April 30, 2004
Keep it simple
Easter 4C Jn 10.22-30
“If you are the Christ,” the Jews said to Jesus, standing around there in the Temple, “tell us plainly.”
Jesus’ answer to the Jews in John’s story was simply — and plainly — to point to the evidence that bore witness to him. To tell the story. He suggested neither creed nor catechism. “My sheep hear my voice… ” he said, and we’re instantly in business. Listen and watch. Out of this pour the blessings. “I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my hand.”
It’s too simple. Simplicity is simply too simple. And besides, it just doesn’t look much like you’re doing anything. When people come to 12-step programs with any intention and enthusiasm at all, the first thing they want to know is What to do. They want a formula, a mantra, a routine, immediately to fix things. Tell us plainly, they say
“Keep it simple” is the first and most frequent counsel for the newly-recovering addict, and the second hardest thing to do after the initial abstinence. It’s apparently so much easier to complicate life. And an addict can complicate life — and the simple 12-step program — with the very best of them.
A nun who was a recovering alcoholic spoke in a meeting about how hard it was for her to take the third step. This was to turn her will and her life over to the care of God as she understood God. With all her vows and her theological skills, her prayer life, her commitment, even her currently successful abstinence, she simply couldn’t do it.
Until one day she realized that out of all the complicated creeds and catechisms, devotions and liturgies of her life, she was doing the same thing with the third step. Only naturally, she was trying to turn her will and her life over, like the step said, to God, as she understood God — a pretty impressive understanding in anybody’s league. But it had never quite “worked,” and it sure wasn’t working now.
Then, in a very simple, but maybe not all that obvious turn of phrase, she realized why. She was pounding at the gates of her understanding of God and, all the while, the gates of the God of her understanding were swung wide open, waiting.