Tipping the Scale Toward Redemption

This week I read through C.S. Lewis’ sermon TheWeight of Glory.  As with the bulk of Lewis’ work, it’s a masterpiece that bears reading in its entirety.  But one his final paragraphs cuts me to the heart:

“The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbour’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and the circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal.”

After reading this I thought about all the people I’ve hated.  The bullies I’ve refused to forgive.  The marginally-abled drivers who cut me off on the expressway.  The slow people in line in front of me in the checkout.  Colleagues I’ve considered obtuse or annoying.  I thought about the people to whom I attribute the brokenness of the world.  Politicians whose greed or ignorance perpetuates injustice.  Terrorists or the agents of corrupt governments who murder kids.  Human traffickers.  Bigots.  Cheats. 

All of us are destined for eternity.  Each of us is a work in progress.  And each of us has been given the tremendous weight of responsibility to steer that eternal work.  Each of us has the potential to contribute to a trajectory of either redemption or reprobation.  Which will it be?

Last summer I heard a presentation from a guy who spent part of a year living in Uganda.  While there, his work brought him into contact with the officials of several different governments.  Some of these were either complicit with known human rights violations, or had connections to active warlords.  Evildoers.  One of these individuals told him, on one occasion, “Once you start killing people, it’s hard to stop.”  So he thought, “The best thing is to keep them from starting.”  He started a non-profit that mentors boys and young men.  Instills in them the ethics of honesty; compassion; peacemaking.  Reaches and redirects human beings who could, under the wrong influences, become the “nightmare creatures” Lewis talks about.   

When we see the depravity of our fellow image-bearers, our instinct is to condemn.  Lewis issues this caution.  It could be our act or attitude of condemnation that tips the scales of that person’s heart.  How much better to err and act on the side of hope – hope that in every person there lies the potential for redemption that the Savior sees in us.

So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!  All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.  We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Corinthians 5:16-21)

Age-ism as a Violation of Divine Law

A year and a half ago I attended a Sufjan Stevens concert.  And as the crowd filled the Royal Oak Music Theater, I noticed an unsettling trend: everyone was younger than me.  I was surrounded by slim college kids wearing the latest fashions, tweeting and texting on their smartphones.   I saw my middle-aged, spectacled self through their eyes.  I was suddenly self-conscious.

Ours is a culture that values youth, beauty and vitality.  These are our currency of choice.  A year ago Time magazine published an article entitled “Amortality”.  Its author observes that the lines between adolescent, young adulthood, middle and old age have blurred significantly in recent years.  Young teens are dressing and acting like adults.  Their parents are dressing and acting like teens (LOL).  Older persons are availing themselves of pharmaceutical and surgical options that maintain the illusion of youth well into their sixties, seventies and eighties.  Why? 

Because we all know that when we no longer seem youthful, we will no longer be relevant.  One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard among local job seekers is that no one will hire anyone over 50.  Those nearing “senior citizen status” (and even those significantly younger) are immediately perceived as out of touch with the skills and technologies of today’s economy.  Obsolete. 

This is a radical shift from the way older persons were treated in the cultures that produced the Bible.  In the Old Testament God insists that his people show due respect to those who have gone before them:

You shall stand up before the gray head and honor the face of an old man, and you shall fear your God: I am the Lord. (Lev. 19:32)

There are practical reasons for this command.  Our elders have lived what we’re living now.  Even if they lived it poorly, their mistakes have given them wisdom.  All of us can benefit from those whose experience exceeds our own.  It makes sense to respect people with more life experience than yours.

There are also sentimental and spiritual reasons for it.  Each of us (God willing) will one day be the age that “old” person is now.  When that day comes we hope we will have something relevant to say, and someone to whom to say it.  But as people of faith, we also recognize that we exist on an eternal playing field.  Not only are you and that 70-year-old not that far apart compared to eternity.  But you are on the same lifelong journey – a journey not to achievement but improvement.  Doesn’t it make sense to pay attention to the ways God has used the experience of years to improve the people around you?  Could God’s work in your own life be enhanced if you allowed yourself to be influenced by those who have been there?  As with all God’s commands, Lev. 19:32 has great relevance.  We and our culture suffer when we disregard it.

The Manna Principle

Passage: Exodus 16

Note: After a couple of months of inconsistent Bible reading, I have started a new reading plan.  I’m using Youversion.com’s “Bible in 90 Days” plan.  This will be the source of any passages I discuss here for the next few months.

I remember my older sister coming home from school one day and telling us that her 5^th grade class had gotten donuts.  She went on to say that initially her teacher had thought there were enough for each student to have two donuts.  But as they were distributed, he quickly realized they would run out (I have to assume my sister lost about a year’s worth of arithmetic in that teacher's class).  He asked students who had already gotten two to return one so there would be enough for everyone.  Several students (she claimed they were all boys.  I have my doubts) quickly took a bite out of both their donuts.  They were more concerned with having more donut than they needed than they were with everyone getting enough.

Throughout the Old Testament, God communicates his great interest in everyone getting enough.  In Numbers God distributes his people’s inheritance – the Promised Land – not on the basis of merit but per capita.  In the latter prophets – Amos in particular – God condemns the injustice that runs rampant amongst his people.  He gives these examples: the selling of people for profit, the oppression of the poor, and the inequitable distribution of resources.  God promises to give his people everything they need.  And God demands that his people share their surplus so that everyone has enough.

This principle is introduced long before God’s people enter the Promised Land.  Early in their journey from Egypt, the Israelites detect a problem.  They’ve marched out into the middle of the wilderness, and have no apparent source of food or water.  They immediately accuse Moses of plotting to kill the lot of them.  God then fills Moses in on his plan.  God says,

I will rain down bread from heaven for you. The people are to go out each day and gather enough for that day. In this way I will test them and see whether they will follow my instructions. On the sixth day they are to prepare what they bring in, and that is to be twice as much as they gather on the other days.

God delivers on his promise.  And this is what happens:

The Israelites did as they were told; some gathered much, some little.  And when they measured it…, the one who gathered much did not have too much, and the one who gathered little did not have too little. Everyone had gathered just as much as they needed.

Then Moses said to them, “No one is to keep any of it until morning.”

However, some of them paid no attention to Moses; they kept part of it until morning, but it was full of maggots and began to smell.

They had enough.  And whatever surplus they gathered went bad.

Fast forward to the present.  God’s promise to provide applies as much to his people now as it did to the Israelites in the wilderness.  In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reiterates the promise:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.  Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Don’t worry.  If you belong to God, you’ll have enough.

Of course we don’t listen.  We don’t trust that God will actually give us what we need.  So we hoard.  We collect more stuff and shore up more resources than we need to live.  And while half the human race goes without enough to eat, our stores go bad.  We throw out food.  Our clothes go out of fashion.  Our electronics go obsolete.  Our hearts grow hard and our spirits wither as we obsess about getting more and protecting what we have.  Our surplus, like day-old manna, rots around us. 

The peace and the compassion and the generosity that are inextricable from the Christian life all start with simply taking God at his word.  Trust that God will show up tomorrow like he did today.  Try living like you trust.  Give away what you don’t need.  And become part of God’s system for ensuring that everyone has enough.   

Again They Did Evil in the Eyes of the LORD

Passage: Judges 13

The Book of Judges is a tough read. It follows the Book of Joshua chronologically as well as sequentially. And its narrative picks up immediately where Joshua’s leaves off. The Israelites have settled in the land God promised to give them. And life is good. At least it should be. But there’s this troubling prediction God makes in Deuteronomy 8:
When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.

It seems impossible – that God’s people would forget about God at the moment they finally partake of God’s promised abundance. Yet this is precisely what happens. The refrain throughout Judges is this: Again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD… The story of Judges is the story of a people who repeatedly get themselves into trouble. They do so by turning their backs on God – the God who has rescued them without fail in the past; the God who promises to protect and provide for them every day of their lives. How in the world could God’s people forget his provision and his promises? It’s really very simple. There’s always something that feels more solid than the promises of an unseen God. A pocket full of coins. The touch of a stranger’s skin. The barrel of a gun. There’s no mystery here.

The story of Judges is our story. We trade in the promises of an unseen but unfailing God for the allure of someone we can see or something we can touch. Yet invariably people and property and politics fail us. Miserably. Judges ends with God’s people literally at each others’ throats, clawing and killing to save themselves. How much of our lives do we waste competing with each other for the stuff of life? Desperate to save ourselves?

The sliver of good news in Judges is this: every time the Israelites come to their senses and cry out to God, God shows up. Judges 13 introduces Sampson, a deliverer possessed of the power of God, sent to rescue God’s people from their troubles. When God rescues, he does so effortlessly and miraculously. All his people have to do is call. What do you need to be rescued from today? Don’t waste your life looking for help in the wrong places. Appeal to God, who responds to our cries for help without fail.

The Cost

Passage: Luke 14:25-33

Jesus continues his teaching on the cost of following him in Luke 14. In this passage he uses two analogies that seem to be saying the same thing but are actually saying the opposite.

In the first, Jesus says, essentially, “A developer wouldn’t endeavor to put up a condo tower if he hadn’t first calculated whether he had the funds to see the project through.” In the same way, Jesus says, “Do you have what it takes to go the distance with me?”

Jesus goes on to say, “A president wouldn’t initiate a war with an opponent he had no chance of overcoming. He would assess his military force, and that of his opponent. And if he was outmatched, he would pursue a peace treaty.”

Here Jesus is talking about the alternative to following him. Jesus presents himself as the only way to peace with God. Choosing not to ally with Jesus means, de facto, becoming God’s opponent. In a veiled way Jesus is really asking, “Do you have what it takes to go to war against God? Can you go the distance without me?”

If you’ve done the calculations, and concluded you can’t stand up to God, then for God’s sake, sign the peace treaty. What peace treaty? The one inscribed in Jesus’ flesh and sealed with his blood. God’s terms are beyond reasonable; beyond merciful. You may not like what it'll cost you, but it's far less costly than the alternative. Choose his peace.

The Narrow Door

Passages: Joshua 2; Luke 13:22-30

Periodically in my Bible reading plan the Old Testament and New Testament readings share remarkable continuity. Today my reading includes Joshua 2 and Luke 13.

Joshua 2 includes the account of the Israelite reconnaissance mission to Jericho. Joshua sends two spies into the city (which God has marked for conquest). Somehow the king of Jericho catches wind of the mission, and sends soldiers out to find the spies. They escape capture with the help of a prostitute named Rahab. Showing remarkable discernment, Rahab tells the spies, “I know that the LORD has given you this land…swear to me by the LORD that you will show kindness to my family, because I have shown kindness to you.” Rahab breaks ranks with her people, even though every indication is that Jericho should have no problem contending with the rag-tag army at their gates. She recognizes the irresistible power of the God of the Israelites, and sides with him. This is a move that will cost Rahab everything – her home; her friends; her property. But having come to faith in the one true God, Rahab understands that there’s only one real option. Only one doorway leads to life.

In Luke 13, someone asks Jesus the eminently relevant question, “Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?” His response is this:

Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, ‘Sir, open the door for us.’
“But he will answer, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from.’
“Then you will say, ‘We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.’
“But he will reply, ‘I don’t know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!’
“There will be weeping there, and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out. People will come from east and west and north and south, and will take their places at the feast in the kingdom of God. Indeed there are those who are last who will be first, and first who will be last.

Jesus’ response is as unpopular today as ever. But it is the same message that is given throughout the entirety of the Scriptures: There’s only one way to life – God’s way. You can align yourself with the one true God by humbling yourself and becoming God’s servant. Or you can stand proud on your own and be lost. God’s way is costly. It may mean turning your back on pleasures, possessions or people you hold dear. But God affirms again and again that the alternative is infinitely more costly. Those willing to appeal to God’s mercy find it unfathomable and immeasurable. Don’t take your chances. Take the narrow door and get life.

Like Hell

Hell became a source of tremendous controversy last year around the publication of Rob Bell’s book Love Wins. For better or worse, Bell forced Christians to reconsider the ways we conceptualize hell and the Bible passages we use to support them. But Bell by no means broke new ground in offering alternatives to the classic or traditional way of thinking about hell. C.S. Lewis provides very cogent arguments for hell not as a place but as a state of being. These arguments, in turn, take shape around Lewis’ assertion that the Christian life is primarily about a relationship with the living being we call God. Hell, within Lewis’ theology, is the inevitable end result of living with a particular posture toward God. In God in the Dock, Lewis famously states, “The gates of hell are locked from the inside.” In other words, hell is populated by those who, in life, wanted nothing to do with God. In death God has simply given them what they wanted.

In Mere Christianity, Lewis says this:
“…Christianity asserts that every individual human being is going to live forever, and this must be either true or false. Now there are a good many things which would not be worth bothering about if I were going to live only seventy years, but which I had better bother about very seriously if I am going to live forever. Perhaps my bad temper or my jealousy are gradually getting worse —so gradually that the increase in seventy years will not be very noticeable. But it might be absolute hell in a million years: in fact, if Christianity is true, Hell is the precisely correct technical term for what it would be.”

Here it sounds as though Lewis agrees with Bell on one hand (“Hell is of our own making”). Yet he contradicts those who go on to conclude that hell is temporary, imaginary or metaphorical. As Lewis puts it, every human being was created to live forever. The real question is whether we will live forever in the company of the God whose company we’ve embraced here and now. Or whether we’ll get in eternity the thing we’ve demanded on earth: to be left alone. If you want God to leave you alone now, why would the prospect of God leaving you alone forever offend you? If on the other hand you want God’s company forever, God invites you to start enjoying it now.