Transformative Character

The book group I belong to has been reading the recent publication by New York Times columnist, David Brooks.  It is titled, “The Road to Character.”  Its focus is on how some notable people in history have cultivated strong character. It’s also about Brooks' own search for meaning and purpose.

The first chapter is about American culture and how so many people have become self-centered.  Brooks points out that this self-centeredness "leads to selfishness, the desire to use other people as means to get things for yourself.  It also leads to pride, the desire to see yourself as superior to everybody else."  The author favors a more humble approach to life and reminds us that we are all built from "crooked timber." He quotes Immanuel Kant, "Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made."  Our character, asserts Brooks, must be built from the crooked timber of self-centeredness that is part of our individual lives.  The road to character is a transformative experience and it results in a new attitude of concern for others.

Jesus spoke of this transformative character when he said to his disciples, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

The passage from John’s gospel is part of Jesus’ final discourse.  Jesus’ death, resurrection, and glorification by God are held together as one event.  God is glorified in Christ.  It is an event of redemption for the whole world; a new covenant is about to be sealed.  Jesus told the disciples that the new covenant is not unlike the old covenant.  “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another.  Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.”  The newness of this commandment is found in the fact that Jesus’ love led him to endure death in order for the disciples to have eternal life.  The disciples’ love for one another must be no less.  This love is total.  It embraces the compassionate love for peace and justice; the romantic love of partners in intimate relationships; the sister-love and brother-love of Jesus caring for all sorts and conditions of people who came to him.  It is about forgiveness, healing, and bringing new life to all people.

The passage from Revelation to John as we heard in one of our lessons says something about this new life.  It is a proclamation of the fulfillment or completion of the entire biblical message of redemption.  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more.  And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…. And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new…. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”

You and I spend our lives developing and assimilating new experiences in our relationships and in our spiritual journeys.  In order to integrate new experiences we sometimes have to change our existing attitudes and viewpoints.  It is part of our road to character.  Changing attitudes can provide us with a new and transforming awareness.  Transformation is hard work; it is the result of our spiritual journey and it doesn’t come easily.  Generally speaking, people who have everything don’t want real or significant change but people who are poor or oppressed are often searching and hoping for change, for a new and transformative life.

Our religious heritage and history begins with the early Christian community as it lived in the midst of human misery and suffering.  The early Christian communities looked forward with hope and anticipation for new life. The meaning of life was found in hope and love.  The issues of our day so far removed from the early Church were not their concern.  No one thought about climate change or renewable energy;  there was no concern about privacy and information technology; no instantaneous worldwide communication; no international economic system; and no human genomic medicine or DNA analysis.  None of these issues were even imaginable for early Christians.

What is the new heaven and new earth, the new Jerusalem for us who live in the 21^st Century?  What is new is that we are members of a worldwide community. We are no longer simply members of a local community, or a clearly defined and identifiable religious community.  We go through life moving from one community to another, always building new relationships and always saying good-by to communities left behind.  It seems that God’s new Jerusalem, at least for now and the foreseeable future, is to come to terms with what it means to be a worldwide community, multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-religious, and all interdependent.

The real question is how do we understand what it means to live with this pluralism?  How do we understand one another’s language, views, customs, traditions?  What this suggests to me, especially in the light of our reading from Revelation, is that we should be open and hospitable to those whom we don’t know.  “To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  The “spring of the water of life” belongs to everyone.  We are all thirsty and we are all in need of this water.  The metaphor of pouring a glass of water for the stranger you meet is about befriending that stranger.

Jesus said to his disciples, “Where I am going you cannot come.”  Death is real.  It is not just physical dying but it is death to everything that stands in the way of love and life.  No one is to be denied water from the spring of the water of life.  The death we are to witness is a death to the status-quo, to the accepted ways of doing business and of taking life for granted.  Death must happen in order for new life to spring forth.  Privilege must die so equality can live.  Greed must die so people can work and share the resources of life.  Prejudice and bigotry must die so pluralism, understanding, and mutual respect can live.  Violence must die so love can live.  Self-righteous nationalism must die so a new world order can be born.

Character that is transformative is not just individual development or personal experience.  It is communal, focused on relationships yielding new life.  It is the biblical message of redemption.  “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;… the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God…. And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new…. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.  To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”  Amen.