The Useless God

The statement, “God is useless,” is, undoubtedly, sure to strike someone as an insult, not a statement of a faithful believing Christian (much less, a priest). That reaction tells me much about how we feel about the word, “useless,” rather than how we feel about God. In current American parlance, “useless,” is mostly a term of abuse. Who wants to be seen as useless?

Consider this excerpt from a letter of the author and playwriter, Oscar Wilde:

A work of art is useless as a flower is useless. A flower blossoms for its own joy. We gain a moment of joy by looking at it. That is all that is to be said about our relations to flowers. Of course man may sell the flower, and so make it useful to him, but this has nothing to do with the flower. It is not part of its essence. It is accidental. It is a misuse. All this is I fear very obscure. But the subject is a long one.

That the absence of utility is a term of abuse is a profound comment on our time. Stressed, anxious, and sick from the fatigue of life, we find ourselves required to give justification for our leisure. I am “charging my batteries,” we say, giving work the ultimate priority. We only rest in order to work harder.

There are many useless things that mark our lives: beauty, rest, joy. Indeed, it would seem that many of the things that we value most are, for the greater part, quite useless. What is it, to be useful?

The useful thing (or person) gains its value from something other than itself. It is a tool. I value the tool because it allows me to do something else. In many cases, when the usefulness of the tool is expired, it is simply thrown away. In a throw-away society we slowly drown in a sea of obsolescence, surrounded by things for which we no longer have any use.

From a National Geographic article:

Imagine 15 grocery bags filled with plastic trash piled up on every single yard of shoreline in the world. That’s how much land-based plastic trash ended up in the world’s oceans in just one year. The world generates at least 3.5 million tons of plastic and other solid waste a day…. The U.S. is the king of trash, producing a world-leading 250 million tons a year—roughly 4.4 pounds of trash per person per day.

Our sea of trash is a testament to the ethic of utility.

“You only want to use me.” This statement, on the lips of a lover or a friend, is a fearful indictment. We want to be loved for ourselves, not for what we can do, much less as an end to something else. We want to be loved as useless beings.

It is worth noting that among God’s first commandments is one of uselessness:

Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.

The one day out of the seven that is described as “holy” is the day on which we are commanded to be useless. It is, in Christian terms, part of God’s work within us to make us like Himself – forming and shaping us into the image of Christ.

Utility – usefulness – is a strong value within the world of modernity – that philosophical, cultural agglomeration that came about a little over 200 years ago. Inventing better ploughs and threshing machines, figuring out ways to make everything faster, cheaper, and “better,” indeed, making things that no one had ever dreamed of, is an outstanding way to grow an economy. If you couple it with global trade, the standard of living increases, and some people get quite rich.

An aside: the genius of modernity was not its love for technology, or even for what technology can do. Modernity has become super-proficient in technology simply because it learned how to make it profitable. We do not make better phones because we need better phones: we make them so we can sell them. A large amount of medical research goes into finding ways to extend patents rather than curing diseases. Modernity is not the age of technology: it is the age of profit.

If you do this sort of thing for a good number of decades, and couple it with newly-coined ideas of human individuality and freedom, you can, before long, begin to think that you’re building better humans along with better ploughs, threshing machines and iPhones. Of course, many of the humans endure difficult times as they experience a nagging sense of uselessness that will not seem to go away.

The uselessness bound up with the Sabbath Day had a much deeper meaning as well as a more far-reaching application. The Sabbath Day itself was but a token of an entire way of life. Strangely, uselessness was deeply bound up with the question of justice, and, in a manner of speaking, becomes the foundation for understanding the Kingdom of God itself.

The Sabbath Day of ancient Israel was only a small part of a larger understanding of time and the stewardship of creation. One day in the week was set aside and no work was to be done. One year out of each seven was also to be set aside, and no work in the fields was to be done for the entire year – the land was to lie fallow – unplowed. After seven seven-year cycles, a fiftieth year was to be set aside.

Each seventh year, not only did the land lie fallow, but all debts (except those of foreigners) were to be cancelled. In the fiftieth year, these same things apply, but the land reverted to its original ownership. This fiftieth year began on the Day of Atonement and was known as the “Jubilee Year.”

In the preaching of the prophets, particularly Isaiah, this image of the management of debts and the land is given a cosmic interpretation in addition to its place in the annual cycle of Israel. The Jubilee Year becomes the “Acceptable Year of the Lord,” a coming day when the whole of creation will be set free – a coming Jubilee for everyone and everything.

When Jesus stands to read the Scriptures in the synagogue in Nazareth, he reads from the scroll of Isaiah. It is the passage which speaks of this coming cosmic act of remittance and freedom:

“And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” (Luke 4:16–21)

This passage from Isaiah is chosen by Christ to describe what He is about to do. He will preach saying, “The Kingdom of God is at hand.” This Scripture describes what that looks like. The poor hear good news, captives are set free; the blind receive their sight; the oppressed are given liberty – there is a cosmic loosing that happens day by day in His ministry. Indeed, it is not for nothing that He seems to prefer the Sabbath Day above all others for doing this work. He is revealing the true meaning and purpose of the Sabbath.

And this will bring me back to uselessness.

Today, we would look at land lying fallow for a year as a primitive substitute for “crop rotation,” a useful way of promoting responsible agriculture. This is not its actual purpose. It is a deliberate interruption of the cycle of productivity, and the maximizing of profit. It says, “No. There’s something more important.”

The Law within ancient Israel was not an entirely unknown Mideastern practice. Other kingdoms in the area practiced an occasional forgiveness of debt, primarily to secure the position of a ruler. Israel seems to be the first instance in which the forgiveness of debt and the practice of Sabbatarian rest – for people, land, and animals, came to be written into the very fabric of life and given divine sanction. And, even in the non-Sabbath years, there was a prohibition against harvesting an entire field. A portion had to be left standing so that the poor could “glean” the fields for their needs. Maximum efficiency was forbidden. This way of life was not an effort to solidify earthly power, but to undermine it with a radical understanding of the purpose of human existence.

There was nothing new in Christ’s attitude towards the poor and the oppressed. What was new was His willingness to practice it without pulling a punch and His extension of its principles towards everything and everyone.

He drew the imagery of debt and its abolition (with extreme examples) into His teaching on the Kingdom of God itself. What we learn is that this Law of uselessness – the refusal to maximize our own power and efficiency – goes to the very heart of what it means to exist in the image and likeness of God.

That we are loved in our uselessness points to the fact that we are loved for ourselves. We have value and worth in and of ourselves regardless of what we might do. The proclamation of the Kingdom of God is the declaration of what God Himself values.

“…Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?(Matt 6:28–30)

The lilies are useless, doing no work, neither toiling nor spinning. And yet, they are clothed. Our work ethic has become a cultural ethic. We take vacations so that we can return as better workers. Few things are done for their own sake. Why would God set aside so much time for uselessness? Apparently, when life becomes driven by utility, we neglect and ignore the things that have the most value and are all too easily deemed useless.

The Prophet Amos made this observation:

“Hear this, you who trample on the needy and bring the poor of the land to an end, saying, “When will the new moon be over, that we may sell grain? And the Sabbath, that we may offer wheat for sale, that we may make the ephah small and the shekel great and deal deceitfully with false balances, that we may buy the poor for silver and the needy for a pair of shoes and sell the chaff of the wheat?” Amos 8:4-6

Very little has changed, it seems. We fail to honor the useless God, and in doing so, have forgotten how and why we live.

_______________

Revised from an earlier version. The photo is of the author in a state of jubilant uselessness.

 

About Fr. Stephen Freeman

Fr. Stephen is a retired Archpriest of the Orthodox Church in America. He is also author of Everywhere Present: Christianity in a One-Storey Universe, and Face to Face: Knowing God Beyond Our Shame, as well as the Glory to God podcast series on Ancient Faith Radio.



Posted

in

, ,

by

Comments

13 responses to “The Useless God”

  1. Laurie Avatar
    Laurie

    Thank you for this, Fr. Stephen. It cuts to the heart of many if my struggles. Do you have thoughts on how we can engender true life and God’s design in place of usefulness?

  2. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Laurie,
    I think we can take a cue from the Scriptures. The practice of the Sabbath was given by God to teach this important thing about ourselves and the world. So, build a bit of Sabbath time into your life: just being useless (on purpose). Even if it’s not a whole day but just a few hours. Also, cultivating more and more thanksgiving into our lives. The giving of thanks is at the very heart of this holy uselessness. It’s our true “job.”

  3. Laurie Avatar
    Laurie

    Thank you so much, Fr. I have a jaunt to France coming up and I’ve been fighting feelings of guilt over spending the time and money. But life has been intense lately, and with your article and response I feel a bit better about this break. Thank you and glory to God!

  4. Helen Avatar
    Helen

    It’s such a battle. Even the weekend must be made the most effective use of time. I have a rebel streak in me and your article makes me realize some of the reasons why.

  5. Goldfinch Avatar
    Goldfinch

    As a society most people get their identities from what they “do”. The loss of a career can really destabilize a person. I’ve seen it happen. Upon meeting a person often the first piece of small talk exchanged is asking what job a person performs (What do you do?) and permanent value judgements are formed regarding the worth and status of the person based on the answer given.

    As a person with multiple disabilities that have hindered my ability to live up to the expectations of the world I am acutely aware of these things. Most people see me as useless, lazy, or selfish because my disabilities aren’t overtly apparent and I don’t openly share them. The world isn’t a safe place to do so. I think because I acutely feel these things I find it hard to understand that God would love me just for me and not be angry with me because I am not performing up to par for to Him. That I am the wicked servant who did not multiply the talents given to them.

    While material things, and shallow frivolity have very little worth to me, and I much prefer the natural world and deeper things, I still live in a world where there is a daily onslaught of shame for not meeting the standard.

    Thank you for this. I really needed to hear it today. I was deeply feeling these things just last night.

  6. hellie Avatar
    hellie

    Thank you, Father, for another wonderful piece. It brought to mind a video I recently watched on YouTube, about the “value” of things. It’s from a channel called Campfire Stories, and the video is called Radical Neighbouring.

    Link: https://youtu.be/dynQV-oKM0E?si=cu2ASFrTOyjaoOAO

  7. David Avatar
    David

    I think this is one perspective. Any time we speak about God we are speaking out our ideas about God. It is metacogntive theology–thinking about what we think about God.

    The article raises a challenging idea: God is useless. I heard a similarly challenging some time ago: God does not exist. Both are highly nuanced claims.

    On the one hand, it is thought provoking. We see everything as a means to an end, its latent utility. Creation, however, doesn’t exist for the sake of human utility. It is what it is in and of itself. On the other hand, a father is only a father if he acts like a father. A father that claims he is being treated as a utility, a means to an end, because his children ask him to feed them seems absurd. Are the children wrong to expect their father to act like a father?

    The article makes good points. But I wonder about expectations. Do humans have a right to pose expectations for God? If we believe that God is Love, then doesn’t that claim create expectations? If we claim that God is Father, doesn’t that claim create an expectation?

    What about an article that claims God is not Love? Or, God is not a father?

    Language comes to us with a topology of meaning and values layered onto it. Language creates expectations based on the layered topologies of meaning. We can engage in metacognitive theology to sterilize language, remove sociocultural influences, when thinking about ideas about God. We can do that.

    I have been reading the Cambridge Companion to Heidegger. His ideas about intellectual dilemmas stemming from the effort move about in a world of abstraction is worth considering. His idea of learning ontology from everyday experience seems obviously true. He is, or so he seems to me, challenging the view from nowhere. It is worth thinking about.

  8. Margaret Avatar
    Margaret

    Thanks so much for this Fr Stephen! I agree with all you say here! And I am allowed to practice it, thanks be to Our Lord Who loves us! However, I often struggle with self-loathing. I’ve been praying and confessing this “feeling” and have received some comfort, relief and direction. I believe your book about Shame addresses this but I need to re-read it

  9. Mallory Avatar
    Mallory

    This is wonderful! The closest being to me is my 11 year old dog and we’ve always called him “useless joy bringer” — always meant as the highest compliment, can’t walk anywhere without people’s faces lighting up when they see him.

    This also reminds me of why Proust means so much to me, not only his writing, but his life. I remember a teacher telling us that Proust often spent days in bed drinking coffee and eating a croissant or two, and when his father told him to find a profession, he volunteered at the local library and barely showed up. There was something about hearing these stories about a genius that lifted my spirits and made me relax inside. They were a welcome contrast to all the other stories of heroic work ethic and basically telling people if they worked hard enough they could achieve anything, which is an obvious lie.

    Blessing to all!

  10. Ursula Avatar
    Ursula

    The Lord’s timing for you sharing these thoughts and me finding them is, of course, perfect.
    I have been helping my 95 year-old father who has been successfully living on his own. Those short-term memory is quickly becoming toast. There have been a ton of things to do with paperwork, phone calls, financial companies, doctor visits, etc., etc., etc.
    Wednesday he fell out of his wheeled office chair.
    EMT’s evaluated him and took him to hospital where he remains. At Hospital, it was determined he had a mild brain bleed or stroke and he was pretty well dehydrated. Dad is doing quite well, though. He has tested positive for Covid. Likely a false positive. This actually has been a blessing.
    This morning, Saturday, I’m struggling with panicky feelings, I can’t determine where to begin the day. I want to hide or run away.
    Your reflection greatly spoke to me that perhaps I need to be a bit useless today in the good way put forth in your reflection.
    Thank you, Father Stephen. I’m so glad that I got to meet you at Saint Athanasius Parish in Nicholasville, Kentucky.

  11. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    David,

    I submit we may have no expectations of God and must trust Him instead. The servant is not greater than the master.

    Father, thank you for clarifying a thought I have had for many years regarding utility. In my previous life as a math need I observed that the students most concerned about when they were going to use “this”, the math, were almost uniformly doomed to struggle with learning it. I can’t think of one out of hundreds, if not more, who truly achieved mastery of the material and was concerned with utility.

  12. Fr. Stephen Avatar

    Robert,
    In your experience, would you say that those who did best in learning the math, had an appreciation for its beauty? Just curious. My own experience is that beauty is a path to deeper understanding in almost anything.

  13. Robert Avatar
    Robert

    Father,
    My experience is that the people who learned best saw meaning in learning it. Beauty certainly could provide meaning, but often only after learning does one start to appreciate the beauty of math. It’s rather abstract. I suppose also how one defines beauty is important. Sometimes after some hammer and tongs messy calculation and finding a very simple result, a student would say “That’s cool!”. That student will go farther than the one commenting on the utility of the result, other things being equal.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *


Subscribe to blog via email

Support the work

Your generous support for Glory to God for All Things will help maintain and expand the work of Fr. Stephen. This ministry continues to grow and your help is important. Thank you for your prayers and encouragement!


Latest Comments

  1. Father, My experience is that the people who learned best saw meaning in learning it. Beauty certainly could provide meaning,…

  2. Robert, In your experience, would you say that those who did best in learning the math, had an appreciation for…

  3. David, I submit we may have no expectations of God and must trust Him instead. The servant is not greater…

  4. The Lord’s timing for you sharing these thoughts and me finding them is, of course, perfect. I have been helping…

  5. This is wonderful! The closest being to me is my 11 year old dog and we’ve always called him “useless…


Read my books

Everywhere Present by Stephen Freeman

Listen to my podcast



Categories


Archives