Bruno the Herald

Welcome

<preshow discussion of who’s been the best so far, end with JR. trying to talk about Bruno into COVER>

One of my best friends is an Enneagram 6. And probably my favorite thing about him is going for walks together. It doesn’t matter if we’re literally going on a walk around the neighborhood or just walking into a restaurant.

We’ll be in the middle of a conversation and he’ll pause to say, “Watch out for that curb.” Or, “Be careful for that crack!”

But my favorite example is one time when a group of us was walking down the sidewalk and he leaped in front of us and threw his arms out.

“You guys, WATCH OUT!”

We stopped dead in our tracks, looking for the thief about to assault us or perhaps a car chase hurtling towards us.

There was nothing.

“Watch out for the praying mantis!”

We looked down and, sure enough, there was a praying mantis. I leaned in to take a better look, and my friend exclaimed, “Don’t touch it! They’re endangered!”

Now, it turns out that’s not true - though it’s a weird belief that a bunch of us picked up along the way.

But I also want you to walk with me through my friend’s thought process. As our group was out enjoying an evening stroll, he was scanning the route ahead of us for possible dangers. And then he spotted one. There, on the curb, small enough that someone less vigilant would have missed it, is a creature. But not just a creature - an endangered creature. If he doesn’t act fast, someone is going to step on it. At which point sirens will sound and as police cars screech around the corners from both directions, a PETA SWAT team will descend from helicopters to arrest all of us - guilt by association, after all. We’ll go to prison, which means we’ll all lose our jobs and, given recidivism rates in the US prison-industrial complex means we’ll all become lifers. At best, we’ll all get released sometime in our 80s, hopefully to retire to a low-income nursing home to live out our few, final and brutal days. together.

Thank God he stopped us and pointed out the praying mantis in time!

Do you know someone like that? Someone who sees danger around every corner, the person who’s constantly scanning for pitfalls and peril?

Then you might know an Enneagram Six. And while they sound like Chicken Little, these folks are actually called the Loyalists. They’re the glue that holds the rest of us together, and when they’re healthy, they’re amazing.

So how do these Loyalists find the path to flourishing? And how can the rest of us help them?

Brace yourselves… for the answer, we’re going to have to talk about Bruno!

Message

Welcome to Summer at Catalyst! This year, we’re going on a quest for spiritual transformation. To help us get at that, we’re spending our summer with La Familia Madrigal from Encanto. The nine magical Madrigals correlate with a tool utilized in Spiritual Direction called the Enneagram.

On its surface, the Enneagram looks like a personality profile - like Myers-Briggs or Strengthsfinder. In the Enneagram, you identify yourself as one of the numbers 1-9, which then goes on to describe how you interact with the world. Ian Cron, a Spiritual Director who has written about the Enneagram a lot, says it like this: “Personality tests tell you who you really are. The Enneagram tells you who you’re really not.”

In other words, what the Enneagram helps you identify in yourself is something theologians and mystics call our shadow self. Personas we all create to help us cope with the world.

Throughout this series, we’re investigating the type embodied by each member of La Familia Madrigal, allowing them to illustrate for us the various personas. Then we’ll dive into Scripture to see how these personas keep us from being fully who God created us to be.

The end goal is that we come to know our creator better by better knowing God’s creation. By the end of the summer, I hope we come together as a spiritual family, closer than ever and a source of healing and hope for our community - just like La Familia Madrigal!

[Triads] We’ve explored the anger triad, the 8s, 9s and 1s. Abuela, the Protector/Challenger, Mirabel the Peacemaker and Isabela the Perfectionist.

We’ve explored the shame triad, the 2s, 3s and 4s. Julieta the Helper. Luisa the Performer. Pepa the Romantic.

Now we’re in the final triad, the fear triad. Last week, we met Dolores the Investigator, who projects her fear outward, exploring the world to keep herself safe.

Today, we’re meeting the Enneagram Six, also known as the Loyalist.

Sixes are the Fear avoiders, and they do so by worrying. Sixes see danger around every corner, and they spend a lot of energy working to prevent that danger.

It’s no wonder, then, that la familia Madrigal’s Six is… deep breath, everyone!… Tio Bruno. In Mirabel’s opening song, she says, “My Tio Bruno… they say he saw the future, one day he disappeared.” Bruno knows if it’s going to rain, who’s going to hurt themselves and even that the family’s magic is going to fade.

Bruno can see every bad thing that’s going to happen and… it doesn’t exactly make him the life of the party. Quite the opposite. Bruno’s visions have a way of coming true. The central example is his sister Pepa’s wedding day. There was not a cloud in the sky before Bruno warned it would rain. Once the thought was in her head, Pepa couldn’t control herself, and they got married in a hurricane.

When Bruno had a vision of the family’s magic fading, he left. Except he didn’t really leave - he hid in the walls of casita. He’s spent years patching cracks in the walls, caring for the family even from his exile.

When Mirabel finds Bruno, he explains, “My gift wasn’t helping my family, but I love my family.”

That’s why Sixes are the Loyalists. No matter how the family treated Bruno, no matter how he felt, he remained loyal to the family.

Bruno is a super unhealthy six - he knocks on every piece of wood he sees, throws salt and sugar over his shoulder. He’s sure that the worst possible future is going to come to pass.

Sixes can’t actually see the future - but they’re convinced that if they try hard enough, they have a shot. They can keep themselves - and the people they love - safe by worrying, dwelling, planning.

Sixes manifest in two ways - Enneagram experts call them phobic and counterphobic. When Mirabel first makes her way into the walls, she realizes Bruno has been patching the cracks in casita for a long time. When she observes as much, he says, “Oh that? No, no, no, no, no. I’m too scared to go near those things. All the patching’s done by Hernando.”

Who is Hernando? It’s Bruno with his hood up. It’s a silly gag - Bruno admits as much, but it captures the duality Sixes live in. Phobic Sixes are afraid to go near the cracks. They want to stay as far from danger as possible. These Sixes usually find some kind of authority figure they can trust, and then they stick with that person through thick and thin (for Bruno, it’s Abuela).

Counterphobic Sixes are Hernando - they confront, challenge, oppose. My favorite counterphobic Six is actually Batman - he spends his whole life imagining worst-case scenarios, and making a plan to overcome each one. He even has Bat-Shark Repellent.

But despite how different phobic and counterphobic look, they share the same root: a desire to avoid a frightening world. That’s because, as kids, Sixes learned early on that the world isn’t safe and that the adults in charge can’t always be trusted. When they learn that message, they respond either by obeying or rebelling. They always know who’s in charge, and they’re keeping a close eye on them.

What do Sixes look like in the world?

[Average, Unhealthy, Healthy]

What’s the path to health for a Six?

Turn with us to Matthew 6. This is in Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, and Sixes, this is going to be a painful message for you to hear. It’s going to sound trite and dismissive. In fact, I’m willing to bet that you’ve heard more or less these same words from other people in your life. A lot.

So before we read, I want you to remember that Jesus is speaking these words. And he’s speaking them to a mass of people who are poor, oppressed and trampled. People who have every reason you do to worry, to fear. And his words are aimed not at pacifying them, but liberating them. So I want to read this with you and I want you to try to hear it not as a way to shut you down, but draw you out.

Matthew 6:34 NLT

“So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Don’t worry about tomorrow. Easy for Jesus to say, right? But notice that Jesus doesn’t say, “Hey, there’s nothing to worry about?” He says, “Tomorrow will get here soon enough. Let’s focus on today.”

This whole sermon is an act of imagination. Jesus is inviting us to picture a reality where God is in control - the true and trustworthy authority figure Sixes really want. A world where we can act not out of fear but trust that the God who created us and calls us is with us, working ahead of us, preparing and protecting.

Jesus invites us to imagine that world so that we can step into it. Live as though it’s true - that’s faith.

So Sixes (and the rest of us), I want to pause here and ask: Can you believe God is in control? Can you choose to act as though the world will not stop spinning if you quit running worst-case scenarios? Can you imagine that it’s not your job to patch all the cracks in the casita?

Song

How in the world do Sixes survive today? We can’t turn on the news or scroll social media without hearing that the world is on the brink of disaster. In fact, the world feels more dangerous today than it probably ever has, for any of us.

Sixes have been trying to warn us. You knew this would happen. Didn’t you, Sixes?

How can Jesus tell us not to worry?!

I want to back up and read what comes before his instruction against worry:

New Living Translation Chapter 6

“Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. 20 Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. 21 Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.

22 “Your eye is like a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is filled with light. 23 But when your eye is unhealthy, your whole body is filled with darkness. And if the light you think you have is actually darkness, how deep that darkness is!

24 “No one can serve two masters. For you will hate one and love the other; you will be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and be enslaved to money.

25 “That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life—whether you have enough food and drink, or enough clothes to wear. Isn’t life more than food, and your body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are? 27 Can all your worries add a single moment to your life?

28 “And why worry about your clothing? Look at the lilies of the field and how they grow. They don’t work or make their clothing, 29 yet Solomon in all his glory was not dressed as beautifully as they are. 30 And if God cares so wonderfully for wildflowers that are here today and thrown into the fire tomorrow, he will certainly care for you. Why do you have so little faith?

31 “So don’t worry about these things, saying, ‘What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear?’ 32 These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs. 33 Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.

34 “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.

Jesus actually starts by talking about money, and he warns that if we are too captivated by wealthy, we’ll end up serving money and not God.

We see that, don’t we? Money gives us a sense of security. We imagine that if we can have enough, we won’t have to worry anymore.

Of course, we look around at our world and see that’s not the case. Those with the most money are most often the most selfish, making even more profit at the expense of their employees or the market.

As the prophet Notorious BIG warned, “Mo money, mo problems.”

In other words, Sixes, here’s the hard truth you don’t want to hear: You’re never going to catch safety. There’s no amount of money you can make or security you can buy or plans you can imagine that will calm your worry. You can’t do it. In that way, security - financial or otherwise - is an idol that makes promises it can’t keep.

This is why Jesus tells you not to chase it. Instead, trust God.

Before we move to healing for Sixes, I want to pause and make something very clear: Jesus is not demonizing anxiety or worry. Being concerned about things going wrong is not sinful. It’s easy to read verses like these above and feel like Jesus condemns us for worrying.

But we know now, thanks to neuroscience, that fear and worry actually affect our brain chemistry. Some of you who’ve been around a while remember we had some pretty bad times here at Catalyst several years ago. I found myself having panic attacks - I’d go into a worry spiral, imagining worse case scenarios over and over. I finally went to my doctor and told her what was happening.

She explained that extreme stress alters our brain chemistry and makes it almost impossible not to worry. She prescribed some anxiety medication that I still take to this day - a pill every day that keeps me level. My anxiety medication helps me choose faith, and I’m grateful for this tool of modern medicine that makes the work of faith easier for me than it would have been a hundred or a thousand years ago.

Because friends, Jesus isn’t here to condemn us. He’s here to liberate us. Sixes, that goes for you, too. Your spiritual work is to learn to trust God - not so you can completely detach and never do anything, but so that - like Bruno - you can be a full member of our spiritual family. We need you.

Communion + Examen

The God who died for us can be trusted to provide for us.

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Assignment + Blessing

Unplug from the news and doom-scrolling for a week. How does that change your perspective?

Sixes find worst-case scenario planning comforting. Don’t be dismissive. Take them seriously and help them focus on best-case outcomes rather than worst.