The Human Condition 4
Jul 11, 2021 2021-07-11 Ben HoyerContinuing the study of Thomas Keating's "The Human Condition," this sermon moves from "Where are you?" to "Who are you?", warning how our coping systems for meeting needs of power, esteem, and security harden into false identity, and urging that we let God meet those needs instead.
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This morning we're continuing thinking through this little book by the Sisters and Monk Thomas Keating. It's titled The Human Conditions because it's a lecture that he gave at Harvard on the human condition. And it's a pretty simple little book. We probably maybe have, I don't know, we'll see how it goes this week. If we have one more week after this week in it or if we're done, I don't know. We don't know. We'll see.
But we're in it again this week and we were working our way through it. Oh, the reason I said I don't know if we're in it next week is because it's a little book. You still have time to read it. If you haven't read it yet, it doesn't take that long to read. It's not even really a dense read, but it is pretty deep. I find myself reading paragraphs a couple of times. You can read it and understand, but then you can experience it and explore it. Meaning over time, he's a pretty deep guy Thomas Keating.
He got famous for, not famous, but people started knowing his name. He got really focused on resurfacing this practice that he called Centering Prayer, which is a focused prayer practice. And I mentioned that I was in a small group that met him in college, really cool, kind of inspiring presence.
It's like really tall, which doesn't take much to be taller than me, but he was noticeably tall and shaved head. And I don't know why this surprised me, but it did college me that he came on the University of Florida campus into lecture hall with about 100 people fully in his monastic garb. I mean rope, dark burlap, caskets over top of white robe, sandals on the dude's feet.
Very clear, he has stepped out of the culture into his own focused space. And then his presence was very like calming and commanding, because he was tall and he spoke quite, he had to pay attention. And so you can imagine him giving this lecture to a mostly counseling and psychology program at Harvard.
And he's awakening them to some realities that he understands as part of the universal human condition. And we talked a couple of weeks ago about this idea that exists in the church of what we call first article truths. This idea that comes out of the Apostles Creed, which is one of the foundational cradle statements of the church going all the way back to the Council of Nicaea, and probably started to be formulated in 70 AD. The Apostles Creed has broken into three parts, the first article, the second article, the third article.
The first article says, I believe in God the father, maker of heaven and earth. And so there's this tradition in the church that there are these things that are called first article truths. The example is we don't need to understand the Bible into in order to learn how photosynthesis works, but that doesn't mean that God's not in charge of photosynthesis. God made the whole world. So photosynthesis is a first article truth. What Thomas Keating spends time in this lecture of human condition pointing out is a lot of first article truths about the nature of humanity, what it means to be human.
What it means to be a human person in the world. And the foundational thing that he kind of starts to build this idea of the human condition off of that this first article truth of what it means to be a person in the world is that all people are born with. Basic needs and he comes into three basic needs. Power and control, security and safety and esteem and affection. He says we have these three focuses of needs that we're all born with and we begin immediately.
Those needs must be met if we'll find any sort of contentment in life. And so from the time that you're a baby, your parents meet those needs imperfectly and you develop systems to get those needs met, right? Babies cry. They find out when they cry, they get food. When their bellies are full, they feel secure. So I cry, I feel secure. And he says that as you get older, those systems never go away. They just get more complex and hidden so that our drivers in life either consciously or not,
either consciously or unconsciously are often driving towards the meeting of one of these three needs. We could go, we gave the example, we quoted the example from Thomas Keating where he says, you can imagine someone who on a regular basis is drinking his friends under the table in order to earn their esteem. Maybe not nearly because he likes to taste the beer, but because when he's the best beer drinker in the crew, everybody loves him.
Right? And he said that if that person becomes a monk and goes into a monastery and channels his energy to fasting all of his friends under the table, the motivation is the same. The subterranean motivation is to get the esteem of people. So you see that sometimes that this need for power and control, affection and esteem or security and survive, like those things can drive us towards destructive behavior and actually helpful behavior.
And what Thomas Keating is beginning to start to tell us and maybe remind us, maybe expose for us, is that the ultimate place for these needs, the more satisfying, fulfilling place to have these needs met, are in the God, not our little schemes. That contentment in life is found when our security rests in God, when our esteem and worth rests in God,
when our power and control is given over to God. That when we give over our schemes that are driving towards these things and allow God to meet our needs fully, we approach contentment in life. I love that Keating, like, like monastic, robed up, synchior tag, stands and addresses Harvard, counseling program and tells them,
you guys, your life would be better if you let God meet your needs instead of your complex systems. You would let God meet your needs instead of your complex systems. He's been basing his talk off of two questions first. Where are you in the last final kind of section of the book? He gets to his second question. Who are you? Because what he starts to say, he's pulling these two questions kind of out of the garden of Eden experience,
but what he starts to say is that if you're not careful, actually, that's not. If you're a normal human, your systems begin to root into your identity. I remember when I first started to realize this, I had a good friend. We were in a conversation and he was talking about his job.
He didn't know how it was going to turn out. He was like a partial owner in this company and the partner was like going kooky. He was trying to build a different career before the thing fell on its face. It was kind of a stressful situation. He was the main earner for the family. He was kind of rapped about it.
I told him, I said, you know that you don't have to worry about this. Let's look at it and make our best decision, but you don't have to carry worrying about it all the time. Because God will, whether it rises or falls, God will take care of you. And he looked at me and just when it clicked, he looked at me and said, I know Ben, but I can't help it.
I'm just a worrier. And it just hit me like lightning. I want to smack him. No man, maybe you worry, but you are not a worrier. You are someone who trusts that God takes care of you, not that your schemes will solve your problem, but that God will deliver you no matter the problem. But he had developed this scheme that he would run down all these little paths in his mind, experience the worry, and at some point he had learned once he had worried enough, once he had satiated enough, then his sense of security would be restored.
And so he would just keep running down all these paths of worry. He had built this system from the time he was little that said, if I'm going to be secure, I must worry down every permutation of paths until I've thought of every single one. And once I run all of them down, then maybe I'll be able to rest. And he had built that system from the time he was little, so substantial that it wasn't merely that he was a person who worried sometimes. He had internalized his worrier.
Bummer. This is not for the people of God. This is what Thomas Keating says. We don't, the problem is if we are human, we will locate our identity in our schemes for power and control of esteem and affection, security and survival. We will self-identify with the little schemes we've been building since the time we were little. And the invitation of Keating and the gospel is to switch it out from your scheme to the good God.
Look at this page 31. Well, 30. At the bottom of 30, Keating says, oh wait. Okay, the top of 30. I'm going to spend a couple of things for you to step the stage. And then we have this text I want to look at. Daily life constantly triggers events that frustrate our emotional programs for happiness.
Then such effective emotions, afflictive emotions as fear, anger and discouragement arise automatically. The fact that we experience anxiety and annoyance is the certain sign that in the unconscious there is an emotional program for happiness that has just been frustrated. I had a system to figure it out. Oh man, my system is meeting some obstacles and I feel a certain sort of way on the bottom of page 30. Jesus arrives on the scene with His exhortation to repent, to change your conscious and unconscious motivations, to change in short where we are looking for happiness.
And yeah, look down at page 32, this line that really got me, the top of the first full paragraph. The presence of God is true security. There really isn't any other. Divine love is the full affirmation of who we are. Interior freedom is the gift of God as we let go of our attachments and the versions, our shoulds and the emotional programs of happiness that we bring with us from early childhood that are totally impractical in its old life.
Your little worry paths don't get you anywhere. And they come from kids who aren't sure their parents are going to take care of them. And we can talk through and see it in kids, but in adults they're just worryers. So they drink more or watch more Netflix when their little patterns can't get them where they need to go. But look at what he says, the presence of God is true security.
Look with me at this story in Daniel. Anybody read Daniel recently? I'm curious. Where's your hand? No shame, of course. Glad it. And Beverly, good job. Oh, great. I don't think. I haven't read Daniel in the wild, but there's a famous story there that came to mind when I read that line. God is true security. Daniel's in the profit section.
Right? Oh my gosh. My brain stopped, yo. We got to find Daniel chapter three. Here it is. Oh, I had it marked. Daniel chapter three. Now remember where we are in the story of Daniel, right? Daniel's a really cool book. If you want to understand Revelation, the trick is to go back and read Daniel and then read Matthew chapter 19 and then read Revelation again.
But Daniel, the book of Daniel, happens right during the Babylonian captivity, which is like a, a, um, he changed moment in the history of Israel. It's like one of these turning points. Like if we have, uh, we leave Eden, right? The fludge, uh, Babel, uh, Abraham, Moses, the Babylonian captivity is up there. And the reason is because God has already executed judgment on the northern kingdoms of Israel.
So 10 of the 12 tribes are taken away and repopulated in among different empires. This is where you hear the phrase, the 10 lost tribes of Israel. It's heartbreaking, but, but 10 of the 12 tribes of Israel are ripped out of Israel and then forcibly repopulated so that they mix in with all the other countries. And then you have two left, Judah and Benjamin in the southern kingdom of Judah. These are the ones carrying the emblem of the God of creation and life to the rest of the world.
Their lives are intended to look different than everyone else in order that all the world would see that life with the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of creation and life is better than life without them. Of course, the tragedy is Judah and Benjamin, just like the 10, 12, 10 tribes before them fail at that calling. So God brings them out. He uses, he uses, uh, King Nebuchadnezzar and his folks to conquer them, uh, destroy the temple and take them off into exile. Actually, he doesn't take all of them.
The way that Nebuchadnezzar did it is he would pick, uh, the, uh, a few of the wealthiest, the best looking, the most successful people from each of the lands that he conquered. And he would take them off to his capital city and they would be educated with the elite and turned into great Babylonians. And Daniel and a couple of his friends were those.
They go off to Babylon. They're educated for a couple years. Now, you think about this, I mean, Nebuchadnezzar's kingdom had some of the wonders of the world, the great hanging gardens and things. Also, he's conquering most of the known world, taking the elite from all the places he conquered and bringing them back all to one city. Um, you can imagine, it's a pretty, uh, pretty cool place to be.
And then, uh, Daniel and his buddies are educated there. They eat food. Well, they're supposed to eat the food from the king's table. Like, they have a kind of arrived. Uh, they have security. They have esteem. They even have some power a little bit. But they don't get along, uh, because in the end, uh, Daniel and his buddies just don't believe that Nebuchadnezzar can provide the
something better than God. And it's significant that you think about the context that these guys were in because that is kind of an audacious and probably on its surface to the peers around a ridiculous claim. It'd be like someone I was thinking about. I had an interesting experience yesterday because through a random set of circumstances, I ended up at Disney by myself yesterday.
Which we could talk about that. I mean, I enjoyed the day. I like just about any place by myself every once in a while. And I was by myself. I listened to podcasts and walked around Disney. But before, before I went to Disney yesterday, I watched the news. I really liked the PBS news hour. So on Saturday mornings, I'll usually watch it from Friday because at seven, I don't have the patience to watch an hour of news for Saturday morning. I do seven the night before. And they did a focus thing on the tent camp in Syria and the UN trying to get stuff in there.
You know? And I don't know if you checked in on that story lately, but it's brutal. I mean, they show the kids digging through the trash, to try and find enough stuff to sell because their parents don't have any money. Like, there is, they're running straight out of food and they're in tent camps in Syria trying to survive. And then, so I watched that and the images are in my head. They do some interviews because PBS News Hour does really great in depth stories.
And then I go and watch the Lion King show at Disney. And I think like, where am I in the world? Like, what kind of wealthy place am I? That this is a legitimate way for me to spend my day. And it is a legitimate way for me to spend my day. I'm not like delegitimizing the park or the experience. I loved watching those performers and knowing that they got back to work.
Like, I know enough people to know the stories of the people who dance and sing at those places and what it means to them. Like, I'm not delegitimizing it. But also in my head, I was like, how far away from the experience of the refugees in Syria is this? Like, how would they approach riding that Pandora ride, I thought? Yes. Daniel and his buddies, Shadrach, Misek and Abednego, are in a place kind of like that.
Like, that kind of disparity. And they look at that kind of provision, opulence, beauty, creativity, and they tell that kind of place. You cannot, what you can give me is not as good as what my God can give me. Isn't that interesting? That's where we are in this story in Daniel chapter 3.
Therefore, at Daniel chapter 3 verse 8, therefore at that certain time, Chaldean's came forward and maliciously accused the Jews. Interestingly, in Babylonian captivity is when we start seeing Israelites called Jews because they're the remnant of Judah. They're all that's left. So they're not called Jews until the Babylonian captivity. I'm telling you, that story is really a linchpin for our people.
Okay. They declared to King Nebuchadnezzar, O King Liffreber, you king have made a decree that every man who hears the sound of the horn pipe lides, a trigon, heart, bagpipe, and every kind of music shall fall down and worship his golden, D golden image. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast into a burning fiery furnace. There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon, Shadrach, Meshach, and Vina, these men, O King, pay no attention to you.
They do not serve your God or worship the golden image that you have set up. And then Nebuchadnezzar in a furious rage commanded that those guys be brought. So they brought these men before the king and Nebuchadnezzar answered instead to them, A, is this true? That you don't worship the golden image that I've set up? That you're not looking to our opulence for your protection, that you are not relishing in your position for your esteem, that you are adamantly saying that the schemes we have for providing for everyone are not good enough.
And though that somehow your God can do better, and they're like, is it true? Now, if you're ready to hear the, and if you're going to do it, then good. But if you do not worship, you shall immediately be cast into a burning fiery furnace. And who is the God who will deliver you out of my hand? Then, sucker, right? If you're into a fiery furnace and who will take care of you then?
Then Nebuchadnezzar was filled with fury, and the expression of his face was changed against Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and he ordered the furnace heated seven times more than it was usually heated. And he ordered some of the mighty men of his army to bind Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and cast them the burning fiery furnace, and these men were bound in their cloaks, their tunics, their hats, and their other garments. And they were thrown into the burning fiery furnace because the king's order was urgent, and the furnace was overheated.
The flame of the fire killed those men who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these men Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego fell, bound into the fiery furnace bummer. He is saying, Nebuchadnezzar is saying, look, you follow the scheme for your security, or there's no security. You follow the scheme I have laid out for you for a seam, which is, you're one of mine. You eat the food off of my table, you speak my language, you follow my customs, then you're a big shot.
In Babylon, which is a big shot, like all of this works for you can follow my schemes. Nebuchadnezzar says, if you don't follow my schemes, you get nothing. These dudes say, we're not following your schemes. Whatever you have to offer is not as good as what our God has to offer. We're not following your systems. Whatever you have to offer is not as good. Whatever seam, power, control, security, you try to offer a Nebuchadnezzar is not as good as what God can offer. I'm trying to help you see that these guys were caught up in a whole culture of opulent and a theme of security
and survival. They were caught up in a whole culture who was telling them, this is how you do it. And by all accounts, it all was working. They ought to have taken the deal. They were taken out of the conquered Jerusalem and brought back to the king's table. And they turned it down. I don't know like what you are offered.
Or like where you sit in the like steam of things. If Syrian refugee camps and the Lion King show at Disney are the two opposites. I don't know where you sit in there. But most of us in this room are closer to this end than this end. And Shatter, I can be sure I can bend to go. We're way up here and offered everything the world had to offer. And they said we'd rather take the thing God has to offer.
And so they get a fiery furnace. It might make you think of Jesus in Gethsemane saying, I'll take what you have to offer. Cool. Cross. Abandonment. Daniel. Not Daniel, but Shatter, I can be sure I can be sure I can go and turn it down. They get the fiery furnace. And then maybe you've heard this story. Twenty-four then King Nebuchadnezzar was astonished and rose up and hazed.
He declared to his counselors, did we not cast these men bound into the fire? And they answered and said to the king true. And he answered and said, but I see four of them walking around in the midst of the fire and they're not hurt. And the appearance of the force is like a son of the gods. Then Nebuchadnezzar came near to the door of the fiery furnace. He declared Shatter, I can be sure I can bend to go service of the Most High God. Come out and come here. I'm here, like I'm not getting any closer because it killed the two guys that dropped you in.
But if you wouldn't mind coming out and coming here, service the Most High God. Thank you. And the stat shops and the prefects and the governors and the king's counselors gathered together and saw that the fire had not any power over the bodies of those men. The hair of their heads is not singed, their cloaks was not harmed, no smell of fire I come upon them. Nebuchadnezzar answered and said to them, blessed be the God of Shatter, I can be sure I can go. Who sent his angels, the liver to service. These dudes did not know, Shatter, I can be sure I can go, that they were not going to die when they went into the fire.
And as a matter of fact, they told Nebuchadnezzar, our God will deliver us. And even if he doesn't, we're not bound down to you. Because so settled was their conviction that whatever Nebuchadnezzar, whatever the world could offer them in terms of security, survival, esteem, pale in comparison to what the God would offer them. And Jesus said the same thing and gets them any. I'd rather not have to go through the pain of what's coming, but I trust that whatever you give me is better. This is what makes me think. Hebrew says that but for the joy set before him did Christ endure the cross, scorning a chain.
It makes me wonder, good heavens, how good is what God has for us? If it's better than what Nebuchadnezzar can offer, if it's better than what America can offer. If it endures Jesus through the guilt of the world, the abandonment of his friends, the cross of crucifixion, and is still worth it on the other end. Frederick and he should go however many years ago, goes with them into the furnace and stands.
Solidarity in all the suffering. He goes with them. This is security. Are you unsure about your future? Are you anxious about what it brings? Are you searching for a solid ground of stand-on security off into eternity?
The security of the God of creation and life, Abraham Isaac and Jacob, Christ and the church cannot be beat. Solidarity in death and provision on the other side. That's a good story, the fiery furnace. If we don't have to allegorize it or that's a thing that happens to historical figures.
On page 33 of Keating's book here, the sword of spiritual discipline. What he says is God offers greater security, so go to him. Find ways to move toward God. This sort of spiritual discipline is a therapy for the tyranny of the false self, not only for our emotional programs for happiness, but also for our over-identification with all the things of the world.
This got me to our last place for the day is Matthew Chapter 11. Matthew Chapter 11 verse 25. At this point in Matthew's gospel, he's teaching a group of people and John the Baptist disciples have come back and said, do you the one that we should look for or should we expect another? He tells them, go back and tell John the Baptist what you've seen, the lame walk, blind see, the dead are raised. Then he tells the crowd after John's disciples leave.
You're not going to find another one better in the kingdom of God, born of woman, than John the Baptist. He said the least in the kingdom of God is greater even than him. Which starts to make people think you've got to do a lot of work to be in the kingdom of God. And then he says in verse 25, at this time Jesus declares, I thank you Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things. Okay, verse 26, yes Father, for his grace and swill, verse 27, all things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son.
Okay, verse 28. Come to me, all the labor and our heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me. For I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your soul's work.
My yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Look, you made your way here on a Sunday morning, because you have tasted something of the rest of God already. God has found you in the midst of whatever schemes, and brought you some measure of rest. Praise God.
What I've been thinking about this morning, when Jesus says, when I read the words of Jesus, come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Come to me, all you who are burdened with pain, who are tired of running down schemes, I was thinking, in what ways do I come to God?
I was just kind of thinking back through my days and my weeks, and I can think about the routines that I establish, the ways I spend my time, the things, the moments and days that I look forward to. I'm just trying to take a mental note of how many of those places are places where I go to God.
Much of the directional intent of Keating's lecture, the human condition, is to encourage humans to intentionally, with forethought and strategy, with patience and perseverance, encourage humans to move towards the God. He has this like practice of centering prayer to do it, right? But the point is, in God are the things that you need.
Forsh it for you, this practice here is chief among the ways where we move towards God. The people of God gathered together are the temple of God, which means he is here for you now, right? However much rest you have encountered from God, there is more for you here.
However much security and safety you have in your faith, there is more for you here. However much joy and purpose you have found in your faith, there is more for you here. This is the well. God is the source found first among his people and cultivated in the world. I hope we can be people who continually, in the midst of Babylon, come back to the world.
I hope we can be people who continually, in the midst of Babylon, come back to the world. I hope we can be people who continually, in the midst of Babylon, come back to the well, that we might abandon our schemes and cling to the one who has ultimate security, power and esteem.
Hey Lord, make us into people who come to you for all good things. Hey, and Lord, meet us now. We've come to you now. We've come to you this morning. So meet us in the places that we need, Lord, if we need rest, if we need security, if we need esteem, or if we need to understand what's in our power and control, or meet us in the midst of our needs this morning,
and then teach us to trust you. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.