James 24:7

(I will be reflecting on a story for the next several posts...)

"Abba Lot went to see Abba Joseph and said to him, 'Abba, as far as I can I say my little office, I fast a little, I pray and meditate, I live in peace and as far as I can, I purify my thoughts. What else can I do?' then the old man stood up and stretched his hands towards heaven. His fingers became like ten lamps of fire and he said to him, 'If you will, you can become all flame.'"

That is one of my favorite stories from the Desert Fathers.   I think about it and let my mind run with the question of what it might mean to become "all flame."   The story invites each reader to contemplate its meaning in light of his or her situation and struggle.  It asks us to identify with its two characters.  Like all parables, it is more than a fantastic story, it is a mirror. I thought I would share some of my thinking about the story as a way to help others think about it too.

The story gives us a glimpse into the character of Abba Lot.   He is a righteous man, one who wants to grow in the spiritual life.  He engages in Christian spiritual practices and he wants to add more practices to his regimen.

However, at the risk of reading myself into his character, I suggest that the brief story reveals an ironic character.  This ironic character is displayed in three ways.

First, Abba Lot seeks God from a position of self-reliance.  The phrase "as far as I can" appears twice in the two sentences he utters.  "As far as I can I read my little office..."  "...As far as I can I purify my thoughts."

Second, Abba Lot undertakes a way of life through dabbling.  The word "little" appears twice in the two sentences he utters.  "I say my little office..."  "I fast a little..."

Third, Abba Lot undertakes a way of life as a list of tasks.  He asks the older Abba Joseph what else he can do as if the goal was to create a spiritual to-do list.

I doubt that Abba Loth expected the response he got from Abba Joseph.  He may not have been prepared for Joseph to extend his hands toward the heavens while each finger burst into flames.  And I doubt that Abba Lot was prepared for Abba Joseph's reply:

"If you will, you can become all flame!"

I have no way of knowing for sure but I think Joseph was trying to create a shift in Lot's thinking. I think he was trying to create a little mental crisis that would disorder Lot's thinking in the service of assisting him toward a higher/deeper/broader way of understanding. 

The shift that Abba Joseph sought was around four themes:

First, Abba Joseph wanted Abba Lot to move from a way of "doing" to a way of  "being".  Lot was thinking in terms of one more thing he could do, while Joseph suggested that there was one thing than Lot could become. 

Second, Abba Joseph wanted Abba Lot to move from a controlled way of being to a non-controlled way of being. Lot was not in the market for a total transformation.  Lot wanted to continue with his usual way of going about his life.  He was a man who did spiritual things.  All he wanted was one more thing to do. 

Joseph completely bypassed Lot's question and, rather than give him one more spiritual thing to do, he suggested he go on and become just one thing... "all flame."  

Third, Abba Joseph wanted Abba Lot to move from  from dabbling to burning. Joseph did not want Lot to stop at Joseph's fire-finger display.  Joseph invited Lot to become "all flame."  

All...flame.

Fourth, Abba Joseph wanted Abba Lot to move from distance to intimacy.  Lot could continue his efforts to find  just one more dead thing to do or he could actually experience something lively and alive. 

The shift that Joseph invited Lot to was a shift from doing to being, from maintaining control to surrendering control, from dabbling to combusting, from distancing to experiencing.

The Bible is filled with these kinds of stories.  

A couple of weeks ago I preached about Thomas and how he said, after Jesus had told the apostles that he was going away and that they knew how to get where he was going, "Lord, how can we know the way if we don't know where you are going?"

I likened Thomas to an engineer, a strategist, a goal-setter.  A Tell-me-where-you-want-to-go-and-then-I-can-figure-out-how-to-get-there kind of guy.  Jesus didn't say, "I'm going to X and you can get there by taking your first left and then your next right..." 

Jesus said, "I AM the way..." Jesus was saying something like, "I AM GOD and GOD is the WAY to GOD."

Thomas sought the cool predictability of directions.  Jesus offered the hot wildness of relationship.

I think of the Rich Young Ruler and how he came to Jesus seeking to know what he had to do to inherit eternal life. (Strange and revealing question since one inherits by virtue of who one is rather than what one does!)  After running through the commandments with him and hearing the young man claim he had done and did do all of that, Jesus said, in effect: "Well, brother, why don't you just go on and burst into flames?  Why don't you sell everything you have and give it to the poor and then come on and follow me!"

He was sorry but he just couldn't do it.  I'm convinced that the problem was not his wealth per se as much as it was his desire to continue to live life on his own terms.  To live life under his own control, to embrace the life he knew rather than the Life that knew him.

I read lines from one of Paul's prayers:

"I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God." (Ephesians 3: 17b-19)

I hear it as an invitation to enter into the joy of experiencing the inexpressable and inexhaustable love of God to the point that we are filled with the very fullness of God.

I hear that prayer as an invitation to become "...all flame."