for personal, professional and spiritual growth.

         I am excited about this fall. Having completed a pretty busy summer, it will be nice to return to familiar routines and practices such as enjoying Kirk Nights, hearing the choir on Sunday mornings, and writing for the church’s blog. This fall will be unlike any before!

A significant focus for me (and I hope for us) during this upcoming season will be exploring who we are as children of God. In sermons, casual conversations, and in studies, I’m sure you have heard me say once or twice that we must recover our original name—a line borrowed from my favorite monk, Thomas Merton. Like I mentioned in last week’s sermon, long before we chose our vocation or anything about this life, God chose us. What does this mean? What it means now is not the same as what it meant ten, fifteen, or forty years ago. Or does it? Perhaps there is something persistent despite changing years. For this reason, I am having our church study and reflect on the Enneagram. The best explanation about the Enneagram comes from Father Richard Rohr, who writes:

The Enneagram is a dynamic system. It was developed primarily in an oral tradition, in the context of relationships between students and teachers. A “dynamic system” is one that recognizes that humans are far too complex and nuanced to fit easily into simple categories; it supports the evolving, maturing human journey.

The Enneagram is not a strict law or code. Its categories are not meant to bind or restrict you to a certain way of being and living. People who know the Enneagram in a superficial way think it’s about putting people into boxes, but it actually works to free people from their self-created boxes.

I truly believe until we understand who we are as individuals, we can’t know who we are as a community of faith. If you have paid attention to the sermon series over the summer, you probably picked up on how being our most authentic self (both as individuals and as a community) has always been a struggle for God’s people. Did you know that the author of James argues that God never sends evil!? In contrast to those who can’t commit wholeheartedly to God and to the changing reality, God is faithful both to God’s own gracious, self-giving character and to God’s beloved. 

            James would also say that God has gifted us with what we need to be the people of heaven on earth. James might add (and so do I for that matter), the inner battle is rooted in our own self-centered desires. James describes such attractions as an almost irresistible lure that baits us like dumb animals. I find this explanation to be helpful: Once we bit, the natural history of desire plays out: with our cooperation, selfish desire conceives and births sin; and once mature, sin spawns death.

            However, God stands outside our natural progression of desire, sin, and death—as the one who is not tempted to be self-centered nor tempts anyone! Instead, God models other-centeredness; indeed, James teaches that all giving originates in God, who is always and forever the great giver. From the beginning of creation to the liberation of Israel, and to the Christ-moment, God shares freely and without discrimination. It’s as if to say: God is responsible for a competing progression: according to God’s loving purpose, God births believers through the word of truth; once birthed, these first fruits of new creation offer promise to all.[1] As the first fruits of God, we as the Body of Christ, are the tangible evidence of the in-breaking of God’s gracious and gentle rule. Which is why James essentially says, to know the word of God (or what God wants) and not to do it is silly!

            Just as God cannot be boxed in, neither can we as God’s people. For this very reason, it is important for us to return to center, to the Wisdom of God implanted in us from the beginning, so we do not forget who and whose we are. There’s no better time to let go of our false selves and all the baggage that comes with that person, than the season of Fall!

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[1] McKnight, Edgar V., and Christopher Lee Church. Hebrews-James. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Pub., 2004. Page 342