Mysticeti Discernment by Brad Jersak

When it comes to discernment, we are and should be like the mysticeti. What are the mysticeti? Some sort of mystical magi? Not at all... that's just the technical name for our friends, the baleen whales. I believe that with those great baleen strainers of theirs, they have the corner on discernment and we might learn from them.

They do not swim around looking for a particular fish to bite, hoping that they don't accidentally get something yucky in our mouths. And neither do we, really. Life doesn't work that way. You can't pick up a Time magazine and only read good news or turn on a television and only see good pictures or go into town and only expose yourself to good sights. Every time you read, look, experience… everything in the magazine, movie, ads, and on the streets, in the malls, etc. enters your ears and eyes and senses... I.e. the whale opens its mouth and it all goes in. In fact, when a whale wants to eat, it doesn't just open its mouth... it dives to the ocean bottom, opens wide, and scoops gargantuan amounts of water, shrimp, mud, fish, sticks, weeds into its mouth... We do this from morning until night just by living in the world, leaving our house, engaging with people. Then the whale begins to push everything back out of its mouth, straining it through the baleen apparatus: the strainer doesn't keep bad stuff out... it PUSHES bad stuff out while keeping even the most microscopic bits of nourishment... and it keeps so MUCH krill, plankton, shrimp, etc. that these meals can nourish and grow the greatest mammal in history. From somewhere on the internet:

Baleen whales (also known as Mysticeti, or mustached whales) are filter feeders that have baleen, a sieve-like device use for filter feeding krill, copepods, plankton, and small fish. They are the largest whales and have two blowholes. Baleen whales include blue, gray, humpback, minke, bowhead, and right whales. Many baleen whales species are endangered. [yes, they are]

What we have here is not “garbage in, garbage out,” but rather, ”everything in, garbage out” with an understanding that even the whales develop a sense of where the best feeding routes are and that it’s wise to avoid oil slicks. As my friend, Colleen Taylor, wrote in a recent email:

I don't think "everything in" works if you're going to include ENTERING places like the porn store as a potential source of nourishment. However, walking by the porn store is another matter and fairly unavoidable. Of course there are people who are CALLED to enter porn stores, red light districts, etc., looking for Christ the way Mother Teresa did. Does that mean it is okay for everyone to go there? Does everyone have the same spiritual baleen capacity to sift and spit? No. Even that is part of the discernment process.

The question is what our own spiritual baleen consists of and how effective it is. But the big point here is that you don't strain by not eating for fear of getting something bad. Rather, we take it in and then begin to sift outwards, holding on to the good (as per 1 Thess. 5).

This reminds me of the spiritual exercise that I tried for myself: trying to discern my way through the Nag Hammadi Library (the famous Gnostic collection). Some won't read the library for fear of getting mud in their mouth. Others just scan it looking for every error (as some do with my books). But the baleen whale type of Christian is straining for nourishment... what is the truth here? What seems like delicious? What is only edible? What is poisonous? As I read the library, I encountered a spectrum of writers ranging from Spirit-filled to delusional. I found that with God’s help and sound mind, one could distinguish small-r revelation from capital-H heresy.

I also noticed this perspective alter my approach to preachers: instead of waiting to pounce on the two or three little errors that I supposed I was hearing (and needed to protect others from believing), I changed my question to, "What did God say through this messenger?" I was straining for truth, not error, and it helped me to hear others, engage others, and sometimes win others just by hearing the truth in them. This is why I can enjoy (without swallowing everything), not only the Gospel of Thomas, but the Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna... which is the same process that Solomon used in compiling the Proverbs. He allowed himself to strain other streams, cultures, and even religions for truth and included the “best of” in his collection… a collection now recognized as Scripture. Yet he was not regarded as a syncretist because he knew that Truth and Wisdom are sourced in God and he endeavored (with varying success) to spit out the rest.  With God's Spirit as our reliable Guide into all truth (John 16), so might we.

bj

Comments

[Darlene Enns-Dyck]

This article speaks a truth we have been very intentional in embracing. We just came out of a series on sexuality, and committed ourselves to resist the urge to condemn and point fingers at all the "bad stuff" that exists in our culture surrrounding sexuality. We didn't want the church to be the voice to say "just stop, don't look, resist, shut down..." We looked (and found) true hunger, honest desire, and a desperation for God. Thanks for the metaphor!

[Cheryl Berto]

Great article! I realize from reading this that this is what I do in many circumstances. Like Brad it is how I avoid the trap of being a watchdog and instead I am able to be a source of encouragement. Its' always great to read something that afirms and gives voice to an experience that had not been well named.