Hey everybody, Welcome to "The Trench." My name is Christian and today we're going to
talk about why relationships matter.
Relationships obviously matter because without friends or family in our lives, there wouldn't be anybody to love. There'd be no one to bring you presents
on your birthday, no one to tell your wife all the embarrassing things you did while
you were growing up and have spent years trying to forget. So while it may lead to mixture
of feelings both good and embarrassing, our relationships are central to what it is to be human because
we are made in God's image after God's likeness. So in order to understand why our relationships
are important, we should probably talk about God's image and likeness. So Let's Theology!
To say that we are human beings made in God's image could mean a bunch of things. It could
mean that we have the ability to reason, or it could mean we have a certain degree of
freedom. Being made in God's image also means that we have a communal character. Because
we're made in the image of a God Who isn't just One, but Who's Three. We're made in the
image of the Trinity. So, you see that God isn't just some isolated impersonal, individual,
floating around in the cosmos, rather God is somehow an eternal community of Three distinct,
but united persons. Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Three divine Persons, dwelling together
in One divine Nature. So even thought these Three Divine Persons all share one divine
nature, They each have a distinct and unique identity that emerges through the relationship
of the Others. So without the Son, the Father wouldn't be the Father, and without the Father,
the Son wouldn't be the Son. The mystery of who God is, emerges in how God is as Persons
in relationship. And so as humans made in the image of a Triune God, something similar
happens. Our personhood emerges in relationship. Who we are, comes from how we are. There's
an old Christian saying, "One Christian is no Christian." So I think that if we wanted
to take this even a step further, we could say that "One person is no person." There's
no abstract humanity floating around in the cosmos with that same impersonal God. We're
made for relationships. Our relationships impact our identity in a way that nothing
else does. Our relationships, in a sense, make us who we are. But sometimes we're taught
to think that our identity has less to do with relationships and more to do with things
like jobs, or accomplishments, or interests. I am an anthropologist who graduated at the
top of my class. I also like Star Wars. Crossfit! Things like our interests or jobs or the
things that we do or like can definitely shape us into certain kinds of people, but they
aren't who we are. Because my interests can always change, or I can switch jobs without
losing who I am. A job is just one of many facts about me, but our relationships and
our identities in them, these things are gifts. Gifts that both make and reveal who we are.
I am a husband, but I am not necessarily a husband because of anything I do, I'm a husband
because I have a wife. My wife gives me my identity as a husband by virtue of the fact
that she married me. And believe me, I got the better end of that deal. And it is only
because of my children that I am a father. And daily, that's awesome gift, even when
I don't know how to do a pony tail right. Because these people make me who I am, without
my wife, I am not a husband and without my children, I am not a father. By myself, I'm
not really myself. I'm an organism without relationships, I'm an individual left to nothing
but his own interests. And when we're fueled by our own interests, we can see others as
fueled by theirs. And it becomes way too easy to find ourselves in competition, or even
in conflict with other people. Sort of like shoppers all scrambling for a flat screen
on Black Friday. Which leads me to my next point. Relationships matter because they are
were we grow to the likeness of God, as we become like Christ, by learning to love others
in a Christ-like way. Relationships are where the rubber meets the road in the Christian
life, where the image of God is refined into the likeness of God. Because when it comes
to Christ-likeness, the most important thing, is love. Saint Paul says"If I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge and if I have all faith, so as to
remove mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing." And as Saint Paul goes on to
remind us that love is patient and kind. And so if God is love, then God is patient and
kind. And if I am called to become like God... well lets just say I have a long way to go.
So I might know all kinds of theological points or be able to recite the entire Psalms, but
if I can't treat my daughter patiently and kindly when she has continued to ask and ask
for frozen yogurt, even though I have told her no already, and I'm hungry and I'm tired
and I have a work deadline hanging over my head. Well if I can't treat my daughter patiently
and kindly when things start to get intense for me, then my spirituality is a joke. One
self-serving, self-deluding joke. And that makes me sad because I love jokes. But guess
where learn patience. Guess where I learn kindness. Yep, in relationships. By learning
to sacrifice my own interests for the sake of love so I can learn to deal patiently with
my daughter and with others. In relationship, I become like Christ. That is, I've grown
to the likeness through the refinery of relationship. Our relationships matter, and it's time we
start taking them seriously as the arena in which we work out, what it means to really be human.
So join the fight. Live Orthodoxy. Remember to like and subscribe and join the
rest of us in the trench.