Staying in Rhythm, Part Three: Behind the Scenes
Understanding and Following the Lead of The Holy Spirit
In this series, I have been talking about music and dancing. I have used each as a way of talking about following the lead of the Holy Spirit. Preparing for this message, I began thinking of a fond memory from my teenage years. The Catholic high school in my hometown sponsored dances every Saturday night during the school year. It was a good fundraiser, and it allowed the small student body to reach out to their friends in the public high schools. These dances were one of the few public events open to the youth of our community.
Inviting kids from other schools created many challenges. For example, one never knew how each kid was going to behave. To pull off this kind of event, the school needed to have a lot of chaperones, but the balance had to be right. If there were too many adults, their presence would begin to stifle the freedom of the young people, making it so that they could not or would not want to participate. If the school had too few adults, they risked the dance being ruined by a small group of delinquents. Hold on to this idea as we move toward our first Biblical point. #dancing
In Genesis 6:1-8, we read, #genesis6
When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.’ The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. #sin
In our last message, we talked about the gift of God’s creative grace. The Bible teaches us that God loves this world and that we and everything in this world is good and pleasing to God. That is how the story begins. It starts with the original goodness of humankind and the world.
But the story took an unexpected turn. Human beings were given the responsibility for the care of the earth and for setting the course for the world’s future. Much authority was entrusted to our species for deciding history’s outcome and the world’s destiny. Unfortunately, two of the first humans made the decision to see what would happen if they turned sin and death loose in the world. The results were gradual at first, but the impact of that decision cascaded, causing catastrophic effects on everything in the world. #death
In the Western Church, we call this event original sin. We use this language to talk about the guilt our species has incurred and the punishment and judgment of God. In the Eastern Church, they call this event ancestral sin. They use this language to talk about the chaos sin let loose in our world, and all the damage sin did when it was first released, and all the destruction it is still doing. The chaos of sin threatens to unravel the order and goodness of creation. #originalsin
We are not overstating the case when we call sin a blight or toxin. It has contaminated earth, and its pollution has made its way into every living thing. This toxin has seeped into every crack and crevice, creating physical and spiritual mutations that continue to distort everything on earth, including us. That is why we find nature to be both beautiful and horrible. We find ourselves drawn to and repulsed by it. Sin is also the reason we have debates about whether human nature is basically good or evil. We and the world were created good but are no longer in pristine condition. Sin has caused considerable depreciation.
When we talk about human nature, we run into the same dynamics. On the one hand, we can affirm that God made us and wonderfully fashioned us. Not one of us is an accident or a bit of cosmic refuse. Yet, we find brokenness and darkness in even the most beautiful soul. For example, we don’t have to teach children to lie or to be selfish. That comes naturally, as do the wicked things inside of us. Even the sweetest and most refined among us have had thoughts that we would not want others to know about.
We are born with physical weaknesses. We are born with moral defects. To give but one example, some are born with a genetic predisposition towards addiction. They did not ask for it or choose it, but there it is. Some simply have addictive tendencies. What does that do to a person?
A desire for wine, or food, or money is not ordinarily wrong unless the desire becomes all-consuming or begins aiming us toward unhealthy behaviors that develop when we have out of control appetites and desires. Yet, for all the socially embarrassing sins, there are hundreds of socially acceptable ones. Many of us are addicted to gossip. Some of us were born with short-fuse when it comes to anger. Some of us, by physical makeup, are prone to be swallowed up by anxiety and depression. I am one of these. This is not only a spiritual problem. Something physical has gone wrong. Sin has soaked through and contaminated the whole. What I have said about people can be said of every part of creation, making it hard to know what to say when someone asks if this world and humankind are basically bad or good.
We seem to need more than two choices. Limiting ourselves to two options inhibits our ability to weigh the complexity and nuance of the situation.
The natural world still retains much of its original goodness. But the law of sin and death are at work in everything, eating away at it all. Scientists call it entropy. But the mystery of iniquity is something more sinister than the physical laws governing the universe.
The good news is that God shielded us from most of the impact. He has not allowed death to go as far as it might have. If he had allowed sin to make its full impact, the story would have come to a crashing end before it had a chance to make it off the tarmac.
God shields us and our world. The Holy Spirit restrains evil. We can call this God’s sustaining grace. It means that God has kept the human story from coming to a short and un-natural end. But, to even talk about this idea is complex.
On the one hand, if God stopped every wrong choice and every act of evil, it would leave no room for human action. God would become so big and overwhelming an actor that every other character would be pushed out of the story. Or, we would be mere accessories in a one-person story about God.
God created us for more significance than that. We have an active part to play. But, for the human part of the story to have any depth of meaning, God had to leave room for moral decision making. This includes the possibility that we would make bad and evil decisions – allowing for all the repercussions that come with that. Only by doing so would it also be possible for us to make heroic and virtuous decisions.
Yet, if God had not also acted as a chaperone, the whole thing would have unraveled at once. And so, we are talking about the way God’s sustaining grace is at work in the world, making it possible for the story to continue.
One of the ways we see God’s sustaining grace manifested is in the goodness of human institutions. In Romans 13:1-7, we read, “Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. For rulers hold no terror for those who do right, but for those who do wrong. Do you want to be free from fear of the one in authority? Then do what is right, and you will be commended. For the one in authority is God’s servant for your good. But if you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer. Therefore, it is necessary to submit to the authorities, not only because of possible punishment but also as a matter of conscience.
This is also why you pay taxes, for the authorities are God’s servants, who give their full time to governing. Give to everyone what you owe them: If you owe taxes, pay taxes; if revenue, then revenue; if respect, then respect; if honor, then honor.”
Human organizations and institutions are a gift from God. Government, the church, civic organizations, businesses, and marriage are good things. They can be corrupted. They can be used as tools to cause harm and injustice. But God gave them to the human family to create order, to promote good and restrain evil, and to make it possible for people to work and live together. #commongrace #restraininggrace #prevenientgrace
That is why so much of the good God does in the world gets credited to human beings. God works behind the scenes. God built sustaining grace into the system. Structure and organization is natural to human beings. God designed us this way. Governments, families, and volunteer organizations would have been needed, even if sin had not been a part of our world. These ways of doing life together make every aspect of human community function at its best. Wherever we see families, churches, or governments working to bring about the will of God, we see the sustaining grace of God at work.
Now, of course, not every government, family, church, or business pursues the common good. Some are committed to evil ends. This takes us back to what we said earlier – God limits the degree to which evil can damage the world, leaving room for human action. So, we can say God is involved directly.
In the Old Testament book of Judges, chapters 13-16, we read the story of a man named Samson. God chose Samson to be the leader through whom God would protect his people from their more powerful enemies. God chose Samson and promised to bless Samson with many earthly blessings, including the strength to lead the people and to occasionally face the enemy alone.
But Samson was a fool. He made a lot of bad and stupid decisions. And, like the rest of us, Samson always expected God to bail him out of the mess he made. And, sometimes, God did, but not always. It doesn’t work that way. If I were to give a 5-second sermon on the life of Samson, it would go like this: With God’s help, you can face any challenge, but the faithfulness of the Lord does not obligate God to rescue you from your own stupidity.
In the days of Noah, humankind had become thoroughly wicked. They had engaged with darkness and evil to the point of drowning themselves and the world in sin. Humankind had become like a disease, threatening the very survival of our world. And God said, “My Spirit will not contend with people for much longer.” He had hemmed them in, like a mother protecting her child from the rain and biting wind. He had tried to keep their evil in check. The Holy Spirit had intervened, and had chaperoned the dance, seeking to preserve some bit of order and goodness. But there was a point at which God could no longer restrain evil without stripping humankind of its freedom. All that was left was to take away the moral and spiritual capacity of the human race – that God would not do. #noah #judges
The floods that destroyed the ancient world of Noah were as much the result of God’s removing his restraint as they were the result of God’s active judgment.
Because of the distortion sin has caused in the human soul, we have a built-in tendency to resist God. When we resist God’s grace and act in ways contrary to his will, we cause harm to ourselves and to the world.
Romans 1:21 says, that while humankind “knew God, they refused to worship God or even to give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas of what God was like. As a result, their minds became dark and confused.”
Now, this confusion about God and the misdirected worship had tremendous implications for us and our world. See, humankind was supposed to reflect the image of God out into the world, thus expanding the reign of God throughout the world. They were also supposed to focus the praise and worship of the world back to God. In other words, humankind was meant to be a force for good in the world, whereby the world would become a place where the glory of God could be experienced by all living things.
See, it matters what you worship. What you worship, what you put at the center of your life, will be reflected in your life. Humankind was supposed to reflect the goodness of the Creator, the Lord God. Instead, humankind turned away from God and turned to dark and evil things. Thus, humankind has reflected all kinds of brokenness, chaos, and malice back into the world. For this reason, humankind has often been a source of misery in our world.
Though God has revealed Jesus as the King of the world, the fallen nature of humanity still resists God. In the last days, the resistance will come to a head. For now, because of his mercy, the Spirit of God restrains this tendency in the human race. But he will not always do so. In 2 Thessalonians chapter two, we read, “Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered to him, we ask you, brothers and sisters, not to become easily unsettled or alarmed by the teaching allegedly from us; whether by a prophecy or by word of mouth or by letter; asserting that the day of the Lord has already come. Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God. #king
Don’t you remember that when I was with you, I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work, but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will overthrow with the breath of his mouth and destroy by the splendor of his coming.”
Evil is at work in the world. But, do you know what the good news is? God has never turned his back on this world. There are so many ways in which the Spirit of God is at work, bringing order and beauty out of chaos and restraining the impact of evil and sin. In spite of it all, for now, God contends with humankind. Let me share one more story. In Genesis 11 we read:
Now the whole world had one language and a common speech. As people moved eastward, they found a plain in Shinar and settled there.
They said to each other, “Come, let’s make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They used brick instead of stone, and tar for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, with a tower that reaches to the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves; otherwise we will be scattered over the face of the whole earth.”
But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower the people were building. The Lord said, “If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other.”
So the Lord scattered them from there over all the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel because there the Lord confused the language of the whole world. From there, the Lord scattered them over the face of the whole earth.
This story reminds me of the Cuban Missile Crisis. Some of you are old enough to have lived through the crisis. During the Presidency of JFK, Soviet and US warships had a standoff outside the territory of Cuba. The tension was over recently discovered nuclear missiles the Soviets placed in Cuba. The weapons were aimed at the United States. During the standoff, we were a hair’s breadth from World War III. Had either side over-postured or blinked the wrong way, civilization as we knew it could have been destroyed. And yet, somehow, our own potential for self-destruction was restrained by the grace of God, and disaster was averted.
Our story in Genesis is not about God disliking over-achievers or being against world unity. Instead, we see humankind reaching out for its own ruin and the sustaining grace of God, preventing it from experiencing the full consequences of its own actions.
God has put limitations on the effects of evil. He has placed a buffer between us and our own folly. This does not mean that free will has been eliminated, or that we cannot destroy or wreck our own lives, it only means it is less likely we will. #towerofBabel
Think about how this plays out in the life of an individual. God is not obligated to shield us from our own bad decisions or to get us off the hook for the consequences – but sometimes, by his mercy, he does so anyway. When he does, it is because God is offering us a chance to make a change in our lives. He is giving us a chance to look at things from another angle, make a course correction, and make some different, better sorts of choices about how we are living. God is not obligated to do this for us even once. But, because of his love, he has done so. For some of us, he has given us several chances. He may not give another.
This has nothing to do with his love running out. It is not about grace being rescinded. It is about the fact that God has no desire to turn you into a puppet. He doesn’t want to force you to do the right thing, to love him or anyone else, including yourself. If God took that choice from you, you would be no different than an inanimate object, or goldfish. He didn’t want you to be a robot, a puppet, a rock, or a goldfish. He designed you to be a fully human person, with a capacity for moral decision making – including the possibility of your making some really bad decisions. God designed you that way at considerable risk to himself.
Designing you that way meant that you might end up rejecting him. You might end up saying no to everything good, including healthy relationships and a balanced love for yourself and creation. God only intervenes to give you a redo, another chance to go at it. But to do so infinitely would be to strip you of your human nature. Hell is not when God finally punishes you for not loving him. Hell is when God allows you to spend eternity without his love, even though his love could make you infinitely happy. He will do everything, including beg, plead, prod, convict, challenge, chastise – and, get this, even let you kill him. But he will not force you to say yes. Eventually, he drops the restraints and allows you to run to your own destruction.
Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts.