The Human Condition 2

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0:00 Middle schoolers, if you want to go with Ms. Meghan, she's got some confirmation stuff for you guys doing that every other week, these days. They're working through the Apostles Creed right now. They're on the third article of the Creed. She talks about, I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Christian Church, the Community of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. A lot of ground to cover in the third article of the

0:30 Creed. I love that we're doing that, and Meghan's a middle school teacher, so she's well-equipped for that job. The Creed does make me think about, there's a point worth making out of the Creed for this book that we're working through together. This book by Thomas Keating called The Human Condition. It's actually a lecture that he gave at Harvard on the human condition that they transcribed into a little book. It's not long. It's deep. One of the things to think

1:07 about in this book, I was thinking, especially as it relates to the Creed, that Thomas Keating does really well in this lecture, is he learns from other expressions of faith or other sciences. He takes some stuff from modern psychology. There's a principle that's related to the Creed that Christians have used to help them understand in what way do we learn from things of the world that are not

1:39 things of the faith. The first article, the Creed, the Creed is in three parts. There's the first article, the second article, the third article. The first article of the Creed is, I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth. It's really simple. I believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth. There's this tradition in the Christian church that there are things that operate just in the world and the way that God made the world, ways that the world operates.

2:09 We don't need to find evidence of photosynthesis in the scriptures to know that it works. It's just there in the world. We call photosynthesis a first article truth. It's true. It's just the way God made the world to work. So you don't need special revelation to discover photosynthesis. You just need to look at creation and if you study it carefully, you can see that how plants make food. It's a first article truth. The beauty when you start to think about the human condition is that there have been

2:40 smart, intuitive, focused people all throughout the history of the world who have been studying the workings of people's emotions, the workings of people's interactions. And there are first article truths in the ways that our bodies work and the way that we relate to one another, that whether you're a Sufi master or a Buddhist mystic, you might learn things about the nature of humanity that are just built into how the world works that we would call first article truths. And one of the beautiful lessons about Thomas Keating, this sisterson monk, is that he's

3:16 very comfortable in his faith and so also very comfortable from learning from others who have explored and exposed first article truths. So for me, a young college Ben that read this the first time, it was a real thing to look up to, to someone who was secure enough in their faith to learn first article truths from other faiths and he'll do that in this text. Last week, we stopped around, you've been reading along with me in this book, we stopped

3:49 around page 11 where Thomas Keating said, if we can grasp the fact that only the experience of God can put into perspective all other forms of pleasure or promises of happiness that various creatures provide, then we will realize that we are looking for happiness in the grass in the wrong places. Do you remember this story from last week? I'll just recap it briefly for those who missed our time last week.

4:20 Basically Thomas Keating has been saying that everyone is born looking for contentment, he calls it happiness in life and that you begin out from the time you are very young looking to satisfy yourself, looking to approach contentment, looking to find satisfaction. And he says the problem in the human condition is that everyone is looking for happiness and nobody knows where to find it. And he tells this story about the Sufi master who lost the keys to his house, is looking

4:51 for the keys out in the yard. And the short version is he's able to find a lot of people who are willing to help him look for the keys in the yard and then after looking for the keys for a while they say, hey do you remember where you lost your keys? And he said yeah I actually lost them inside the house. But they were looking for him in completely the wrong place because it was easier. And Thomas Keating has said that this is how life works, you can find lots of people who will help you look for happiness and contentment in all the wrong places. Because it's easy to find esteem or power or solidarity with folks as we look for

5:28 happiness in places where we'll never find it. It's harder to find people who are willing to go into the deep places of life where happiness is found in connection to God. And I want to continue on that idea because he expands it now a little bit. He talks about St. Augustine. If you're not familiar with St. Augustine of Hippo, he's kind of foundational. Uniquely Augustine was North African, really smart guy. That's not unique. A lot of Christians were North African. What's unique is that St. Augustine of Hippo is foundational theologically for the Catholic

5:59 Church and for the Protestant Church. Luther finds much of his theology rooted in Augustinian theology, which the Church had migrated from some during the intermediate period between Augustine and Luther. So he cites Augustine, the nature of the problem of sin. Augustine says that... He says the original sin has three consequences. We don't know where happiness is to be found.

6:31 We're looking for it in the wrong places. And if we ever find out where it might be found, the will is too weak to pursue it anyway. He says this is Augustine's assessment of the human condition. What's interesting then is Keating goes into some new things at the time that psychology was finding about the prevalence of codependency and the dysfunctional family. He says... He says, in recent years we have witnessed the development of various psychological theories such as codependency and the dysfunctional family, which assert that more and more people,

7:02 at least in the Western world, are afflicted with these pathologies as much as 95 to 98% of the population. That's everybody. Except for these two. Good job, guys. He says these theories are getting pretty close to the idea of the universal character of original sin. Isn't that interesting? If you think about codependency and dysfunctional family's theory, this idea of how we're trying to manufacture happiness, satisfaction, contentment in life, and how we're looking for it in these

7:37 relationships or these dynamics between people to kind of build something up. And Keating was saying that that's a fool's errand. And on page 13, he really gets to the heart of what he's talking about in the human condition this where we'll spend a little bit of time. He says, all of us have been through the process of being born and entering this world with three essential biological needs. Security and survival, power and control, affection and esteem.

8:10 Security and survival, power and control, affection and esteem. He says, everybody comes into the world needing these three things. Security or survival, power or control, affection or esteem. Without adequate fulfillment of these biological needs, we probably wouldn't survive infancy. And since the experience of the presence of God is not there at the age we start to develop self-consciousness, these three instinctual needs are all we have to build a program for happiness. He says, without the help of reason to modify them, we build a universe with ourselves at

8:45 the center around which all human faculties revolve like plants around the sun. As a result, any object entering our universe, another person or event, is judged on the basis of whether it can provide us with what we believe or demand happiness to be. He's saying everyone is born with these three needs, security and survival, power and control, affection and esteem. And from the time you're trying to figure out how to have these needs met.

9:15 And of course, God meets these needs perfectly, but disconnected from God we come up with systems or schemes to solve the problem. Hence any good or evil are judged not by their objective reality, but by the way we perceive them as fitting into our private universe or not. We develop these schemes to meet our needs imperfectly. I was thinking about, okay, if these three things are our first article truth, just a

9:47 way that humanity operates, I kind of wanted to find them validated in the story of Scripture. This is me. I mean, I don't have to validate photosynthesis, but if you're telling me about the nature of humanity, maybe God speaks to a little bit. And the place I feel like God is speaking to this specific, that we're born with these needs and we develop schemes to meet the needs ourselves, the needs of power and control, security and survival, affection and esteem.

10:18 And the place I want to look at is Matthew chapter five. If you have a copy of the Scriptures or you have a phone, you can type in Matthew chapter five. I forgot to put Bibles out for you all. Sorry about that. But Matthew chapter five is like, Matthew chapter five is like a, for me, when I read the story of Jesus, even the story of Scripture, there is a lot of buildup to Matthew chapter five.

10:49 Because Matthew chapter five is where Matthew lays out the bulk of Jesus teaching. And Jesus does something in this teaching in Matthew chapter five, it's called the Sermon on the Mount, where he almost recapitulates all the giving of the law, gives a fuller explanation of the law, which has been the primary message of the Old Testament. And this is at a critical moment where it says that Jesus came into the world at the fullness of time. So when you look at the whole story of Scripture, for me, this is a turning point in the whole

11:21 story of Scripture. Like, I mean, I don't know what God had to do to twist God's self into the flesh to bind the unbounded infinite God in finite flesh. I don't know what kind of calisthenics it takes to, what kind of contortions of the divinity it takes to get down into the flesh of a person. But God, the creator of the universe, finds a way to become flesh, lives through, goes through birth and then lives through life. Learn how to walk, talk, eat, speak, right? Learn how to think, learn how to make carpentry, who goes through the baptism, goes through

11:55 the desert, battles with the enemy, comes back out, right? Goes and preaches and then gathers enough people that they are with him at the Sermon on the Mount that God has gone through all this effort now to explicate for humanity what he means with the law. And Jesus of Nazareth, God incarnate, Sermon on the Mount starts with these words. When I read the Sermon on the Mount, especially the beginning of Matthew chapter 5, it feels like there's a lot of build up for me.

12:25 Like God has been waiting to get this message off of God's chest, the proverbial chest of God, not the actual. Matthew chapter 5, seeing the crowds, he's got crowds of actual people, he went up on the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. He opened his mouth and taught them, saying, maybe you've heard this before, blessed are

12:56 the poor in spirit for there is just the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall seek God and blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God and blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness think for theirs is the kingdom of heaven and blessed are you.

13:28 When others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. We've talked about these varieties before. First of all, they're beautiful. There's a lot of build up to the great teaching of God. It's nice that he took the time to put it in a way that sounds lovely. Doesn't it? It sounds lovely. And you think about it, he didn't have to do that. He could have made a mathematical formula that communicated it, but mathematical formulas

14:00 are not pretty. Bless your mathematician. But this is beautiful. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall. All this build up for God in the person of Jesus of Nazareth to call out people who recognize their lack. Isn't that interesting?

14:31 Blessed are the poor in spirit. Not blessed are the rulers of the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus says, because I'll give them the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the mourn, those who mourn, not blessed are the ones who've solved all their problems so they have no more mourning. Not blessed are the ones even who do all the comforting because they have no reason to mourn. God, creator of the world, enduer of the great fatal flaw of humanity for generations throughout

15:07 the whole story of the Old Testament, worker of the miracle of incarnation, and then the Messiah, Savior of the world, comes down to the world, walks up onto a mountain when he sees the crowds and tells them, blessed are the ones who mourn. Because I'm the one who gives comfort. That's interesting. Blessed are the meek. Not blessed are the conquerors. Not blessed are the powerful.

15:37 Not blessed are the secure even. Blessed are the meek, the ones who are willing to endure. Blessed are the meek. I will give them because I am the one who gives the earth. The earth is not something you take. I give it. Isn't this fascinating? When we talked about this before, maybe you remember, maybe it was last summer actually, we did that book, Poverty of a Spirit that Jordan Crandell gave us. When we look at the Beatitudes, it's important to realize that there's, I can't remember,

16:13 somewhere between 8 and 10 Beatitudes, that these Beatitudes are not describing 8 to 10 different kinds of people, that these are 8 to 10 characteristics of the people who are gods. And that the all of the Beatitudes emerge out of the first one, that the first Beatitude, like the first commandment, is the door to the rest of them. That once you realize that you have a poverty with respect to spiritual things, that you

16:44 cannot solve the existential questions of life, that you are limited, your spiritual capacity is limited. Once you realize that you are poor in spirit, and that God gives you the kingdom of heaven, then you can also recognize that you are someone who mourns, but God will comfort, that you are make, but God gives the earth, that the best you can do is hunger and thirst for righteousness,

17:17 and God will satisfy that hunger and thirst and give you righteousness. That you have the capacity to be merciful, because you know that you receive mercy from God, that you are willing and able, once you realize that you have a poverty with respect to spiritual things, then you are the person who is able to focus solely on God as the satisfying of all things. You're able to be pure in heart and see God, that you have the willingness to be peacemakers, because you're not always looking to exact revenge, and you will be called children of

17:50 God. You can endure suffering and persecution. This to me validates what Thomas Keating is saying, which is that we are born with this need. The reason this leads out in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, the reason that from creation, all the way through the story of Israel and the covenants and the sea and the commandments and the kings, right, and the temples, all the way to the person of Jesus, ascending the mountain in front of the crowd, people. The reason he comes out with blessed are the poor in spirit is because he knows the fatal

18:25 flaw of humanity is we are sure we can solve all our own problems. From the very beginning we have said, you know what? We can handle this. The decisions that are reserved for God actually we can take on for ourselves. We can manufacture our own satisfaction. Jesus says, no, I am the God who gives. When you are poor in spirit, I'll give you the kingdom.

18:56 When you mourn, I will comfort you. When you are meek, I will give you the earth, power, security, esteem. These things come from God. We call it out so carefully and eloquently because it is the pervasive and permanent problem of humanity. We devise schemes over and over again to get these things for ourselves, to get power,

19:29 control, security, survival, esteem, affection. Everything says that these go from when you are a baby, you realize if you scream loud enough, you can control your parents. You have control. You realize when you are a baby. I remember this was like maybe first grade. I don't know why.

20:01 I can remember the thinking in my head. We had bunk beds in my younger brother Jacob. We shared a room. First grade was a really bad year of school for me. I did not like school in first grade. I don't remember this part but my mom tells me she asked me one time why I hated first grade so much and I said all we do is work and it is mostly wrong. That was my experience of school.

20:33 I did not like it. We lived down the street from school so we would walk to school in the morning. I can remember one morning just dreading going to school. I was crying. I did not want to have to go. In my head I thought if I get up on this bunk bed and sit right against the wall, they won't be able to reach me.

21:04 If I refuse to move out of this corner, they won't be able to get me and take me to school. I will be able to determine my day today. No one else will be in charge of me. I will huddle in this corner. No one can touch me and I will refuse to go to school. They climbed up in the bed and got me. Then we had to walk to school. That was it. I thought I am just not going to walk. If we have to walk to school and I refuse to move, I go limp.

21:38 Then you can't get me to school and I will be in control of my future. So they picked me up and carried me, blocked down the street, crying. So I saw that we got the playground. I saw my friends. I thought I better pull this thing together. I walked into school. When you are little, when you are young, the schemes for control or self-satisfaction are simple.

22:09 It is like I just know that this is the most terrible thing. I will imagine a system where I am in control of how it turns out. And the same for a steam. I knew that once I got there, the esteem of my peers mattered. All I had to do was not cry and I could get the esteem of my friends. When you are young, your systems are obvious. What Keating says is those systems never go away. They slide down into unconscious motivations.

22:41 Your drivers in your work, in your friendships. The motivation to accumulate esteem, power, security. These things are underneath the ground driving the choices that we make. And they are sneaky. I like this story. He tells on page 17. Yes, 17. He says, he starts calling this like the self of you that is driven without realizing

23:19 it. At one point he calls it the homemade self or the self-made. What is it called? The false self. For me this would be our old Adam. We will look at this in a second. But he says that this old Adam is sneaky and pervasive. This part that is driven thinking that you can solve your own problems. If I hide at the back of the bunk bed, I can determine my own future. If I hold the tears back, everyone will love me. The schemes that you work for for security and affection.

23:52 He says it is so deeply entrenched. He says you can change your name and address religion, country and clothes. But as long as you don't ask yourself to abandon your schemes, the false self simply adjusts to the new environment. Then he gives us an example. For example, instead of drinking your friends under the table as a significant sign of self-worth and esteem, if you enter a monastery as I did, fasting the other monks under the table,

24:23 could you become, could be fasting the new monks under the table, could become your new path to glory in that place. What has changed? Nothing. If your friends under the table are fasting them under the table, if it's a motivation to get the esteem of your friends, nothing has changed. Well if fasting, if you can corrupt something as pure as monks fasting with the schemes of self-esteem, the child-assumed schemes of self-esteem, what hope is there.

24:55 This is where thinking about that subterranean, that he calls it the unconscious drivers for these things, that you don't, this is where it helps to think about that as your old Adam. Look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. This is of course the great realization of Paul, that the gospel, the good news of Jesus

25:36 does something different than humanity had ever seen in the world before. The old way, the way of the temple and the sacrifices, the way of the covenants and Israel was a recognition that we ought to depend on God, but it's so hard for us. So we put in these sacrificial systems where it pulls out of us things that we care very deeply. We put in rigid social contracts and structures so that we hem in our behavior and do our best

26:10 to change our attitudes about dependence on God from the outside in. Whether if we can behave a certain way and make a certain offering, maybe we can train ourselves to trust in God. But this requires long-term commitment and like deeply delayed gratification. Paul goes out into the world with this new thing that he realized on the road to Damascus that the work of Jesus does something immediately. We talked about this in the Bible study this past week.

26:43 You can see when you read through the story of Acts and Paul's letters, they cannot believe that when he goes into Roman towns and announces on street corners in marketplaces that Jesus is the son of God, he's conquered death and reigns now and you can live under his authority where there is no guilt or shame in life forever. When they announce the good news of the gospel, it actually works in Gentiles and Israelites. It actually creates something inside of them.

27:15 Paul starts to say that there is a new creation for those who are in Christ Jesus, that the gospel, the work of Christ does something different, turns something else on, creates something else inside of them. He says it here in this letter to the Corinthians. He explains it. 2 Corinthians 5 verse 16. Jesus from now on therefore we regard no one according to the flesh, even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer.

27:51 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is gone, or the old is passed away, behold the new has come. All this is from God who through Christ reconciles to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. The promise of the gospel is that in you is the capacity, the person, the faith to

28:23 look squarely at your poverty of spirit and take it to God instead of your own schemes. To look squarely at your need to be loved, valued, significant, and take it to God rather than to work or other relationships. To look squarely at your need for security to feel safe like you will survive and be protected for and take that need to God where it is met fully rather than to your bank account

28:58 or to your spouse. But you, because of the work of Christ, you have the capacity to be wholly new creations. The solution to the problem of the human condition lies in the person of Christ and last week we said Christ is in you. Your hope for glory, your hope to become your fullest, most true self. My prayer for us is that we would be people who have the courage to look at the ways we

29:33 are like hiding against the wall on the bunk bed trying to control our future. Huddled in a puddle on the ground refusing to walk to school certain we can control life. That we would be people who have the courage to look at the ways we have developed schemes to meet needs that God will solve freely for us. And once we look at those schemes can come to God and have our needs met.

30:03 Let me pray towards that end. Hey Lord, thank you for the gift of your Son. Christ in us our hope for glory. Good Lord Jesus, amplify your presence in our hearts and minds this morning. Turn on lights where we have been blind in order that we might repent, relent and allow you to do your work. Reconciliation and restoration even creation inside of us.

30:38 Amen.