Reader response to Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"

With the man and his son, I traversed the bleak world in Cormac McCarthy’s “The Road,” and I imagined divinity.  This man is God – if God were written with a lower case ‘g.’ This is man is god, if god could be god and not be all-powerful.  He navigated a cold world of death with no benevolent deity sustaining things.  All he could do was survive and protect and provide for the young son. 

He got no help and was met with unfeeling obstacles.  What worsened the antagonism was the emotionless quality of it. When people came against him, they weren’t malevolent, even though he and the boy used the naïve term “bad guys.”  They were faceless enemies who had no care for the man and the boy.  The antagonists didn’t hate them.  They were compassionlessly indifferent.  The man and the boy, for the antagonists, were simply prey.

As I read and wandered the forsaken road, I thought this is God if God were impotent instead of omnipotent.

Upon finishing the work and reflecting upon it, I imagined something quite different.  The reason the opponents acted with unfeeling purpose was the need to survive and a ravaged, lifeless landscape.  Every character in the book is on one mission – survive this moment.  Thus, the humans are not gods.  They are not even human.  They are Darwinian mammals who sense no meaning in the world.  It is reduced to base survival of the fittest.

The man vainly clings to vestiges of human society, but bit by bit, he lets meaningful life slide through his fingers.  The ending is remarkably like Jack London’s “To Build a Fire.”  There, the surviving protagonist is canine, not human.  In “the Road,” the surviving protagonist have been reduced to something less than human.  In both cases, there is survival, but what does it matter?  What is life beyond the next moment?

Hope Words and Why We Believe Them (Eph 1:15-23)

Subways: underground trains in big cities.  In places like Washington DC and New York the underground system is immense.  The subways in Moscow are ornately decorated and quite beautiful.  But a lot of subways are not so pretty.  The platform is grimy, trash strewn, without benefit of sunshine (obviously), and overall quite drab.  Subway riders are harried, tired; thousands of people rushing to and from work where they will, in a high-pressure environment, give 10-11 hours of their lives, 50-75 hours a week. 

            The work, the rush, the gray, depressed environment; the underground metro is not a place of spiritual inspiration. 

Except …

            There’s that young woman.  Look at her down in this cave, dancing!  All we hear is the shuffle of tired feet, the screech of the trains coming down the line.  In those earbuds, what does she hear?  What music induces such beautiful body movement?  Poetry in motion. 

All we see are heads down, glum eyes set straight ahead.  Must get to work.  Must do the work.  Must get home.  Must not go crazy.  Must not slug anyone as I slog through this commute.  The subway iPod dancer’s eyes are closed.  As we muddle along in the shadows, what light does she see, she with her closed eyes, her smiling face, her dancing body?[i]

            She is Christianity.  Wait.  What?

            Where the world sees death, a Christian, one who follows Christ, one whose life is lived in Christ sees laughter.  We don’t mock the pain death brings.  We are sympathetic.  But, we know death is an enemy that has been defeated, and in Christ we have eternal life.  God gives beauty for our ashes, strength for fear; God gives us deep laughter and takes our grief.  We will be called “oaks of righteousness” … to display God’s glory.[ii]  In the Spirit, God is with us now and always, comforting us, emboldening us, filling us, and empowering us.  As we live in awareness of God-in-us loving us, we hear music others cannot hear.  We smile at happiness others do now know, cannot know.  We can’t help it.  We must dance.

            Look at her, so frivolous as she sprinkles beauty and grace all about this bleak subterranean world.  Look at us, witnesses to eternal joy and indefatigable hope – hope that cannot be broken or made weary.

            Except …

            We know too many people cut off from this joy and this hope, cut off from God and caught up in pain. 

            Twitter is the ultimate safe space because you can create any name you want as your user name.  You can put any picture in as your ID.  You can exist in the Twitter totally anonymously.  You can also follow whomever else is on Twitter.

            My Twitter handle is ‘revtennant.’  The picture is a photo of my wife Candy and me.  On my profile page is a picture of me on one of our church trips to Ethiopia.  My bio tells exactly who I am. 

            Occasionally, I will tweet scripture verses or quotes from authors like Eugene Peterson.  My simple aim is to get positive words flowing into the raging torrent of social media.  Tweets and Facebook posts can be impossibly negative, divisive, and provocative.  I too try to provoke.  I try to take words from the Bible to provoke people to hope, or at least to consider that hope might be possible.

            Most of the people who see my Tweets are church members, friends, family.  But, remember; on Twitter anyone can follow you.  Someone called “Atheist C Cat.”  Has reacted to one of my Christ-proclaiming tweets.  Atheist C Cat could be anyone – maybe someone from this church or formally of this church.  A-Cat’s bio says, “Skeptic.  Atheist.  Ex-Christian.  Cat lover.”  That’s it.

            A-Cat’s initial response to me was a low grade jab at God.  I posted a quote – “Everything God does is woven into the plot for your salvation.”[iii]  “Maybe the all-powerful, all-knowing, perfect, loving deity should have created a perfect world where salvation isn’t needed.”

            I didn’t take the bait.  God doesn’t need me to defend God.  God’s reputation is intact.  Instead, I tried to pick up on A-Cat’s words and engage in a conversation.  I asked. “What would a perfect world look like?”

            “Different than the one we’re in.”

            “Couldn’t Christians and Atheists and Muslims and Jews” work together for good?

            And A-Cat responded and we went on this way.  I kept trying to guide the conversation toward a hopeful place and A-Cat kept going back to the inevitability of death and destruction.  I hope the conversation will continue, but where he or she last left it, was with this.  “I choose to live in reality as much as possible, even though it does appear bleak.  But the evidence leads the way.”

            Pay close attention to this anonymous atheist Tweeter who depicts him/herself as an ex-Christian and trolls Christian pastors with impotent barbs aimed at God.  She declares that reality is death and destruction.  Anything else – faith, hope, love – is fantasy.  Reality is humans will always be evil and malicious toward each other.  And evidence, the supreme standard for truth, leads to this fatalistic conclusion. 

            Two thought for A-Cat; first, I suspect many people feel just like her.  Many see the world and see death and try to make the best of a situation that inevitably leads to chaos and misery.  Second, in a world without God, A-Cat is right.  All people sin.  Sin is seen in real time in the way we hurt each other.  And sin up on sin, across the oceans across the span of centuries leads to a world that is spiraling to death.  A-Cat is correct.

            Except … subway iPod dancer seems oblivious, dancing, spilling color and light and music out all over A-Cat’s gray dying world. 

So the tension is clear.  Without God, without life in Christ, we exist as Darwinian animals whose only purpose is to survive and pass on our genes.  Eat, produce young, and then die, either a lonely death or a violent one.  Either way, there is no hope because this life is all there is and death is the end.  With God, living life in Christ, we stand in the midst of a decaying world bound for destruction.  Each one of us, each church, big or small, each individual Christian, stands amid the chaos and insists there is another story, a better story to be told and being told.  In Jesus Christ, God has come near.  In Jesus Christ, the Kingdom has come.  In Jesus Christ, we can have life, abundant, eternal life.  I’ll take that subway iPod dancer’s vision over A-Cat’s fatalism any day.  I want to dance like no one is watching.

Except … many people in the church, people who speak words of faith live lives that suggest they are find A-Cat’s argument more convincing.  A lot of Christians are beleaguered by doubt and or burdened by responsibility or immobilized by depression.  Some in the church live joyless lives that suggest whatever good we can hope for from God is coming much, much later.  We drag ourselves through our days with an aura of defeat.  Ignatius of Loyola defined sin as “refusing to believe that God wants my happiness and fulfillment.”[iv]

Questions; do we believe God wants us happy and fulfilled?  Do we believe God is able to help us be happy and be fulfilled?  Can God help with this?  If we say yes, God wants us happy, and if we say, yes, God can help with this, then here’s the biggie.  Is God willing to help?  But there’s even a bigger question than that.  Assuming God is willing to help, will we know it when God does help?  When God gives happiness and fulfillment, we recognize it? 

Or are we caught in smaller things?  God gives a good marriage, full of commitment and grace – a happiness that starts now and lasts to old age.  But, we miss the gift because we have misguided notion what a marriage should be and we spin our wheels trying to achieve something that will produce limited happiness that quickly runs out.  God gives honest work, but we miss the gift because we think we should be distinguished, accomplished, and respected.  We never stop to consider the burdens that come with prestige. 

I am not saying don’t strive for excellence.  I am saying don’t wait to be grateful.  See what God is doing in life right now and trust that God has good in store for you tomorrow.  If today, you carry pain, don’t let the pain define whether or not today is good.  Bring the pain into worship, into community of fellow Christ-followers.  Bring the hurt to the cross and see God standing with you in the pain and let God define what today is.

Philip Yancey references a survey in which Americans are asked what words they would like most to hear.  Three answers top the list.  You’ll guess the first one.  What is the number 1 answer to the question, ‘what words do you want to hear?’  It is “I love you.”  What’s number 2?  It is “I forgive you.”  Let’s see if you can guess number 2? 

“Supper is ready.”

Where do most people eat supper?  I think at home.  But some live alone, so supper is quiet unless the TV is on.  Others are in families, but the despair of the world had invaded the family.  So, with family around, the TV is still on.  No one is talking to each other.  Everyone sits zombie-like, letting the evening news or the 7 o’clock game show define reality.  Or the family is fragmented.  Some sit down to dinner, but others are at practice or at meetings.  Why is sister’s chair empty?  O she has soccer.  Why isn’t dad eating with us?  Had to work late.  Or the dinner table is the arena in which the family fights are battled out.  At least once a week, dinner ends with someone slamming down silverware and someone else leaving the table in tears.

            In the Kingdom of God, dinner is different.  It is with family no matter your age or marital status.  In the Kingdom, dinner is an affair where you are surrounded by people who love you and pay attention to you, and no one is in a hurry and no one is missing.  God, Ephesians 1:5 tells us, “destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ.”  The Kingdom is family.  Verse 11, “in Christ we have an inheritance.”  And that inheritance is eternal life.  We say this with certainty because we know Jesus lived, no one, atheists or otherwise deny that he was crucified, and we are positively certain he was resurrected on the third day.  Ephesians 2:20 – “God … raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come.”

            We believe these hope words because the strongest historical evidence is that the resurrection happened.  But evidence is not the only standard by which we assess truth.  We also look at experience.  We have experienced the love of God.  Through our lived relationship with God, we know God is here and God is good.  What I pray I could show Atheist Cat but also show my brothers and sisters in Christ who are overcome with negativity and disappointment is that God, as we know God in Jesus Christ, is Lord.  Jesus is Lord now, here.  And Lord wants us to receive love and forgiveness.  And the Lord has a place set for us at His table. 

            Those of us who have received the forgiveness and eaten at the table of the Father who’s adopted us are so full of love, we are free to dance like no one is watching.  We have music to share in the monotonous drone of godless life.  We have good news. 

            If you have known this good news but the hardness of life has driven it deep into the recesses of your heart, this morning, pray.  Ask God open the ears of your soul so you can truly hear Him say, “I love you.”

            If all you can see are your own failures they threaten to overrun you, ask God to open your heart so you can hear Him say, “I forgive you.”  And when you hear it, believe it.  Receive it.  You are a new creation, a child of God.

            If you know you are loved and you are forgiven, then you also know people who haven’t walked with Jesus.  You have people like Atheist Cat in your life.  Go to one of them and with grace say, “Your place at the table is set and ready for you.  Please come home to father.  Supper is ready.  ”

AMEN

---

[i] Philip Yancey (2014).  Vanishing Grace, Zondervan (Grand Rapids).  In this message, I refer to several stories Yancey shares in this book including the iPod dancer, the references to Tim Keller and Ignatius of Loyola, the words people want to hear most.  These stories are found in chapter 4 (p.69-88).

[ii] Isaiah 61:3.

[iii] Eugene Peterson (

[iv] Yancey, p.79.  

A Time to Pray

We read these words in the Old Testament wisdom literature. 

For everything there is a season,
    a time for every activity under heaven.

-      Ecclesiastes 3:1

If this were read in church, the reader would conclude by saying, “The word of God for the People of God,” and the congregation would respond, “Amen.”

Here are the next seven verses.

² A time to be born and a time to die.
    A time to plant and a time to harvest.
³ A time to kill and a time to heal.
    A time to tear down and a time to build up.
⁴ A time to cry and a time to laugh.
    A time to grieve and a time to dance.
⁵ A time to scatter stones and a time to gather stones.
    A time to embrace and a time to turn away.
⁶ A time to search and a time to quit searching.
    A time to keep and a time to throw away.
⁷ A time to tear and a time to mend.
    A time to be quiet and a time to speak.
⁸ A time to love and a time to hate.
    A time for war and a time for peace.

With the word of God teaching us there different times and seasons, in what season do we currently find ourselves – we people of the world – we the human race?  Is this the “time to hate?”  Or, “the time to kill,” as in kill the evildoers?  But who are the evildoers?  Who among us are qualified to determine who the evildoers are?  What if the killer of the evildoers is evil too?

What is the time?  What is this time for?

Houston.  Harvey.

Florida.  Irma.

Puerto Rico.  Maria.

Las Vegas. 

North Korea. 

Travel Ban.  “The tougher the better” – POTUS.

Syria.  ISIS – still.

The list goes on.  And on.  What is “the time?”  For followers of Jesus, this is “a time to pray.”  Aren’t all times “a time to pray?”  Of course.  This season, this Monday after the shooting near the Mandalay Bay casino is a time for specific prayer.  Weeping prayer.  Knees-rubbed-raw prayer.  Keep-me-awake-at-night prayer.

It’s the prayer of Jesus when he says,

³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! ³⁸ See, your house is left to you desolate. ³⁹ For I tell you, you will not see me again, until you say, ‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.’”   - Matthew 23

It’s the passion and compassion Jesus shows as his crucifixion looms.

⁴¹ And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, ⁴² saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. ⁴³ For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side ⁴⁴ and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.”

How do we pray in days like these?  Note how deeply Jesus loved a people who were so lost in sin.  Pray in love.  Love Syrians and Koreans and refugees and immigrants.  And Vegas concert goers.  And Puerto Ricans putting their lives back together.  And presidents. 

This kind of love isn’t easy, no, not at all.  This kind of love is spiritual work.  It is response to the grace God has given in the cross and in forgiveness, but it is also acknowledgement of what grace means. God has to give us grace because of the state of the world and the state of our own hearts.  This love that fills our prayers and drives our prayer comes from knowing that God has welcomed us when we were at our worst.  Oh God, help me love those I don’t want to love.  Maybe that’s where prayer starts.

Pray stories.  Zero in on specific people affected by hurricanes or travel bans or mass-shootings.  Pick one small story out of the big story and pray into that small story in earnest, in sweat and tears.  Pray into the story until you feel the story. 

Obviously Christ-followers can give money to hurricane relief efforts and we must.  We can advocate for equal rights, oppose bigotry, support refugees, and volunteer in our communities.  We do these things.  The time is right to do these things. 

It is also a time to pray.  

Gilead - book review

“This whole town looks like whatever hope becomes after it has begun to weary a little, then weary a little more.  But hope deferred is still hope.”

Robinson’s story is brilliantly told in the second person in same vein as Baldwin’s “The Fire Next Time,” or Coates’ “Between the World and Me.”  Of course the tone is much different.  Where Baldwin’s narrator burns with righteous fury, Robinson’s John Ames grows restless in his placid life.  And where Baldwin foresees “the fire next time,” Ames insists that there is hope, even in a sleepy Iowa town worth leaving behind.

My ministerial career has been markedly different than Ames’ as has my life been different.  Geography, family history, type of church – all different, and yet I, a 47-year-old father in a biracial family, find it very easy to relate to him, a septuagenarian with a wife half his age.   I can even imagine myself being him.  This is, for me, Robinson’s genius.

All Christians should read this story.  There are no propositions in it.  There’s no “theological stance.”  Don’t expect a tour de force of evangelism or craftily woven statement of doctrine.  It’s story.  And yet, Christians will find God in this book pages as sure as they find themselves in its pages.  

By Grace we have been Saved (Ephesians 2:5, 8)

            I have little tricks that I use when I am talking with people.  I use this in preaching too.  It’s not sinister or disingenuous, but it is intentional.  Whether in a one-on-one conversation, or in a sermon, I will say something to try to get you to like me, or at least trust me.  If I know I am about to give a message that will rile people up, raise someone’s hackles, maybe anger someone, then I at least want to gain credibility.

            I played high school football and rode the bench for a year in college.

            I was in the military, the National Guard.

            I am from the south; moved to Roanoke, VA in 1982.

            I am from the Midwest; lived in Michigan before moving to Roanoke at age 12 in 1982.

            I spent a summer working in a factory.

            I spent a summer working landscaping.

            I have traveled the world.

            I have a mixed-race family.

            I read Dostoevsky and Tolstoy and Solzhenitsyn.

            None of that is much of a big deal to anyone really, but if I think it will help me gain credibility, I weave it into conversations or into my presentation.  I want you to hear my accomplishments and my experiences.  I want you to think it is worth your time and your mental energy to listen to what I have to say.  I am trying to relate to you.  I hope you’ll find me relatable.  And at a deeper level, I hope you’ll find me worthy. 

           

            I am not unique in this.  People want to be liked.  People want to be respected.  You do.  I do.  People want to be welcomed and to belong.  You may use different methods to achieve this than I do, but I suspect you do it.  And achieve is the word, especially in the American cultural landscape.    

The spirit of the American way of thinking, our cultural ethos, highly values the self-made person, the rugged individualist.  Stand on your own two feet.  If you’re going through tough times, pull yourself up by your bootstraps. 

In the movie Saving Private Ryan, Captain Miller lay dying, knowing he had given his life in combat to save Private Ryan.  His dying words to Ryan are “You earn it.”  In other words, you better darn well live a life that was worth the sacrifice that was made for you. 

Can we a take a second to acknowledge the absurdity of this?  How can John Ryan live well enough to account for the entire squad of army rangers who died trying to save him?  What measurement determines whether a life is well-lived or not? 

In my own life, how foolish is it for me to recite my life resume in hopes that I’ll be worthy of your attention, your respect, and maybe even your friendship.  Such futility.  I say I played football, the other guy was named to the all-state team.  I come with my National Guard experience, the other guy was regular army special forces.  I causally mention that I read War and Peace, the other guy read it and actually understood it.  There is always someone smarter, someone taller, someone with a better physique, someone with a better education, someone who did cooler things in life, someone who achieved more, or has more than you and me.  Always. 

Trying to earn respect and affection and friendship is futile.  It is a complete waste of time.  Furthermore, the harder we work to prove ourselves worthy and good, the further we move away from the foundation of the Gospel.  I do not condemn all competition.  My sons are both playing sports.  I want them to try to be the best, the fastest runner in Cross Country, the hardest hitter in football.  Maybe you work in a competitive industry and part of your success is being a leader in attracting new customers.    

That’s fine.  Be competitive.  Try your hardest in whatever you’re doing in work and in life.  But, as followers of Jesus, we have to listen to what the word of God says about our value.  Upon hearing the Gospel story, we have to adjust how we value other people in light of how Jesus values us. 

We’re going to spend the next couple of months thinking about our church family as a household. Beeson Divinity School professor Sydney Park writes, “The house of God is not a physical construction, but a living organism composed of people who are now members through Christ’s sacrifice.”[i]

When you think of us as “members,” imagine your fingers and your toes and how connected these digits are to your body.  When we imagine church as the household of God, we see ourselves connected to each other in that way.  Cut off my finger, and something is missing.  Cut me off from you and you from me, each one of us from each other, and we feel it.  That’s the kind of intimacy and interconnectedness we want in our church. 

For me to be the pastor of this kind of tight-knit family, the shepherd of this community of self-giving love, I have to move away from constantly trying to win you over by reciting my life resume.  I can share about football and the army and school and Michigan and Virginia.  But my sharing should not be an effort to impress.  It should come out of my willingness to share my story.  You give me the gift of showing interest in my story.  And you give me another gift: you share your story with me.  We share our lives with each other. 

We move away from attempts to be found worthy, and instead reach for grace and generosity.  It is essential that we are honest about our weaknesses, wounds, and vulnerability.  We all have scars.  I don’t need to bleed all over the stage every Sunday, but it would be dishonest for me to stand up and pretend I am perfect and have it all together.  For us to be Christ to each other in this household of God, we have to recognize each other as wounded healers.[ii]

When we do that then we’ll be ready to embrace what I am quite certain is God’s call on this church.  This church is called to be the household of God.  That means whenever we gather, we answer this question: what must we do to help people feel at home here, in the household of God?  What changes must we make to help feel like they are at home here?

We’re not dealing with those questions today.  Today, we face the futile search for worthiness.  Today we openly admit that we aren’t going to impress each other, that we can’t, and we shouldn’t try.  Instead, we love each other exactly as we are.  No matter how messy or broken, we give each other the love of Christ.  Change comes for each person because when one meets Christ, change is inevitable.  He makes us new creations, but that is at God’s initiative.  Our starting point is love.

In Ephesians 1 and 2, note what is said about Jesus. 

He is Lord (1:3) – master of everything, master everywhere.  He’s not a lord, he’s The Lord.

He is Christ (1:3), the anointed one of God, sent to save God’s people from sin, death and destruction.  When Jesus came, we discovered the wonder that he saved Israel, but not only Israel.  All who come in repentance to the Jewish Messiah are saved.

He is eternal.  Verse 4 – “[The Father God] chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world.  “In Christ” is the key phrase.  God was at work in Christ before the foundation of the world.  Our lives only make sense when we understand them in Christ.

He is the means of our adoption as children of God, he is God’s means of grace, he is God’s beloved, and he is the vessel of redemption (1:4-7). 

Jesus is flush with grace; verse 7 God lavished grace upon us.  That means the best things in our lives, the realities that give us life are gifts we did not earn, but rather blessings God gives freely and extravagantly. 

He is the revealer of mysteries, the reconciler of all things, and the enabler of life (1:7, 9; 2:5).

Ephesians 2:6 says we are raised up with him.  Jesus rose from the grave, defeated death, and takes us with him.  Death is next after this life, but it’s not last.  Each one of us who is in Christ has resurrection ahead, after death. 

When Ephesians says in chapter 2, verse 9, that we are made for good works, that also happens as we are in Christ.

All the good we experience comes about because of who God is and we know who God is because we know God in Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the embodiment of God’s gift, giving us salvation, that which we do not deserve and have not earned.  In Christ, our sins are washed away, we are made new, given joy now, a meaningful life now, and promised eternal life with God after resurrection.

This is summed up in chapter 2 verse 5 – “by grace we have been saved.”  And then so we don’t miss the point, it is repeated in verse 8.  We are saved by grace through faith.  It is not our own doing.  It is the gift of God, not a result of our efforts.  Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are what he has made us.”

This is a core Christian confession, but we rarely stop to recognize just how hard this confession is to accept.  We Americans are individualistic in our thinking and merit-driven when we talk about value.  You assess another person’s worth based your evaluation of their worthiness.  I do it.  It’s an American thing and it is the antithesis, the opposite of how it works in the Kingdom of God.

For us to be the household of God, we must pray for release from this kind of individualistic, merit-based thinking.  We need to spend a long time asking God to free us from this and to guide us into grace.  We need to see the world and to see one another through the eyes of grace. 

Our default is to revert to assessing worthiness.  Do you deserve for me to give you respect?  Have I earned the right for you to give me your time and your attention?  That’s where we go automatically. 

The change comes when we are able to live in the grace God’s lavished on us and then that grace spills out from us onto those around us.  And we will begin existing as the true household of God when collectively we are characterized by grace.  When people come among us and they know they are welcomed and loved and they meet God here, then that will be the fruit, the evidence that we are a graced community. 

The reflection questions for this morning are “what do you have that you’ve earned,” and “what do you have that has come as a gift?”  Look over the attributes of Jesus mentioned in Ephesians 1 & 2.  Especially remember 2:5 & 8.  “By grace we have been saved.”  Imagine how life looks when it flows out of the gift of new life God has given.  We don’t see and interact with the world based on an achievement mindset.  Rather, we wake up every day basking the radiant light of the joy-filled grace God has poured into us.  And from there we step into the world.  When we do it that way, what does life look like?

AMEN

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[i] M. Sydney Park (2012) in Honoring the Generations, M.Sydney Park, Soong-Chan Rah, and Al Tizon, editors, Judson Press (Valley Forge, PA), p.3.

[ii] Peter T. Cha and Greg J. Yee (2012), Honoring the Generation, p.89.

The Story of Your Life ...

Yes, I know it is September 19, 2017.  However, today, I am working on Ephesians for this Sunday at HillSong Church.  I came across this message from January 2011.  Usually, I am sort of annoyed by my old manuscripts.  But I thought this one wasn't bad and I had not previously posted it.  So here it is.

The Story of Your Life in 2011 (Ephesians 1:3-14)

Rob Tennant, HillSong Church, Chapel Hill, NC

January 2, 2011

            

I am holding the story of your year.  This is the life of   fill in your name  , 2011.  It is December 31, 2011.  What’s on these pages?  Something new?  Did you do something you’ve never done before, and is it recorded here in the story of your life in 2011?

Who did you meet?  Who is the person unknown to you on January 1 2011 that becomes a central figure in your life on December 31, 2011? 

What places did you go?  On December 31, 2010, I was able to say I visited Kearney, Nebraska.  I couldn’t say that before 2010.  On December 31, 2011, as you review your year, what places did you go?  What stories will you tell about the places that you went?

What did you learn?  As you read the story of your life, 2011, what do you know now, now that it is December 31, 2011, that you did not know before this year?

Ah, the story of the year that was, 2011; in your book, what’s on these pages?  This is what is so exciting about the beginning of a new year.  Nothing in this book has been written yet.  We can imagine how we will fill these pages, but it is not December 31, 2011, it is January 2.  All we have is imagination … and planning … and prayer. 

I know some don’t think this way.  You live in the moment.  The turning of the page from one year to the next is not all that significant.  It’s too abstract and too philosophical.  You’re more wired to deal with the moment, getting through this day, this week. 

Others are might imagine the year to come, but not optimistically.  You don’t ask who will I meet, but who will I lose?  You’re not wondering what might be, but rather, what might go wrong? 

If you are an “in-the-moment” person, that’s OK.  God made you that way and dreamers like me need practical minded people like you to keep us grounded.  If you are a “prepare-for-the-worst” type, that’s good too.  God helps optimists like me who think all is well prepare for when things are not so well by bringing folks like you into our lives. 

Optimists, dreamers, pragmatists, and planners – all are needed; each one is created in the image of God.  Each has something to offer in the kingdom of God.  This morning as we step into a new year, we will look at how each of us contributes to life and to our life together as a community of faith.  Even if it is not your normal way of thinking, I invite you, just this morning, to join me in imagining, but not exactly you might think.

As we do imagine together, I want to borrow a line that will help us.  It’s from the book The Purpose Driven Life.  It’s the very first sentence of the book.  “It’s not about you.”  Or me.  Planners who are prepared for the next catastrophe, life is not about your worrying, helpful as it often is.  Pragmatists who live for today and deal with today, life is not about your intense and I might add very admirable focus.  My fellow dreamers and optimists, life is not about our fantasies of what might be and how good it can be.  What then, is life about?  If it’s not about me and not about you, what is it?  What’s the story and how are we supposed to live? 

Of the numerous scriptures that richly answer these questions, I am drawn to the opening verses of Ephesians which we just read.  This is written to people who are Christ followers.  I acknowledge that many here may not be followers of Jesus.  You’re checking the Christian scene out and exploring faith and visiting a church, and that’s awesome.  We love it that you are here.  Listen to what this Bible passage promises for people who have given themselves completely to Jesus and surrendered to his rule in life.

It says God the Father has promised “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places” (v.3).  Heavenly places are not far off lands to be enjoyed in a distant future by the soul some unknown duration of time after death.  They’re much closer and accessible for the person of faith.  The Apostle Paul was called to the third heaven even as he did missionary work in ancient Greece and ancient Turkey, places like Galatia and Thessolonica.  I have in the depths of my being in moments of extreme spiritual intimacy with God felt the fullness of the blessings in these heavenly places. 

With these blessings that we have when we are in Christ, we are adopted as children of God.  This will be more of my focus next week, what does it mean to be a child of God in the world?  For now I simply state that the New Testament clearly promises that all who put their trust in Jesus and give their lives to Jesus are sons and daughters of God Almighty, and Ephesians 1:5 is one of many passages that state this reality. 

Verse 6 and 7 speak of God’s grace and the forgiveness we are given.  Everything we have in Jesus is a gift.  Our sins – and we all commit them – separate us from God, but in Jesus Christ, we have complete forgiveness.  That which separates us has been removed, and it says in verse 11 we have an inheritance.  Our Father God is bequeathing to us an eternal home where there is no pain or worry and there is unending joy.

Along with that, and here we get to the meat of the matter, all who are in Christ are destined for a specific way of living.  What’s life all about? It’s not about me.  It’s not about you.  We see in Ephesians 1 we are destined to live for the praise of God’s glory (v.11a, 12b).

            It’s possible that I just lost half the room, maybe 2/3.  You just checked out and will come back next week to see I have anything interesting offer because what I just said is too churchy, too removed from real life.  To be fair to me, I am spouting my personal philosophy.  I am quoting from Ephesians 1.  To tune out what I am saying to tune out the Bible.  But that doesn’t matter.  To say that life is all about the praise of God’s glory feels unreal; it’s abstract; it’s ethereal. 

When I am washing the pots after we have had soup for dinner, I am not living for the praise of God’s glory.  I am trying to get the pot clean, and I am grumbling because the stuff is stuck on there and won’t come off.  I wasn’t grumbling when I ate the soup.  That meal hit the spot on a cold winter’s night.  But as happy as I was to eat it, I am suddenly a crab having to clean it up.  That stuff about God’s glory doesn’t apply. 

You’re about an hour away from leaving work for the day, and the boss says he needs you to stay two extra hours.  What can you do?  You need the job.  God’s glory?  You’ve got to trudge through another two hours.  You’re too tired and too distracted to be dreaming about praising God. 

Her boyfriend just left.  She thought this evening was going to end with him on one knee, presenting a diamond ring.  She was not expecting “I think we should take a break, maybe see other people for a while.”  God’s glory?  Praise?  She’s heartbroken.  She’s not emotionally in a place where she can live out the words of Ephesians 1.  She needs the promises of those Heavenly blessings, but she just can’t live for the sake of praising God, not right now. 

No, to say that life is all about living for God and to say that each of us should make that our driving ambition in 2011 is just unrealistic and unreachable.

But, what if …?  I know, I am a dreamer.  But what if we looked at each of the places of life – home (where we eat good food and have good times but also complain and sometimes fight with those we love), and work (where we make money but also give the greatest amount of waking hours and maybe give a bit of our souls), and relationships (where we cannot predict how they will go because they involve other people) – what if we look at the places of life differently? What if instead of combing the scriptures to find a verse to get me through the day, I submit myself to the scripture no matter how the day is going? 

I open up my self, my spirit, that I may be filled with the Holy Spirit so that I am ready for my day be it the worst of the year or the best.

I constantly meet with other believers in my church family and in my small group because God nourishes me through those people.

The Bible, the Spirit, the Community – I am continually filled in these places, so my life can be a testament of praise and in the world I can live in a way that points people to Jesus.

It’s December 31^st 2011, and this is story of God having been at work in the world specifically seen in your life and mine.  It’s the story of someone who has discovered that life is about the relationship with God and the deeper one goes with God, the more one sees Jesus, lives a life that raises praise in church and in the daily world, and the more one lives in those Heavenly blessings. 

Take the three examples: home life, I am washing the soup pot, but I am living as one who wants to praise God with my life.  It doesn’t make the goop at the bottom come off any easier.  The change is in me.  I’ve opened myself to God’s grace, so my mind is on how grateful I am for the soup, for the wife who prepared it, for my kids who ate with me.  Maybe they fought all the way through dinner.  But I have gratitude because of God at work in me and my focus on Him.  Parenting isn’t easier and dirty pots are still dirty.  But I am different because of my relationship with God.  Because I am different, the whole scene is different.

You are tired and not happy about having to work two extra hours.  What’s different?  Starting 2011, you determined that this would not be a story about your job.  2011 is about you seeking God and God speaking through your life.  The drama plays out at your job and affects your approach to that job and your response to that boss.  You work hard and encourage your coworkers even when it’s tough to do so.  The title of this story is not “Dave the Insurance Adjuster.”  This story is called, “The God of the Universe at work in Dave’s life.”

She wanted him to propose and instead he dumped her.  She’s very, very sad.  But that is not the end of the story.  It’s not the story at all.  It might be a chapter in it, and maybe a long and dark chapter.  But the story is of a young woman seeking God, living in such a way that her life points to God and points others around her to the grace and forgiveness and love of Jesus.  She knows as a daughter of God she has a divine inheritance and she knows as one who walks in intimate relationship with God, the blessings are hers today.  Even when she is sad, she will pray, she will obey, and she will praise.  Even if it feels like she’s forcing herself.  Praise can be a spiritual discipline.  Praise is not about her own emotional state or how well things are going in life.  Praise is about God.  No matter what comes, her life will point to God. 

I can pray “God, please speak to me.  As I spend time washing this pot, a mundane activity, let this be a time I am thankful for the food I enjoyed that came from this pot.  And let me hear your voice.” 

You can pray, “Oh Lord, help me through these final hours of work.  I am tired and I want to go home, but I am thankful for this job.  Help me have a good attitude and reflect the love of Christ.” 

She can pray, “God, I am so lost right now. I need help.  I want to be married and I thought he was the one.  I don’t know where to turn so I am turning to you.”

It is good and right and Biblical to pray in all circumstances.  The examples I have shared vary from being of little importance (doing the dishes) to things that matter very, very much (like relationships and engagements).  You can think of more extreme examples.  In the little and the big, the insignificant and the highly important, our stories in 2011 can be about God because in everything we turn to Him and live in such a way that people see us and see God in us.

In His book The Next Christians, Gabe Lyons tells about the taxi stand at La Guardia airport in New York City.  He flies into New York often and has been to the taxi stand many times.  He always notices, if it is the right time of day, a group men in turbans.  They are at a part of the sidewalk that doesn’t have a loot of foot traffic.  They have their prayer mats, and they are kneeling facing east.  Their heads are on the ground. 

Lyons admires the dedication of these Muslims.  He writes, “Even though I don’t fully get it, and even though I’ve never felt the need to pray like this in public, I respect their countercultural commitment.  The odd and the curious practice of seeing a man put his face on a rug in the middle of a parking lot makes a statement.  It says, ‘I’m serious about my faith.  I’ve committed to expressing it and I don’t care what anyone else thinks.  I’ve found a better way to live’” (p.179)!

The Apostle Paul asserts in Ephesians 1 that life in Christ is the better way to live.  In Christ, our lives, the disappointments, the frustrations, the normal and boring, and the high and exciting times all point to Jesus.  It happens because we know life is all about Him.  We turn to Him in everything.  Through the Bible, through prayer and the Holy Spirit, and through the community of faith, we live in Christ.

December 31, 2011, may another take the book, the story of our lives over the course of the year.  May they read it and say, Oh wow!  This person knows Jesus and because of his life or her life, I want to know Jesus.  In Christ, we live the better story.  Many 2011 be a year we live in Christ.

AMEN