Deciding for God
Is 55:6-9; Ps 145:2-3, 8-9, 17-18; Phil 1:20c-24, 27a; Mt 20:1-16a
One of my favorite church cartoons depicts a man carrying a sign that reads: “Jesus Loves You!” A few paces behind him is Jesus, carrying a sign that reads: “No I Don’t!”
Stay calm. I’m sure Jesus loves you. But the reason I like the cartoon is because the punch line reflects that we are often all too ready to speak on God’s behalf. We decide what God approves of or deplores, without ever allowing God to speak for himself.
To be sure, there are plenty of passages in the Bible in which the Father or Jesus calls for, or condemns, certain behaviors: for example, the Ten Commandments or Jesus’ great commandment to “love one another.”
But I’m referring to those instances in which we make decisions on God’s behalf about very specific and particular acts in our lives. Most priests can relate to having someone say during the sacrament of reconciliation: “Father, I know God hates it when …” or “I know that God doesn’t really have a problem with this, but ...” or something similar.
It’s not wrong for us to have a personal sense of how God feels about our behavior, but it is problematic when we form conclusions about God’s feelings toward us without communicating with God in prayer.
Deciding what God thinks of us without ever engaging God directly is a form of objectification and the harm it can produce is illustrated from the first interaction between God and humanity, in the Garden of Eden.
The serpent convinces Eve that God is unfairly restricting her from eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and that God is doing this because he jealously guards his power. Eve becomes convinced that this is the case without ever once engaging God in dialogue to learn what he actually thinks.
The “original sin” of Adam and Eve follows from this “original false conception” of what God was truly thinking and feeling about them. Insofar as the objectification of God’s intentions lies at the core of humanity’s primordial moral fall, it points to a fundamental vulnerability in our human nature: We can be easily deceived into assuming what God is up to in our lives.
This dynamic surfaces in Sunday’s parable about the vineyard workers, but with an important twist. We are told that the workers who spent all day in the field felt that they were being unjustly treated by the owner. Like Adam and Eve, they came to a false conclusion regarding the intentions of the one in authority.
Unlike them, however, they directly confront the owner and plainly speak their thoughts and feelings: “These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day’s burden and the heat.” By doing so, they create a space for the owner to reply and tell them his true motivation: “Are you envious because I am generous?”
The workers may not like that the owner is generous, but they have no grounds for concluding that he is trying to cheat them.
The spiritual lesson for us is that we should never draw conclusions about what God is thinking or why he is acting without voicing those assessments directly to God in prayer. Practically, that means we should rarely ask questions during prayer (What should I do? Why is this happening? etc.). Rather than ask, tell God in direct statements what you think or how you feel concerning the situation you are pondering.
For example, not: “Why are you allowing this, Lord?” But rather: “Because this is happening, I’m afraid that you just don’t care, Lord.” After speaking what is in your heart, sit quietly and notice how you feel, listening for God’s response.
It won’t usually be words in your ear, but your disposition (calm or agitated, angry or joyful, etc.) after you have revealed your heart in prayer is influenced by letting yourself be known by God.
In this way, you begin to see yourself as God sees you. You stop speaking for God and let God speak for himself. In that truth will come freedom and the lies of the serpent will be exposed and dispelled.