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- Herausgeber: IVP Formatio
- Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
- Sprache: Englisch
- Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021
What if we lived in a world of abundance? In the Beatitudes, Jesus offers nine sayings that move us beyond our first instincts and instead embrace the deeper reality of the kingdom of God. They name the illusions and false beliefs that have kept us chained and imprisoned. We've learned to live from a mentality of anxiety and greed, but what if a world of abundance with solace and comfort are actually near? We've learned to live by striving, competition, and comparison, but what if we all have equal dignity and worth? Mark Scandrette shows how the Beatitudes invite us into nine new postures for life. Instead of living in fear, we can choose radical love. It's often assumed that the good life is only for the most wealthy, attractive, and powerful. Poor, sad, and suffering people are left out. But the ninefold path of the Beatitudes is for everyone. Whatever your story, whatever your struggle, wherever you find yourself, this way is available to you.
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To Danielle Welch and Steve Bassett
Thank you for inviting me into your dream to see a new generation awaken to the revolutionary way of the Beatitudes.
Contents
Introduction
Nine Postures for Life
Shortly after my first book was published, a Zen priest contacted me. He wrote, “My name is Shinko. I believe you are the kind of Christian I could talk to about what is happening in my life.”
Over dinner a few weeks later, he explained,
I came to Jesus during the seventies Jesus movement. The church I joined taught me that only groups like ours had the right beliefs and that everyone else is going to hell. That didn’t sit well with me, and I became disaffected with the church as I knew it then. I began exploring Judaism and Eastern philosophy. Eventually, I became a dedicated student of Zen Buddhism. I have lived and worked at Green Gulch monastery for the past fifteen years.
What I’m trying to make sense of is . . . when I practice sitting meditation (zazen), I hear Jesus calling to me—and I don’t know what to do with that.
I asked Shinko what he believed about Jesus. He paused thoughtfully and replied, “I adore Jesus.” Tears began streaming down his cheeks. “I don’t know if I’d be considered orthodox by many Christians. But in my heart I know that I adore Jesus.”
Shinko and I became fast friends. We were an odd pair walking the streets of my neighborhood, a young pastor and a cheerful shorn-headed priest wearing a rakusu, robe, and sandals. In restaurants and cafés people would stop and smile at Shinko and bow respectfully.
At the time I wasn’t particularly conversant with faith traditions outside my own. So one day I asked Shinko, “What is the way of Zen Buddhism? When you wake up each day, what do you seek to do and be?”
In about four minutes Shinko succinctly answered my question. First, he named the Four Noble Truths. Then he explained the Eightfold Path: right understanding, right thought, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, and right concentration. “Each day I seek to deepen my experience of this path.”
I was struck by how clear and concrete his answer was.
Then Shinko turned and asked me, “Mark, you identify as a follower of Jesus. When you wake up each day, what do you seek to do and be?”
I hesitated. My first impulse was to explain how I‘d become a Christian. But that wasn’t the question. I quickly recovered and said, “Each day I try to love God with my whole being and love my neighbor as myself.”
I congratulated myself for giving an adequate answer. But I was haunted by how vague my response was compared to Shinko’s. What, exactly, do I do each day to love God and people? I didn’t have a clear answer.
How This Book Came to Be
On a summer evening in 2015 I was having drinks in a London pub with my friends Danielle and Steve. I asked Danielle about the most recent bombing in the city. She told me that ten young people a month are reportedly recruited and radicalized into terrorist organizations. “Meanwhile,” she exclaimed, “church participation in the UK continues to plummet. We simply aren’t giving young people a compelling vision for life!”
I mentioned what was happening back home in the United States. A series of highly publicized police shootings had galvanized the newly minted Black Lives Matter movement. In San Francisco, where I live, I’d recently been to the funeral of my twenty-year-old neighbor who had been shot six times in the back by two undercover officers.
Steve said, “It’s clear that our systems are broken.”
“And we are that system,” I added. “What we need is a whole new way of being.”
Steve and Danielle worked for a historic British Bible agency. With the prevalence of smartphones and Scripture apps, fewer people need printed Bibles anymore. “What does seems scarce,” Steve said, “is a meaningful connection between Scripture and everyday life. Young people today have little interest in church, but that doesn’t mean they aren’t spiritually curious. Many would resonate with themes found in the Beatitudes—justice, peacemaking, nonviolence, etc.”
“Has there ever been a moment when we’ve needed the message of the Beatitudes more?” Danielle exclaimed.
That night, Danielle and Steve invited me to join a project based on the Beatitudes called NINE BEATS Collective. My life passion is helping people apply the teachings of Christ to everyday life. So immediately I said yes.
I told Danielle and Steve that the project made me think of the haunting conversation I’d had with Shinko years before.
Danielle could see where the story was going. “So are you suggesting that the Beatitudes might be like the ninefold path of Jesus?” She asked.
“Exactly,” I said. Dallas Willard used to say that the Sermon on the Mount is the best example we have of a “curriculum for Christlikeness.” The problem is that there are one hundred ten verses in those three chapters. If most of us find it hard to remember a ten-digit phone number, no wonder we struggle to keep the teachings of Christ at the forefront of our minds. Maybe the Beatitudes can function as a thematic guide to the teachings of Christ.
I grabbed a napkin and Danielle handed me a pen, and we began to brainstorm. Blessed are the poor. That seems like an invitation to the way of trust. Blessed are those who mourn. That sounds like an invitation to lament what’s broken in our world and inside of us. Blessed are the meek—that’s an invitation to the way of humility. By the time we’d finished our drinks, we had a tentative sketch of the ninefold path of Jesus, inspired by the Beatitudes.
Over the next year we gathered artists, musicians, scholars, and activists from three continents to explore the wisdom of the Beatitudes together. We made a commitment to be ruthlessly honest. We examined how the Beatitudes challenge the dominant systems of society and our typical responses to life. We took on practices and experiments to help us understand the new consciousness the Beatitudes point us to. Eventually, we published two resources: The Ninefold Path Learning Lab and The Ninefold Path Notebook. Over the last five years I’ve traveled to five continents and invited thousands of people to explore the radical invitation of the Beatitudes. And with this book, I’m inviting you to join us.
What Are the Beatitudes?
The teachings on the hill found in the Gospel of Matthew are the fullest record we have of what Jesus regularly taught as he traveled throughout Galilee. It begins with nine strange blessings traditionally called the Beatitudes. Makarios is the Greek word Jesus uses, which means something like “incredibly fortunate, favored, or Godlike.” It’s a term we might use to describe the most privileged and admired star athlete, celebrity, or billionaire. Jesus begins by saying:
Blessed (or Godlike) are
the poor,
those who mourn,
the meek,
those hungry for justice,
the merciful,
the pure in heart,
the peacemakers,
the persecuted
and blessed are you . . .
Imagine Jesus making these statements as he walks through a crowd, putting his hand on the shoulder of a beggar as he says, “Blessed are the poor,” locking eyes with a grieving widow as he says, “Blessed are those who mourn,” or lifting the chin of a peasant laborer as he says, “Blessed are the meek.”
What’s surprising is who Jesus calls fortunate. At the time, people assumed that only the most wealthy, attractive, or powerful were blessed. Poor, sad, and suffering people were thought to be cursed. Still today it can feel like our circumstances, identity, or previous choices exclude us from the blessed life. With these strange blessings Jesus announces that a thriving life, under God’s care, is available to anyone. Whatever your story, whatever your struggle, wherever you find yourself, this path is available to you.
If we look only at the first three Beatitudes, it might seem like the whole point is that a blessed life is available to unlikely people. But the next four Beatitudes celebrate noble qualities: a hunger for justice, mercy, purity of heart, and peacemaking. This shift suggests that Jesus is introducing a more comprehensive picture of what the blessed life looks like and how to experience it.
Nine Shifts in Consciousness
The Beatitudes name nine distinct areas of human struggle that Jesus addresses in his teaching on the hill. Our first instincts are to be anxious, avoidant, competitive, apathetic, judgmental, evasive, divided, retaliatory, and afraid. Several of these instincts are related to mental health issues. If you are experiencing clinical anxiety, posttraumatic stress, depression, paranoid thinking, or other conditions, please seek professional help. Neurological research suggests that many of these patterns of perception are wired into the biology of our brains. For example, to keep us alive, the fight-or-flight response alerts us to potential dangers. But to thrive we must learn to move from anxiety to trust: “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” Similarly, racism is built into our biology. We instinctually distrust people who have different skin tones and facial features than we do. To thrive we must reach past these differences: “Blessed are the peacemakers.”
First instincts explain a lot about the conditions we see in the world. Anxiety about having enough is the cause of so much striving and greed, and the growing gap between the rich and the poor. Our tendency to avoid pain produces a distracted and entertainment-addicted culture and the inability of those with the power to take responsibility for the harm they cause. Our competitive instincts are responsible for our obsession with achievement and success. Our learned helplessness has led us to believe that we can do little to address systemic injustices. Our tendency toward judgment and contempt produces conflict and division. Our impulse toward shame makes us image-conscious, distrustful, and alienated from others. Our instinct toward dualistic us-versus-them thinking creates tension and division in public and private life. Our tendency to retaliate leads to preemptive wars and a punitive correctional system. Our fear of death leads us to choose self-preservation over courage and self-giving love.
First instincts are necessary for our early survival, but they eventually become toxic. To thrive we must transcend our automatic responses and learn to see and act from a more complete and accurate understanding of reality. Jesus claimed that he understood the true nature of reality, which he called “the kingdom of God.” His invitation was to rethink or reimagine our whole lives—to see in a new way. His teachings challenge many of our instinctual ways of seeing, with the signature phrase, “You have heard that it was said, but I tell you . . .”
In this book I’m using the Beatitudes to represent nine shifts we are invited to make in order to live in greater coherence with reality. To live in a new way and to see the world become different and better, we must learn to act from this higher state of kingdom consciousness. Jesus invites us to confront our distorted responses to life and return to what is most real and true. The Beatitudes chart this path back to reality.
The Beatitudes name the illusions and false beliefs that have kept us chained and imprisoned. We’ve learned to live from a mentality of anxiety and greed, but what if this is a world of abundance? We’ve learned to live as if there is no option but despair, but what if solace and comfort are near? We’ve learned to live by striving, competing, and comparing, but what if we all have equal dignity and worth?
The Beatitudes point us toward what is real and true. We are not helpless. We have the power to do good and seek justice. Mercy triumphs over judgment. We can stop hiding and pretending, and be honest.
The Beatitudes invite us to a new way of life, into a path of recovery. Instead of dividing the world into us and them, we can learn to embrace each other as family. Instead of resisting pain, we can learn to be resilient and join the cosmic struggle between good and evil. Instead of living in fear, we can choose hope, courage, and radical love.
Big ideas like trust, compassion, and peacemaking can easily become abstractions. How can we explore these themes in a more personal and tangible way? We integrate what we learn more fully when we engage our whole bodies and reflect on our lived experiences. For each Beatitude I introduce a physical position, or stance, that illustrates the first instinct. Then I invite you to consider a new posture that embodies the invitation to see and live in a new way. Because we learn kinesthetically, engaging your mind, body, and emotions together will help you remember and internalize each step along the ninefold path.
Honesty is an important beginning point for the journey of growth. In this book I will identify where I struggle to live in the higher consciousness the Beatitudes point us to. I’m inviting you to explore how these nine invitations speak to circumstances in your life. Personality, culture, and life experience shape the landscape of our journeys. As you read through descriptions of the ninefold path, you may want to consider which Beatitude realities you find easier or more difficult to embrace.
Each chapter includes animating questions that you may wish to pause to reflect on and journal about. Suggested practices will be introduced that you can try immediately. I will also share stories about experiments and practices that have helped me and others live in a new way. You may want to read and talk through this book with a friend or group of friends and try the suggested practices together.
I am grateful to have spent the past five years immersed in the hidden wisdom of the Beatitudes. I don’t feel like I am anywhere close to mastering the life they point us toward. But I do feel like I now have a better answer to the question Shinko asked me, “When you wake up each morning, what do you seek to do and be?”
1
The Way of Trust
Own Your Poverty, Live with Open Hands
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
We greet the world with a cry and a scream, with clinched fists grasping after what we so desperately need. None of us remember the shock and drama of being born, but have you seen a baby’s birth? I vividly recall the moment when my wife, Lisa, gave birth to our first child, Hailey. Hailey was warm and safe inside her mother’s body. Everything she needed came through a tube into her belly. Then suddenly she was thrust into a cold, harsh world, naked, gasping for breath, and bombarded by bright lights and loud noises. Red-faced and crying, she squeezed her tiny fists in protest.
Our brains are wired to detect danger. Primal anxiety keeps us alive at birth. The fight-or-flight response activates the amygdala, increasing heart rate and blood-sugar levels, giving a temporary boost of energy to react. But when our brains become flooded with adrenaline, we can’t think clearly, and it’s hard to calm down. That’s why a baby needs a caregiver’s soothing voice and touch.
An anxious response can be activated even when there isn’t imminent danger—by the sound of a car alarm or when a loved one is late and doesn’t call. Our constant scanning for potential danger can result in hyperarousal and chronic stress. An instinct, designed to keep us alive, can quickly become a threat to well-being.
At the beginning of his teaching on the hill, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in Spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Luke’s account simply says, “Blessed are you who are poor.” What does it mean to be poor? Poverty is when a person doesn’t have enough or when they feel like they are not enough. Something is lacking materially or emotionally.
?
What’s your poverty? Where in your life do you feel like you don’t have enough or are not enough?
When I posed this question to a group in East Africa, one person said, “I don’t have the fees to pay for my children’s schooling.” Another said, “My son was born without the ability to eliminate. The surgery costs three hundred dollars, but we don’t have the money. And if he doesn’t have the surgery soon, he will die!”
I am grateful not to be in this incredible predicament. But we each have places in our lives where something is lacking. Ultimately, none of us have enough. We each experience loss, loneliness, and disappointment. Eventually, we will all get sick or injured or grow old and die. While we each experience lack in our lives, those of us with control-oriented personalities feel particularly pained by our vulnerabilities. We act aggressively to ensure that we are never dependent, out of control, or lacking anything.
When we become aware of what we lack, our first instinct is to grab and grasp, holding on to whatever we believe will make us feel safe and secure. It’s an instinct of closed-handed anxiety. Not letting go. Imagine closing your hands and squeezing until your knuckles are tight. How does that feel? Tense? Stiff? Uncomfortable? That’s a position of anxiety, and it’s the source of the worry, striving, and greed that pervade our world.
What makes you feel anxious and closed handed? I feel anxious when I think about political and economic uncertainties in our world today. I often worry about getting all the things done on my to-do list. Sometimes I worry about my children. Will they thrive, find good partners, and live the values I’ve taught them? I worry about having enough money to pay for expenses when I’m too old to work. But more than anything else, I worry about whether I‘m competent and successful.
When I mention my work insecurities, people are quick to assure me that I am competent—yet it’s still something I often feel anxious about. Our worries aren’t always rational but feel very real to us.
PracticeConfronting worry. If you were to make a list of the top five things you tend to worry about, what would they be? Take a moment to make a mental list or write them down.
At Ninefold Path events I ask people to anonymously write their worries on sticky notes. We post them to a wall and look at them together. Participants are often surprised by the raw honesty of what is shared and the private burdens that people they know carry. Here are a few examples:
► I worry I’ll never find love and that I’ll die alone.
► I worry about having money to buy groceries for my family.
► I worry about whether people like me or just put up with me.
► I worry that I will never overcome my addiction.
► I worry that I am missing God’s path for my life.
► I worry that I’ll never get out of debt or own a home.
► I worry about the climate crisis and the future of the planet.
► I worry that I can’t think of any worries. Am I in complete denial?
We don’t all have the same worries, but there are predictable patterns to the kinds of things we tend to worry about: (1) money, job, and finances; (2) physical and mental health; (3) relationships and the well-being of those we love; (4) esteem, identity, and significance; and (5) anticipating future difficulties, pain, and uncertainty.
It is a sacred trust to hold each other’s worries. Sharing your worries with another person can help you feel more normal and less alone. They can help you see your situation from a larger perspective.
