God’s Psychology: Reflections on the Lessons of Proper 19

There are two laws of human nature which we encounter periodically. The first is the Law of Regret. Its captured very nicely in the Joni Mitchell song, “don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got til it's gone. They paved paradise, and built up a parking lot.” The second is the Law of Seeking and Finding. In this edition of the Mini Steeple, I will focus on the first law, and in the next letter, I will focus on the second.

The Law of Regret is simply the regret we feel at losing things. Most of us will recognize this as descriptive of human experience. There is even a patron saint of lost items, St. Jude. Jesus knew this law and used it in a number of parables. Chapter 15 of Luke is known as ‘…the lost things’ chapter. Therein are found the stories of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son. These are well known stories because they illustrate something we all know: the anguish of losing something.

Losing things marks our lives. Moving to St. Dunstan’s, it wasn’t long before I discovered that I had lost something. It was my Daytimer. For me, this is my right arm. Everything is there…it's like my purse substitute. This time, I lost it having put my paycheck in a pocket flap, where “I knew I wouldn’t lose it.” Looking feverishly around the tables of the Rummage Sale, I was horrified at the thought of having laid it down inadvertently while examining merchandise, and never finding it again. I really didn’t want to have to go to Bob Dwyer and ask him to write me another check. One of the ladies at the sale asked me about what I was so concerned, and her reply was “Oh, is that all? I lost mine two years ago. Real maturity is learning to get on with your life having lost it.”

Did you know that the average corporate executive spends 15 minutes/ day trying to locate things in his office? I am a veteran at this. I told Howard Smith that I was the only guy I knew who could simply sit at his desk in a morning, not move for two hours, and lose three pieces of paper. He comforted me by saying that I was not the only guy he knew that could do that.

The point is, we lose things. Then we feel regret. Then we discover how very valuable the lost item really was. Then we become existentially aware of the all too human attributes of taking something for granted, or even worse, presuming on the grace that gave it to us.

As always, there is a spiritual lesson here. Jesus, our messiah, knows this trait in us. He even identifies himself with it. Just as we know what it is like to lose a Daytimer, or an animal, or a coin, Jesus says his father knows about loss. In his case, it's the loss of the human race.

The next point has to do with losing God. Despite the fact that most of us think that God cannot be lost, Psalm 14 says that he can. It further says that we can lose any number of things and be worried to death over it, but have no concern about losing God. Alexander Solzhenitsyn, the Russian literary giant of the Cold War years, came to believe that his country had lost God and replaced him with godless communism. Then he came to the West, and after a few years turned around and went back to Russia. He had concluded that the Liberated West was quickly losing God as well.

Thinking about 9/11 last week, I was reminded of a conversation between Ted Koppel and Ruth Graham Lott after the World Trade Center attacks. “How could the good and loving God that you proclaim allow such a bad thing to happen?” he asked. She replied, “We have removed God from the family. We have removed God from our schools. We have removed him from our places of business. We have removed him from the Public Square. This I know: God is a gentleman. If we want him to absent himself, he will. But then, wouldn’t you agree, it is most disingenuous to first ask him to cease from informing us, and then blame him for not protecting us?”

These are some of the dynamics of the Law of Regret. But I have neglected the greatest part, the corollary of rejoicing when that which is lost is found. Most importantly, God. God, like Daytimers, coins, sheep and sons, can be found. We will explore that subject in the next Mini Steeple.

Father Tom

The "In-Between" Times

We are in what C. S. Lewis called the ‘In-Between’ times. He was saying that the Christian Church lives in a period of time between the Ascension of Jesus Christ and his Second Coming. This is ‘interim’ in the ‘really big picture’ sense.

There are other pictures of in-between times not quite as big: Abraham and the patriarchs lived in the time between the promises God made and the realization of those promises, fulfilled when Joshua led the people into the Land of Promise. In that sense, Moses was an interim minister. Ezekiel was the prophet of interim times. The time between Malachi and John the Baptist was an interim time. The time between the Resurrection and Pentecost was an ‘in-between’ time.

Our lives are marked by ‘in between times.’ Engagements, honeymoons and pregnancies are transition times. Apprenticeships and internships are interim periods. College should be so considered. Anyone who wants college to be more than that will become simply a perpetual student: of use neither to oneself nor to anyone else.

All of this is to introduce the idea that St. Dunstan’s is in such an ‘in-between time.’ But this is simply not a time of waiting and wasting. It is meant to be a time of preparing, evaluating, planning and deciding. There are four things to be done in this ‘in-between' time:

First, please let me know if you need any pastoral care or visitations this summer. Because Fr. Fred knew you so much better than I do, he could anticipate your needs in a way that I cannot. If you are in the hospital or find yourself in some kind of crisis, call the office or my home or Fr. Mann.

Second, please address all your comments and questions about the process of finding a new rector to the Vestry. They are the ones who are organizing and overseeing it. Bishop Mathes will be here to talk with us about it on Thursday evening, June 28, at 6:30. And, Canon Jenny Vervynck has scheduled workshops on the process for Saturday morning July 7 from 9:00 to 11:30, Wednesday evening July 25 from 6:30 to 9:00, and Sunday July 29 from 11:00 to 1:30 (pick one).

A:Here at St. Dunstan’s we use several colors to indicate the season of the church year: purple for Advent and Lent, white for Christmas and Easter, green for the seasons after Epiphany and Pentecost, and red for Pentecost. At times we also use blue, gold, dark red, and unbleached linen. Here is the reason for the colors...