The Curve of Our Souls--September 24, 2024

The Curve of Our Souls--September 24, 2024   

"Who is wise and understanding among you? Show by your good life that your works are done with gentleness born of wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be boastful and false to the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, devilish. For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind." [James 3:13-16]

Once upon a time (probably in some middle-school era science class), I remember learning the difference between "concave" and "convex" curves.  Concave objects are "curved inward", like a crater on the moon, or an "innie" belly button (or, like I once learned as a memory device, "like a cave," because it's con-CAVE!).  And convex objects are bowed or curved "outward," like the shape of a contact lens, the bulge in the middle of a magnifying glass, or an "outie" belly button.  Ring a bell for you now, from your own days in science class?

Well, anyway, I mention this difference, of being curved inward or outward, because in a sense, the biblical writers talk about similar kinds of orientations in our hearts and minds.  We can be curved "inward" (oriented toward myself, my interests, and my wants) or "outward," to speak (oriented toward God and neighbor), and the curve of our souls turns out to make a pretty big impact on the ways we interact with the world and other people in it.  James, as you can tell from these verses that many of us heard in worship this past Sunday, is awfully concerned about what happens when we let our hearts become bent inward in "selfish ambition." He says that when our souls become concave (bent inward) like that, "there will be disorder and wickedness of every kind."  

Our older brother in the faith, Martin Luther, also had a similar concern; he used to say that what sin really means is when our hearts become "curved in on themselves" (the fancy Latin term he used was incurvatus in se, if you want to impress your neighbors).  In other words, when we talk about "sin," it's less about individual, isolated bad actions (the extra cookie taken from the jar, the mean comment on someone's social media post, etc.) and more about a whole orientation in our deepest selves. That is to say, it's about a whole way of life--one that is either turned outward in love to God and others (the way of Jesus), or one that is turned inward by a "Me-and-My-Group-First!" mentality.

When we are bent in on our own ambitions, we end up stifling the fullness of life we are meant for in relationship with God and with others.  And on the flipside, when we are curved outward, in love for God and neighbor, we become more fully alive--like it's what we were really made for in the first place (which, of course, we are). These words from James are a call to us to pay attention to which way our lives are bending--and to see how easily we can end up in a dead-end because our hearts have bent inwards, almost like getting an in-grown toenail of the soul. 

Of course, part of the difficulty is that there are so many voices (and so many are VERY LOUD) all selling us on "Me-and-My-Group-First!" thinking, that they can easily make it sound like an attractive (or at least popular) way of life.  It comes in a million different forms: sometimes it's the voice that says, "We have to take care of our own first--we can't give a thought to other people!" Or it can be the voice that says, "What matters most is getting the most money for yourself; anybody else's needs or situation is a lesser priority." Other times, it's the impulse of jealousy over what your neighbor or coworker has, and it often comes with a feeling of bitterness that other people's success must be taking away from yours, like life is a zero-sum game.  And sometimes, it's the voice that wallows in rudeness, pettiness, and mean-spiritedness and tells you, "Only losers care about being gentle."  When those are the voices you listen to over and over again, it becomes really easy to believe that self-centered ambition is "just the way the world really works," and that since everybody else is doing it that way, you had better do the same, if you really want to compete in this world.

James, however, calls that bluff.  He points us to a different way of life and basically says, "Actually, you don't have to compete in the world on the world's terms.  You are freed as followers of Jesus to live a different way.  You are free to be curved outward in love instead of being bent inward on your own selfishness."  In other words, having "convex" hearts that are curved outward toward God and neighbor isn't a tedious, burdensome way of life--it's actually freeing, since we don't have to play the stupid games that the stupid loudmouths want us to play.  The Loud Voices of our culture want us to believe that "Me and My Interests First!" is the only way to live our lives, but it's a lie.  James reminds us that the way of Jesus bends outward, and it is a more joyful, more fully alive way of being in the world.  It just requires us to remember that we don't have to listen to ones peddling the "Me First!" mentality.

Today is a good day to take a closer look at our own hearts.  Where are we already oriented outward, beyond ourselves, toward love of God and others?  Where are we still stuck and curved-in on ourselves and in need of a new direction that is not a dead end?  And where do we not even know whether we are convex or concave in our hearts--and need Jesus to speak to us his own kind of wisdom that helps bend our hearts back into shape?  Maybe that's where the next step takes us....

Lord Jesus, speak your kind of wisdom to our hearts, and bend them outward in love to you and to the people you put in our lives.