Simplicity and Abundance

In our Sunday School this month, we are going through a rotation of lessons on the Parable of the Mustard Seed, pondering how great faith can grow from small beginnings. In a session for the adult group, parishioners Kristin and Aaron Reichert led a discussion on simplicity of material lifestyle, and how it can lead to greater abundance of emotional and spiritual well-being. They offered, among other resources, this extended quote from Duane Elgin, describing varieties of simplicity we might move toward in our lives:

Uncluttered Simplicity: Simplicity means taking charge of lives that are too busy, too stressed, and too fragmented. Simplicity means cutting back on clutter, complications, and trivial distractions, both material and nonmaterial, and focusing on the essentials – whatever those may be fore each of our unique lives. As Thoreau said, “Our life is frittered away by detail . . . Simplify, simplify.” Or, as Plato wrote, “In order to seek one’s own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary, everyday life.”

Ecological Simplicity: Simplicity means choosing ways of living that touch the Earth more lightly and that reduce our ecological impact on the web of life. This life-path remembers our deep roots with the soil, air and water. It encourages us to connect with nature, the seasons, and the cosmos. An ecological simplicity feels a deep reverence for the community of life on Earth and accepts that the nonhuman realms of plants and animals have their dignity and rights as well.

Family Simplicity: Simplicity means placing the well-being of one’s family ahead of materialism and the acquisition of things. This expression of green living puts and emphasis on providing children with healthy role models living balanced lives that are not distorted by consumerism. Family simplicity affirms that what matters most in life is often invisible – the quality and integrity of our relationships with one another. Family simplicity is also intergenerational – it looks ahead and seeks to life with restraint so as to leave a healthy Earth for future generations.

Soulful simplicity: Simplicity means approaching life as a meditation and cultivating our experience of direct connection with all that exists. By living simply, we can more easily awaken to the living universe that surrounds and sustains us, moment by moment. Soulful simplicity is more concerned with consciously tasting life in its unadorned richness than with a particular standard or manner of material living. In cultivating a soulful connection with life, we tend to look beyond surface appearances and bring our interior aliveness into relationships of all kinds.  

Frugal simplicity: Simplicity means that, by cutting back on spending that is not truly serving our lives, and by practicing skillful management of our personal finances, we can achieve greater financial independence. Frugality and careful financial management bring increased financial freedom and the opportunity to more consciously choose our path through life. Living with less also decreases the impact of our consumption upon the Earth and frees resources for others.

From Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin

Do these distinctions of simplicity connect with your own experience? How might you see yourself and your family making use of these notions of simplicity in your life ways?

Discourse and Respect

In my sermon for All Saints Sunday, I spoke about how the celebration of the Feast of All Saints calls us to recognize that we are part of something larger than ourselves. I contrasted that view with a tendency in modern Western culture to make the single solitary self the primary value, and to measure all (or most) other things in terms of how well they serve the self. I included this observation about our socio-political scene:

"Our national culture seems to get more polarized every year, encouraging us to think of our country as a series of entrenched ideologies, each hunkering down around its own base and lobbing slogans at each other from its preferred cable network; but the invitation to the communion of saints reminds us that we are part of something larger than ourselves, and as Christians we carry into public discourse our religious commitment to respect the dignity of every human being, and to treat those with whom we disagree as real persons with whom we want to build up the common good."

Do you think this is true? Is entrenched ideology a problem for us today, or simply the way we frame our discourse? Is there room today for more substantive conversation than exchanging sound bites and slogans? Do different constituencies have enough in common to really speak about the "common good"?

And do Christians have a religious commitment to engage in secular discourse in a particular way? I personally think the legal separation of church and state is a good thing. I don't want the state establishing an official church, any more than I want a single church dictating terms to the state. But I don't think that means religious values and commitments can never be a part of public discourse and secular governance. In the Episcopal baptismal service, we make a promise as part of our Baptismal Covenant to "strive for justice and peace among all people, and respect the dignity of every human being," as I quoted in my sermon. I think this constitutes a commitment to engage in public discourse in a civil manner, quite independently of any specific religious content. That is, I don't need to say that my Christian values should be imposed on everyone as universal legally enacted values; but I do need to be true to my Christian values myself, by treating those with whom I disagree with respect.

What do you think? Is there a Christian commitment to civility that should be part of the manner in which we engage in secular discourse?