We are
created in God’s image. Of course, we
are not God or even gods (small g) but we are God’s i.e. we belong to God and
are God’ people. God gives each of us
gifts and God’s intention for us is that we use these gifts as God
intends. Fortunately, humanity was
encouraged to leave our paradise in the Garden of Eden to go into the world to
use these gifts. Unfortunately we human beings often do not
use our gifts the way God intends. That
is one way of describing sin—we miss the mark and believe that we know better
than God about how we should behave in the world. We put ourselves ahead of others; we do not
love our neighbours as ourselves.
The
scripture passage from Acts gives us a great example of how things can go off
the tracks and get completely away from what God intends. Paul and Silas encounter a slave-girl. That is the first indication of how badly
things can get derailed in life. People
believe that they have the right to own others; enslave them and use them for
their own purposes. We know that slavery
was common in biblical times. Indeed the
Greek word for slave, doulos also means servant; slaves served their
masters. In the case of this slave-girl
her gift is being used by her owners.
She has the gift of prophecy and that gift is being used by her owners
for their profit.
Paul sees
that this gift, this spirit is being misused and casts the spirit out of the
slave-girl. Now this is not a case of
the girl being possessed by an evil spirit as is often in the situations that
are reported in the Gospels.
Rather, Paul
recognizes that the gift is being misused and the slave-girl needs to be freed
from the misuse of it. She needs Paul’s help to free her from this sin. Now you may think that this is perhaps not
fair to the girl to think of this as sin.
However, we have to understand that sin should not be equated with
morality or ethics. It certainly can
involve morality and ethical behaviour on our part. However, more generally we need to think of
sin as those things where we are not living as God intends. The slave-girl was not doing anything of her
own volition that caused the sin. She
was being used by others in a sinful way.
Paul frees her from this sin and set her free—if not from her owners, at
least from the sin that the owners are using her for.
We are all
sinners. As it says in the baptismal
covenant, “Will you persevere in resisting evil and, whenever you fall into
sin, repent and return to the Lord”? It
is “whenever” not “if” we fall into sin.
It is part of the human condition that we will fall into sin. In the understanding of sin as missing the
mark and not using our gifts as God intends, it is understandable that this is
going to happen to each of us.
One way of
considering how we use our gifts that I have found helpful is the perspective
of personality type indicators such as the Enneagram. There are many that are in use today such as
the Myers Briggs Type Indicator which you may be more familiar with. It uses pairs of categories such as introvert
and extrovert, feeling and thinking, sensing and intuition, and judging and
perceiving. Myers Briggs is helpful in
understanding yourself and how you and others perceive and behave in the
world. I am an introverted, intuitive
feeling, and judging type.
I find that
this context has helped me understand myself and why I am the way I am. This is how God made me and knowing this I
can work with it.
I am an strongly
introverted person—as are many clergy—and it helps me to understand how I can
best work with that characteristic and the other characteristics as a priest. We had an introduction to Myers Briggs in
seminary. The Enneagram provides a similar perspective on
what makes you, you and why you are the way you are. It is particularly helpful because for each
of the personality types it provides a perspective of how the characteristics
or gifts of that type can be used or misused; how they can be sinful or
redeemed.
Because we
perceive the world in different ways we will, as a matter of course, be limited
in how we relate to others and the world.
Richard Rohr, a Roman Catholic priest, discusses this:
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It is hard work to open up our
entire being--heart, mind, and body--to Love. From childhood, we're trained
to protect ourselves by closing off one or more of these channels. Perhaps
this was a necessary coping mechanism. But to develop a mature, holistic
faith, we must learn to embrace and listen to each part in the safety of
God's presence. We each depend on certain areas more than others. It will
take some "exercise" to develop the neglected muscle of body,
heart, or mind. Below are some suggested practices to nurture each area of
being.
Heart: loving-kindness meditation,
deep listening, community, journaling
Mind: lectio divina (sacred
reading), writing, dialectic argument, study
Body: ecstatic dance, yoga, meditative walking, chant, tai
chi
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As we
see, each of us will depend on certain aspects of ourselves more than other
aspects and we will not usually engage the world as fully as possible without
help; we will not love God and God’s creation with our whole being as it says
in the Shema, the Hear o Israel:
Love the Lord your God
with all your heart,
with all your soul,
with all your mind,
and with all your strength.
And love your neighbour as yourself.
There are
nine types in the Enneagram; each with its own characteristics. For example, as Richard Rohr describes, the
Three type:
began
with the primal knowledge that everything is unstable and passing and that only
God endures and gives us the endurance to withstand the passing nature of all
things. But, at some point, an experience of wounding convinced THREEs that
they are separate from God and Wholeness.
The
Enneagram is particularly helpful because, as Rohr notes, the characteristics
can be used in sinful ways or in redeemed ways.
The
pressure to succeed leads to the root sin of the THREE, which is deceit. While
they don't generally go around telling lies, they do embellish the truth and
put the best face on everything… THREEs find the way to their gift of integrity
only when they take the painful path of self-knowledge and look their
life-lies, big and little, in the face, refusing to gloss over them anymore.
I am only
touching on a little of what the Enneagram involves. However, I hope that this helps you to
appreciate that we all, as Christians, have the responsibility to use the gifts
that God has given us in the ways that God intends. It is not easy even with our best
intentions. We will inevitably fail and
fall into sin. However, we have the
assurance of God’s forgiveness. As it
asks in the Baptismal Covenant:
Celebrant Will you persevere in
resisting evil and, whenever
you fall into sin, repent and
return to the Lord?
People I will, with God’s help.
We know that
we have the assurance of the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ or Lord
and saviour. Thanks be to God.
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