May 10, 2009 (5th Easter)
Today’s Readings (text):
- Acts 9:26-31
- Ps 22:26a, 27-32
- 1 John 3:18-24
- John 15:1-8
In today’s gospel reading, Jesus tells us that without him, we can do nothing. And that is certainly true, in at least some way, in light of our epistle. We know that our “deeds and truth” would look like digging around for food and defending our young if we didn’t have the “love” Jesus taught us.
In an interesting dissertation on the subject of what motivates us to take action (”perform deeds,” in the words of our epistle writer), here, A.H. Maslow stated in 1943 that we have five basic motivators: (1) physiological well-being, (2) safety, (3) love, (4) esteem, and (5) self-actualization.
There is also an order to these goals that motivate us: we do things to satisfy our most basic need (physiological) first, and only if that goal is achieved do we start to recruit our deeds to achieve the remaining goals in this hierarchy.
John, the great epistle writer, tells us that we ought to love “not in word or speech but in deed and truth.” Christ commanded us to “love” above just about everything else, but bearing in mind Maslow’s work, we understand, of course, that physiological well-being and safety were assumed when Christ made that commandment. And it should make sense that today’s lessons really speak to the hierarchy of needs within each of us, as elaborated by Maslow in his classic work.
Our gospel writer today leads us to a deeper consideration of what happens when these basic needs (or motivational goals) are thwarted in some way. What is it that could thwart these goals? Honestly, almost anything that gets in the way of any of them would be considered a threat, and this thwarting is likely to evoke behavior (deeds) that we would consider abnormal or sick.
This is what is happening as we hear more and more from atheists like Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and so on. They do not threaten our physiological well-being or our safety, to be sure (in fact, they are working to defend those goals of ours). But what atheism threatens for believers is the third goal Maslow listed: love. And when love is threatened, don’t be looking for human beings, natural creatures as we are, to recruit any efforts in the name of self-esteem or self-actualization. Those are hopeless if love is threatened, since love is higher than either of those in Maslow’s hierarchy.
Jesus said in today’s gospel passage that the Father (our Creator) will prune every branch that bears fruit so that it will bear more fruit. This true pruning of our branches (the shaping and forming of our minds) by our Creator is the love shown by Jesus when he came to Earth. He taught us how to love our neighbors and how to worship God. He taught us some pretty good stuff.
And Richard Dawkins has taught us some pretty good stuff as well. We need to keep in mind, though, as we listen with great interest to the many new and wonderful ideas flowing out of every corner of thought, that Christians have been taught that “love” is what Jesus taught us.
Something that threatens those beliefs, given to Christians in childhood lessons, will likely evoke sick or abnormal responses, called up to defend that third basic motivator of all humans, as elucidated by scientists in the 1940s. Do not allow the half-educated flowing of new ideas to threaten the love Jesus taught you: it will only lead to behavior on your part that would not be Christlike. Keep your eye on the prize!
