FIRST READING GENESIS 1:1-5
SECOND READING ACTS 19:1-7
It’s all kind of crazy isn’t it? I mean life . . . The fact that we live on this big rocky, sandy, mountainous, yet desert like, water covered planet with its worn out remnants that have become dirt, that stuff grows in, such that it produces foods that feed us and allows animals to thrive that we live on as well . . .
And all of that is fueled by this massive cosmic explosion we call the sun – that is yet slow and somehow contained – an extraordinary fusion process involving elements joining together and turning into other elements and emitting heat and light and all manner of other wavelengths we call infrared, ultraviolet and gamma – that streak out over the cosmos in every direction at an exact speed in which time stops and is no longer, relative to anything stationary observing it?
Looking for truth that is stranger than fiction? Well then go no further.
Looking for proof of God? Well then maybe go no further as well . . .
And yet all the bible really gives about any of this is: “And God said . . . ‘Let there be light . . .’ and there was light.”
Not much to go on is it?
But we haven’t been able to do much better when it comes right down to it. I mean we can assign names and words to what we observe and we can see much of what something is doing, when it is doing what “it” does: i.e. We can observe how atoms are broken off and the physical “reality” or “properties” of something that was just one thing, becomes another – or at least acts like it. But the truth is, when it comes to REALLY knowing how all of this came to be (and keeps on coming to be), we are – well, in the dark.
And the bible says that God created that too.
Hmm. Why do you suppose He did that? I mean why not just live in the light all of the time?
I ran into the same thought twice this week from C.S. Lewis that might help answer that question. Lewis says (and I am paraphrasing here) that God only gives us some happiness in this life (little inns of indulgence he calls them) so that we won’t confuse it with the real thing – that is True Joy in his presence. When you think about it, that makes a bit of good sense – we humans are very good at taking a little bit of success or happiness and running off like we have everything all figured out. But in this life we usually fall to earth before we get too far. And if Lewis is right (and I suspect he is) then that isn’t the worst thing.
Perhaps another reason we are not allowed to live in the light continuously in this world (at least physically) is our simple need for rest or down time – some period of rejuvenation and restoration. and once upon a time the “night” provided that. Heck, according to the bible even God took a break after spinning up the universe in a matter of six days.
But then there was that required rest – that Sabbath thing – he took and then insisted on us doing so as well. “Take a break,” he seems to say. “You’ll need it – just like I did . . .” But we aren’t really so good at doing that any more, are we?
I was reminded recently that the eight hour work day (that some of us would certainly shorten if we could) was not always the norm. In fact, prior to the industrial revolution when the whole world was based on a more agrarian way of doing things we all pretty much worked a “sun up to sun down” schedule – about 12 hours a day, depending on the time of year. That was what “light” allowed and, after all, we were, most of us, tired by that point anyway.
But after the advent of factories (and thanks to Mr. Edison and his nifty little electric light that put “darkness” on a permanent hiatus) things changed rather drastically. In fact, in 1890 (when the government first started tracking employee hours) American factory workers were working an average of 102 hours a week. (AVERAGE!) That’s just over 15 hours a day, six and a half days a week.
But after several decades of enduring this brutal amount of human-harnessed industrial output a popular movement for an eight-hour day began and laborers started to band together calling for some sort of regulation to govern time spent in the workplace. They became known as the “Knights of Labor” and their slogan was: “Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest – and eight hours for what you will.” (Catchy huh?) Both the idea and the slogan caught on pretty fast and the “Knights of Labor” movement picked up steam throughout the 1890’s.
But change never really comes easy or quickly in the United States and it was only after years of protests, riots and a great many deaths in the streets that new practices began to take place in just a few industries. Notably among them was Henry Ford who completely mystified and irritated both his competition and his contemporaries by going to an 8 hour workday in 1914.
But it would be many years later before labor finally won the victory when in 1937 the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed as part of the New Deal giving us the 8 hour work day we have all come to expect. So the next time you’re bemoaning those 40 hours just be glad you weren’t a factory worker born into the last century where 102 was the accepted norm.
But what in the world does all of that have to do with “light and dark?” And 12 followers of Jesus that Paul finds wandering around the countryside?
Well, good question. Let’s go back to the text in Acts 19. Paul is traversing the interior regions of Greece near Corinth, about 50 miles from Athens and while doing so encounters what can only be described as a wayward band of disciples – men who were seeking to follow “The Way” as it had become known to them.
By all indications, Paul has never met them before, so in seeking to know more about who they are and how they came to the faith he asks them, “So, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?”
And they reply, “Uh, no . . . To be honest with you we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” So Paul, somewhat mystified asks them, “So, into what exactly were you baptized?” And they answer, “Well, into John’s baptism, of course.”
And so Paul immediately realizes that these well intentioned followers, who are seeking to be Christians, have only taken the time to get PART of the story! That their understanding and thus their ability to live out their faith is radically limited. In fact, Paul knows that without a genuine knowledge of who Jesus REALLY is that their professed “conversion” is completely incomplete! So he teaches them some rather mission-critical theology:
“Listen,’ he says, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come AFTER him – that is, in Jesus. Don’t get me wrong – you’re off to a great start, but in your haste you’ve left the dock without the real cargo on board. Receive then this Jesus – the Christ – into your life so that you may come fully into the light that God has prepared for you.”
Upon hearing this, they are [THEN] baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus . . . And the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and they speak in tongues and prophesy – and the 12 of them go forward as completely new creations.”
So these would-be Disciples were doing their best. They had repented and then busied themselves with seeking to do the work of the Kingdom. But they were missing the crucial and critical truth that can be found only in knowing and being baptized into Christ Himself.
And we must likewise understand the same – that there is so much more to following Jesus than answering the call to repentance and seeking to do good . . . That HE – Jesus himself – is the Way, the Truth and the Life – not anything he SAID – or anything he ever DID – but that an actual spiritual engrafting into him is the only way anyone will ever truly inherit and do the REAL work of the Kingdom!
These wandering would-be disciples are very much representative of much of the church today. We have become quite good at calling for a certain way of life – that is, “lifestyle repentance” that we might emulate Christ’s call to serve. And there is certainly nothing wrong with that!
But if it is done to the exclusion of having any real knowledge of “The Way” himself – that is, an acceptance in complete and utter humility of Jesus as your personal (yes – personal!) LORD and SAVIOR – then all is for naught because Screwtape has won the battle by successfully substituting our good intentions for real and genuine transformation!
Does that all sound a bit too mystical to you? Too evangelical? Too “fundamentalist” perhaps? Well, you’re not alone. Presbyterians – pretty much since the latter part of the 20th century – have struggled with incorporating this “transformational” part of sanctification (That Christ and the Apostles insisted upon) into our high-minded, highly educated “Christian philosophy . . .” And there can be no doubt that we have and still do suffer dearly for it.
But – thanks be to God – that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is so undeniably and indescribably amazing in its ability to transcend all the added twists and turns we have given it! That it does not depend on our high minded interpretations and musings – but rather just keeps laying the basic and fundament Truth of God’s sacrificial love for us at our feet! No matter where we come from or what the world has done to us along the way!
The struggling alcoholic who has lost everything – or the self-consumed businessman deciding which Learjet to purchase . . . If either can get themselves humble enough (not educated enough!) the Truth of the Gospel will just keep unabashedly coming! Popping up in subtle whispers and epiphanies and yes, in natural realities suddenly discovered anew all around us!
If you have received the Holy Spirit and have maintained your relationship with God then you surely know something of what I am talking about. And if not – if you are early in your walk and things often seem to be illusive and sometimes more of a tangled web of doubt – then not to worry! In fact, not to worry at all! No one – no Saint even – has not been where you are now! Keep searching, and praying and prying and seeking just as you have been . . . remembering that in the end it will never be a matter of words – not the preacher’s or anyone else’s. Rather, it’s a matter of letting the Living Word – God’s Word – have its way with you . . .
And in addition to a deep and genuine and abiding humility that takes some measure of your time . . .
As in the time to actually break away from work and play – and duty and sleep and maintenance and yes, even seeking to do the good that God knows we need to do – so that we can BEGIN to open our hearts and our minds to a God who would breathe life into all of creation for us! Who spoke the incarnate words “Let There Be Life” so that we might have it – and have it abundantly!
Is your life full? Of things to do? Places you must be? People you must please? So many events and occasions and THINGS that life expects you to . . . Accomplish.
If so, how are you ever going to notice – much less stop – so that you can reach down and pick up the only real thing that really even matters . . .?
By putting down the rest of it, of course – so that we can carry and treasure and BE the Truth of all He has called us to be – in Christ Jesus – who is salvation himself.
I wonder. Will we ever find the time for him?
– Stuart
Stuart Revercomb is the Pastor at Peace Presbyterian Church in Roanoke County. Visit them on the web at www.peace-church.net or contact him at [email protected]
