are we selfish enough yet?

“I have always found it quaint and rather touching that there is a movement [Libertarians] in the US that thinks Americans are not yet selfish enough.”

                                                    Christopher Hitchens

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It was a sight so profoundly absurd

that it hit my soul with a 2X4

the sight of all those people

living in a city fast in the grip of a deadly virus

with hospitals over full

and people dying

standing

crowded together

in defiance of all logic and sanity

to watch a hospital ship

dock

it got me thinking about

individualism versus collectivism

in America “collectivism” seems to be considered by many

almost a sin

while individualism, is seen, somehow, as “godly”

google collectivism and you will

get quote after quote that suggests that any subjection

of individual will, for the good of all

is stupid

weak

oppressive

and I get it

I was raised in a remote rural town

where being strong and independent

needing no one

was admired

I was raised in America

Where you go after what you want

You fight to dominate

and where the person who dies with the most toys

(or the biggest bank account)

wins

and it is this individualism

where one thinks only of the self

that, I think

drives masses to the beaches in a pandemic

“I’ll have my fun, to hell with the old folks at home”

It is this individualism

That allows many to look on immigrants with disdain

To see them as threats, who might use a resource

who might cost me, personally, something

rather than as brothers and sisters

It is this individualism that makes

the performance of the stock market more important

then the numbers of people afflicted by Covid-19

I along with all of America

Am immersed in this mindset

Even our religion is shaped by this essential selfishness

Faith is all about

Jesus and me

It is about my personal salvation

My personal “escape from hell”

My personal enrichment (prosperity Gospel)

My protection from illness

We piously put “everything” in God’s hands

And then proceed to list

My family

My home

My security

My fears and feelings

We say “God bless America!” (us)

YES, I do this too,

And it is not all bad

But there are the actual teachings of Jesus

Love your neighbor (as yourself, yes, but love them)

Sell all you have and give to the poor

It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle,

than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God

The last shall be first

The first shall be last

Then there is the example of the early church

Where “they sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need”

(Acts 2)

does this not sound

as if God is calling us out of essential selfishness

which if the truth be told

makes us cruel,

no matter how we try to frame that behavior

I ran across this quote from Basil, an early church father

“When someone steals another's clothes, we call them a thief. Should we not give the same name to one who could clothe the naked and does not? The bread in your cupboard belongs to the hungry; the coat unused in your closet belongs to the one who needs it; the shoes rotting in your closet belong to the one who has no shoes; the money which you hoard up belongs to the poor.”

I cringe when I read that

and yet

this man, who fought for good theology, and fought against heresies in the early church

saw clearly

the imperative

we are to be aware of the other

we are to value to the other

we are to protect the other

we are to help the other

Ram Dass put it another way, but the import is the same

“we are all just walking each other home”

So what does that mean

In this time when Christianity is all about domination and coercion

And not about service and generosity

What does that mean in this time when we get sick together

Or get well together

It means staying home

It means washing our hands

It means giving to those in need (food banks)

It means making phone calls to the isolated

It means making face masks (as some people in my church are doing)

It means a radical awareness of others

It means praying for others, even those we are struggling to like)

It means saying, “God bless all, all the nations of the world”

Maybe this is what Covid-19 can teach us

That this idea we have

That it is all about “us”

Is wrong

Dead

Wrong

Maybe Covid-19 can actually help us remember

what the way of Jesus

is really all about