Faith and Values: Today, we need spizzerinctum and spezzature

In first -century Palestine, Jesus was considered subversive by the religious and political leaders and followers. Today, we who claim to be serious followers of Jesus should be known as subversive in the eyes of certain religious and political leaders and followers.

The religious groups to which I refer are those who subscribe to Christian nationalism. The political groups to which I refer are those believe the Trump administration’s authoritarian policies and actions are just what America needs. (Please fill in your own illustrations of these destructive ideologies.)

To be a subversive follower of Jesus, we need to adopt at least two qualities Jesus embodied: spizzerinctum and sprezzatura. He didn’t use these strange words, but he lived by them daily.

“Spizzerinctum” is an old slang word (possibly from Appalachian or Southern U.S. culture) for boldness, spunk. It’s similar to the Jewish word “chutzpah” that describes audacity, courage, cheekiness, confident. In the context of religious faith, “holy boldness” would be an accurate term.

The more I look at the parables, the stories and the actions of Jesus in the Gospels, the more I see Jesus’ spizzerinctum, his holy boldness.

Sometimes subtly, oftentimes directly, Jesus thumbed his nose at religious and political leaders when their rules and actions denied human dignity and value to common people. His unwavering self-honesty and trust in God pushed him to bold words and bolder actions. Jesus embodied spizzerinctum so well.

Have you found opportunities to act (verbally or physically) with spizzerinctum but maybe found reasons not to? Your reasons are your own – perhaps for safety, perhaps for common-sense reasons. Chutzpah and spizzerinctum are not easy qualities to act out for many of us.

Perhaps one reason we’re reluctant to engage our inner desire for spizzerinctum is that our sprezzatura isn’t well developed. This Italian, fun-sounding word can mean “paradox, contradiction.” Religious power and political power are often paradoxes. They conflict with our expectations.

I like how Leonard Sweet, in “The Gospel According to Starbucks,” describes this paradox religiously: “We expect God to be loving and compassionate, yet there is so much natural and human-made devastation in the world. Where is God? That is paradox. Our rigid belief shouts out a firm answer. But faith whispers a cry to God, ‘Can I trust you to be in the midst of that devastation? I want to trust you. I need to trust you.’”

Our tolerance for paradox is often very limited. We think we’re in control, don’t we? When we feel out of control, we resort to using any form of power we can find. Those forms can be well-intended – or not. Either way, they can manipulate other people. Likewise, we’re easily manipulated by an inner power we believe we control. Yet we usually don’t.

Paradox and contradiction are inner dynamics we must learn to understand before they can be used to serve others, to benefit others, to love others. Our desire for certainty and unchangeable truth are in a daily tug-of-war with the uncertainty and changing truth-pieces in our lives.

Sprezzatura is the rope in tug-of-war. We do what we don’t want to do, or we don’t do what we want to do. Then we find ways to rationalize those conflicts away. Contradictions and paradoxes confuse us. We just want to “believe” without any real effort.

Jesus lived with his own sprezzatura. It helped him embody the spizzerinctum God has created within him.

God created sprezzatura and spizzerinctum within each of us also. They’re hard for us to admit to having sometimes. And it may be harder for us to act on them. But God’s spizzerinctum leads us on.

The Rev. Paul Graves, a retired United Methodist minister, can be contacted at elderadvocates@gmail.com.