Theology Instead of Easy Answers
Some random-ish thoughts on overwhelm, rest, thin Christmas celebrations, doctrine, and God-with-us.
I recently did a series of talks at my Church on being overwhelmed which seemed to get a fair amount of engagement and positive feedback. I didn’t propose any easy answers, nothing like “six tips to stop overwhelm.” I’m not that kind of preacher.
I did tell people they have permission to rest (note: I’m a huge fan naps), but I didn’t go into too much detail, only touching on the importance of sabbath, something I’ve delved into more deeply before. I was reminded recently of this interesting TED talk about how there are 7 different types of rest that we need. This is worth checking out if you find yourself exhausted even though you’ve had enough sleep. You may just need a different kind of break.
So, yes. Rest is important. We need rest. We can’t just keep going on all fronts forever. But, the series on overwhelm was about more than how a lot of us are plain tired. There’s a lot more going on, and we feel it. There are powers at work that are far outside of our control. We are collectively as well as individually overwhelmed. The greatest gift of these six Sundays was simply having space for people to acknowledge this reality.
Beyond providing that space, all I really did was walk people through some central movements of the Christian Faith. Besides a good nap, this is something else we need - a (re)focus on what is central to this beautiful, hopeful way of Jesus.
I got an email from a Malawian friend who used to live in Winnipeg. He was responding to my post about Advent Merriment, and he noted that in Malawi there weren’t really many signs of Christmas just yet. He also said that he missed the Christmas season in Canada with all the lights. But the thing is, I know very well that there will be some serious singing and dancing in Malawi churches to celebrate Christ’s birth.
And that thought makes me wonder, despite my hopeful take on early Christmas parties in the aforementioned post, how many of our celebrations in North America are mere holiday veneer. Indeed, how much of our life is like that? A few centimeters thin, nothing like the depths of accumulated snow that we had to shovel off the driveway this week. How often do we subdue our longings for a renewed world and settle for the latest varietal of a Hallmark movie or whatever sentimentality is going these days?
And here we are stuck in overwhelm.
What I hoped to do in my series was make some space for our overwhelm to be addressed by God, and to see how Christian theology actually does speak to our lives as they are. The first two talks simply named our condition and hinted at where we were headed. Then off we went… taking four weeks to journey through Incarnation, The Cross, Resurrection, and Ascension/Reign.
These correspond to four of the most important days in the Church year (Christmas, Good Friday, Easter, Ascension Day). We also find this movement outlined in the the Apostles’ Creed— I believe in Jesus… born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose again; he ascended into heaven…
When we looked at these movements through the lens of being overwhelmed, I was kind of surprised at how it helped people to latch onto the great story of the gospel of Jesus.
I was also generally surprised that I ended up talking more about doctrine than I usually do. Usually what I like to do is help people encounter the biblical text, ideally in some fresh or imaginative way. I still did some of that, but this time I was much more focussed on walking through four core doctrines.
Another surprise: people seemed to actually like there being no real “tips” to get over overwhelm.
I mean, that would have been a catchier title, wouldn’t it? “Get Over Your Overwhelm.” And then, I could have just told people that if they believed in Jesus their life would be solved. But, I’m also not that kind of preacher (the lying kind, I mean).
I want to believe that people see right through such stuff. You know, the insert-seriously-hard-problem and then provide mind-numbingly-simplistic-solution kind of thing… But I’m not sure everyone does see through it. People buy the product, the book, the solution all the time. The marketing gets more clever, but a lot of us are still buying, and Jesus-peddlers are still out in force, with their “just believe in Jesus” the same way you believe in the Christmas spirit, whatever that is, and everything will work out.
I only have to look at my own life, the life of everyone I know, and especially Jesus’ own road to Calvary to know I can’t buy that idea, and I’m certainly not willing to sell it.
Still, our six weeks where we returned to some of the historic convictions of the Christian faith did prove helpful to people as they considered their current lives. Mostly, I think it helped people clarify a context for divine encounter.
The theological reflection each week raised the important questions of what kind of God are we trusting, how is this God present in our human state, and why it matters.
And the answers are found in Jesus. I don’t say this is a glib, magic solution sort of way. No, in Jesus, we see the depths of a God who identifies with us, becomes one of us, suffers alongside us and even for us, and who ultimately overcomes all that is so insurmountable for us.
Christianity describes a way of hope that is grounded in God’s self-giving love. And because God is God, that way of self-giving love ultimately prevails. It is this God that shows up in our lives even as we are overwhelmed. And what a gift as we move toward our Christmas celebrations which hopefully ultimately focus on this reality of Emmanuel, God with us!
You can find the Overwhelmed series on the Prairie Presbyterian Church YouTube Channel