miroslav on faith and work

i said a few weeks ago that I would post about the framework of miroslav's comments at the coalition for ministry in daily life meeting that took place here at yale a few weeks ago.

here is the gist of it, and some commentary. miroslav framed his remarks under the title 'god at work' and included on the podium a strip of the yellow 'god at work' tape we have in our offices (like what is used at a construction site, and in fact it came from david's chapliancy work at ground zero during the months after 9/11.

miroslav's talk had as it's frame the trinitarian shape of god's presence in our work. there were four parts:

In our success, we meet the God who blesses.
In our failure, we meet the God who delivers.
In our quandaries, we meet the God who guides.
And through it all, we are meet God who gives meaning even to the most mundane of days.

while this might seem trite to see in our success the god who blesses, i think miroslav is rare in avoiding both the danger of not talking about excellence and success in order to seem egalitarian and the danger of too simply saying god will bless us with success as the prosperity gospel does. he both talked about the danger of sloth, and about the fact that seen properly our success is never ours anyway.

this last point leads to what i find most compelling and most potentially controversial, both in this talk and in the larger book on god who gives and forgives that he is writing currently. that is his clear embrace of an anthropology that is deeply christian and exactly because deeply anti-american in this sense: there is really no independent self that can take credit for the success. it is not me but christ who lives in me, writes paul. that is where miroslav is going, refracted through martin luther. can you stand it? if we are truly christian about success, in our success, we meet the god who blesses because exactly our energy and skill that contribute to the success is god's gift. so rather than feel puffed up, we exhale with gratitude for the grace bestowed.

anon, and +peace