February 12, 2012
Walter Brueggeman has named a concept and written a book about a Journey to the Common Good. It calls me toward responsibilities that reach a bit beyond those I'd acknowledged. It calls me to care just as much for others as I care for myself. It calls me to face disappointment with the same kind of energy I get from success. The concept is easy but the practice is difficult,-- too difficult for me to describe clearly. It reminds me that even the things I believe in most, like feeding the poor, need to be tested against their effect on all people, all beings and the world itself. At first glance, the common-good sounds pretty close to the moral stance to which we all aspire.
Indeed, Brueggemann builds his ideal from study of the Bible, study of Old Testament scriptures about who God is, and what God wants, fortified by examples from Jesus' teachings. I like the book; I recommend it to all my friends. (Tom Taylor who sells books here, helps me keep track of how many friends I have by telling me how many books he has sold. So far, I think the number of friends stands at 2.)
I like this book because it challenges me in a single sentence that describes me (and perhaps others) with brutal precision, as he explains why he doubts that American Christians will be able to formulate an adequate response to the crises we face. He doubts that we can do it because of a “birthright sense of consumer entitlement that we and our children breathe daily.” I take that sentence to mean that I and others like me believe that by virtue of having been born into our privileged corner of the 99%, that I am entitled to buy and use whatever I can afford, regardless of it's impact on the economic and natural environment. For me, its far more true than I'd like. I Have to admit that I'd complain if I was unable to find a store where I could buy the latest computer-like gadget that I felt I 'needed,' and when my gasoline tank approaches empty, there darn-well better be an open gas station nearby.
We Christians are pretty good at saying we oppose military violence, Brueggeman says, but not so good at letting go of habits that make conflict and wars inevitable. We condone commercial violence and empire building that put ourselves and others in harms way. I'm persuaded by Brueggemann and others that Capitalism always creates pools of wealth. This wealth makes many good things happen, (including the 8th-day missions, of which we are justly proud) but it also creates income inequality and pockets of poverty. Capitalism also creates product availability (Mike Schaff, Victoria and I recently saw evidence of this at the U.S. Patent museum.)
I sometimes see Barack Obama as a tragic figure because, although he often knows better ways than those he follows, he has chosen a vocation which requires him to try to meet the consumer entitlement expectations of a 'spoiled' electorate, of which I am an active part.
I urge my friends to apply the common-good test to their lives, but when I try to do it myself, I find it's harder than I'd thought, surely harder than I could express in a few words. So instead of trying to say how I think we should do it, I'll sketch what I know about some notable people's visions of what the common-good should look like. Maybe we can be inspired by work they have done.
Walter Brueggemann
Mining his knowledge of God's history as understood by Biblical writers, Brueggemann distills two competing triads of virtues among ancient Hebrew leaders: one, which focused on worldly yearnings spoken mostly by nobility and priests and the other discerning God's own sense of a 'common good' for all people, spoken mostly by Moses and the prophets.
The worldly triad features a certain kind of wisdom, (wise in the ways of manipulating people), physical power and accumulation of wealth. Solomon's reign exemplified ways in which scarcity was used to manipulate people, much as Pharaoh had used it to enslave the Hebrews. Last Sunday, as I watched the Superbowl and its commercials I noticed that this worldly triad is alive and well where we live.)
That's the worldly triad, a very different Godly triad announced by God's acts, by Moses and the prophets is founded on the abundance and caring provided by God. The Godly triad features steadfast love, justice, and acts of righteousness. It's the Biblical theme picked up by Jesus and expanded.
God's preference for neighborliness is proclaimed by Jeremiah:
May the wise not boast of manipulative wisdom,
May the strong not boast of their strength
May the rich not boast of their wealth,
May the one who knows me
know that I, God, am not pleased by these things, but rather by
Steadfast love,
by Justice and
by Righteous acts.
Jer 9.23,24
Mahatma Gandhi
My own vision for the common-good includes movement toward interfaith respect and perhaps even toward readiness for interfaith worship. I therefore welcomed an opportunity last year to learn something about the Bhagavad Gita at our Servant Leadership School. The Gita is Hindu scripture; 700 lines of poetry. We learned that the Gita was the avowed foundation of Gandhi's disciplined spiritual life. He did his own translation and published an English language commentary on the work which offers an accessible window, I think, into what he was thinking about while he was changing history. It also lends supportive evidence to something well demonstrated in this community: that disciplined spiritual lives nourish creative worldly lives. Our long-running 8th Day experiment with this principle has created enduring institutions that have changed the face of our city somewhat, and I've been privileged to watch it happen at close range.
The Gita takes the form of authoritative spiritual teaching, as Krishna, an incarnation of the Hindu God, Vishnu, gives face-to-face instruction to a young nobleman on his worldly duties which are, in turn, his religious duties. Gandhi has said:
“When doubts haunt me, when disappointment stares me in the face
and I see not one ray of light on the horizon,
I turn to the Bhagavad Gita and find a verse to comfort me;
and I immediately begin to smile
in the midst of overwhelming sorrow.”
The Gita is the “song of God.” Gandhi calls it the gospel of selfless action. One sign of Gandhi's devotion to the Gita is that he and his associates recited the same 18 verses every day in order to fully “understand their meaning and be guided by them.” The text I'm reading has a one-liner for each of the 18; I've picked just three examples to say a few words about.
Verse 55: put away cravings; find comfort only from the inner spirit.
One is much distracted by outside enticements, but to find peace, look inside the soul.
56: strive to be free from anger fear and wrath
57: respond in the same way to good things and bad. Ghandi wrote:
“...clay,stone and gold – all are equal. All three come from the earth. As clay and gold are ultimately the same substance, so the (saint) and the sinner are ultimately one. … We will have risen above this ordinary level only when we learn to have equal regard for either.”Gandhi, p90
This Hindu principle enriches my meditations about our never-too- satisfying definitions of God's justice.
58 "withdraw from sensuous objects
59 yearning for the sensuous ends only if you see/realize God
60 unruly senses distract perforce
61 with senses controlled, sit intent on me, God
62 anger is born of desire is born of attachment to sense objects
63 ruined from loss of understanding from memory lapse from confusion from anger
64 feeling senses w/o attachment or aversion, one can can attain peace."
“He who lives with his senses no longer subject to attachments and aversions and perfectly under his control becomes fit for God's grace,” wrote Gandhi. I'd say we don't flunk out by having feelings, but we must learn to let go of them.
65 "peace of mind; in serenity,all sorrows dissolve
66 w/o devotion, no peace, without discipline, no happiness
67 while preoccupied with senses, no understanding
68 discernment firm when senses are reined in
69 ascetic sees night as day and vice versa
70 w/o desires, peace
71 w/o a sense of I & mine, peace
72 in Brahman at state of death, pure eternal calm forever"
Perhaps Gandhi's greatest legacy to the common-good was his development of politically effective non-violence. It was nourished by extraordinary self discipline.
Since living by the Gita seems to have been the spiritual engine that drove a most extraordinary life, it deserves more study than I have so far given it.
Thomas Berry
Berry is a Catholic Priest, Cultural historian, professor and ecological scholar. He died in 2009 after a long, full life. I have spoken of him before, so here I will just say that he was called to the great work of clarifying the role of the human community within the more inclusive communities of world and universe beings, and he urges us to continue that work while recognizing more clearly than we have so-far, that the human community is but a sub-system of the larger earth system rather than it's master and beneficiary. (And sometimes exploiter of earth's bounty, bounty such as coal that takes the form of mountains in parts of West Virginia, and oily sands that cover parts of Alberta.)
Berry's vision of the common-good is the most expansive, and most beautiful of those I have seen. He urges that we “carry out a transition from the current period of human devastation, to a period when humans would be present to the planet in a mutually beneficial manner.” This work could lead, he says, to a single yet differentiated community that includes all the human and other-than-human beings of the earth. In this community, every being would have roles, would have 'voice,' and would have rights that are recognized and respected by other beings, Rights of each being would be substantial, but limited to prevent avoidable hardship by others. I can not yet get my mind around the Berry Vision in a systematic way, but the goals are so attractive that I hope we will reach for them in every way we can. For me, Berry's call for us to step outside human-centered viewpoints of economics, science and theology seem especially urgent.
Common Good
As I reflect and meditate, I think sometimes of Brueggemanns Godly triad, of Gandhi's equanimity and non-violence; of Berry's vision of a single yet differentiated world community, and I try to imagine little steps I could take in those directions. Ghandi, changed world history; I don't guess I will do that.
Amen
Tom Brown
Brueggemann, Walter Journey to the Common Good 2010
Mahatma Gandhi The Bhagavad Gita According to Gandhi 2009
Berry, Thomas Evening Thoughts 2006