Gravity versus Grace
Romans 8:1- 11; Matthew 13:1 – 9, 18 – 23
Is gravity pulling you or is grace lifting you?
The French philosopher, Albert Camus, described Simone Weil as “the only great spirit of our times”. Simone Weil was a significant French Jewish Christian thinker, mystic and political activist. She was born into an agnostic Jewish home. From an early age she identified with the disadvantaged and suffering. At the age of 6 she refused to eat sugar in solidarity with the troops entrenched along the Western Front in WW II. She graduated from university in France having majored in philosophy. She was seen as a French intellectual who, in her identification with the poor and workers, chose to take leave of absence from teaching to work on farms, in factories and join the Spanish Civil War on the Republican side. Although she identified with Communism, she was critical of both capitalism and socialism. And she wrote many articles on work, peace and mysticism. She became a Christian being attracted to the principle of ‘love your neighbour,’ and she was moved by the suffering of Christ. She noted that she was first touched by God when she heard a choir sing hymns in a village square and later had a moving spiritual experience in the Basilica of Saint Maria of the Angels in Assisi, where St Francis also had prayed. “When Hitler’s armies rolled into France in June 1940, she escaped to join the Free French in London, and there she died. She developed tuberculosis, which was complicated by malnourishment. In solidarity with her French nationals in occupied France she chose to eat the diet she presumed they were reduced to by the Nazis. Her literary legacy of her pilgrimage toward God and thinking was contained in scattered notes and journals.
Weil concluded that two great forces ruled the universe: Gravity and Grace. Gravity causes one body to attract other bodies so that it continually enlarges by absorbing more and more of the universe into itself. Something like this same force operates in human beings, she said. We too want to expand, to acquire and to swell in significance. The desire to ‘be as gods’ after all led Adam and Eve to rebel. Emotionally, Weil, concluded, we humans operate by laws as fixed as Newton’s. Most of us remain trapped in the gravitational field of self-love and thus we ‘fill up all the fissures through which grace might pass.” [Philip Yancey, What’s so amazing about Grace? (1997) pp. 271f]
Weil wrote, ‘All the natural movements of the soul are controlled by laws analogous to those of physical gravity. Grace is the only exception.’ Grace causes one body to love others and thereby enlarges others’ lives. Grace calls us to the field of service.
About the same time Weil was writing another refugee from Nazi Germany, Karl Barth, made the comment that Jesus’ gift of forgiveness and grace, was to him more astonishing than Jesus’ miracles. Miracles broke the physical laws of the universe; forgiveness broke the moral rules.
It is interesting to reflect, all so briefly, on two great influential persons, Barth and Weil: Weil the mystical Christian activist and French intellectual, and Barth the great German theologian of the 20th Century. For both, God’s Grace – the unconditional gift of love, forgiveness and acceptance of us – is revolutionary. Weil in her book, Gravity and Grace, compiled from her notes she had given to Gustavo Thibon, a French Catholic, articulates this struggle between Gravity’s pull of self-interest and Grace setting free the human spirit through the love and forgiveness of God.
I was immediately reminded of Paul’s writing in Romans when I read about Simone Weil in Philip Yancey’s book, What’s so amazing about Grace? Paul in Romans chapters 7 and 8, speaks about the struggle between the life under the Law and life in the Spirit in chapter 8. Last week the sermon focussed on the revolutionary nature of God’s grace. Paul shows that it is through the work of Jesus Christ on the Cross that the power of sin is broken, and it is through the power of the Resurrection that we can enter the life in the Spirit. This is God’s gift to the world. It is a gracious gift that sets us free as forgiven people being restored in God’s image.
I think it might be helpful to see our lives as being like a mirror. A mirror reflects light. Likewise our lives reflect what we value most and what or whom we worship. The light of our worship leaks through the cracks in the way we live life. By the cracks in our life I mean the habitual way of social intercourse. The way we communicate with each other has patterns that we have learnt from our families and they from the culture. Our macro and micro cultures help us relate to each other. Customs and habits underpin our behaviour and relationships. But what leaks through the cracks of our way of relating are the very values and things we worship. That leakage reflects what is our treasure. If ‘the self’ is our treasure we will reflect that. If God is our treasure we will reflect that too. Just in the little things we say or do our values and beliefs emerge.
So the thought that our lives could be pulled by the gravitational forces of acquisition, self-interest and the importance of who we are is very real. In fact we identify with Paul’s words of being pulled by forces by which we don’t want to be pulled. Grace helps us counter the gravitational pull of the self. But the occasional experience of Grace is not sufficient. We need to nurture Grace in our lives. We need to let it grow. Jesus’ image of God’s gracious word being like the seed sown and how it grows well in some conditions and is stifled in others conditions is relevant.
The parable of the Sower helps us understand the importance of soil or conditions in which the seed of God is best nurtured. So what ‘soil’ nurtures Grace in our lives? Let us remind ourselves about the difference between Gravity and Grace. Gravity and Grace do vie for our loyalty. Gravity pulls us inwards; grace lifts us upwards. Gravity focuses our attention on self. Grace focuses our attention on God. Gravity would have us believe that we are self-made persons. Grace reminds us that we need God and others. And here lies the key to nurturing grace in our life. It is the recognition that we have a deep need for the things of God beginning with forgiveness and love. It has been said by an atheist that Christians have one thing he does not have, and that is the opportunity to be forgiven and loved by God. He has only himself.
Philip Yancey describes the AA group – Alcoholics Anonymous, which for him reflects what the Church is when it is truly being the Church. I agree with him. He writes: “I sometimes attended an AA meeting as an act of solidarity with a recovering alcoholic friend. The first time I accompanied him I was overwhelmed by what I found, for in many ways it resembled the New Testament church. A well-known TV broadcaster and several prominent millionaires mixed freely with unemployed dropouts and kids, who wore Band-Aids to hide the needle marks on their arms, were together. The ‘sharing time’ was like a textbook small group, marked by compassionate listening, warm responses and hugs. Introductions went like this: ‘Hi, I’m Tom, and I’m an alcoholic and drug addict.’ Instantly everyone shouted out in unison, ‘Hi Tom!’ Each person attending gave a personal progress report on his or her battle with addiction.’
AA runs on some key principles like the Lord’s Prayer. Firstly, radical honesty and radical dependency is required. No AA member can introduce themselves saying; ‘Hi, I’m Tom. I used to be an alcoholic.’ They know they are an alcoholic even if they haven’t had a drink in 30 years. The cure for addiction is radical dependency. AA acknowledges God. (These days they refer to a ‘Higher Power’.)
How strange we are in the Church. We know these truths. We know what it means to be pulled by this world and to be lifted by Grace. We know that we are sinners and are in need of God, and yet if we listen to our conversations … . Well, if we listen to our conversations … . What are our conversations in the church saying? What is the light that leaks through the veneer of our cultural customs and habits of communication in the Church? Do you get a sense of your fellow Christian’s sinfulness, their dependence on God and their joy in being restored to the image of God?
I’m reminded of Jesus at the meal in Simon the Pharisee’s courtyard. Simon was disturbed that one of the hangers on in the public space of his courtyard was a woman of ill repute. She had poured perfume on Jesus’ feet and provocatively wiped his feet with her hair. Simon and some of his companions were disgusted with the woman’s action and Jesus’ acceptance of her. But Jesus confronts Simon and the others by saying that this woman has shown gratitude to God and loved much in return for God’s forgiveness. When Grace strikes us we are changed and it shows. Spiritual Gravity and Grace vie for our lives. One pulls us; the other pushes into service for others. It is in acknowledging that we are a sinner and in need of help that allows Grace to work and grow in our lives. [Luke 7: 36-49]
Weil and Barth recognised their need of God. They experienced Grace and followed God. Both spent time in reflection and prayer. Both walk in the footsteps of Paul, and of course Jesus. They both lived lives under Grace and were influenced by the grace of God. One became a dedicated activist for justice. The other became a dedicated theologian. Both influenced this world for the good of others. Both lived and died for God in praise of his Grace. This is the revolutionary life Christ calls us to. We will know when we are living the Christian life. It is when we are reaching out rather than pulling in. May God have mercy upon us.
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Peter C Whitaker, Leighmoor UC: 16/07/2017
pgwhitaker@tpg.com.au
/ www.leighmoorunitingchurch.org.au
