If anyone is still out there following this blog…a friend of mine asked me to say a few words on his blog, which I have gladly done.
You can find my meager contribution here:
I may periodically post to his blog site, and I will let you know when I have done so. I encourage you to visit this other site and to subscribe to Keith’s blog.
Christ is in our midst.
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Some of us, in fact, still follow – and expect to always follow – your blog! (Been under the weather a bit, so took me a while to respond here.)
I very much appreciated your comments; having been privileged to have walked some of your journey with you, I have to say that your ministry was, and continues to be, a testament to the grace of Christ, and the passion which Christ is working through you continues to be a blessing and an example to me and many others. I cannot overstate that, Mike – your friendship, your mentoring, and your example have meant a great deal to me.
I do not mean to gainsay the focus on kenosis in your post; I’m still processing that, and I know (but perhaps am only being to fully comprehend) the depth of my own unworthiness and the illusory mist of whatever self-worth to which I might cling. But to be sure, we are all wholly unworthy, but yet we are each wholly (holy?) worthy – we have nothing to offer of our own, but as His creation, formed in His image, and reconciled by the blood of His Son, we are of infinite value. (Thinking here of Biddle, et al.)
So I’m stilling struggling a bit with the concept of kenosis as self-emptying. Christ ’emptied Himself,’ and as we follow His we ought also to learn to empty ourselves? But I suppose I’m still wondering to what extent we can do that for ourselves. By our efforts, by our disciplines, we can engage with God and participate in His emptying of ourselves, but can we do anything apart from His action? And, being emptied, do we also seek to fill ourselves? Is plerosis also an action which I initiate?
Your post concluded on the question “How does your own unworthiness factor into your relationship with God?” That is a great question, and one which can cut many ways. Does our unworthiness entirely dismiss our value as God’s children? (That sort of thinking has pushed me farther and farther from Reformed theology; my impression is that entirely rejecting human value – based on being made in the reflection of God – can lead to all sorts of difficulties, up to the sort of self-righteousness that ‘justified’ Calvin burning Servetus.) So, that’s the downside of self-appreciation of unworthiness. The converse is coming to Christ in humility and gratitude, accepting His love as a pure and unearned gift. Learning to walk leaning on Jesus, because we are blind and lame – and because we so much love to feel His arm about our shoulders.
And I’m rambling on too long. Looking forward to catching up again sometime. Soon.
I so miss our conversations…I cannot express just how much this is so. Thank you for your kind words, which I accept in the spirit intended, although part of me wants to run from them because my vain glory is so easily aroused. Sadly, the other part of me wants continued praise…
The early Church saw the goal of the Christian life as “Theosis.” The common saying was, “What God is by nature we are becoming by Grace.” This comes from Jesus’ words that we are like gods and the Genesis account that we are made in the image and likeness of God. One writer has added this: “Kenosis is the way to Theosis.” It is the Way of Christ.
I have discovered that it is impossible to say what is my effort and what is God’s. All I can do is to cooperate with His work in my life. As far as I understand my own effort, I must strive to empty myself of any notion I can do anything to be worthy of God. Fr Stephen Freeman put it this way:
“[The language of unwothiness reflects] not a vision of legal condemnation; rather, it is the recognition of Beauty itself, in Whose Presence we appear broken, soiled, with nothing to recommend us. It is the language of repentance–but not morbid self-hatred. It is the language of self-forgetting, of leaving the self behind, of finding nothing with the self to cling to.”
If I am able to see myself in this way, then I would have to run into the fire in the place of Servetus. It is only through this kind of emptying that I can truly begin to love my neighbor.
God have mercy on us.
Hi Mike –
That was very helpful; I really appreciated your expansion on kenosis. Freeman’s comments were likewise extremely useful, especially as they highlighted the difference between repentance and self-hatred. In my humble understanding (correct me if I’m wrong!), we are called to walk the road of a penitent, but not that of a masochist. We know that we are sinful, that we are wholly unable to redeem ourselves – but that we are worthy of being redeemed, worthy of love. Not for what we do, but for what we are as creations of God.
In that light, we have freedom to love, with the knowledge that our love is completely unlovely, but that the love of Him who is within us is completely pure. I don’t know how to express His love without soiling it – but I have faith that, as He calls me, He can redeem His expressions through me.
And so, we love our neighbors (even Calvin in his proud self-righteousness, even Servetus in his heresies; less abstractly, even our friends, family, community – of whatever philosophical, political, doctrinal differences) as we love ourselves. No more and no less, no better and no worse.
As you say, may God have mercy. We are called to a sacred work, and I fear that my best efforts in response are completely profane.
Beautifully expressed, Stuart. Thank you.