St. Paul's Addiction

3-28-2017

Jeremiah 17:19- 27

For the sake of your lives, take care that you do not bear a burden on the sabbath day or bring it in by the gates of Jerusalem. And do not carry a burden out of your houses on the sabbath or do any work, but keep the sabbath day holy, as I commanded your ancestors.

“Work” vs. a legalistic definition of ‘work’. My research indicates that at the time of Jeremiah there was no legalistic definition of “work” as regards what could and couldn’t be done on the Sabbath. My guess is that people were engaged in commerce, i.e. the ‘burdens’ were trade-goods, and the rebuke was intended simply to get people to turn their attention to God, and away from distraction. That’s a theme that keeps recurring to my mind. It’s about what is and isn’t important in the eternal scheme of things.

 

Romans 7:13- 25

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. But in fact it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin that dwells within me……

Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

So, Paul was some kind of addict, what they call today a process addict, or behavioral addict. I don’t think it’s at all likely that he was addicted to opium, after all, but possibly to some other harmful behavior that he struggled to free himself from.

“It is the compulsive nature of the behavior that is often indicative of a behavioral addiction, or process addiction, in an individual. The compulsion to continually engage in an activity or behavior despite the negative impact on the person’s ability to remain mentally and/or physically healthy and functional in the home and community defines behavioral addiction. The person may find the behavior rewarding psychologically or get a “high” while engaged in the activity but may later feel guilt, remorse, or even overwhelmed by the consequences of that continued choice. Unfortunately, as is common for all who struggle with addiction, people living with behavioral addictions are unable to stop engaging in the behavior for any length of time without treatment and intervention.” (From the American Addiction Centers website. Italics mine.)

I’m generally dubious about the way in which we define addiction culturally today. The word or phrase is often used as an excuse or a humorous self-deprecation. The concept is also infected by the commercial application, as is evident in the unashamed plug for “treatment and intervention” at the end of the American Addiction Centers quote. I know from my own experience and observation that it is quite possible for people to control behavior that has addictive elements, or is out and out addictive, without the benefit of professional treatment or intervention. The essential requirement is an objective and self-analytical approach. What Paul describes is exactly that. I know that a lot of people make negative assumptions about Paul, but in this case it is not hard to see that he is focusing on the behavior and avoiding self-blame. He says it isn’t “me” doing it, because “I” don’t want to do it. “So what the hell is going on?” Paul asks. His plaintive “I do not understand my own actions” wrings my heart. I don’t intend to engage in sophistry but I feel that there is a distinct difference between the self-indulgent claim that “it’s not my fault, I can’t help it,” and Paul’s lament that “it is not I that do it, but sin that dwells within me.” The difference, as I see it, is in the very distinction that he makes between “flesh” and the self-identifying “I,” the “inmost self” as he puts it, that generates purpose, will, intention, and self-recognition. His whole point is that this inmost self is the self that belongs to God and Christ, and that is why he breaks out in praise saying, “Thanks be to God…” What he is saying is that this inmost self; the self that praises God; the self that recognizes eternity; the self that wills to do good; the self that knows what it wants, is greater than the reactive and unaware self that keeps doing what it does not want to do. I don’t think that he is really separating himself into two selves, I think he is saying that what really matters is what one pays attention to. Or perhaps he’s simply pointing out the difference between paying attention and not paying attention. At any rate, the solution for him seems to be the realization that everything sorts itself out when it’s God that commands his attention, and not whatever insidious distraction he struggles with.

John 6:16- 27

"Very truly, I tell you, you are looking for me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you.

I never thought of it this way before: Jesus was literally running away from the crowds, and he was so desperate to get away from the paparazzi that he walked on water. I also wonder what made the disciples leave him there. Was it a kind of betrayal, which foreshadowed the way they all ran away when he was arrested? I imagine an out-of-control mob trampling all up and down the shore looking for Jesus so they could “make him king by force,” and Jesus ducking and weaving and hiding among the rocks, maybe even covering his face and slipping away up the mountain, getting separated from the disciples, and the disciples being harassed by the crowd until they couldn’t stand to wait another minute for Jesus but shoved their way onto the boat, fending off people grabbing at them and yelling, and left without him. Then when it finally gets dark, Jesus sneaks down to the waterside only to find that they’ve left him behind. I suspect he felt in actual danger.

So then the next day, the crowds are still prowling up and down the shore like hungry hyenas, knowing that the disciples left on the boat without Jesus, but having not found him all night long, they ambushed and commandeered the boats from Tiberias and went over to the other side still looking for him. When they found him, Jesus was out-and-out rude to them, telling them that the only reason they chased after him was because they pigged out on the material food he provided and now they are hungry again.

And look! Here we are back at distraction again.

 

In Buddhism it is called vikshepa, and it’s defined thus: “Although vikshepa is often translated as “distraction” or “mental wandering,” it refers more specifically to the wandering mind being drawn to objects that cause it to lose its ability to remain one-pointedly focused on virtue. So this term points to a specific kind of distraction—distraction from keeping your attention on what matters, on what is genuine and virtuous.” (From The Lion’s Roar Foundation website)