Lent: Give Up Selfishness

 

For where there is envy and selfish ambition, there will also be disorder and wickedness of every kind. - James 3:16

There is a Greek word that describes the trinity of God (Creator, Spirit, Christ): perichoresis. A fancy word that means to “dance around.” It is a word that the early church chose to describe the ways that the triune God works in three separate, but united beings. When one moves, this causes the others to move, when one reveals, this causes the others to be revealed. When Christ is born human, this brings humanity into the being of Creator and Spirit. There is intimacy in this relationship - the death of Christ brings death to God, but it also shows the ways that when one member of the trinity acts, it affects the beings of the other two.

Yes, this is a fancy way of trying to describe a God of which we cannot fully understand, but it also is an invitation and calling parallel to such intimacy here on earth with one another. If God made creation in God’s own image, we must conclude that such intimacy and affects constitute our relationships in that creation. In other words, our actions affect others. We know this, but in paralleling God’s relationship with God’s self, there is then a call upon us as God seeking people: we must consider our actions as they can affect one another in a loving and considerate way. To seek out the cheapest groceries is to ignore the pay of the farm worker. To stay silent when our sisters in Christ are paid less than our brothers is to ignore oppression. To be selfish is to deny the perichoresis, the dance and therefore the very nature of God, but it also denies the nature of our own creation, the image of God who seeks to be considerate of the ways we affect one another.

Let us seek the dance with one another as it reflects the Divine. In this time of Lent, we can find God in all the ways we are connected to one another.