There Your Heart Will Be Also - September 25

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 88; PM Psalm 91, 92; Esther 8:1-8,15-17; Acts 19:21-41; Luke 4:31-37 

Today’s Reflection

A year ago, I heard about a book whose premise intrigued me. The premise is that people in our contemporary U.S. culture, though they are worshipping in church much less, are in fact just as religious as ever—they’re just religious about secular pursuits. Instead of practicing faith by being part of a church community, many people are putting their faith in healthy eating, or in exercise regimes, or in devotion to a political candidate or party, or to being super-attentive parents, or just to being frenetically busy, successful people. The book is called Seculosity and it’s by David Zahl, director of Mockingbird Ministries and an Episcopal lay preacher in Charlottesville, Virginia. (I was all set to lead a book discussion about it during Lent 2020 but then—well, 2020 happened, we entered a time of quarantine, and we never made it past the first chapter of the book. Maybe we’ll try it again in 2021!)

In his book, Zahl argues that chief among the things people get drawn into worshipping (instead of God) is being busy—he calls this the seculosity of busy-ness. His point is not new, but rather a new version of an old idea—along the lines of Max Weber’s thesis about the Protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism. Another term for this devotion to being busy is “performancism,” which Zahl explains as “the assumption, usually unspoken, that there is no distinction between what we do and who we are. … What makes you lovable, indeed what makes your life worth living, is your performance at X, Y, or Z. Performancism holds that if you are not doing enough, or doing enough well, [then] you are not enough” (Zahl 6).

Dave Zahl offers several very compelling examples of what this performancism looks like, this feeling that our sense of self-worth comes from being busy and getting stuff done—and the material wealth or status we may accrue as a result. As Zahl reflects, “For an increasing amount of the population, … to be alive in the twenty-first century is to wonder privately how much longer you can keep feeding the beast before you keel over. The very phrase feed the beast could not be more apt. It conjures the image of a ravenously hungry creature whose appetite demands satiation, lest it carve out its pound of flesh. It brings to mind a prowling monster that can be momentarily appeased but never fully satisfied. A life of feeding the beast recasts our activities, and the rewards they bring, as momentary offerings on the anxious altar of Enough” (6).

I see some things in common between how Zahl describes our contemporary U.S. context in Seculosity with how Luke describes Ephesus in Acts 19: 21-41. It’s a chaotic scene, a cultural clash caused by conflicting values. “No little disturbance broke out” because Paul had come on the scene in Ephesus and he began raising questions about what Ephesians were worshipping, which was the goddess Artemis and idols of her. Now, it was common for Paul to come into a city and question the cultural status quo. But in Ephesus at that time, it made a certain silversmith named Demetrius really angry, because he saw how Paul was successful in getting so many people to reconsider what or who they should be worshipping.

Demetrius was angry because when people started worshipping idols less and worshipping Jesus more, his business as a silversmith who made Artemis idols was suffering. Demetrius successfully convinced thousands of people to become enraged because he tapped into their fear of both economic and cultural change, as he persuaded them: “Men, you know we get our wealth from this business [of making idols]. … And there is danger that this trade of ours may come into disrepute but also that the temple of the great goddess Artemis will be scorned” (Acts 19: 25, 27). Demetrius found someone to blame for his financial problems, and he was ready to spark others into a riot—even if they didn’t all quite know what it was they were supposed to be up-in-arms about: “The city was filled with the confusion… Meanwhile, some were shouting one thing, some another; for the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not know why they had come together” (Acts 19: 29, 32).

As we look around at the state of things in the United States and the world today, and at our own lives, it’s interesting to consider how we spend our time and our money, and to what we devote our energy and our attention. As we hear Jesus tell us in his Sermon on the Mount, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Matthew 6:21).

—Becky+

Questions for Self-Reflection

Looking at how you spend your time, money, and energy, what competes with God for your devotion?

Daily Challenge

Consider a tangible way that you can change how you spend your time, money, and energy this week, this month, or in the year to come that better reflects what you value and who you worship.