Obedience, the scandalous virtue

[Second in a series of three articles reflecting on Benedictine spirituality. For the first, look here.]

The second Benedictine vow is obedience. This is probably the most outrageous virtue of all three, at best conjuring up images of dogs at obedience school and at worst, Nazis "just obeying orders."
But I wonder why those are the images that first pop to mind?

Fr. Longnecker writes:

"Obedience!!?? we howl. But we're grown ups. We're supposed to take responsibility for ourselves. We're supposed to be pro active. We're supposed to make our own moral decisions. Yadda yadda yadda.

Yes, no doubt true up to a point. We don't want a church made up of doormats and robots. However, the vices of any age are best corrected by the virtues we find most repellent. Our age is the age of the dictatorship of relativism. It is the age of individualism run rampant, the age of personal freedom (code for personal pleasure as the sole guiding principle) and tolerance (code for "leave me alone willya?")"

If Longnecker is right in his assessment of our age, then it is no wonder that obedience should be a scandal to us. But once again we are faced with the delicate matter of finding the mean, and avoiding the extremes. There is both the extreme of deficiency (postmodern antinomianism) and the extreme of excess (the Nazi nightmare mentioned above.) Obedience can become a sin when we fail to recognize and act according to that which is the real/true authority in our lives.

The False Authority of the World

In previous ages the greatest temptations to miss the mark came from from worldly and pagan sources outside the self: Astartes of sexual desire; Molechs of power, Baals of prosperity; kings, emperors, feudal lords and clergy who abused their offices.

Whenever we elevate outside authorities over the place of the Lord in our lives, we miss the mark, and end up obeying idols. There is nothing greater outside of us than our Creator; anything else is mere creature. God operates through his creation, and has established certain relationships in that creation to image the divine relationships of love and mutual submission within the life of the Trinity. (cf. Ephesians 5-6 and Colossians 3). We try to live peacefully with spouses, parents, children, employers and employees, but there may come occasions like that in Acts 5:29, when, like Peter, we have to say, "We must obey God rather than men!" In these instances we must be careful that our obedience is a response to God's authority, and not our own, or some other lesser authority.

The people of Le Chambon refused to obey men rather than God. The Cictercian Martyrs of Atlas in 1996 refused to obey men rather than God. In the niches above the west gate of Westminster Abbey stand statues of 10 contemporary Christian martyrs . They include Martin Luther King, Oscar Romero, and Dietrich Bonhoeffer. These people chose to lose their lives rather than submit to forces contrary to Christ their King; people for whom faithfulness meant obedience unto death.


The False Authority of Self

We miss the mark when we substitute other authorities for the Lord. Sometimes those authorities are within us.Just as there is nothing greater outside of us than our Creator, so there cannot be anything greater within us than our Saviour. In an age when subjectivity reigns, we will be tempted to miss the mark by mistaking self for Saviour as the true authority in our lives.

Ever since Eden, our default authority has been Self.Like Pharoah in Exodus 5:2, we declare, "Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go." Like the Israelites in Judges 21, we have no king; everyone does as he sees fit. It will be difficult not to heed the culture's siren song,"Follow your heart." Odysseus had himself lashed to his ships's mast to avoid succumbing, but we lash ourselves to the cross.

Discerning Genuine Authority

Okay, so there are false authorities out there and even within us aiming to rule our hearts, minds, souls and strength. So, how do we know when an authority is genuine (true) and when it is not?

1) When that authority is the very Word of God:

I can quickly end up begging the question here, but if the authority is established to be God Himself, and not something lesser, it seems to follow that it should be worthy of our respect and service.

Psalm 119 repeatedly celebrates God's law/word as our trustworthy authority, demanding our obedience.

In Matt. 22:29, Jesus chides the Sadducees, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God." Knowing the Bible--hearing what God is saying to us-- is necessary if we are to be obedient. What kind of honor can we give to that we do not know? How can we be faithful if we don't know what we should be like?

2 Timothy 3:16-17 affirms that God's word is our reliable authority: "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

But I admit it is not always that simple for everyone. Some of us need more epistemological reassurance, if we are to trust and obey a given authority. (Others of us, like Saul, need to fall off our mules and be blinded for a while! But that's another story.) Thus, I offer a few more ways to discern genuine authority, which are by no means exhaustive of all possible ways.

2) When that authority doesn't contradict itself.

This is a coherence criterion. How can we obey any authority that says to do A and not do A, at the same time, in the same respect? Contradictions are the basis of all lies. Satan is called the father of all lies; but God does not lie. We may find mystery, we may find paradox, but we will never find contradictions in God. He is the only perfect authority.

Titus 1: 1-2: "God, who does not lie"
Hebrews 6:18: "God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged."

3) When that authority doesn't cause us to be involved in contradictions.

This is a correspondence criterion. How can we respect, muchless obey, anything or anyone that violates our integrity? A contradiction pits something against itself. Any genuine authority will lead to more virtue/righteousness/unity/perfection/life rather than less.

1 John 5 assures us that "This is how we know that we love the children of God: by loving God and carrying out his commands. This is love for God: to obey his commands. And his commands are not burdensome, for everyone born of God overcomes the world."

4) When that authority is able to "walk its talk."



This is a pragmatic criterion. Genuine authority reveals itself not only through words, but actions. How can we possibly obey an authority that cannot itself do what it is requiring us to do? A genuine authority will model attitudes, ideas, and behaviors it wishes us to embody.

Isaiah 53:9 says "He was assigned a grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth." Jesus was the Prince of Peace, and he showed us how to be peaceful people. We can obey Him knowing that He has not preached anything that He hasn't already practiced. This is a mark of genuine authority.