A word of explanation from Neo. For some months, as many of you know, at NEO, I have had a new co-blogger. Audre Meyers. She brings something to my blog that it has missed since Jessica left, a lighter touch, perhaps a woman’s touch, and a bit of wandering off the reservation, which is needed.
The other day, she sent me a very pleasing draft, about a lesson from her Bible study group led by her priest. She is a Continuing Anglican, essentially an American Amglo-Catholic, and it shows. Her draft recalled something to me, which took some time to place. This is it. In it, she strikes many of the same notes that Jessica did in her best posts. Well, at least one of my commenters has remarked that she thought Audre was Jessica in disguise. She’s not but they do share an outlook and a style which I find very refreshing.
In any case, as I read her draft, I came to the conclusion that it belongs here, not on NEO. NEO too, has an underlying Christian ethos, but is far more political, and likely will continue as such at least until the election. Audre finds this collection of curmudgeons intimidating (I can’t imagine why!) something about the way we speak our minds clearly and robustly, I think. But I think we all also listen to that still small voice in our hearts and souls. That’s where I think Audre’s viewpoint comes from.
Eventually, I convinced her to let me post it here as sort of a guest post. So be nice to her, she’s my friend as well as co-blogger. Here’s Audre!
I’ve read my Bible front to back many times throughout the years. While I’m not good at quoting chapter and verse numbers, my understanding of what I’ve read is pretty sound. So imagine my surprise at Bible study yesterday when our priest gave a new insight into what we were reading in the Book of John.
The chapter is 3 and the verse is 30. “He must increase and I must decrease” (KJV)
This is obviously John the Baptist explaining to his followers, his disciples, that Jesus is the Man and he, John, just the herald; that he will be eclipsed by Jesus and that Jesus is the One to follow. Simple. Read it quick and move on. But what our priest suggested brought me to a screeching halt. He said he is impressed with John’s great humility. Humility? Our priest, Fr. Ellis, pointed out that John was very popular and had a fairly large following; he was, in effect, telling his followers that they must now follow Jesus and he himself was not the one they should be looking to. I hadn’t thought of the common, very human trait of ‘pride’ – there had to have been, within John, a sense of being important and noteworthy. Here he was, the momentary Elvis and all that it implies, saying, “I’m not going to sing anymore because you need to listen to Roy Orbison whose voice is way beyond that of mine.” Who does that sort of thing? Who walks away from fame? A very, very humble soul.
But here’s the concept that rocked my boat. Fr. Ellis stated that the verse applies to us. Head snap. What? The verse applies to us today and forever. We are to decrease and Jesus is to increase. How is that so? We are so self-centric; life is, after all, all about us. Individually. What I want, what I need, what I like, what I think, what I have. The ‘great’ imperative. Me. We lament that our prayers aren’t answered, that things aren’t going our way, that we want change and we want it now. But He can only act in our lives when we give Him room. We believe we are the masters and captains of our lives and as such, we blunder, fail, hurt ourselves, hurt others, have a skewed perspective of the world around us. Just take a look at the world if you don’t believe me.
Things ‘come right’ when we decease. When we start to chip away at the ‘me’ and start to open up to Him. If we decrease, we open up space for Him to come in and fill us with all the love of the Father and all the aid and comfort of the Holy Spirit and a greater, deeper, sustaining relationship with Jesus.
So verse 30 applies to me – to us. I MUST (not a random word choice, it’s highlighted in the KJV by the format of the word)
I MUST decrease and He MUST increase.
Verse 30 is an instruction.
All Along the Watchtower 
I agree with this and have heard that interpretation before. It sits well with the doctrine of the New Birth and Jesus point that the OT ends with John the Baptist. Jesus said, ‘My food and drink is to do the will of Him who sent Me’. Hard in practice for us sinners, but I’m sure we can all testify about the spiritual refreshing that comes from genuinely seeking God and His will.
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Indeed it is hard, but what worthwhile is not.
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(blushing like crazy!) Thank you for the kind words!
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Maybe C can bring her on this blog.
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I hope so. She is the one who I had hopes of bringing to Pilgrim, as well. She got intimidated, so this was a way of sticking a toe in the water. She says she’s better at writing about Jesus than politics. I think she;s right, although she’s good at both.
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From a purely human perspective John’s acknowledgement that ‘He must increase and I must decrease’ has an inescapable air of sadness about it. To be diminished against one’s will is a torment. What John is doing though is making an exchange, he is releasing his grasp on the outer form in order to enter into the inner content.
The fame he had achieved had always been a means and not an end, Jesus is the end for which his, John’s, life had been a means. It is easy though, as some prominent Christians have shown, to get so caught up into the excitements and temptations of the path they are following that they forget the destination towards which that path is leading. Which is why emptying ourselves in front of the Eucharist, in spiritual communion at least, every day is an important exercise in reminding us that yes indeed we, I, MUST decrease and He MUST increase.
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I think that is exactly the point she and her priest were trying to make, at least that is what I took from it.
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thoughtfullydetached – I do get the point, but I feel that perhaps John the Baptist and Jesus isn’t such a good example of the phenomenon. Right from the beginning (Chapter 1 of Luke’s gospel) John the Baptist was marked out as a Nazarite and set aside for a particular purpose. All the evidence is that he was absolutely true to his calling and was fully aware throughout his entire ministry that he was a signpost and that a signpost to the way is not the way.
There is only one point where there might have been a wee jingling jangling doubt in the back of his head, Matthew 11 when he was in prison and he sent his messengers to allay his doubts as to whether Jesus really was the way. Jesus (of course) gave the perfect answer.
I get the impression that throughout, John the Baptist was entirely aware of his calling, was faithful to his calling and I don’t get any impression at all that there was any inescapable air of sadness about having fulfilled his role – although he might not have been particularly happy about getting his head chopped off.
Perhaps a better illustration of the point being made is the attitude of Jonathan towards David. Saul was king, Jonathan might have expected to be king next, but the prophet Samuel had, in true Old Testament fashion dunked a bottle of oil on David’s head, thus establishing that it was God’s will that David would be the next king.
Jonathan accepted this entirely and declared his absolute loyalty towards David (much to the discombobulation and discomfort of Saul).
The conclusion seems a bit strained – without Jesus I am nothing – so `I must decrease’ seems a bit like a contradiction. I begin to feel a proof that `I am perfect’ coming on;
Major syllogism – Nobody is perfect
Minor syllogism – I am a nobody
Conclusion – I am perfect.
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My qualifier was that from a *human* perspective there would be an inescapable air of sadness. Both John and Jonathan were able to integrate the effect of the Spirit, a selfless love, into their way of being in the world and so they accepted an apparent diminishment because their minds and hearts were not limited entirely to the confines of the City of Man.
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thoughtfullydetached – maybe you’re right – from a human point of view there was certainly an inescapable air of sadness when Alex Ferguson retired – so that Sir Alex was expected to decrease and David Moyes was expected to increase …..
I think a good way of looking at this is the passage from Matthew where Jesus met the centurion. `For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” ‘
The centurion knew that he had authority precisely because he worked strictly under the authority of Caesar – and he knew that Jesus had authority to do the miraculous deeds he was doing precisely because he was working in harmony with God.
I see that John the Baptist understood exactly the same thing – as did Jonathan.
The point where I have difficulties here is the sense of the word `diminished’ since we (as Christians) understand that we are nothing without Jesus and everything we are is `in Him’.
I don’t see John the Baptist `diminished’ in any serious way – he fought the good fight, ran the race, was martyred and is now in heaven. I guess I’m having difficulties with the connections.
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The translation of this verse by Ronald Knox is-
‘He must become more and more, I must become less and less.’
Which makes ‘I’ a pivotal word. The ‘I’ who becomes less is surely the self who must be crucified. But the one who crucifies that self can go on to say ‘and yet I am alive; or rather, not I; it is Christ that lives in me.’
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thoughtfullydetached – yes, but ….. as I indicated, I get the impression that the `self’ of John the Baptist was already wholly crucified when he started out on his ministry and he remained absolutely faithful throughout his ministry to God’s calling. His whole lifestyle and ministry indicates that his `old self’ was already crucified.
What really had to become less was his ministry, since he was only a sign post indicating the way – and when he baptised Jesus, with all that that entailed, it was completely clear that what he was heralding was now publicly among us.
So – yes – the `old self’ must be crucified and be buried, but with John the Baptist I get the impression that this process had already well and truly happened with him – so I don’t see how it applies here.
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I think we have to take up our cross *daily.* There is no act of the will or infusion of Grace which exempts us from temptation. John no doubt lived his life for Christ from the time of the Visitation onwards but that does not mean he was exempt from struggling against satan and the demands of his fleshly self. Each day, each hour John had to choose anew to follow the Lord, and his increasing celebrity and popularity was one of the factors that made the choice more difficult, I would guess, than during the time when he was alone with God in the wilderness.
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True – we take up our cross daily, we face temptation daily, we even face temptation to `quit the band’.
Maybe it’s just me – but I don’t see John coming even close to succumbing to anything that Satan threw in his way. When he was in prison, there was a teensy-weensy doubt in the back of his mind that Jesus was the right guy, he sent his disciples to ask Jesus and (while we’re not explicitly told) it seems that he was reassured by the answer. He certainly didn’t do the `easy’ thing (which would have been to renounce Jesus and get out of jail).
I simply don’t feel that the `I must diminish’ has anything here to do with the old self and the sinful nature.
So what you say is (of course) completely true. I’m just not convinced that John the Baptist is a good example of it.
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Neo, this is most welcome, and I would be delighted if Audre would consider coming on. Writing about Jesus is about the most important thing a blogger can do. I enjoyed this, and it not only reads well, it prompts excellent reflections.
Neo/Audre, let me know if that would be agreeable.
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I passed it along to her, in case she hasn’t seen it. For myself, I’m delighted. It’s has a simple elegance to it that we’ve missed.
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Yes, it is nice to have that tone of voice back here. As you say, since Jess quit we have missed it.
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We have indeed.
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C, there should be an email reference Audre from me in your box. 🙂
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Got it Dave and replied, Will write to Audre.
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