Grace and peace to you from the Mystery in whom we live and move, and have our being. Ash Wednesday.
If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people’s sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go.”
“Do you think God is in a box seat”
God in a Box Seat?
What a brilliant translation Eugene Peterson suggests in The Message: “Do you think God is in a box seat?”
According to Matthew’s gospel, Jesus is redirecting our outward performances by saying:
“And whenever you pray, do not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, so that they may be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward.”
Spectators and Participants
Jesus is inviting us to experience inward intimacy with God rather than stagey performances.
Many of our days are spent worrying about what other people think and do. It’s natural for us to want to control the narrative. At the same time, we seek affirmation and validation for our feelings, opinions, and work. Naturally, this desire to be heard and seen seeps into spiritual piety. Peterson translates this public piety by asking, “You think God is sitting in a box seat?” Ouch! I often give God the best seat in my house for my egoistic performances.
It can ruin relationships. I’ve had what I call an “applause addiction.” These performances come with expectations. We are like children shouting to their parents, “Look at me, look at me!” Only, as adults, it becomes, “Love me, hear me, see me!” I think when we make public displays with our words and deeds, we are not participating in God’s work—we are spectators.
In this life, there are spectators and participants. So it stands to reason that, in the kingdom of God, there are also participants and spectators. We are called to participate in God’s divine nature, not the other way around.
When I go to a basketball game, I am one of thousands sitting in the stands. Though I am just a spectator, I seem to think I know more than the officials, the coach, and the players—what calls should be made and who should take the last shot. I’m not alone. Like a Roman coliseum, the wisdom of the crowd is shouted.
Invitation of god
But who are the participants? They are the ones sitting on the bench and the five on the court. They have journeyed intimately with their coach and teammates, both in season and off. They’ve learned from their failures and celebrated their successes. The coach, like a conductor, reminds his players to keep their eyes on him in the middle of the hostile noise. The bond between coach and player deepens through the hard times.
Spectators live and die with the outcomes, often making public spectacles of themselves. Participants, however, grow in intimacy with their coach and teammates. They are taught to let go of outcomes and focus on the task at hand. In other words, they trust the coach’s process—even in the emptiest of places, as Peterson paraphrases in Matthew.
God’s desire is to coach us into a new life that bursts onto the world’s scene with wisdom and compassion. It originates from within us—in the stillness, in the quiet. It takes place in season and off, when nobody else is watching.
Playing for performance alone is what they call playing “hero ball.” The player’s actions make the coach an ineffective spectator. The coach is on the bench—or in a box seat—while we make fools of ourselves. The game is won or lost based on that one player’s performance.
The invitation of God is clear. Though your outer circumstances may appear bleak, do not do as others who pray on street corners for all to see, and do not play hero ball with your outward cries and futile words of worry.
Ash Wednesday
The invitation is to enter the paradox of the spiritual life. We let go of the outcomes of our doings. We die to our egos. Even if they appear to be right, they are nothing without God. Our victory is birthed from death—just like the beginning of the Lenten season.
This season, practice the paradox of dying to live.
From the ashes and from the dust. Many of the same people who waved palm fronds for Jesus—symbolizing peace—would later call for his crucifixion. Were they joining with Jesus in the palm fronds of peace or victory? Were they spectators or participants?
Ancient Greeks presented palm branches to athletes as a sign of victory. The spiritual life calls for our personal victorious palm fronds to be burned. The ashes of our ego become the place of Christs resurrection—in us, for us, and for the world around us.
Today is Ash Wednesday.
May we allow the ashes of our past indulgences and religious piety to create space for the desires of God.
Then, the desire of God fills our lives, and we can join the work of our brother Jesus, who said:
“The spirit of the Lord is upon me, to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind. To set at liberty those who are oppressed and proclaim this the day of the Lord!”
This is the desire of God.
Box Seat
Let us pause for a moment and ask: God, who am I that You would invite me to take part in Your divine nature, in the healing and salvation of myself and the world?
Let us begin this Lenten season with a pause to hear the participatory invitation of God’s presence.
Feel the Spirit’s healing waters cool the heat of our displeasure and discomfort.
The box seat is now vacant. God takes center stage in our hearts and is working out the world’s salvation through my salvation, in this moment.
Amen
Wednesday Respite is a 30-min contemplative service of scripture, prayer, music and a Spirited Touchpoint by Henry Rojas, spiritual director at Spirit in the Desert.
Touchpoint is a reflection on where God’s story touches our life story. It is a short homily based on a biblical story of people in the Old and New Testaments and their relationship with God. Our spiritual ancestors’ experience of God’s grace connects with our lives in the present and our relationship with the Divine. Previous Touchpoints are available as PDFs or on SoundCloud.
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