Faces on Faith: No better time to consider some ‘tidying up’
A few years ago the book “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up,” by Marie Kondo, became a worldwide phenomenon. Since its first printing it has sold over eight million copies. And while its subject matter — simplifying and uncluttering our lives — isn’t exactly a novel one, Kondo’s book does take a more spiritual approach to that topic than most. It seeks to help the reader discern what really matters as the foundation for determining how to reorder the material “mess” in their lives.
That also happens to be the primary challenge that Jesus” disciples faced in the aftermath of his death and their Easter resurrection experiences of him. Their lives, and the spiritual movement that had become the center of those lives, had been left a “mess.” Their leader, while very much alive to them, but in a new and different way, was still physically no longer with them each day. As a result, they had largely disbanded, most returning to their original homes and attempting to find their way back into old lifestyles. On top of that, they were still at harm’s risk if the Roman authorities decided that Jesus’ death hadn’t gone far enough to discourage his followers to give up all their “nonsense’ about peace through non-violence, justice for the least powerful, and care for the most vulnerable.
In time though, the disciples gathered themselves, and as Kondo puts it, “tidied up the mess.” They discerned that the work Jesus had begun with and in them was too vital for their sake and the sake of the world to give up. They recognized the truth of what Jesus had taught and showed them — that there were very few things that truly mattered in life and in this world — and that those things were living in community instead of concerning oneself primarily, or exclusively, with one’s individual desires; serving each other and all God’s people, especially those in need; and valuing those who were considered “unimportant” by society and the world as God’s equally loved and valued daughters and sons. All the rest could be — needed to be — “tidied up” — let go of.
And through that “tidying up,” they were transformed. The same frightened, scattered, fractured disciples at the end of the Gospels become the bold, committed, effective leaders who in the decades after Jesus death and would lay a foundation strong enough to still matter over two thousand years later. It truly was, as Kondo refers to it in her title, “life changing magic.” Or, in the language of our faith, miraculous.
As we this Easter season continues for the next few weeks, perhaps there is no better time for us to also consider a little “tidying up” ourselves. If so, what can we — what do we need — to let go of in our lives right now, for that to happen?
The Rev. Dr. Mark Boyea is senior minister at the Sanibel Congregational United Church of Christ.