The New Fundamentalism

I'm a fundamentalist.

I concede that fundamentalism takes a lot of heat these days. Many of the world's problems -- real or imagined -- are blamed on fundamentalism. Fundamentalists -- whether political, economic, or religious -- tend to be seen and portrayed as unthinking, calloused, bigoted, and angry oafs. They rarely receive a warm welcome outside of their own circles (which might partially explain their anger), and they leave the impression of being obsessed with their own correctness on every issue.

Stereotypically, fundamentalists have a penchant for pointing out the errors and flaws they observe in others. They measure themselves by strict standards, and expect all people to follow the same rule. This is because fundamentalists are principled people and believe they have mined their values from the deep contours of the universe. They -- by the grace of God -- have been smart enough, wise enough, or lucky enough to have fathomed these self-evident truths while those who disagree or disavow the fundamentals need to boost their work ethic and dig deeper until they discover the truth.

Fundamentalists receive criticism and derision from non-fundamentalists, who poke fun at fundamentalists for resembling dinosaurs from a bygone era. Unable or unwilling to change with the times, fundamentalists often appear as rigid, regressive, and reactionary. They seem to fight battles that were declared over a long time ago.

Nonetheless, at the risk of incarnating all of the negative perceptions, I'm here to affirm my fundamentalism.

I recognize that this may be shocking in some circles and welcomed in others. That being said, I'm not overly concerned with who approves of my fundamentalism and who rejects it (or me). I-like everyone-must hold to my integrity and maintain my beliefs regardless of other people's reactions. Subsequently, I'm an unabashed fundamentalist.

Before proceeding, I should clarify what I consider to be fundamental. The term "fundamentalism" originated from within early twentieth century American Protestantism to distinguish people holding a certain set of traditional beliefs from the emerging modernist cultural movement and new theological trends. For these early Fundamentalists the fundamentals included non-negotiable essentials like direct verbal inspiration of the Bible, the virgin birth of Christ, and creation of the space-time universe in seven twenty-four hour days.

As significant as those matters may be for some people, they're not the fundamentals I'm talking about here. Instead, I'm concerned with a fundamentalism that Jesus alludes to when he and his twelve companions visited the home of the sisters Martha and Mary. The presumably older sister, Martha, took meticulous care to show hospitality while Mary sat and listened to the men talk. Martha, distressed over Mary's intrusion on the conversation and lack of help in serving, asked Jesus to scold her sister so that she might aid as an assistant hostess.

Without denigrating her copious generosity, Jesus gently reminded Martha, "You are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her."

Only one thing is fundamental.

But what is that one fundamental thing? Ironically, Jesus' sufficient ambiguity allows us to ponder the fundamental issue and offer several possibilities. Is it sitting at the feet of Jesus? Is it setting aside the "things of this world?" Is it eschewing stereotypical gender roles in order to demonstrate that in Christ's presence there is neither male nor female?

I'm inclined to understand the needful thing in terms of "presence." Being present -- aware in and of the moment -- permits us to attend to all of life's seasons and situations; whereas, being absent leaves us with feelings of emptiness and distraction. Consider Martha. She understood who was sitting in her living room. In fact, her liberality stemmed from recognizing that Jesus had entered her home. Nevertheless she wasn't present. In frantically serving Jesus, Martha had neglected to appreciate that the Son of Man came to serve her -- not to be served.

Martha -- like all of us -- demonstrated great difficulty in being still in the moment. Preoccupied, she pressed forward without stopping long enough to inhabit the moment fully. Paradoxically, in trying to please Jesus through her serving, she couldn't simply be with Jesus.

How much do we drift mindlessly from one moment to the next -- one day, month, year to the next -- without immersing ourselves in this time? How much religious observance do we perform now so that we can get (or avoid going) somewhere else later on? We look forward to the next season, game, project, relationship, problem, solution, or dimension. We gaze ahead to lunch, vacation, and retirement. We feel something is missing in the now, and we hope that we'll find that something in the future. Meanwhile, perhaps we haven't considered that the one thing missing is "us."

In his classic masterpiece Walden, Henry David Thoreau poetically describes his ongoing desire "to stand on the meeting of two eternities, the past and the future, which is precisely the present moment."

He depicts his daily practice of waking early to behold the dawn. "To anticipate, not the sunrise and the dawn merely, but, if possible, Nature herself!" Reflecting on his experience, he observed, "It is true, I never assisted the sun materially in his rising, but, doubt not, it was of the last importance only to be present at it."

The sun needed no help appearing over the New England landscape, and like the Son of Man it did not come to be shone upon, but to shine. Thoreau participated in its shining simply by being present. Subsequently, his life was enriched not simply by the sun's warming rays, but by his attentive presence in witnessing the first light.

Thoreau and Jesus remind us that life cannot pass us by. Instead, we pass life by as we hurriedly rush from one moment to the next. Jesus invites Martha -- and us -- to pause in order to be present in her own life. Imagine Jesus not bidding Martha to suspend what she was doing. How do you suppose Martha might have felt after Jesus left her house? Frustrated? Disappointed? Angry? I see her slapping her forehead and complaining bitterly, "Jesus was right here, and I was so busy doing the dishes that I didn't even get to talk to him."

The one needful thing -- the one fundamental -- is to be present, immanent, awake. The original blessing of recognizing the time permits us to live in love, in knowledge of ourselves, in intimacy with God, and in relationship with others simultaneously. Consciously living in this moment allows you to be in attendance in your own life and in your world. It tunes you in to where the spirit is blowing right now -- not just where it stirred yesterday or where it might gust tomorrow. Awake sleeper. Arise from the dead, and Christ will bring you light -- just like Martha. When you're awake in the day, you can behold not only the works of God, but God himself. Engagement in the eternal now is fundamental because now is all there is, and this is nothing less than the actualization of eternal life.

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