You can do so at www.metrospirit.com. Once there, click on "Music." The stories "Drawn to Banjos" and "Review: Mayhem String Band" are by Joshua. "Drawn to Banjos" is also in the Spirit's print edition. You can also read two of his CD reviews on that same page; his are the first and third ones.
Obviously, I want you to read our son's work, but while you're there, take a look at the rest of the website. They have some really interesting stuff.
Thursday, March 8, 2007
Living the Forgiven Life: Engage in the Struggle
(A Lenten devotion based on Exodus 17:1-7; Romans 5:1-11; John 4:5-42)
Sometimes we say that we came to Christ or that someone else ought to come to Christ as if it is a simple thing. And in a way it is simple. We must never add anything to the simple child-like faith that is required if one is going to become a follower of Christ. Still, to get to that point of faith, to that place where one can throw oneself at the feet of Christ in utter child-like dependence, can be a struggle. I think of Herod Agrippa who said to Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” It can be a long way from “almost” to “all right.” A good example of what I am talking about is found in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, a story that had a happy ending.
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, all kinds of realities stood between him and her. In the first place, there were ethnic barriers. She was Samaritan while he was Jewish. In the second place, there were social barriers. She was a woman while he was a man. In the third place, there were religious barriers, for while the Samaritans and the Jews worshipped the same God they did so different ways, including having competing temples and differing collections of Scripture. And so when they encountered each other a situation of confrontation was set up. Something to admire in this woman is the fact that she hung in there with Jesus and was willing to engage him in the struggle. She entered into a dialogue with Jesus.
I put before you the observation that so long as one is willing to dialogue with Jesus the hope exists that a breakthrough will occur. We Christians need not be threatened by those who ask questions and who challenge what we say or believe. The ones to be truly concerned about are those who have so little interest that they just don’t care one way or another.
So the woman at the well struggled with Jesus. She struggled against the backdrop of her religious background, her ethnic background, and her social background. Where the breakthrough began to occur, though, was when the struggle moved to the issue of her personal life. Here was a woman who had to go out to the well every day to get water. It was a part of the hum-drum struggle of her daily life. Now, this strange man offers her water and promises that if she’ll drink it she’ll never be thirsty again and that it will give her eternal life. I guess she was thinking literally and physically when she responded, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Then, though, Jesus turned the conversation in a direction that pointed toward her area of real thirst, an area of thirst much more real and much more vital than physical thirst. “Go, call your husband and come back,” he said. “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” To which she (understandably) responded, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.” He had cut to the heart of the matter. What drove her to go from man to man like that? What caused her to grope and grasp and reach out for love, constantly failing but always trying again? At the point of her deepest need Christ offered his greatest help. In her recognition that he was the Messiah came her hope. Jesus calls you to admit your place of deepest need, your place of deepest hurt. And then he will come to you at just that point.
Some people think, it seems to me, that struggling should end once you find forgiveness in Christ and once you commit your life to being his disciple. That’s a fallacy that people understandably accept, since our initial acceptance of Christ puts many ultimate issues to rest. When sin, death, and hell have been taken care of, what’s left? Well, there’s actually a lot left. We who are Christians, who have been forgiven, still need to engage in the struggle that comes with trying to live as God’s people. Indeed, coming to faith in Christ does not bring the struggle to an end. It continues. The question is not whether or not we will struggle. The question is what we will do with the struggle. The meaning of the struggle is found in what we do with it.
Will we murmur and complain? That’s what the Hebrews did. Now, we need to state right up front that the life of discipleship is a journey. It’s a process. We have to walk the walk and we have to walk it one step at a time. Sometimes the walk becomes difficult. God saved the Hebrews. He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He led them across the sea. And almost immediately they began to complain. They complained at a place called Marah because the water was bitter and God gave them clean water (15:22-25a). They complained at the wilderness of Sin because they were hungry and God gave them manna and quail to eat (16:1ff). In today’s text they came to a place called Rephidim and there they complained because there was no water. This time God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff and water came from the rock. Moses called the place Massah and Meribah, which mean “Test” and “Quarrel,” respectively, because of the attitude of the people. The issue at the heart of their complaining was “Is the LORD among us or not?” (v. 7).
Let’s be fair about this. First, these were real issues that the people were raising. Food and water are indispensable human needs. They were not voicing complaints over trivial matters. Without food and water, they would die. Sometime we complain over trivial issues and we just need to stop being silly. But some issues really are life and death issues. Second, the Bible does not prohibit complaint and lament. Indeed, the book of Psalms contains more laments than any other type of psalm. It is appropriate when we are suffering and struggling to pour our hearts out to the Lord. It is appropriate that we be honest and open with him about what we are experiencing and about that with which we are struggling. Indeed, it is dishonest not to do so. He’s big enough to handle it.
Yet the Hebrews should have learned something by the time they got to Rephidim. I can understand their fears about food. I can understand their initial fear about water. But God had already intervened on their behalf twice. He had already proven through the primary salvation event of the Exodus and through the manna, the quail, and the turning of the bitter water into sweet, that he was among his people. The Hebrews ought to have learned something through what they had already experienced. We should learn and grow through what we experience. That’s what our experiences are for. Our experiences, even the most difficult ones we have, can and should serve to teach us the truth that God is with us.
This brings us to the other possibility. Will we grow in endurance and hope? We who are Christians have already experienced our primary salvation event; we have been saved through the cross of Christ. Paul reminds us, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:1-2a). This has happened; it is the way it is. And having experienced God’s grace through faith and having come to have peace with God in the present, we look forward to God’s great future when we will share in the glory of God (v. 2b). Christ died for us while we were sinners (vv. 6-8) and we can be sure that he will finish the work he has started in us (vv. 9-11). But in the present times can get hard. We can suffer. We can have trials. Many if not most of you are sitting here this morning carrying heavy burdens of suffering and trial. Others of our fellowship are not here today precisely because of the heavy burdens they are bearing.
Paul gives us the glorious word that even our suffering contributes to our walk with God and to our development as Christians. The coming of suffering is a fact. The question is what we will do with it. Paul tells us that we can boast in our present suffering just as much as we boast in our future glory because they are tied together. “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (vv. 3b-5). It’s worth the struggle. It’s worth the struggle because every time we experience pain we learn that God is with us. And each experience should teach and remind us and make us even surer that he is with us. God made the ultimate statement that he is with us in our suffering by suffering alongside us and for us in Calvary’s cross.
Yes, struggle, but remember that the struggle can make us surer of what God will finish in us. Engage in the struggle because it is in the struggle that we become sure of the love and the hope that are in us.
Sometimes we say that we came to Christ or that someone else ought to come to Christ as if it is a simple thing. And in a way it is simple. We must never add anything to the simple child-like faith that is required if one is going to become a follower of Christ. Still, to get to that point of faith, to that place where one can throw oneself at the feet of Christ in utter child-like dependence, can be a struggle. I think of Herod Agrippa who said to Paul, “Almost thou persuadest me to be a Christian.” It can be a long way from “almost” to “all right.” A good example of what I am talking about is found in the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well, a story that had a happy ending.
When Jesus met the Samaritan woman, all kinds of realities stood between him and her. In the first place, there were ethnic barriers. She was Samaritan while he was Jewish. In the second place, there were social barriers. She was a woman while he was a man. In the third place, there were religious barriers, for while the Samaritans and the Jews worshipped the same God they did so different ways, including having competing temples and differing collections of Scripture. And so when they encountered each other a situation of confrontation was set up. Something to admire in this woman is the fact that she hung in there with Jesus and was willing to engage him in the struggle. She entered into a dialogue with Jesus.
I put before you the observation that so long as one is willing to dialogue with Jesus the hope exists that a breakthrough will occur. We Christians need not be threatened by those who ask questions and who challenge what we say or believe. The ones to be truly concerned about are those who have so little interest that they just don’t care one way or another.
So the woman at the well struggled with Jesus. She struggled against the backdrop of her religious background, her ethnic background, and her social background. Where the breakthrough began to occur, though, was when the struggle moved to the issue of her personal life. Here was a woman who had to go out to the well every day to get water. It was a part of the hum-drum struggle of her daily life. Now, this strange man offers her water and promises that if she’ll drink it she’ll never be thirsty again and that it will give her eternal life. I guess she was thinking literally and physically when she responded, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty or have to keep coming here to draw water.”
Then, though, Jesus turned the conversation in a direction that pointed toward her area of real thirst, an area of thirst much more real and much more vital than physical thirst. “Go, call your husband and come back,” he said. “I have no husband,” she replied. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; for you have had five husbands, and the one you have now is not your husband.” To which she (understandably) responded, “Sir, I see that you are a prophet.” He had cut to the heart of the matter. What drove her to go from man to man like that? What caused her to grope and grasp and reach out for love, constantly failing but always trying again? At the point of her deepest need Christ offered his greatest help. In her recognition that he was the Messiah came her hope. Jesus calls you to admit your place of deepest need, your place of deepest hurt. And then he will come to you at just that point.
Some people think, it seems to me, that struggling should end once you find forgiveness in Christ and once you commit your life to being his disciple. That’s a fallacy that people understandably accept, since our initial acceptance of Christ puts many ultimate issues to rest. When sin, death, and hell have been taken care of, what’s left? Well, there’s actually a lot left. We who are Christians, who have been forgiven, still need to engage in the struggle that comes with trying to live as God’s people. Indeed, coming to faith in Christ does not bring the struggle to an end. It continues. The question is not whether or not we will struggle. The question is what we will do with the struggle. The meaning of the struggle is found in what we do with it.
Will we murmur and complain? That’s what the Hebrews did. Now, we need to state right up front that the life of discipleship is a journey. It’s a process. We have to walk the walk and we have to walk it one step at a time. Sometimes the walk becomes difficult. God saved the Hebrews. He brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. He led them across the sea. And almost immediately they began to complain. They complained at a place called Marah because the water was bitter and God gave them clean water (15:22-25a). They complained at the wilderness of Sin because they were hungry and God gave them manna and quail to eat (16:1ff). In today’s text they came to a place called Rephidim and there they complained because there was no water. This time God told Moses to strike a rock with his staff and water came from the rock. Moses called the place Massah and Meribah, which mean “Test” and “Quarrel,” respectively, because of the attitude of the people. The issue at the heart of their complaining was “Is the LORD among us or not?” (v. 7).
Let’s be fair about this. First, these were real issues that the people were raising. Food and water are indispensable human needs. They were not voicing complaints over trivial matters. Without food and water, they would die. Sometime we complain over trivial issues and we just need to stop being silly. But some issues really are life and death issues. Second, the Bible does not prohibit complaint and lament. Indeed, the book of Psalms contains more laments than any other type of psalm. It is appropriate when we are suffering and struggling to pour our hearts out to the Lord. It is appropriate that we be honest and open with him about what we are experiencing and about that with which we are struggling. Indeed, it is dishonest not to do so. He’s big enough to handle it.
Yet the Hebrews should have learned something by the time they got to Rephidim. I can understand their fears about food. I can understand their initial fear about water. But God had already intervened on their behalf twice. He had already proven through the primary salvation event of the Exodus and through the manna, the quail, and the turning of the bitter water into sweet, that he was among his people. The Hebrews ought to have learned something through what they had already experienced. We should learn and grow through what we experience. That’s what our experiences are for. Our experiences, even the most difficult ones we have, can and should serve to teach us the truth that God is with us.
This brings us to the other possibility. Will we grow in endurance and hope? We who are Christians have already experienced our primary salvation event; we have been saved through the cross of Christ. Paul reminds us, “Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand” (Romans 5:1-2a). This has happened; it is the way it is. And having experienced God’s grace through faith and having come to have peace with God in the present, we look forward to God’s great future when we will share in the glory of God (v. 2b). Christ died for us while we were sinners (vv. 6-8) and we can be sure that he will finish the work he has started in us (vv. 9-11). But in the present times can get hard. We can suffer. We can have trials. Many if not most of you are sitting here this morning carrying heavy burdens of suffering and trial. Others of our fellowship are not here today precisely because of the heavy burdens they are bearing.
Paul gives us the glorious word that even our suffering contributes to our walk with God and to our development as Christians. The coming of suffering is a fact. The question is what we will do with it. Paul tells us that we can boast in our present suffering just as much as we boast in our future glory because they are tied together. “Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us” (vv. 3b-5). It’s worth the struggle. It’s worth the struggle because every time we experience pain we learn that God is with us. And each experience should teach and remind us and make us even surer that he is with us. God made the ultimate statement that he is with us in our suffering by suffering alongside us and for us in Calvary’s cross.
Yes, struggle, but remember that the struggle can make us surer of what God will finish in us. Engage in the struggle because it is in the struggle that we become sure of the love and the hope that are in us.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Reflections on Yesterday’s Forum on Women’s Reproductive Health
Yesterday I was a member of a nine-person clergy panel that participated in a forum on “Religious Perspectives on Women’s Health Issues”; the focus was on abortion and contraception. We were supposed to be a ten-person panel but the scheduled imam was unable to make it; I regret that because it would have been interesting to hear his perspective. The members of the panel were identified beforehand as “pro-choice” or “pro-life.” The pro-choice folks had green name placards and the pro-life folks had blue ones. I don’t think there was any significance to the color choices. On the “pro-choice” side were two ministers in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., one from a Church of God congregation, one from the Unitarian Universalist Church, and a Reformed Judaism rabbi. On the “pro-life” side were a Roman Catholic, a Presbyterian Church in America pastor, a Lutheran, and me, the Baptist. All of the members of the panel were bright, articulate, and concerned. I liked them all; some of them I had met before and some I met for the first time yesterday.
All of the members of the panel have a lot of compassion for women who find themselves in the position of having a problem pregnancy. I think it’s fair to say that the “pro-choice” folks tend to focus their compassion more on the women who are dealing with the issue while the “pro-life” folks tend to focus theirs more on the fetus. Baptist ethicist Paul Simmons once wrote that pro-life people are really pro-fetus while pro-choice people are really pro-woman. While I think that is overstating the case, there is some truth to it. Extreme pro-lifers, those who believe that abortions should absolutely never be performed, even if the life of the mother is in serious danger, value the life of the unborn over the life of the mother. Extreme pro-choicers, those who believe that abortions should be available to any woman who wants to get one no matter what the reason, value the life (here I’m defining life broadly—physical, social, emotional, mental) of the mother over the life (here I’m defining it narrowly as physical) of the fetus. Again, though, in their own way everyone on every point of the spectrum exhibited compassion.
It seemed to me that eight of the nine members on the panel, including me, believe that therapeutic abortion should be available as an option in certain cases, such as risk to the life of the mother, pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or the probability of severe fetal malformation. I think that everybody on the panel would welcome a situation in which there would be no more elective abortions (“abortion as birth control” or “abortion on demand”). Some would want to outlaw those via legislation or via a constitutional amendment. Others believe that the better avenue to reducing them is to do a better job of educating young people and parents on sexuality and specifically on birth control. Some believe that much more attention should be given to developing more effective and reliable methods of birth control.
The need for us all to work together in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies was a positive theme of the afternoon. Now, there are people who strongly believe that the use of artificial birth control is wrong and that the only moral type of birth control is natural family planning. That seems to me, with all due respect, an abrogation of the duty with which God endowed us when he gave us the ability to reason and the responsibility of stewardship over his creation. While procreation is a blessing we also need to take steps to prevent overpopulation and its subsequent strain on our planet’s limited resources. I believe along with some of the other panelists that the church should do a better job, in cooperation with parents, of teaching our young people about sexual matters. I’m not quite sure how that should look in practice: I’m open to suggestions. Abstinence is the ideal and we should promote that. Given the realities of adolescent life, though, young people should also know about contraception. Again, any talk about that in the church surely must involve a partnership with parents.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to participate in the forum because it forced me to do some hard thinking about where I really stand on this issue. I have expressed in previous posts my reticence at talking about abortion because of the fact of my gender; I’m not a woman. Also, my wife and I never had to face a problem pregnancy and thus never wrestled personally with the choice. Still, as a Christian and as a minister I need to be able to articulate a response.
So, here I stand. I do believe that the fetus is a life. Actually, that is not a matter of belief; by any legitimate definition I think it is a matter of fact. I also believe that the fetus is a potential person. It is not a “full-blown” person because that means a certain level of independence and the ability to live in relationship with others. Still, I cannot get past the fact of potential personhood in the fetus; that makes the life worth preserving. Nevertheless, I believe that therapeutic abortions are sometimes regrettably necessary, particularly if carrying the pregnancy to term would put the life of the mother at serious risk. In such a case a decision must be made to value one life over the other and that is very difficult. There are cases in which the already established personhood and relationships of the mother might be judged to be more valuable than the potential personhood of the fetus. That would be a terribly difficult call for a Christian woman who believes that sacrificial love is a hallmark of her faith, but, if she dies for the sake of the fetus, she may actually be selfishly putting her commitment to the fetus ahead of her commitment to her other family members. Again, it’s a tough choice to have to make.
I believe that we should work to eliminate elective abortions or “abortion on demand” or “abortion as birth control.” Should that be done legislatively? I’m not sure. My impulse is to say “Yes.” The problem would come in criminalizing elective abortions while not criminalizing therapeutic abortions. How would such a law be enforced? There are a lot of issues involved with such an effort. I absolutely believe that we Christians ought to do all that we can to educate toward the eradication of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage is our ideal and we must stick to it. But we must also counsel responsibility for the sake of our children’s health and their future.
All of the members of the panel have a lot of compassion for women who find themselves in the position of having a problem pregnancy. I think it’s fair to say that the “pro-choice” folks tend to focus their compassion more on the women who are dealing with the issue while the “pro-life” folks tend to focus theirs more on the fetus. Baptist ethicist Paul Simmons once wrote that pro-life people are really pro-fetus while pro-choice people are really pro-woman. While I think that is overstating the case, there is some truth to it. Extreme pro-lifers, those who believe that abortions should absolutely never be performed, even if the life of the mother is in serious danger, value the life of the unborn over the life of the mother. Extreme pro-choicers, those who believe that abortions should be available to any woman who wants to get one no matter what the reason, value the life (here I’m defining life broadly—physical, social, emotional, mental) of the mother over the life (here I’m defining it narrowly as physical) of the fetus. Again, though, in their own way everyone on every point of the spectrum exhibited compassion.
It seemed to me that eight of the nine members on the panel, including me, believe that therapeutic abortion should be available as an option in certain cases, such as risk to the life of the mother, pregnancy resulting from rape or incest, or the probability of severe fetal malformation. I think that everybody on the panel would welcome a situation in which there would be no more elective abortions (“abortion as birth control” or “abortion on demand”). Some would want to outlaw those via legislation or via a constitutional amendment. Others believe that the better avenue to reducing them is to do a better job of educating young people and parents on sexuality and specifically on birth control. Some believe that much more attention should be given to developing more effective and reliable methods of birth control.
The need for us all to work together in the prevention of unwanted pregnancies was a positive theme of the afternoon. Now, there are people who strongly believe that the use of artificial birth control is wrong and that the only moral type of birth control is natural family planning. That seems to me, with all due respect, an abrogation of the duty with which God endowed us when he gave us the ability to reason and the responsibility of stewardship over his creation. While procreation is a blessing we also need to take steps to prevent overpopulation and its subsequent strain on our planet’s limited resources. I believe along with some of the other panelists that the church should do a better job, in cooperation with parents, of teaching our young people about sexual matters. I’m not quite sure how that should look in practice: I’m open to suggestions. Abstinence is the ideal and we should promote that. Given the realities of adolescent life, though, young people should also know about contraception. Again, any talk about that in the church surely must involve a partnership with parents.
I am grateful for the opportunity I had to participate in the forum because it forced me to do some hard thinking about where I really stand on this issue. I have expressed in previous posts my reticence at talking about abortion because of the fact of my gender; I’m not a woman. Also, my wife and I never had to face a problem pregnancy and thus never wrestled personally with the choice. Still, as a Christian and as a minister I need to be able to articulate a response.
So, here I stand. I do believe that the fetus is a life. Actually, that is not a matter of belief; by any legitimate definition I think it is a matter of fact. I also believe that the fetus is a potential person. It is not a “full-blown” person because that means a certain level of independence and the ability to live in relationship with others. Still, I cannot get past the fact of potential personhood in the fetus; that makes the life worth preserving. Nevertheless, I believe that therapeutic abortions are sometimes regrettably necessary, particularly if carrying the pregnancy to term would put the life of the mother at serious risk. In such a case a decision must be made to value one life over the other and that is very difficult. There are cases in which the already established personhood and relationships of the mother might be judged to be more valuable than the potential personhood of the fetus. That would be a terribly difficult call for a Christian woman who believes that sacrificial love is a hallmark of her faith, but, if she dies for the sake of the fetus, she may actually be selfishly putting her commitment to the fetus ahead of her commitment to her other family members. Again, it’s a tough choice to have to make.
I believe that we should work to eliminate elective abortions or “abortion on demand” or “abortion as birth control.” Should that be done legislatively? I’m not sure. My impulse is to say “Yes.” The problem would come in criminalizing elective abortions while not criminalizing therapeutic abortions. How would such a law be enforced? There are a lot of issues involved with such an effort. I absolutely believe that we Christians ought to do all that we can to educate toward the eradication of unwanted and unplanned pregnancies. Abstinence before marriage and faithfulness in marriage is our ideal and we must stick to it. But we must also counsel responsibility for the sake of our children’s health and their future.
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
My Opening Remarks for Today’s Women’s Reproductive Health Forum
[Today I will be one of ten clergypersons participating in a forum on “Religious Perspectives on Women’s Health Issues” (with a focus on abortion and contraception) at the Medical College of Georgia here in Augusta. Each panelist will give a five-minute (!) opening statement. We were asked to use this time to state our religious tradition’s perspective on the issues at hand. Here are my prepared remarks. If you have any comments, please post them quickly; the forum begins at noon EST today.]
I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you today to discuss these important issues. They are important issues because they are people issues. One thing that you who are medical professionals and we who are professional clergy share in common is a deep concern for the well-being and wholeness of people; you are concerned for your patients and we are concerned for our parishioners. Often, of course, those lines cross, because often your patients are our parishioners. In a very real way, then, we are all in this together. So I join my colleagues in gratitude for this opportunity to dialogue with you.
I hope to accomplish two tasks in these opening remarks. First, I want to summarize the perspective of my Baptist tradition on women’s reproductive issues. I must qualify this portion of my remarks by saying that there is no monolithic Baptist tradition on such matters. The Baptists with whom I associate the most are Southern Baptists, who tend to be very conservative, and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Baptists, who tend to be conservative in a more moderate fashion. Two cherished Baptist doctrines are the priesthood of believers and the autonomy of the local church; therefore, our church polity has historically been non-hierarchical. We don’t take too well to pronouncements from above on what we should think about anything.
Nonetheless, I think that I can speak with some confidence of a consensus among the more conservative Baptists. It is reflected in the words of a resolution adopted by the SBC in 1980; the sentiment of this resolution has been reaffirmed many times since.
Be it therefore RESOLVED, That the Southern Baptist Convention reaffirm the view of the Scriptures of the sacredness and dignity of all human life, born and unborn, and
Be it further RESOLVED, That opposition be expressed toward all policies that allow "abortion on demand," and
Be it further RESOLVED, That we abhor the use of tax money or public, tax-supported medical facilities for selfish, non-therapeutic abortion, and
Be it finally RESOLVED, That we favor appropriate legislation and/or a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother.
Since the adoption of that resolution the messengers to the SBC have consistently said that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
I think that I can also speak with some confidence of a consensus among more moderate Baptists. They would tend also to oppose “abortion on demand” but would be more likely to favor the availability of the abortion option under broader circumstances than risk to the life of the mother. Those might include rape, incest, and the probability of severe defect in the fetus.
Contraception has not been a big issue among the Baptists among whom I have lived and worked. The prevailing perspective has been that while terminating a pregnancy is problematic, preventing one is fine. Some trial balloons have been floated by some prominent Southern Baptist leaders in recent months that may indicate that contraception may become an issue in Southern Baptist life. One leader (Al Mohler) has suggested that “deliberate childlessness” by couples is “moral rebellion.” Another (Dorothy Patterson) has very recently written, “While taking an oral contraceptive is certainly not equal to purposely getting an abortion, the ethical considerations are similar. One function of oral contraceptives is to help prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. If life begins at conception, this function of the pill is not contraceptive but abortive." I’m not sure where that discussion is headed; I suspect that artificial birth control is so firmly ingrained in most Baptist couple’s lives that it’s a non-starter.
Second, I want to mention some thoughts/concerns/perspectives that I think Baptist (and I suspect most Christian) women or couples might be harboring or nurturing or struggling with if they are confronted with a decision as to whether or not to have an abortion.
In the first place, they will likely be dealing with their presumption that the fetus is a life. Most of them will believe that life begins at conception. Some of them will have processed some of the other possibilities, such as that life only begins when the baby can live outside the mother’s body or perhaps when a nervous system begins to develop, but most will still believe that the fetus, regardless of its stage of development, is a life. I realize that we might need to differentiate between a “life” and a “person,” but I’m not sure that many of your Baptist patients will see that as a significant distinction. “Life” for some of them will equal “potential person” and for others “full person with all the rights of protection that full-grown person has.” So, many of them will be dealing with feelings of guilt over the mere contemplation of an abortion, even if there are valid medical reasons for having one.
In the second place, many Baptist and other Christian patients will come to you having been immersed in the idea that at the heart of the Christian faith lies the practice of self-sacrificing love. They believe that Jesus Christ laid aside his self-interest and his prerogatives as the Son of God and voluntarily gave up his life on the cross for the sake of us sinners—for people who are guilty! They believe that as followers of Christ they are called to have the mind and heart of Christ which require them to practice that same kind of self-giving love. They believe that they are called to put the interests of others—even of their enemies—ahead of their own. As I said earlier, most Baptists would say that abortion should be available when the life of the mother is in danger. But, even when that is the case, a follower of Christ may well be dealing with a sense that it is not right to put her own interests ahead of those of the fetus, even if it threatens her life. The dynamics of that inward struggle could be very painful.
I believe that to treat a person as a whole person means that we have to deal with the physical, emotional, social, environmental, and spiritual dimensions of that person’s life. I hope that I have given you something to think about as you contemplate the spiritual aspect of your patients’ lives as they deal with some very difficult choices.
I am grateful for the opportunity to be with you today to discuss these important issues. They are important issues because they are people issues. One thing that you who are medical professionals and we who are professional clergy share in common is a deep concern for the well-being and wholeness of people; you are concerned for your patients and we are concerned for our parishioners. Often, of course, those lines cross, because often your patients are our parishioners. In a very real way, then, we are all in this together. So I join my colleagues in gratitude for this opportunity to dialogue with you.
I hope to accomplish two tasks in these opening remarks. First, I want to summarize the perspective of my Baptist tradition on women’s reproductive issues. I must qualify this portion of my remarks by saying that there is no monolithic Baptist tradition on such matters. The Baptists with whom I associate the most are Southern Baptists, who tend to be very conservative, and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Baptists, who tend to be conservative in a more moderate fashion. Two cherished Baptist doctrines are the priesthood of believers and the autonomy of the local church; therefore, our church polity has historically been non-hierarchical. We don’t take too well to pronouncements from above on what we should think about anything.
Nonetheless, I think that I can speak with some confidence of a consensus among the more conservative Baptists. It is reflected in the words of a resolution adopted by the SBC in 1980; the sentiment of this resolution has been reaffirmed many times since.
Be it therefore RESOLVED, That the Southern Baptist Convention reaffirm the view of the Scriptures of the sacredness and dignity of all human life, born and unborn, and
Be it further RESOLVED, That opposition be expressed toward all policies that allow "abortion on demand," and
Be it further RESOLVED, That we abhor the use of tax money or public, tax-supported medical facilities for selfish, non-therapeutic abortion, and
Be it finally RESOLVED, That we favor appropriate legislation and/or a constitutional amendment prohibiting abortion except to save the life of the mother.
Since the adoption of that resolution the messengers to the SBC have consistently said that abortion should be allowed only to save the life of the mother.
I think that I can also speak with some confidence of a consensus among more moderate Baptists. They would tend also to oppose “abortion on demand” but would be more likely to favor the availability of the abortion option under broader circumstances than risk to the life of the mother. Those might include rape, incest, and the probability of severe defect in the fetus.
Contraception has not been a big issue among the Baptists among whom I have lived and worked. The prevailing perspective has been that while terminating a pregnancy is problematic, preventing one is fine. Some trial balloons have been floated by some prominent Southern Baptist leaders in recent months that may indicate that contraception may become an issue in Southern Baptist life. One leader (Al Mohler) has suggested that “deliberate childlessness” by couples is “moral rebellion.” Another (Dorothy Patterson) has very recently written, “While taking an oral contraceptive is certainly not equal to purposely getting an abortion, the ethical considerations are similar. One function of oral contraceptives is to help prevent the implantation of a fertilized egg. If life begins at conception, this function of the pill is not contraceptive but abortive." I’m not sure where that discussion is headed; I suspect that artificial birth control is so firmly ingrained in most Baptist couple’s lives that it’s a non-starter.
Second, I want to mention some thoughts/concerns/perspectives that I think Baptist (and I suspect most Christian) women or couples might be harboring or nurturing or struggling with if they are confronted with a decision as to whether or not to have an abortion.
In the first place, they will likely be dealing with their presumption that the fetus is a life. Most of them will believe that life begins at conception. Some of them will have processed some of the other possibilities, such as that life only begins when the baby can live outside the mother’s body or perhaps when a nervous system begins to develop, but most will still believe that the fetus, regardless of its stage of development, is a life. I realize that we might need to differentiate between a “life” and a “person,” but I’m not sure that many of your Baptist patients will see that as a significant distinction. “Life” for some of them will equal “potential person” and for others “full person with all the rights of protection that full-grown person has.” So, many of them will be dealing with feelings of guilt over the mere contemplation of an abortion, even if there are valid medical reasons for having one.
In the second place, many Baptist and other Christian patients will come to you having been immersed in the idea that at the heart of the Christian faith lies the practice of self-sacrificing love. They believe that Jesus Christ laid aside his self-interest and his prerogatives as the Son of God and voluntarily gave up his life on the cross for the sake of us sinners—for people who are guilty! They believe that as followers of Christ they are called to have the mind and heart of Christ which require them to practice that same kind of self-giving love. They believe that they are called to put the interests of others—even of their enemies—ahead of their own. As I said earlier, most Baptists would say that abortion should be available when the life of the mother is in danger. But, even when that is the case, a follower of Christ may well be dealing with a sense that it is not right to put her own interests ahead of those of the fetus, even if it threatens her life. The dynamics of that inward struggle could be very painful.
I believe that to treat a person as a whole person means that we have to deal with the physical, emotional, social, environmental, and spiritual dimensions of that person’s life. I hope that I have given you something to think about as you contemplate the spiritual aspect of your patients’ lives as they deal with some very difficult choices.
Monday, March 5, 2007
God’s Glory Road
(A sermon for the second Sunday in Lent based on Genesis 15:1-12, 17-18; Philippians 3:17-4:1; Luke 13:31-35)
The Lenten path is a road to glory. It was that way for Jesus. The path that he followed during the last days of his life on earth was the path to his glorification. It was a path that led to resurrection but crucifixion had to be experienced before resurrection could be known. We will do well always to remember that God’s way, which is most fully revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, is the way of the cross. It is not an easy way and there are no shortcuts. But it is the necessary way.
What can we say about God’s glory road?
First, God’s glory road is a road of faith. We will make progress on that road as we learn to trust God more. By what is such faith characterized?
For one thing, such faith is characterized by honest questions. From Job to Jesus, the Bible continually shows us that the possession of real faith does not eliminate the asking of real questions. Indeed, faith does not require us to hang our integrity on a nail outside the church door; faith allows us to bring our honest doubts inside the church door so that they can be baptized. So when God said to Abraham, “Your reward will be very great,” the patriarch could not help but think that he had heard this before. God had earlier promised him that a nation would descend from him but Sarah and he had not yet had a child and they were getting old. So Abraham asked, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…? (Genesis 15:2). That was a good and honest question. Later, God told Abraham that he was going to give him the land to possess. Again, Abraham had heard that before. So he asked, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (v. 8). Again, a good and honest question.
There is nothing wrong with such good and honest questions. Indeed, when it comes to conversing with God, if you’re thinking it you might as well voice it! Life with God is challenging. It takes us down some difficult roads. Doubts and concerns are bound to arise. As we give voice to them we give God the opportunity to alleviate them and to help us deal with them.
For another thing, such faith is characterized by radical trust in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Even in the face of honest doubts we can move toward radical trust. And so, after God reassured Abraham that he would indeed have many descendants, we find one of the most amazing verses in the Bible: “And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness” (v. 6). Abraham was made right with God not because he did all the right things; he was made right with God because, in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and in the face of honest and reasonable doubts, he achieved and expressed radical trust in God. True, Abraham did not trust perfectly from that moment on, but radical trust is not perfect trust, anyway. A person who has radical trust is a person who gives himself over fully to God and who deals with whatever comes knowing that his life is in God’s hands.
Sometime great obstacles stand between us and the fulfillment of God’s plan for us. Sometimes we create our own obstacles; as Pogo put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Sometimes the obstacles emerge from the circumstances of life. Sometimes the obstacles emerge from the opposition of the world around us. But the obstacles do arise. And sometimes they seem insurmountable. That’s when real faith kicks in.
Second, God’s glory road is a road of hope. One key to being on God’s road to glory is the constant acknowledgement and awareness that we are indeed on a road, that we are in fact on a journey. Until we get there we have not arrived! We can be the child in the back seat of the car who continually asks her father “Are we there yet?” but if we keep asking our heavenly Father that question the answer is always going to be, “No, my child, no.” But that is actually a good thing.
It is a good thing because God has a future for us. It is a future in which, as Paul put it, “He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory…” (Philippians 3:21). When God brings all things to their completion and we receive our resurrection bodies, then God’s great future will be realized in our lives. In the meantime, while we walk on this road that God has laid out before us, we are always drawn forward by the power of that great future. Our minds are set on heavenly things. We know that we belong in heaven and that one day our Savior will come and take us there.
God’s way is all about the future. Abraham had to believe in what God promised for the future. The Philippians had to believe that the day was coming when they would be all that God intended for them to be. We have to believe that God is going to keep his promises; we have to believe that he is not finished with us and with his universe yet. We have to believe in heaven and in the resurrection because those realities are what God’s great future is all about. It is heaven that makes going through what we have to go through worth it. It is the resurrection that makes the hard times in life worthwhile. It is trusting in the God who keeps his promises that keeps us pushing forward.
While God’s way is about the future, that way empowers us in the present. Thus Abraham believed in what God told him about his future heir and God reckoned that to him as righteousness in the present. Also, Abraham was able to move forward in hope because he believed that God would do what God had promised to do. Paul encouraged the Philippians, after he had assured them that God would one day transform their humble bodies into glorious ones, to “stand firm in the Lord” (4:1). They could stand firm in the present exactly because of what God was going to do in the future. So can we.
Third, God’s glory road is a road of perspective. When we accept the promises of God so that we walk the road he has placed before us in faith and hope, when we believe in his promises so that we are pulled toward his future in a way that empowers our present, then we are given a proper perspective on the living of our lives. What are some characteristics of that perspective?
First, it enables us to face the challenges of life head-on and with our eyes open. God told Abraham, “Do not be afraid, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Genesis 15:1). That statement may mean many things, but it certainly implies that Abraham would need a shield. I am struck by the three-part phrasing of that statement. First, God told Abraham, “Do not be afraid.” Third, he told him, “Your reward shall be very great.” But in the middle he said, “I am your shield.” It is as if God was telling Abraham, “I will be your shield while you go through all the difficulties and trials that you are going to experience before you receive your great reward.” So it is with us. We are heading toward a great reward but in the meantime we must live these lives in which difficult things can and will happen. While we live in faith and hope, God will be our shield. Therefore, we don’t shy away from life. We have the kind of perspective that enables us to face it head on.
Second, it enables us to live the lives that God has called us to live regardless of the cost to us because we know that victory will come in the end. Once, Jesus was warned to steer clear of Herod because Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus’ response revealed his commitment to fulfilling his mission of healing and helping; he had to do what he was called to do. He even stated that when his work of ministry was over he knew that he would go to Jerusalem to be killed. Jesus did not deny the threat to his life. Nor did he avoid his God-given responsibility because of that threat. He pressed on, knowing that one day people would shout “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Of course, even when they shouted those words on Palm Sunday, the people of Jerusalem would mean less than they should and would say more than they meant. But the day would come, Jesus knew, when some people would say those words because they would know that his faithfulness was a reflection of his commitment to doing the will of God. His resurrection surely revealed that truth. And one day, when he comes again, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, then everybody will say “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” and everybody will know what it means.
We need the right kind of perspective on our lives. Disciples of Jesus Christ are not called to have easy lives; we are called to live faithful lives. We are called to follow him wherever he may lead us. If we are faithful, those places will often be difficult and challenging. In a very real way, faithfulness is its own reward. And yet we are promised by our God that in the end we will know the reward of eternal life with him.
The Lenten path is a road to glory. The question we need to ask ourselves today is this: to what extent are we walking along the path that Jesus showed us and about which he taught us? Are we walking in ways that grow our faith, that increase our hope, and that enhance our perspective? Are we traveling down God’s glory road?
The Lenten path is a road to glory. It was that way for Jesus. The path that he followed during the last days of his life on earth was the path to his glorification. It was a path that led to resurrection but crucifixion had to be experienced before resurrection could be known. We will do well always to remember that God’s way, which is most fully revealed in the life of Jesus Christ, is the way of the cross. It is not an easy way and there are no shortcuts. But it is the necessary way.
What can we say about God’s glory road?
First, God’s glory road is a road of faith. We will make progress on that road as we learn to trust God more. By what is such faith characterized?
For one thing, such faith is characterized by honest questions. From Job to Jesus, the Bible continually shows us that the possession of real faith does not eliminate the asking of real questions. Indeed, faith does not require us to hang our integrity on a nail outside the church door; faith allows us to bring our honest doubts inside the church door so that they can be baptized. So when God said to Abraham, “Your reward will be very great,” the patriarch could not help but think that he had heard this before. God had earlier promised him that a nation would descend from him but Sarah and he had not yet had a child and they were getting old. So Abraham asked, “O Lord God, what will you give me, for I continue childless…? (Genesis 15:2). That was a good and honest question. Later, God told Abraham that he was going to give him the land to possess. Again, Abraham had heard that before. So he asked, “O Lord God, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” (v. 8). Again, a good and honest question.
There is nothing wrong with such good and honest questions. Indeed, when it comes to conversing with God, if you’re thinking it you might as well voice it! Life with God is challenging. It takes us down some difficult roads. Doubts and concerns are bound to arise. As we give voice to them we give God the opportunity to alleviate them and to help us deal with them.
For another thing, such faith is characterized by radical trust in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles. Even in the face of honest doubts we can move toward radical trust. And so, after God reassured Abraham that he would indeed have many descendants, we find one of the most amazing verses in the Bible: “And he believed the LORD; and the LORD reckoned it to him as righteousness” (v. 6). Abraham was made right with God not because he did all the right things; he was made right with God because, in the face of seemingly insurmountable obstacles and in the face of honest and reasonable doubts, he achieved and expressed radical trust in God. True, Abraham did not trust perfectly from that moment on, but radical trust is not perfect trust, anyway. A person who has radical trust is a person who gives himself over fully to God and who deals with whatever comes knowing that his life is in God’s hands.
Sometime great obstacles stand between us and the fulfillment of God’s plan for us. Sometimes we create our own obstacles; as Pogo put it, “We have met the enemy and he is us.” Sometimes the obstacles emerge from the circumstances of life. Sometimes the obstacles emerge from the opposition of the world around us. But the obstacles do arise. And sometimes they seem insurmountable. That’s when real faith kicks in.
Second, God’s glory road is a road of hope. One key to being on God’s road to glory is the constant acknowledgement and awareness that we are indeed on a road, that we are in fact on a journey. Until we get there we have not arrived! We can be the child in the back seat of the car who continually asks her father “Are we there yet?” but if we keep asking our heavenly Father that question the answer is always going to be, “No, my child, no.” But that is actually a good thing.
It is a good thing because God has a future for us. It is a future in which, as Paul put it, “He will transform the body of our humiliation that it may be conformed to the body of his glory…” (Philippians 3:21). When God brings all things to their completion and we receive our resurrection bodies, then God’s great future will be realized in our lives. In the meantime, while we walk on this road that God has laid out before us, we are always drawn forward by the power of that great future. Our minds are set on heavenly things. We know that we belong in heaven and that one day our Savior will come and take us there.
God’s way is all about the future. Abraham had to believe in what God promised for the future. The Philippians had to believe that the day was coming when they would be all that God intended for them to be. We have to believe that God is going to keep his promises; we have to believe that he is not finished with us and with his universe yet. We have to believe in heaven and in the resurrection because those realities are what God’s great future is all about. It is heaven that makes going through what we have to go through worth it. It is the resurrection that makes the hard times in life worthwhile. It is trusting in the God who keeps his promises that keeps us pushing forward.
While God’s way is about the future, that way empowers us in the present. Thus Abraham believed in what God told him about his future heir and God reckoned that to him as righteousness in the present. Also, Abraham was able to move forward in hope because he believed that God would do what God had promised to do. Paul encouraged the Philippians, after he had assured them that God would one day transform their humble bodies into glorious ones, to “stand firm in the Lord” (4:1). They could stand firm in the present exactly because of what God was going to do in the future. So can we.
Third, God’s glory road is a road of perspective. When we accept the promises of God so that we walk the road he has placed before us in faith and hope, when we believe in his promises so that we are pulled toward his future in a way that empowers our present, then we are given a proper perspective on the living of our lives. What are some characteristics of that perspective?
First, it enables us to face the challenges of life head-on and with our eyes open. God told Abraham, “Do not be afraid, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great” (Genesis 15:1). That statement may mean many things, but it certainly implies that Abraham would need a shield. I am struck by the three-part phrasing of that statement. First, God told Abraham, “Do not be afraid.” Third, he told him, “Your reward shall be very great.” But in the middle he said, “I am your shield.” It is as if God was telling Abraham, “I will be your shield while you go through all the difficulties and trials that you are going to experience before you receive your great reward.” So it is with us. We are heading toward a great reward but in the meantime we must live these lives in which difficult things can and will happen. While we live in faith and hope, God will be our shield. Therefore, we don’t shy away from life. We have the kind of perspective that enables us to face it head on.
Second, it enables us to live the lives that God has called us to live regardless of the cost to us because we know that victory will come in the end. Once, Jesus was warned to steer clear of Herod because Herod wanted to kill him. Jesus’ response revealed his commitment to fulfilling his mission of healing and helping; he had to do what he was called to do. He even stated that when his work of ministry was over he knew that he would go to Jerusalem to be killed. Jesus did not deny the threat to his life. Nor did he avoid his God-given responsibility because of that threat. He pressed on, knowing that one day people would shout “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.
Of course, even when they shouted those words on Palm Sunday, the people of Jerusalem would mean less than they should and would say more than they meant. But the day would come, Jesus knew, when some people would say those words because they would know that his faithfulness was a reflection of his commitment to doing the will of God. His resurrection surely revealed that truth. And one day, when he comes again, when every knee bows and every tongue confesses that Jesus Christ is Lord, then everybody will say “Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord” and everybody will know what it means.
We need the right kind of perspective on our lives. Disciples of Jesus Christ are not called to have easy lives; we are called to live faithful lives. We are called to follow him wherever he may lead us. If we are faithful, those places will often be difficult and challenging. In a very real way, faithfulness is its own reward. And yet we are promised by our God that in the end we will know the reward of eternal life with him.
The Lenten path is a road to glory. The question we need to ask ourselves today is this: to what extent are we walking along the path that Jesus showed us and about which he taught us? Are we walking in ways that grow our faith, that increase our hope, and that enhance our perspective? Are we traveling down God’s glory road?
Sunday, March 4, 2007
Leary, Georgia
(This is Sabbath Blog #7)
Our daughter Sara and several of her friends left the campus of Mercer University yesterday for a Spring Break (yeah, I know, it’s not even Spring yet, but the academic calendar is the academic calendar!) trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast. I hope they have a good and safe time.
Sara called her mother late yesterday afternoon and said, “I had to call and tell you that I’m in Leary!” Debra was excited. Leary, Georgia, you see, is the hometown of Debra Johnson Ruffin. It’s a small town of around 650 located in Southwest Georgia about twenty-five miles west of Albany in Calhoun County. It’s along one of the routes that folks take going from many parts of Georgia to the Panama City or Destin areas.
I don’t think that Sara was ever in Leary before her trip through it yesterday. Her grandparents, Dick and Kathleen Johnson, moved from Leary to Mr. Johnson’s hometown of Colquitt, Georgia around the time that Sara was born so we never had a reason to go there. Among the sights that Sara reported to her mother was the peanut mill where Debra’s father earned his living. It was Harvey’s Peanut Company back then; I think it’s called something else now.
I had never heard of Leary before I met Debra. When she told me where she was from I don’t think that I said what many of our Mercer classmates said when they heard it: “I bet you’re leery of being from there.” At least I hope I didn’t.
After we had been dating for a while, Debra took a deep breath and took me home to meet her parents. I had never been in the southwest part of Georgia before. As a matter of fact, I had made precious few excursions south of Macon in my short, to that point, life. I was unaccustomed to the wide open spaces of rural South Georgia; I was, after all, a city boy from Barnesville (pop. 5000). Debra’s family lived three miles outside of Leary. It was quiet out there most of the time and it was very, very dark at night. I liked it. I liked it mainly because Debra was from there.
Leary is known for a few notable things. It’s known for peanuts and soybeans and other agricultural products. It’s known as the place where Jimmy Carter reported that he, along with ten members of the Leary LIONS Club, witnessed a UFO in 1969. It’s known as the place where scenes for the movie The Long Riders (1980) were shot.
And it’s now known to you all as the hometown of Debra Ruffin, Leary’s greatest export!
Our daughter Sara and several of her friends left the campus of Mercer University yesterday for a Spring Break (yeah, I know, it’s not even Spring yet, but the academic calendar is the academic calendar!) trip to Florida’s Gulf Coast. I hope they have a good and safe time.
Sara called her mother late yesterday afternoon and said, “I had to call and tell you that I’m in Leary!” Debra was excited. Leary, Georgia, you see, is the hometown of Debra Johnson Ruffin. It’s a small town of around 650 located in Southwest Georgia about twenty-five miles west of Albany in Calhoun County. It’s along one of the routes that folks take going from many parts of Georgia to the Panama City or Destin areas.
I don’t think that Sara was ever in Leary before her trip through it yesterday. Her grandparents, Dick and Kathleen Johnson, moved from Leary to Mr. Johnson’s hometown of Colquitt, Georgia around the time that Sara was born so we never had a reason to go there. Among the sights that Sara reported to her mother was the peanut mill where Debra’s father earned his living. It was Harvey’s Peanut Company back then; I think it’s called something else now.
I had never heard of Leary before I met Debra. When she told me where she was from I don’t think that I said what many of our Mercer classmates said when they heard it: “I bet you’re leery of being from there.” At least I hope I didn’t.
After we had been dating for a while, Debra took a deep breath and took me home to meet her parents. I had never been in the southwest part of Georgia before. As a matter of fact, I had made precious few excursions south of Macon in my short, to that point, life. I was unaccustomed to the wide open spaces of rural South Georgia; I was, after all, a city boy from Barnesville (pop. 5000). Debra’s family lived three miles outside of Leary. It was quiet out there most of the time and it was very, very dark at night. I liked it. I liked it mainly because Debra was from there.
Leary is known for a few notable things. It’s known for peanuts and soybeans and other agricultural products. It’s known as the place where Jimmy Carter reported that he, along with ten members of the Leary LIONS Club, witnessed a UFO in 1969. It’s known as the place where scenes for the movie The Long Riders (1980) were shot.
And it’s now known to you all as the hometown of Debra Ruffin, Leary’s greatest export!
Thursday, March 1, 2007
Living the Forgiven Life: Trust in the Lord
(A Lenten devotion based on Genesis 12:1-4 & Romans 4:1-5, 13-17)
[Note: We are in the Season of Lent. Lent has been observed by the Church for centuries during the 40 days, not counting Sundays, leading up to Easter. Traditionally, Lent has been a time to focus on repentance, among other things. On Thursdays during Lent, I am offering a Lenten devotion. The title for the series of devotions is “Living the Forgiven Life.”]
What does it mean to live the forgiven life? Last week I said that living the forgiven life meant that we tell the truth. The truth we tell is that we are great sinners. The greater truth we tell is that we are saved by God’s grace that is much greater than our great sin. Today I want to talk with you about the fact that living the forgiven life means that we trust in the Lord.
What we’re talking about is the biblical word “faith”; the best synonym for that word is “trust.” Trust is in short supply in our day and time. We’ve come to expect that people will let us down. We’ve come to expect that people in authority will disappoint us. We’ve come to expect that people close to us will let us down. We’re raised not to trust people we don’t know. So it is a bit of a leap for us to give our whole-hearted trust to someone, even if that someone is God himself.
Yet that is what is necessary. Salvation comes only through faith. We are forgiven because of faith. It is human nature to want to do something about what is wrong. Some people are more prone to problem-solving than others, but I think that people instinctively ask the “What do I need to do?” question. We want to take action. In the background of that drive can lie some problematic motivations. We don’t want to depend on someone else. We want to be known as someone who takes care of himself. We want the credit for fixing our own mess. But recall with me the story of Paul and Silas and the Philippian jailer. After Paul and Silas had been sprung from jail by the Lord, the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Do you recall their answer? “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). It doesn’t sound like much, does it? Only believe. Only trust. But it is actually quite a lot and it is very hard to do.
It is hard to do because trusting means letting go. I remember hearing a story years ago about a man who fell off a cliff and was clinging to a tree that was growing out from the cliff, kind of like the predicament that the Sarge in Beetle Bailey gets into sometimes. He cried out to the Lord for help and sure enough, the voice of the Lord came from above and said, “I’m here to help you.” “Thank you,” the man said. “What must I do?” And the voice said, “Let go.” It’s hard to do but trusting means letting go. It means giving up the notion that you can fix yourself. It means giving up the illusion that you can take care of yourself. It means being poor in spirit. It means casting your life and your fate at the feet of God and saying, “I’m done for without you.” And it means living in absolute dependence on God.
That is how God means for us to live. We were created to live in fellowship with God. We were created to depend utterly on him in simple child-like faith. And we will never be who we were made to be until we come to live in total dependence on him and in simple trust in him. We live outside our natural environment until we live in a relationship of trust in God. Thus Paul makes the point that Abraham was made righteous by faith before he ever began to do the works of the law. We are made righteous like Abraham was when we are made righteous by what God has done. On this side of the life of Jesus we can say that we are made righteous by what God has done in Christ and that grace is made real in our lives when we trust in him.
Having entered into a relationship with God based on our absolute trust in his absolute grace, we then live our lives in trust. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it, when we say that we have trusted God to take care of all the ultimate issues—sin, death, judgment, heaven and hell—but we refuse to trust him for all the other things of life which are after all much less significant. It takes trust in God to be forgiven; it takes continuing trust in God to live the forgiven life.
Having experienced his forgiveness, we continue to live as forgiven people by walking in trust. But we do need to walk. Trusting is not about just sitting around waiting to see what God will do. Trusting is about doing what God leads you to do. Trusting leads to action. Trusting leads to risk-taking. To trust in God is not to kid yourself into thinking that just because God loves you and you love God that everything is going to be easy. To trust in God is not to kid yourself into thinking that God will ask nothing difficult or challenging or even dangerous of you. No, to trust in God is to believe that God is your God and you are his child; it is to believe that God is working his purposes out in his creation and in your life; it is to believe that as long as you are trying to follow God will faithfully lead; and it is to believe that the act of following is its own greatest reward.
Sometimes the most amazing phrases in the Bible are the simplest ones and so we tend to read right past them. One of those amazing phrases is “So Abram went.” God came to him, called him, and told him to leave everything he had ever known and to set out on a journey to a land that God would show him. God promised him many descendants. But Abraham had to go if he was going to experience the blessings of God. Had he stayed where he was his story would have been much different and we may never have heard of him. But he went. That’s faith, that’s trust. Go. Do. Follow. Risk. Try. And in everything, trust.
As you trust you will be blessed because the reward is in the following. The reward is in the adventure. The reward is in the risk-taking. The reward is in our focusing on the God who has promised to be with us and to bless us. Too often we miss the blessing because we want to avoid the risk. Too often we miss the blessing because we really don’t trust that God will show us the way and that he will keep his promises. Too often we miss the blessing because we choose to limit ourselves to living life in the world’s way rather than in God’s way.
I want to challenge you to take a good hard look at your life. In what areas of your life are you living in ways that betray a lack of trust in God? It may be in the ethics of your personal life. Perhaps you have been compromising and taking short cuts in ways that you know run counter to the ways of God. That’s a lack of trust because it shows that you don’t believe that God’s way is for the best. It may be in your family life. You may not be living in the kind of wholehearted commitment to your family to which God has called you because you let yourself be distracted by other, lesser priorities. It may be in your contribution to the life of the church. You may be hiding your light under a basket; you may be refusing to recognize or to develop your spiritual gifts because you don’t want to take the risk of failing. In all these or in other areas you may not be trusting God like you should and it shows in your following or rather in your lack of following.
I know how it can be. We are so aware of our failings. We are so aware of the difficulties. We are so aware of the reasons that it can’t be done. We are so aware of the roadblocks and the impediments. But when push comes to shove there is only one thing of which we need to be aware. We need to be aware that our God is the God of life. He brings life where there is death. He brought life to the infertile and geriatric Abraham and Sarah but the greatest truth is that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ he brought life where there is death in the ultimate sense. That is the God we serve. That is the God in whom we can trust. That is the God who calls us to live the fully dependent life that is the fully blessed life.
So let us walk in faith. Let us trust in the Lord.
[Note: We are in the Season of Lent. Lent has been observed by the Church for centuries during the 40 days, not counting Sundays, leading up to Easter. Traditionally, Lent has been a time to focus on repentance, among other things. On Thursdays during Lent, I am offering a Lenten devotion. The title for the series of devotions is “Living the Forgiven Life.”]
What does it mean to live the forgiven life? Last week I said that living the forgiven life meant that we tell the truth. The truth we tell is that we are great sinners. The greater truth we tell is that we are saved by God’s grace that is much greater than our great sin. Today I want to talk with you about the fact that living the forgiven life means that we trust in the Lord.
What we’re talking about is the biblical word “faith”; the best synonym for that word is “trust.” Trust is in short supply in our day and time. We’ve come to expect that people will let us down. We’ve come to expect that people in authority will disappoint us. We’ve come to expect that people close to us will let us down. We’re raised not to trust people we don’t know. So it is a bit of a leap for us to give our whole-hearted trust to someone, even if that someone is God himself.
Yet that is what is necessary. Salvation comes only through faith. We are forgiven because of faith. It is human nature to want to do something about what is wrong. Some people are more prone to problem-solving than others, but I think that people instinctively ask the “What do I need to do?” question. We want to take action. In the background of that drive can lie some problematic motivations. We don’t want to depend on someone else. We want to be known as someone who takes care of himself. We want the credit for fixing our own mess. But recall with me the story of Paul and Silas and the Philippian jailer. After Paul and Silas had been sprung from jail by the Lord, the jailer asked, “What must I do to be saved?” Do you recall their answer? “Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household” (Acts 16:31). It doesn’t sound like much, does it? Only believe. Only trust. But it is actually quite a lot and it is very hard to do.
It is hard to do because trusting means letting go. I remember hearing a story years ago about a man who fell off a cliff and was clinging to a tree that was growing out from the cliff, kind of like the predicament that the Sarge in Beetle Bailey gets into sometimes. He cried out to the Lord for help and sure enough, the voice of the Lord came from above and said, “I’m here to help you.” “Thank you,” the man said. “What must I do?” And the voice said, “Let go.” It’s hard to do but trusting means letting go. It means giving up the notion that you can fix yourself. It means giving up the illusion that you can take care of yourself. It means being poor in spirit. It means casting your life and your fate at the feet of God and saying, “I’m done for without you.” And it means living in absolute dependence on God.
That is how God means for us to live. We were created to live in fellowship with God. We were created to depend utterly on him in simple child-like faith. And we will never be who we were made to be until we come to live in total dependence on him and in simple trust in him. We live outside our natural environment until we live in a relationship of trust in God. Thus Paul makes the point that Abraham was made righteous by faith before he ever began to do the works of the law. We are made righteous like Abraham was when we are made righteous by what God has done. On this side of the life of Jesus we can say that we are made righteous by what God has done in Christ and that grace is made real in our lives when we trust in him.
Having entered into a relationship with God based on our absolute trust in his absolute grace, we then live our lives in trust. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it, when we say that we have trusted God to take care of all the ultimate issues—sin, death, judgment, heaven and hell—but we refuse to trust him for all the other things of life which are after all much less significant. It takes trust in God to be forgiven; it takes continuing trust in God to live the forgiven life.
Having experienced his forgiveness, we continue to live as forgiven people by walking in trust. But we do need to walk. Trusting is not about just sitting around waiting to see what God will do. Trusting is about doing what God leads you to do. Trusting leads to action. Trusting leads to risk-taking. To trust in God is not to kid yourself into thinking that just because God loves you and you love God that everything is going to be easy. To trust in God is not to kid yourself into thinking that God will ask nothing difficult or challenging or even dangerous of you. No, to trust in God is to believe that God is your God and you are his child; it is to believe that God is working his purposes out in his creation and in your life; it is to believe that as long as you are trying to follow God will faithfully lead; and it is to believe that the act of following is its own greatest reward.
Sometimes the most amazing phrases in the Bible are the simplest ones and so we tend to read right past them. One of those amazing phrases is “So Abram went.” God came to him, called him, and told him to leave everything he had ever known and to set out on a journey to a land that God would show him. God promised him many descendants. But Abraham had to go if he was going to experience the blessings of God. Had he stayed where he was his story would have been much different and we may never have heard of him. But he went. That’s faith, that’s trust. Go. Do. Follow. Risk. Try. And in everything, trust.
As you trust you will be blessed because the reward is in the following. The reward is in the adventure. The reward is in the risk-taking. The reward is in our focusing on the God who has promised to be with us and to bless us. Too often we miss the blessing because we want to avoid the risk. Too often we miss the blessing because we really don’t trust that God will show us the way and that he will keep his promises. Too often we miss the blessing because we choose to limit ourselves to living life in the world’s way rather than in God’s way.
I want to challenge you to take a good hard look at your life. In what areas of your life are you living in ways that betray a lack of trust in God? It may be in the ethics of your personal life. Perhaps you have been compromising and taking short cuts in ways that you know run counter to the ways of God. That’s a lack of trust because it shows that you don’t believe that God’s way is for the best. It may be in your family life. You may not be living in the kind of wholehearted commitment to your family to which God has called you because you let yourself be distracted by other, lesser priorities. It may be in your contribution to the life of the church. You may be hiding your light under a basket; you may be refusing to recognize or to develop your spiritual gifts because you don’t want to take the risk of failing. In all these or in other areas you may not be trusting God like you should and it shows in your following or rather in your lack of following.
I know how it can be. We are so aware of our failings. We are so aware of the difficulties. We are so aware of the reasons that it can’t be done. We are so aware of the roadblocks and the impediments. But when push comes to shove there is only one thing of which we need to be aware. We need to be aware that our God is the God of life. He brings life where there is death. He brought life to the infertile and geriatric Abraham and Sarah but the greatest truth is that through the resurrection of Jesus Christ he brought life where there is death in the ultimate sense. That is the God we serve. That is the God in whom we can trust. That is the God who calls us to live the fully dependent life that is the fully blessed life.
So let us walk in faith. Let us trust in the Lord.
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