Psalm 22:22-30
Romans 4:13-25
Mark 8:31-38
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves:
Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls,
that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
“We have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” What a statement. Think about it – “we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.” Certainly, the words of this week’s collect reveal a particular understanding of human nature and of the human condition; attributing to humanity a fundamental depravity which we would normally associate with more extreme forms of Protestantism. Yet the collect far pre-dates the 16th century, and first appears sometime before the 8th century in the Gregorian Sacramentary as the collect for the second Sunday in Lent. It continued as the collect for the second Sunday in Lent when it made its way into the Sarum Missal; and in the first English Book of Common Prayer it remains in that place, as it does in our 1928 Prayer Book. Only for the 1979 does it shift to the third Sunday.
Chances are the collect was originally composed, at least in part, to combat lingering trends towards Pelagianism. Now Pelagiansim was a heresy denounced by Church councils in both the 5th and 6th centuries, and which held that we human beings did in fact have power in ourselves to help ourselves. It was actually a family of beliefs; among them, the belief “that original sin did not taint human nature and that mortal will is still capable of choosing good or evil without special Divine aid”. By condemning Pelagianism the Church was attempting to safeguard God as the only good and source of good, while at the same seeking to express humanity’s absolute dependence on God. Presently it seems helpful to appreciate the Church’s stance on Pelagianism as a condemnation of self-justification through rule-keeping; that is, a condemnation of the idea that by doing all the “right” things we find our salvation, and moreover that our inisght is unclouded enough that we are able always to know what the right thing is. In condemning Pelagianism the Church is, in large part, trying to affirm that the Christian life is at its heart about a relationship with God, not a series of actions we take or rules we keep.
Today we are invited in the Hebrew Scriptures to reflect on the Ten Commandments, and I am sure that many of us here remember having to memorize them as children in Sunday School. Certainly, one of the darkest aspects of the English Reformation was the denuding of English churches and cathedrals of traditional decorations and devotion. In many churches these were replaced with large wooden plaques upon which were painted the Ten Commandments. This practice was translated to churches in the American colonies, and tcontinued well into the 19th century. So, as Anglicans we have a particular relationship with the Ten Commandments. At the same time, as Americans we have been raised on the mythos of the pioneer and the ethos of pulling ourselves up by our own bootstraps. We have been weaned on the idea of achievement through sheer effort and works. These two realities can give to us a Pelagian cast, because while in themselves rules and a sense of self-sufficiency can be beneficial, at their extremes they can create in us an inflated sense of pride in our own efforts, as well as a callous attitude towards others who cannot seem to “get it together”, as it were. They can undermine relationship and the reality of our inter-connectedness. At their worst, they keep us from confronting how really dependent we are on God and on each other, how short-sighted we can be about the simple good fortune that comes our way, while pandering to our very human inclination to manipulate. They allow us to hide from our essential powerlessness – as Jesus reminds those who listened to him: “Can any of you…add a single hour to your span of life?” (Matthew 6:27) – and more importantly from the truth that in our powerlessness we are all equal one with another.
Nevertheless, we take inordinate pride in our achievements; and our confidence in them becomes a way to hide from our brokeness. But, worse still, when we use those achievments to look down on others who for any number of reasons have not “made the grade”. Equally our pride in doing the right thing, following all the rules quickly becomes a way to keep up the façade of order and control. Worse still, we learn to the manipulate situations in order that we can still feel superior in our rule-keeping, and still get our way, as it were. How many of us have sat and considered how we can stay just within the remit of a particular rule, while breaking it in spirit. How many have used the technical demands of a specific law to benefit our own self-interest at the detriment of someon else? Look for a moment at the Gospel. Ever wondered why there are money-changers in the Temple? Well, the Law allowed only for Jewish money – shekels to be used in the Temple precincts, so the money changers provided an importance service. They would take your Roman money, and change it into shekels – for a price, of course – and they made a tidy profit. What a great way to help your fellow keep the law and fleece him at the same time. On the other hand, how often do we appeal to simplistic regulations in order to hide from what we know to be our inherent powerlessness? Things didn’t go exactly as you expected them to, people or circumstances exposed your powerlessness, then just find, or have someone find for you, precisely the right law that will allow you to sue. It’s the American way, after all.
If you are anything like me, think for a moment of the many little lies you tell yourself, the many little delusions you hide behind, the inordinate amount of work you do, the petty excuses you make, the complicated manipulations you contrive in order to hide your powerlessness: your powerelessness over situations, over other people, over your health, over your financial circumstances, over the weather, over what others will think of you, over job security, over personal safety. It can all become a dizzying dance that can leave us literally exhausted, certainly spiritually bankrupt, and in its midst we may find ourselves saying with the Apostle Paul: “Wretched [person] that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?” And his answer is our answer: “Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Of course, there certainly things over which we have a modicum of control, things which we can do to enable our well-being, but the truth is that we are powerless over much of day to day existence, and that we are powerless over much of ourselves. In Lent, we pray that our powerlessness will be exposed, as frightening as that feel for us. We pray also that the devices and manipulations we use to hide and to hide from our powerlessness will be exposed too; that we will recognise in our powerlessness our inherent equality with everyone, that we are in the same boat – in need of God’s power by which to be kept safe, and in need of God’s goodness in which to find our own.
It is not easy to face the extent of our powerlessness, and so undoubtedly it is easier to assert our capacity for self-determination or to take refuge in following rules, both in order to hide the uncertainties of life to which we are subject and over which we indeed have no power. And yet, only by accepting the truth of this situation, can we learn the real freedom that comes only with the life of grace: that we needn’t control, that we needn’t manipulate, that we needn’t justify, that God is in charge, and that our wholeness, our salvation and our protection lie in God’s plans and God’s hands. At the end of the day, the problem with raw Pelagianism is that it replaces God’s love, care and mercy – God’s grace – with our own half-hearted and damaged efforts, which even when well-intended we must admit are can never really be enough.
Almighty God, you know that we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves:
Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls,
that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body,
and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul;
through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
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