Henry Nouwen’s books always leave a deep impression on my heart and mind. I just finished rereading chapter 3 of Nouwen’s classic work, Reaching Out[i], and I am once again challenged by the insight of his words. In this chapter, which I would encourage every Christian to read, Nouwen helps us to see the profound interconnection between the brokenness of the world and the brokenness that resides within our own souls. I think there is value in exploring this interconnection by examining it from two different perspectives; we can look within first and then look out toward the world in general, or we can look out at the world first and then look within. (Everything that follows is inspired by Nouwen’s chapter and is a result of my interaction with the contents of that chapter. I hope you will get a copy of the book and read the entire book, or at least that one chapter!). Let’s start by looking within. To the degree that we are aware of our own emotions, if we look within we are likely to find some sadness, or anger, or brokenness, or desperation, or frustration, or hopelessness, or fear, or some combination of the above, probably coupled with an inordinate desire to have something that we do not have or to be something that we cannot be. We then begin to realize that everyone around us probably struggles with the same issues, to one extent or another. Finally we come to the realization that these struggles are common to humanity, and that the problems in our society come as a result of these struggles. They are behind every war, every act of violence, every criminal act, and every act of racism or discrimination that has ever occurred on the planet since the dawn of humanity. Broken people build a broken world. Or we can start by looking first toward the world. We see wars and violence and crime and injustice and every sort of evil deed. If we take the time to feel some of the pain of the world around us rather than simply allowing a knee-jerk reaction to it, we’ll see the pain and brokenness of the world in the faces of our friends and family, and we’ll eventually start to see it within our own souls. If we want to find out what motivated some tragic local tragedy or global conflict we need only to look within to find the seeds of it within our own souls. A broken world is the result of broken people. What happens when we don’t take the time to think, to feel, and to process our own dilemma in the light of the world’s dilemma, or the world’s dilemma in the light of our own dilemma? Then the world becomes a problem to fix, and we stand outside of the world and treat it as though it were a broken machine that needs to be repaired, rather than as a global community of fellow-humans whose pain and brokenness we share. If the problem is outside of us, then we can fix it by throwing money at it or by using power in an attempt to get society to work the way we think it should work. (This is probably the mindset of most people who become politicians and national leaders. This is not to disparage Christian political involvement. We should do what we can as compassionate followers of Jesus, but we also need to acknowledge the limitations of politics. These “solutions” can never be more than a rearrangement of the components of a dysfunctional system). To the degree that we lose the connection between the pain in our own lives and the problems of the world, our solutions become political. We think we can fix all that’s wrong with the world by proposing a solution, by trying to convince everyone around us that our solution is correct and that theirs is wrong, and by competing with those who offer a different solution. We end up locking horns in a power struggle with a competing group because we are convinced that our solution will work and theirs won’t. “We can fix this problem, you can’t, so shut up and get in line behind us or get out of the way”—so goes the rhetoric. This is the only kind of “solution” that our world has to offer. This approach simply perpetuates the very dilemma that it is trying to correct while giving the illusion of progress. That’s what happens when “we are all broken people in need of forgiveness and healing” becomes replaced with “the world is a problem that needs to be fixed”. If my brokenness is the world’s brokenness and the world’s brokenness is my brokenness, this changes everything. Now I can stand in solidarity with the rest of the human race, knowing that my struggles and the world’s struggles are the same struggles. The world is not a problem to be solved by means of a power struggle, but it’s people who struggle as I struggle, who need healing and forgiveness as I need healing and forgiveness. My angst is tied to the angst of the world, and my healing is tied to the healing of the world. What amazes me is that this understanding of the human dilemma corresponds perfectly with the view of reality that is represented in the Christian Gospel. According to the biblical worldview, all of our brokenness comes as a result of our sin against God. Before there was sin there was no brokenness. Humanity is in a state of rebellion against God, and this rebellion results in broken relationships with God and with each other and as well as brokenness within our own souls. Our lack of shalom (wholeness, well-being, peace) is the result of our broken relationship with God due to our sin. Our lack of harmony with God results in lack of harmony with each other and lack of integrity within ourselves. This all-pervasive soul-sickness and society-sickness is part of the curse that humanity has brought upon itself as a result of its sin against God. The good news is that this curse was undone by the death and resurrection of Jesus, who overcame the power of sin and death, and will be ultimately reversed in real time when Jesus returns. The apostle Paul wrote to the believers in Rome: For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. [ii] As we now stand in the period between the past death and resurrection of Jesus and the future return of Jesus we are waiting for the damage to be undone, the effects of sin to be lifted, the curse to be reversed. In the meantime, we groan. This groaning is common to humanity. The Christian knows that Jesus died and rose again to break the power of sin and death, and that when He returns the curse will be reversed, but that does not take away our groaning. Rather, it intensifies it, for we know that the solution is only partially realized now but will not be globally realized until Jesus returns. How crucial it is for we who are Christians to identify with the common groaning of humanity. This is our link to the rest of humanity. We can’t help the rest of humanity to discover the truth if we try to take a stance that’s outside of the suffering of humanity. Our common experience of suffering is what connects us to the rest of the human race. It’s a huge mistake to assume that the watching world needs to see Christians as those who no longer struggle with the pain that is common to humanity because we have been “saved”. That’s based on an understanding of salvation that is not biblical. Rather, we do humanity a great service when we suffer together with the rest of the world but then point to Jesus as the present and future resolution of our suffering. Our suffering will be ended when Jesus returns to reverse the effects of sin and to abolish death. In the meantime he makes our suffering meaningful and bearable—but we still suffer. If we go into denial about the suffering that we share with humanity, then we lose our link to the rest of humanity and we lose our ability to speak meaningfully and genuinely into the human dilemma. Our calling as Christians is to bring hope from within the milieu of human suffering. We are of no use if we pretend that we are outsiders who are somehow exempt from the suffering that is common to humankind. Our example of all of this is Jesus, who became a man, fully identifying with humankind, fully experiencing all of the pain and suffering and weakness and vulnerability that is human, in order that he might bring us to the Father. Jesus, “…a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief”[iii] delivered us by entering into the human dilemma and by fully identifying with the pain of humankind, not by standing outside of it and by trying to “fix” it as an outside observer. His identification with humankind was so complete that he absorbed all of our sin and brokenness into his own person and died on the cross in our place in order to bring about our forgiveness of sins and reconciliation with God, which is the only remedy for the human dilemma. If we are followers of Christ, then we need to follow him in our identification with human suffering, identifying with the shared pain of humanity and pointing to the One who absorbed that pain and overcame it. Only then we can invite others to share the hope that we have. Jesus had to enter into the suffering of humanity before he could lead us out. In a similar way (not in an identical way, because Jesus was sinless) we cannot lead others out if we are not willing to identify ourselves as insiders, fellow-sinners, fellow-sufferers, and fellow-humans. Nouwen explains: In our solution-oriented society it is more important than ever to realize that wanting to alleviate pain without sharing it is like wanting to save a child from a burning house without the risk of being hurt.[iv] Now we can look at the teaching of the Apostle Paul with fresh eyes: For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all shall be made alive.[v] This teaching makes sense when we see all of humanity as one interconnected unit, rather than as individuals who sin and struggle in isolation, detached from the rest of humanity. If we struggle to identify with the rest of humanity, then we need to remind ourselves that Jesus did not come to save us from being human. He saves us out of the human dilemma, that is, he saves us from the obstacles that keep us from being authentically human, and he does so by becoming authentically human himself. God does not save us so that we may escape our humanity. When we are ultimately released from the bondage about which Paul wrote to the believers in Rome, then we will be gloriously and beautifully human forever, just like Jesus, who, although He is God forever, will also be gloriously and beautifully human forever. Scripture quotations taken from the NASB. [i] Nouwen, Henri J. M. (1975). Reaching Out: The Three Movements of the Spiritual Life. New York, New York: Doubleday. See chapter 3, “A Creative Response” on pages 49-62. [ii] Romans 8:18-23 [iii] Isaiah 53:3 [iv] Nouwen, Reaching Out, page 61. [v] 1 Corinthians 15:22
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