Works of the Flesh Embodying our Faith By Rev. Dr. Todd F. Eklof January 24, 16

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1 Embodying our Faith By Rev. Dr. Todd F. Eklof January 24, 16 How many of us have ever been told, You should be ashamed of yourself? My guess is most us have heard it and all of us have, at least, felt it. For we live in a culture rooted in shame, which may be why ours is, conversely, such an unforgiving and punitive society too. We live, after all, in what s supposed to be a free country, yet have the largest prison population in the world. I m not going to suggest, however, that shame is inherently evil. For I believe shame, like all feelings, developed for some evolutionary advantage, for the purpose, that is, of helping us survive. As a social animal, it probably emerged as unwanted or negative feelings associated with mistreating others. If we associate harming others with negative feelings, then we are less likely to harm others. This is why it s difficult to look those we have wronged in the eyes. Shame makes us to want to avoid them. Shame and sham share the same root because shame makes us want to hide our faces. This understanding of shame is also why, in my opinion, so many societies have some version of the Golden Rule; Do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Each of us is born with an innate understanding of good and evil based upon the experiences of pleasure and pain. We naturally gravitate toward pleasure and avoid pain. So, again, as social creatures, we instinctively realize we ought not do anything to deprive others of pleasure or to cause them pain a biological ethic that has been articulated in many cultures as the universal Golden Rule. Shame, then, is the opposite of this natural law, this biological sense, this inner law. We feel it, or, at least, should feel it, when we cause harm to others. Sadly, some have manipulated this emotion in order to control others. Instead of feeling ashamed for harming others, something that s fairly easy to avoid, we are made to always feel ashamed, like we are innately bad, born bad, because of inherent qualities like our skin color, nationality, gender, sexual orientation and identity, or the economic circumstances, religion, and neighborhoods we are born into. So, instead of being a useful emotion that innately discourages us from harming one another, which could have prevented so many of the injustice in our history, shame has become the very excuse for doing so. We harm others because they deserve it, because they are inherently shameful and deserve to be punished. So if they re destined for Hell in the afterlife, we might as well treat them like hell in this one. This reversal of shame s biological function is expressed in many societies that consider it an insult for inferiors to look their superiors in the eye. Instead of feeling ashamed for exploiting others, oppressors believe those they exploit deserve to suffer

2 because they are innately flawed, born to a lower class, born to be ruled, born to be overpowered, by some natural order or mandate from heaven. So, rather than averting their own eyes from those they exploit and oppress, the entire culture has come to believe it is offensive for those at the bottom to gaze, as equals, into the eyes of those who dominate them. Of course, in the United States, where the ideas of freedom, democracy, and equality are supposed to be paramount, not looking someone in the eyes when addressing them is considered rude and makes us seem shifty. So instead of an honor/shame code, we justify the exploitation of others, the prioritization of people, with our Fall/Redemption theology, the belief that everyone is born guilty of something and should, therefore, be ashamed of themselves. So, again, we aren t guilty of harming others, not made to feel ashamed form exploiting others or supporting systems of inequality and injustice. We are guilty, rather, of simply being born, born in sin and shame. Thus our sense of shame is no longer rooted in our behavior, in how we treat others, but in our very bodies. Shame is congenital. Shame is physical. Shame is not what we do; it s what we are. It s in our blood, and bones, and genes. So, instead of concerning ourselves with creating just societies in which everyone prospers, we get hung up on saving ourselves from our own bodies. The powers that be, those few people on top who, throughout human history, have benefited most through systems of injustice and exploitation, are convinced and have convinced the masses, that each of us is worthy of suffering and unworthy of happiness simply because we have bodies. Our bodies are shameful, ravenous things that, if left unrestrained, would threaten everyone in their path of lust and savagery. As Freud said, civilization has to be defended against the individual, and its regulations, institutions and commands are directed to that task. 1 Society, in short, is afraid of true freedom, of individuals doing their own thing and authentically expressing themselves. One of the primary institutions erected for helping to defend civilization against these wolves in human clothing, is, of course, religion. In Christianity, for instance, the dominant religion in our culture, the body, called, the Flesh, is considered utterly debase. Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, the Apostle Paul wrote, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these... 2 This is how little Paul thought of the natural human condition, that our flesh, or bodies, are ravenous monsters that need to be constrained by some divine power. 1 Freud, Sigmund, The Future of an Illusion, W.W. Norton & Company, New York, NY, 1961, 1989, p Galatians 5:

3 Our criminal justice system is another institution obviously erected for the task of defending civilization against these sins of the flesh, against individuals who, if left unconstrained, would wreck havoc. And because some individuals are, apparently, born even worse than others, as indicated by their darker skinned bodies, this is one institution that targets people of color, disproportionately stopping them, arresting them, incarcerating them, executing them, and gunning them down in the streets. And when we look at the impossibly fit, trim, and chiseled bodies of models and actors in advertizing and entertainment, most of us are made to feel we re not living up to the ideal, that there is something physically wrong with us. We re not as thin, or as muscular, or as young, or as beautiful as we re supposed to be. Almost everywhere we turn, a magazine cover, a billboard, a TV commercial, or to the rules and mores we re supposed to follow, or even to many of our churches and other places of worship, there s another reminder that there s something physically wrong with us, that our shame is a physical thing. It makes sense that this age old disdain of our bodies, and anything physical for that matter, is responsible for the dualistic mindset that has been predominant in Western culture for thousands of years a mindset that prefers the ideal to the real, the spiritual to the material, the mind to the body, heaven to earth, thought to deed, order to chaos, authority to freedom, miracles to the mundane, fantasy to facts, invisible to visible, and so forth. Origen of Alexandria, for example, Christianity s very first systematic theologian, born way back in only the 2 nd century, believed in the preexistence of souls, that everyone lives in an eternal spiritual realm before becoming flesh. The first creation is incorporeal, without body, he thought, the second is corporeal. 3 Just as Adam and Eve, whom, for Origen, represent the entire human race, were covered with animal skins before being cast out of Eden, each eternal soul becomes embodied, covered with skin, in the lowly physical realm, which came into existence the moment they sinned. So the earthly, material, corporeal realm and everything in it, including our bodies, has long been associated with evil and punishment. Whether we still buy into these ancient beliefs or not, this negative association of anything physical, has permeated our underlying cultural mindset. And the instinctive response for many of us has not only been a sense of shame, that there s something inherently wrong with us, something foul that has been with us since birth, but that the same is true of everyone, that everyone should be ashamed of themselves. It has also left us with a feeling that the material realm itself is unimportant and undesirable and should be avoided and ignored as much as possible. 3 Scott, Mark S. M., Journey Back to God: Origen on the Problem of Evil, American Academy of Religion (AAR) and Oxford University Press, Inc., New York, NY, 2012, (Kindle Version) loc.,

4 Again, as Paul wrote, For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 4 Thus, as the old Christian saying goes, we should be in the world but not of it. But this sense is not only prevalent in the dominant religion of our culture. One of the four noble truths of Buddhism, for instance, is that desire, Dukkha, causes suffering. Although this is really about finding peace of mind by learning to let go of the things we can t control, many westerners, in particular, influenced by Fall/Redemption theology, interpret it to mean they should remain detached from everything, in the world but not of it, so they don t ever have to experience pain. During a recent sermon I mentioned a conversation I had just a short time ago in which someone questioned the validity of my religion because it doesn t emphasize the transcendent and that there must be something more than what is just human. This is another manifestation of the ancient shame-based paradigm that being human isn t good enough, that we must also be spiritual by somehow transcending our lowly human existence. So, I ve intentionally spent a lot of time outlining the problem in an effort to expose the paradigm, so that we can see it s not just a theological problem limited to Christianity, but that it permeates our cultural mindset and influences us in many other ways too. The question is why? Why, in our culture, in particular, is simply being born, simply being physical such a terrible thing? Why are we so compelled to reject our humanity and determined to leave this world? Who benefits from this mindset? Throughout most of human history our species has realized and appreciated its physicality, its connection to the land, its relationship to other creatures, and its dependence upon nature. This is why so many of our mythologies contain stories of human beings originating from the ground. We all know the story of Adam being fashion out of earth. The very name, Adam, means, of the earth, similar to the word, Pueblo, which means both people and mud. Pueblos are both the people and the mud houses they live in. In fact, the very word, human, from humus, means, earth; the people and the planet that is or home. So the truth that our species, like all other creatures, emerges from the earth has been obvious since the dawn of time, yet our culture continues to reject our earthiness, even to the point that more than 40 percent of those living in the U.S. still don t believe in evolution. Why? I would suggest this is so because, as I said earlier, civilization has to be defended against the individual, and its regulations, institutions and commands are directed to that task. Our shame-based culture, in short, helps maintain the status quo. It compels us to want to look, think, and act like most everyone else, to mute ourselves, to repress our uniqueness, to conceal our individuality, because shame causes us to want to hide ourselves, to hide our true faces. Unfortunately, tragically, because shame is seen as something ontological, something physical, something genetic we are born with, 4 Galatians 5:17 4

5 there are certain congenital differences we can t hide, which is precisely why those born into prominent, wealthy families with light skin and a penis, have long been treated as if they are more deserving and more worthy than others. Everyone else, who is apparently different from this highest standard, from this ideal, thus, deserves to be dominated by wealthy white men. In identifying shame with our bodies, furthermore, we become unable to take advantage of its true purpose, to recognize when others are being unjustly treated. For if we were as ashamed of racism, or sexism, or homophobia, or poverty, or war as we are of just being born, wealthy white men couldn t get away with dominating others, nor would they even want to. Instead of desiring to transcend this world, we would desire to transform it, to make it a more just place for everyone so none of us has to feel ashamed of ourselves. When we are ashamed of ourselves, of our physical existence, we disdain physical existence. When we hate matter, nothing matters. All we want is to leave this earth, to transcend our shame, to transcend this miserable existence. In our culture the very word, grounded, is associated with punishment. And many of us want to be anything but grounded, anything but stuck here, bound to this lowly world. We want to transcend it, to achieve nirvana, to become enlightened. Yet, when we consider the origins and evolution of the Universe, we don t see matter transforming itself into light. It s the other way around. The real miracle is light becoming flesh. All the energy we consume comes from photons stored inside the bodies of the plants and animals we eat. Physicist David Bohm once said that all matter is frozen light. 5 This is not just true of human flesh, theologian Matthew Fox says, but of all flesh, the oranges we eat and the tea we drink, the grasses and the animals, the birds and the stars are all slow moving light. Matter is light. It is very special light. 6 So if we want to truly become enlightened, the trick isn t transcending this existence, but fully embodying it, fully stepping into our bodies of light, fully incarnating our faith and values by living them out in this world, not by longing to become something more someplace else. Our bodies are the most highly evolved form of light we know of, and when we fully incarnate, fully step into the material world, we come to appreciate the gift of life and the wonder of our being, while, at the same time, facing the pain of our existence and recognizing the pain of others. In being here, fully embodying this time and place, we want to get involved, to engage with others, to embrace existence, and to protect all life on Earth. When we occupy our bodies, our bodies move us to occupy life, to occupy Wall Street, to occupy Ferguson, and to occupy anywhere else injustice needs to be addressed. When we ground ourselves, when we stick our naked feet into the wet mud and feel it ooze between our toes, we no longer need feel ashamed of the color of our skin, or of our hormonal, 5 Fox, Matthew, One River, Many Wells, Jeremy Tarcher/Putnam, New York, NY, 2000, p Ibid. 5

6 chromosomal, and gonadal makeup, or of the size of our bank accounts, or of whom we love, or any other arbitrary circumstance of our birth. The only thing to be ashamed of is not caring for this life, of not caring for others, and of ignoring the injustices around us. 6