Mutual flourishing is
God’s desire for humanity

Speaking of Religion
The Rev. Dr. Tim Griffin

The wise man does not lay up his own treasures. The more he gives to others, the more he has for his own.
Lao Tzu

Lao Tzu, the legendary Chinese sage and purported author of the Tao Teh Ching, expresses an idea that is found in most religious traditions.
In fact, I think we would be hard pressed to find a religious tradition that does not express this idea in some form. The point is, of course, that true riches are not found in pursuing one’s self interest but in relationships and giving of oneself to others. It is a simple and noble idea (but) easier to say than to do.
My wife often speaks of "mutual flourishing." It is a phrase that she first heard from a beloved seminary professor, but she sees it as much more than an abstract theological idea. It is of a piece with Lao Tzu’s simple and noble ideal. She finds this ideal of "mutual flourishing" at the center of the Christian Gospel and, indeed, at the heart of humanity’s religious sensibilities and quest for the Transcendent.
That is because mutual flourishing is God’s desire for humanity. God desires that we live in harmony with nature and with one another. This harmonious life together is a condition for our flourishing. Were this not God’s desire for us, God would not have created us to share this world nor would God have revealed God’s self to us in the manifold ways recorded by the world’s religious traditions. Thus the diversity that we see in the human population, and in nature more generally, is a gift to us rather than the threat we so often make it out to be.
This extension of Lao Tzu’s insight is apparent and straightforward. The point of mutual flourishing is not that individuals or small groups or even nations may flourish on their own and allow others to do the same. The idea is rather that no one of us or group or even nation can truly flourish — we cannot be who we are created to be — unless all people, groups and nations flourish.
In other words, we are not separate at all. We are created to work together and to share. When we do that, as Lao Tzu observes, we all benefit. When we do not, we all suffer.
What keeps us from living this ideal and so creating the situation in which we may all flourish? I often wonder that myself, both when I see others acting selfishly and when I act selfishly myself.
I believe the great lie that we all seem to believe is that there is not enough to go around. Consequently I must act and act quickly to ensure that I get my share or that my group or my nation gets its share — and then some.
And of course this does not apply simply to tangible objects, does it? I want to be ahead of you in the supermarket check-out line. I want to be ahead of you when I am jockeying for position on the interstate during rush hour. I want what I want, and I want it first.
Similarly, I want my group to be the wealthiest, my church to be the largest, my nation to be the most powerful and the richest. I want these things because they will benefit me.
But this competition is also the very condition for the strife that so characterizes our lives together. Significantly, if we did not have to fight and argue about such things, we might begin to find ways to better meet our needs. Isn’t this a simple and noble ideal? Perhaps we should ask ourselves what keeps us from it.
There is a familiar hymn that says "Let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me." I wonder if that isn’t the place to begin.
I wonder: if I gave way and learned to cooperate a little more, wouldn’t I make myself happier and the world a better place? I wonder: if my group was a little more concerned about cooperating and a little more intentional about making the world a better place, wouldn’t my group and the world benefit? I wonder: if my nation worked to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and heal the sick, wouldn’t my nation and the world be a better place? ••
Father Tim Griffin is priest-in-charge at the St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, at 1946 Welsh Road in Bustleton.