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For the last six or seven months I have been thinking a lot about the nature of desire. More generally, I have been asking myself and the Holy Spirit how we harness desire when it comes to making and being disicples. And to do this in a way that asnwers the questions that Millenials and Gen Z are asking. (In Brazil, these two generations are remarkabley similar to their American counterparts in outlook, internal narratives, and the questions they ask.)
We (rightly) tend to start where Jesus said we should: “Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”” – Matthew 16:24
In teaching this, however, I think that it is easy to make two fundamental errors:
1. Focusing on the intellectual content of the command.
2. Disicpling people to move against desires in a way that draws us away from the Lord rather than to Him. (I’ll disucss this one in the next newsletter).
Regarding the first. Mot of our attempts to convey this teaching tend to come in the form of presentation of content, a thorough exegesis, or an apologetic. That is – our methodology can tend to be principly an attempt to present the right information. That is of course where we have to start, but the information along with an admonishment of “now that you know this just do it” is simply not enough. It’s a mistake to think that solid exegisis, a thorough theological articulation, and an appeal to reason will produce meaningful change. The presentation is not aimed at the right apsect of our human experince. The Bible presents us not as principly rational beings, but as affective, desiring beings. For us, intent is nearly always prior to content.
It is nearly always the case, and esepcailly in something as profund as our sexuality or politics, that our desires pre-shape our intellect and the rational reception of information.
If you don’t believe me, this election season I invite you try to present the most rational, well reasoned case for your chosen political candidate to someone of the opposit political party in an attempt to have them intellectualy acknowledge the veracity of your claims and switch political affiliations. Good luck.
We contend not only with the stark, intellectual facts of our argument. We also must address deeply held ideas and images of the heart that shape how people interpret facts and information. And we must do this in a posture of humility and with the dispositions that come from the fruits of the Spirit rather than from a combative posuture, and the fruits that come from a mentality that we are under seige.
In his book Rennovation of the Heart the theologian Dallas Willard says that ideas are “very general models of or assumptions about reality. They are patterns of interpretation, historically developed and socially shared…Our idea system is a cultural artifact, growing up with us from our earliest childhood and out of the teachings, expectations, and observable behaviors of family and community” (pg 96-97).
Regarding images he says “Images are always concrete or specific, as opposed to the abstractness of ideas, and are heavily laden with feeling…they frequently present themselves with the force of perception and have a powerful emotional and sensuous linkage to governing idea systems.’ (pg 99).
These ideas and images, tightly bound up to our desires for the good life, are the primary stronghold of human evil in society and serve as the locus of our personal and social contentions.
I don’t think that the word order of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, or the word order of the Great Commandment in Matthew 22 is accidental. It start first with this: “You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart..” and then it goes on to speak of loving with all your soul, strength, and mind. The heart, that is the affective, desiring aspect of our being, holds a place of primacy in our lives when it comes to both proclaming the Good News, and in being disicpled in the Way of Jesus.
So when it comes to faithfully addressing questions of political action, of human sexuality, of worship styles, or of disicpleship methodologies, we often must address the question beyond the initial question. We often have to dig deeper to find out the why behind the questions of poltics, or sexuality, or worship styles. To do that, we must pull on the threads of desire which will lead us to the deeply held ideas and images, and beyond that – ultimatley to the desire for God Himself that is the most fundamental truth of our being.
This is admittadly hard work. It’s much easier to gather a crowd to hear an amazing exegesis of the Bible, than it is to cultivate the sort the life-on-life know-how and facilitate the sort of intimate gatherings that allow for exmainination and exegsesis of the heart.
Despite the difficulty, it is worth the effort. And cultivating an ecclesiology that facilitates the examination of desire will be a major focus of this next season of ministry for us.
In undertaking this endeavor, Jesus’ question to Blind Bartimaues in Mark 10 might be the most pertinent starting question: “What do you want me to do for you?”
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