Green Martyrdom & the Rise of the Machines
Why Christians Must Enter into the Wilderness to Face our Greatest Enemy Yet
Five months ago, I decided to get rid of my smart phone for a wise phone. It has no apps, email, or web browser yet still retains some of those convenient features we all enjoy—group texting, notes, maps, and a decent camera for taking quality photos and videos. Many people asked me why I did this. There are 10,000 reasons that I could give, but they could all be summarized into one — I felt the existential need deep in my bones to be rid of it in order to be whole again. Certain types of concerns swirled in my mind that came from some of my favorite films.
“Am I constantly plugged into the Matrix like Neo?”
“Am I becoming part machine like Darth Vader?”
“Am I clinging to this ‘ring of power’ like Frodo?”
It was always so easy to justify being on my phone. “I need to check my emails for work,” or “I need to respond to the comments on my latest video,” or more likely, “I just need to finish this fascinating article or video on XYZ topic and then I will get off.” We all have our long list of reasons, but they all originate from the same illness: we are becoming passive, consumeristic machines, and our conversion into the Machine world is nearly complete.
Yikes, that went dark rather quickly! What do I mean by all of this?
From the standpoint of church history, I believe the Church is facing its greatest enemy yet as the Machine Age leaves deep wounds upon marriages and friendships as well as workplaces and churches. Although it’s still the same enemy—the invisible kingdom of darkness— and the same old rebellion— making ourselves into gods to replace God, the Machine Age has some disturbing characteristics. As the writer and thinker, Paul Kingsnorth, has pointed out, the Machine world is being designed, especially through AI, to maximize temptation for its users and to celebrate many vices as good (and profitable). Although the kingdom of darkness is not composed of actual flesh and blood (see Ephesians 6:12), it still can ‘interface’ with our bodies and the physical world through sin and the temptation to sin. Therefore, Christians should not be naïve to think the demonic world is completely detached from our digital world, but rather, should be wise enough to discern the patterns set before us and become prepared for possibly its’ greatest manifestation yet.
So where do Christians go from here? As always, we will find our sure footing by hiking down the path trail-blazed for us by our Lord and His saints long ago.
Following Christ into the Wilderness
The more I study the Gospels, the more convinced I am that Jesus did everything (even in the smallest details) so that His disciples could imitate Him. Jesus was like a master violinist who wanted His apprentices to observe every note played so they could learn from him and become great violinists themselves. A number of Bible passages demonstrate this, but lately, I have been most drawn to His flight into the wilderness right after His baptism (Luke 4:1-13).
“Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished… And the devil said to him, ‘To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.’ Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God,
and serve only him.’”
Christ had every right to hop on a royal chariot (machine) and roll into Jerusalem to topple over the Roman Empire with the swords and arrows (machine) of His followers. He could have had massive stones built on top of one another with ancient cranes (machine) to build a temple for Himself greater than King Herod’s. But Christ didn’t do any of that. He rejected the ‘machine solutions’ to redeem the world and instead, went to the wilderness in order to prepare for His mission of martyrdom to reconcile a rebellious humanity to its’ Maker.
And he asked his followers to do the same. He equipped them with ‘wilderness theology’ telling them to ‘go to a quiet place and shut the door’ (Matthew 6:6). He told Peter to “put away his sword” (machine-thinking) and to ‘pick up his cross’ (martyr-thinking). The Apostle Paul followed Christ’s example by going into the wilderness of Arabia (Galatians 1:17) after his baptism to prepare for his mission to the nations. Many saints of the early church such as St. Anthony the Great, St. Moses the Black, and the desert fathers of Egypt did the same.
The Green Martyrs & Wild Saints of Ireland
In recent essays and interviews, Paul Kingsworth, a convert from Wicca (neo-paganism) to Orthodox Christianity, has pointed out the beautiful lives of the Irish monks. Their ancient example is like an icon or window into the ‘wild and untamed Christianity’ of the Gospels. Like some of the monks on Mount Athos today, they lived in the caves and crevices within cliffs. In other places, they lived as seaside monks on lonely islands or in stone, beehive huts on mountaintops.
Author and historian, Thomas Cahill, refers to these Irish monks as ‘green martyrs.’ Classically defined, martyrs are those who die for Christ with the shedding of their blood (red martyrs). The term, white martyrdom, was eventually used to refer to Christians who lived a life of selflessness and experienced a type of spiritual, inward martyrdom without actually being killed for Christ. They set the example for all Christians since we are called to pick up our crosses and die to our selfishness daily. White martyrdom can happen anywhere whether that be in the home, the workplace, the parish or the large monastery. But what about green martyrdom? It is actually a subset of white martyrdom but the context is the wilderness or ‘the wild places of the world.’
St. Kevin of Glendalough, St. Colman Mac Duagh, St. Cuthbert, and many of these ‘green martyrs’ sought to be spiritually formed and purified in the vast green spaces of Ireland. They had a sacred relationship with their Creator in the wild and sought to have transfigured eyes so that they could see God’s Creation the way that He did. They also knew that the wilderness was an extension of their own baptisms when they renounced Satan and died to the world-system, and that without it, the world would simply overwhelm them. As Jesus warns us in the Gospels, “As for what was sown among thorns, this is the one who hears the word, but the cares of the world and the lure of wealth choke the word, and it yields nothing” (Matthew 13:22). The life of the Kingdom in Christ cannot be fully realized in us until we first ‘let go’ of our own pursuit of earthly cares and personal pleasures. We need the rugged spiritual landscape of the wilderness.
Not everyone is called to give up their smart phones for Christ (at least not yet). However, we all must ask the questions:
“In what ways am I being mastered by technology to the point that it is shutting off my ability to pray to God and contemplate Him?”
“What are some ways that I can detach more from technology so that I can embrace what God wants to teach me in the wilderness?”
And if you have children, “How can I raise up saints who love the real world— the Good Creator, His Creation, His Word, & His Church— more than illusionary world of screens and seductive technologies?”
Many difficult decisions are now before us. We have no idea what kind of world awaits the next generation 25 years from now, but we can ask the Spirit to lead us into the wilderness so that we are ready for whatever awaits us—whether it be the greatest enemy the Church has ever faced or more cheerfully, the appearance of the Lord Himself. Come Lord Jesus, Come!
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