Union with God

When the Professor Faces Despair

The Pilgrim Continues His Way — The Sixth Meeting: The Skhimnik Instructs
Scriptures: Genesis 2:24; John 15:1–11; 1 Corinthians 6:17; Ephesians 5:31–32
Source: The Pilgrim Continues His Way, translated by Olga Savin, Shambhala, 2001

We left the Professor standing between despair and hope.

He knows the New Testament. He finds comfort in it. Yet when he considers the weakness of his own heart and the magnitude of what seems to be required for doing good and attaining salvation, he becomes frightened.

The Skhimnik cannot understand why an educated man who has been given the New Testament should despair.

Drawing upon the teaching of John Chrysostom, the “Golden Mouth,” the Skhimnik tells him that we should not despair and declare the commandments of the Gospel impossible to fulfill. God did not give humanity commandments for the purpose of making us fail. The God who calls us also provides what we need to answer that call.

Then the Skhimnik says something that stopped me.

The mystery leads the beginner toward humility and draws the person more perfectly into union with God, teaching that our closest refuge is prayer and asking for God’s help.

I had to stop there.

Union with God.

Those three words opened a door for me.

I remembered something I heard many years ago in a Sunday School class at a church I pastored. The teacher began with Genesis: a man leaves his father and mother and cleaves to his wife, and the two become one flesh.

The teacher used that earthly union as an illustration of spiritual union with God.

Years later, I can see connections throughout Scripture that I did not fully appreciate then.

Paul quotes the Genesis passage in Ephesians and speaks of the mystery of Christ and the Church. Elsewhere he speaks of the person who is joined to the Lord becoming one spirit with the Lord.

Then there are the words of Jesus:

“Abide in me, and I in you.”

The branch cannot bear fruit by itself. It bears fruit because it remains connected to the vine.

Suddenly I saw the Professor’s problem differently.

He is staring at the fruit.

He sees everything God asks of him. He sees the condition of his own heart. He sees the distance between what he is and what he believes he ought to be.

Then he asks, in effect, “How can I possibly produce all of this?”

The Skhimnik points him toward the vine.

The answer is not simply, “Try harder.”

The answer begins with relationship.

Union with God.

That changes how I understand salvation.

For too much of my life, Christianity was easily reduced to things we did. Come to Jesus. Say these words. Walk the aisle. Be baptized. Join the church. Attend worship. Give. Serve.

Those things may have their place, but Christianity cannot be reduced to a formula.

Neither can we promise people that coming to Jesus means everything will suddenly be fine. Jesus never promised that his followers would become rich, prosperous, or immune from suffering. He called people to follow him.

Following Jesus is relationship.

And relationship takes us back to what has been broken.

I increasingly understand salvation as God restoring what is broken.

The biblical story begins with God breathing life into humanity. Humanity lives in relationship with God, with self, with others, and with creation.

Those relationships become distorted.

Then comes grace.

New birth is not merely acquiring a new religious status. It is receiving life. It is opening ourselves again to the Breath of God.

Jesus breathes upon his disciples and tells them to receive the Holy Spirit.

The Spirit gives life.

The Spirit awakens.

The Spirit transforms.

The Spirit draws us toward deeper communion with God.

This is why the Skhimnik’s words matter so much to me.

If I misunderstand the destination, I will misunderstand everything he says next about prayer.

Prayer can become another religious requirement. It can become another item on the Professor’s already impossible list.

Pray this many times.

Say these words.

Follow this formula.

Get the result.

But if the destination is union with God, prayer looks entirely different.

Prayer becomes communion.

Prayer becomes relationship.

Prayer becomes opening ourselves to God.

Prayer becomes the branch abiding in the vine.

The Professor has been asking how he can produce the fruit.

The Skhimnik begins by pointing him toward the source of life.

That distinction is enormous.

The branch does not produce fruit so that it may become connected to the vine.

The branch bears fruit because it is connected to the vine.

Perhaps we have sometimes reversed the order.

We have told people what fruit they must produce before helping them understand the Vine.

The Skhimnik begins somewhere else.

Do not despair because you recognize your weakness.

Let your weakness teach you humility.

Let humility turn you toward prayer.

Let prayer draw you more deeply into union with God.

Then let grace do its transforming work.

The destination is not religious accomplishment.

The destination is union with God.

And I am beginning to understand why those three words mean so much to me.

The Curious Pilgrim