What Dwight Schrute Taught Me About God's Spirit

Rainn Wilson as Dwight Schrute

One of my favorite TV shows is The Office, which follows the happenings of a paper company in Scranton, Pennsylvania. While this is the premise of the program, the intrigue builds because of personality conflicts arising between ridiculous characters. Whether it is the complete ineptitude of the boss, the absurd love interests of several office employees, or the anger management issues of working in a dying industry, this show is not really about paper, but about the characters.

The most ridiculous of the ridiculous characters is a particularly quirky paper seller named Dwight Schrute, who runs a beet farm on the side. In one episode Dwight who often falls over himself trying to do good deeds actually acts heroically. He protects his long time office rival Jim Halpert from being beat up by another employee. Dwight springs into action unleashing pepper spray in the eyes of the would-be attacker. Jim proceeds to spend the rest of the episode trying to repay Dwight for his noble deed. Dwight though will not accept any payment for his action. For all his quirkiness Dwight believes that doing the right thing is done because it is the right thing, and not because he will receive a reward for it. Sometimes I can be like Jim in my relationship with God. Once I receive God’s graciousness, I attempt to pay God back by “being good,” “praying harder,” or giving more to charity.

In today’s lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, Peter and John went to Samaria once they heard that the people there received the word of God. The disciples journeyed to this land to pray for the Holy Spirit to come among the Samaritans to fully mark their baptism. During this mission a man named Simon observed the disciples’ work, and he offered them money in exchange for power. Simon essentially wanted to barter with God to receive the ability to pass on the Holy Spirit.

Peter responds quickly and firmly, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God's gift with money!” Peter tells Simon that he is missing the point. One cannot buy God’s gift with money. God’s love is not about an exchange of money, or praise, nor is it about power. God’s Spirit is a gift to us.

Peter and John did not go to Samaria so that they might make a few extra pieces of silver. We are not expected to do good things so that we will get paid for them, nor are we able to buy more spiritual gifts through some monetary system. We are freely given God’s gifts of the Spirit because our God is a God of Abundance not scarcity. We have no strings attached to God's gifts. We are not required to pay God back. We don’t have to give God a certain amount of praise. Instead, God invites us to turn our hearts over to God to allow for God’s Spirit to free us, to shape us into who God intends us to be, and to give us the gifts that God shares with us. God calls us to freely give to others, to do God's will because that is what we are called to do, and not to exchange money for spiritual gifts. For God is a God of overabundance!

Competing For Holiness

It’s that time of the year again. Can you smell the competitiveness in the air? Teams are gathering, game plans are being made, and leaders are coming up with motivational speeches. I imagine at this point you believe that I am talking about the SEC preparing for the start of another exciting college football season, but that’s not the competition to which I am referring. While August still stands as the start of the South’s favorite sport, this is also the time when churches begin battling for new members who are just getting back into the swing of things at the start of the school year.

Christians in the South love to get into it a little bit with our one another. We might be brothers and sisters in Christ, but we don’t have to withhold our snide comments about one another. Everyone loves a good joke about our Methodist friends or our Baptist neighbors. I am certainly not above this, as my favorite one is the following:
Me: Do you know why you have to take two Baptists fishing?
You: No, why?
Me: Because if you take just one he will drink all your beer!

Haha! We love joking the differences between the different mainline denominations. We enjoy saying that Presbyterians cannot possibly believe in Predestination. Or that Church of Christ folks are so strict with their beliefs. In general we just love drawing lines in the proverbial sand. Yet, when we start hear that some other church is growing fast, or that some other megachurch is “cherry picking” members from other churches, or that some pastor is claiming that only his denomination is getting into Heaven we tend not just to joke, but to outright criticize other denominations. We have a hard time letting go of competition.

We might believe that today’s gospel begins with a statement that supposedly supports spiritual competitiveness: the Pharisees heard that Jesus was baptizing more than Jesus. Jesus was outperforming John; the Messiah was beating the prophet; the Word of God was leading the Voice Crying in the Wilderness on the baptismal scoreboard. Yet, the gospel writer recorded this not so that we might boast about how Jesus was better than John, but rather this moment marked a transitional time for Jesus and his disciples. No longer were they avoiding the Pharisees’ attention, instead now the religious elite shifted their persecution upon Jesus and his followers.

As Jesus circumnavigates the Pharisees’ wrath, he finds himself tired and thirsty in Samaria. Here he converses with a woman at the well exemplifying that God wants to cross human-imposed boundaries, rather than continue to compete and struggle against one another. Jesus and the Samaritan woman exchange some witty remarks, and eventually end up wondering, “Where does God’s holiness reside?” The Samaritans claimed their holy place was on top of a mountain, the Jews believed their site of holiness was in Jerusalem. The two could have argued vehemently for who was right and where God was truly present in this world. Yet, Jesus comes not to settle arguments, but to show that He is the source of holiness.

We have a hard time in our polarized, black-or-white culture to even acknowledge that grey area exists. We want to cheer for our kids, our school, our team, our political party, our country, our church, our denomination, and our religion. We cannot easily see the spark of Christ that exists even within our supposed enemies. Yet, Jesus modeled having conversations, like this one with the Samaritan woman, across our made up divisions. Jesus urges us to understand that it is not about where holiness does or does not reside, but it is about having a relationship with him who comes to reconcile all of us to God. We can continue to compete over who is walking through our doors, whose worship is the best, who is winning church wars, or we can say together, Jesus, give us some of that living water, we all need a drink of that!

Are You Afraid of the Dark?

As a child I had a hard time watching Are You Afraid of the Dark? by myself

Almost every week as a pre-teen, I would beg my mom to watch SNICK, which was a set of TV shows that came on Nickelodeon on Saturday evenings. Almost every week without fail I would attempt to muster up the courage to watch the final show in the programming block, a scary series based on telling ghost stories around the campfire. Almost every week I would not even make it through the introductory credits of Are You Afraid of the Dark? without having to run get my sister or my mom to watch it with me. I do not completely blame this TV show, but growing up when I did made it hard to be a fan of darkness.

Maybe you are a little different, but most often darkness gets lumped into the same category as coercion, sin, and evil. If you are going to do dirty deeds they are best done in the dark. When you live a life of sin you live in the darkness. Those who are evil align themselves with the dark one. Apart from a few movies that portray a dark knight character who stands as the just, good, and valiant protagonist I have a hard time finding positive examples of darkness. Especially in Holy Scripture we tend to equate darkness with evil.

Take for example today's Gospel lesson from Morning Prayer. In John's "Transfiguration" story, Jesus tells the crowds that he will be with them only a little longer before he is lifted up. Wondering how Jesus' description fits in with their understanding of the Messiah they ask a question, "Who is this Son of Man?" The Son of Man's response sounds very anti-darkness, "The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light." Reading this passage with our light colored goggles makes it appear as though Jesus would have nothing to do with the dark.

I recently finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor's Learning to Walk in the Dark (Go buy it or check it out, as it is well worth the read!). In it Taylor describes her journey of "endarkenment" or learning to walk in the dark. She describes her strained relationship with the solar-focused version of Christianity with which the Church so often blinds newcomers and current members. After reading her journey into the dark, I found myself wondering about Scripture like this passage from John a little differently.

Christ Jesus is the light of the world, of that I am convinced. So that light is good and necessary for us to see and live our lives as followers of Christ. Yet, walking in the dark and not knowing where we are going only sounds like a bad thing. If you have ever had the pleasure of going on a night hike, or preferably a night run, you may know that it is not as bad or scary as Are You Afraid of the Dark? had me convinced the dark was as a child. 

In the dark, whether the actual night kind of darkness, or another type of darkness (spiritual, emotional, psychological, etc.) we use different types of senses. I tend to rely more on my senses of touch, smell, and hearing much more than during day time runs. In the darkness I am not so concerned with how I look or how I appear to others. Instead, I am allowed time to focus on my interior journey with God. What I sometimes notice in those dark moments is that the light I do have within me and within those that I have the privilege with which to walk is bright enough. 

We may not always have the full solar power of Christ blinding a path that appears washed out in the noontime sun, and this is just fine by me. Walking in the dark does not come naturally to us human beings. We do not have all the right sensors in our eyes. Yet, walking in the dark allows other senses to awaken, and this allows us to see the light burning within other children of the light. Do not worry about being afraid of the dark, but instead come see how beautiful God shines in the darkness.