As the Deer, Part I

*The following is the text of a sermon that I delivered on July 20, 2008 at the evening service of the Church of Christ at Gold Hill Road in Fort Mill, SC.  Since its pretty long, I'll post installments over the next few days.

I suggest reading these verses first, as they lay the groundwork: Genesis 2:4-8, 20-25,Psalm 42:1

AS THE DEER

“The God that holds you over the pit of hell, much as one holds a spider, or some loathsome insect, over the fire, abhors you, and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire; he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else, but to be cast into the fire; he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight; you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours. You have offended him infinitely more than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince; and yet ‘tis nothing but his hand that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.” So reads one of the more, shall we say memorable passages of Jonathan Edwards’ famous sermon “Sinners in the Hand of an Angry God”, preached to a congregation in Einfield, Connecticut on July 8, 1741. I read this excerpt in high school literature class, and I just hung my head and sighed. The message still weighs on my heart whenever it comes to mind. But the horrific imagery of this classic “fire and brimstone” sermon is not the only thing that’s been on my mind lately. I was driving south down I-85 a few weeks ago, and between I-77 and I-485 a billboard caught my eye that read: “CHURCH TRAILER STOLEN! God forgives you, but we need our stuff back!” I scratched my head as I continued toward my exit. Then a couple of weeks ago I was reading a Christian publication, and I came across these lines: “Nothing is more important than going to heaven. When it comes to getting to heaven, nothing is more serious than Christian living. Concerning Christian living, nothing is more valuable than the Word of God, which is able to save our souls.” Again, I sighed as I read it, and even still as I remember it. And recently I was reading a book in which the author relates a story of his elementary school teacher teaching her class a lesson on “Values Clarification” by asking a very peculiar question: “If there were a lifeboat adrift at sea, and in the lifeboat were a male lawyer, a female doctor, a crippled child, a stay-at-home mom, and a garbage man, and one had to be thrown overboard to save the others, which person would you choose?” 

As I look around and observe these thoughts and ideas paraded through our world, I must confess that I feel as though something is missing, something deep in the core of who I am. And I do not mean just the world outside Christianity – the world we do our best to be unspotted by – I do not mean that just that world has left a hole in my heart, but many ideas that are put forth as “Christian” thoughts and actions have failed to fill that hole. Perhaps this is what Bono meant when he penned the words:

“I believe in the Kingdom come

When all of the colours will bleed into one

Well yes I'm still running


You broke the bonds and you loosed the chains


Carried the cross of my shame

You know I believe it

But I still haven't found what I'm looking for.”

You see, I can have no respect for a sermon that distorts God’s anger yet refuses to acknowledge the eloquence and depth of emotion with which Paul conveys God’s free gift of grace to the church in Rome; a sermon that ignores God’s love as revealed to us in John’s gospel and his epistles. When I read that billboard on the interstate, I’m left wondering if the people of that church forgive the thief just as God does. Jesus had a lot to say on forgiveness and forgave much himself, so if we’re supposed to be “like Christ” shouldn’t we be forgiving much ourselves? And when I read that my greatest goal in life should be to reach heaven and that the Bible is how I get there, I get the feeling of a dog at a dog show performing tricks so I can get the treat at the end. You see, I’ve struggled with some thoughts on heaven during my life that I imagine some, if not many of you have considered as well. What if heaven is a let down? I mean, its certainly better than the other option, but I’m here on earth making all sorts of sacrifices and staying away from things that many of my friends enjoy and I’m reading my Bible so I can know what God wants me to do in all aspects of my life and I’m keeping all these rules and I’m trying to convert my neighbors to this way of life, but my everlasting reward is to sing praise songs? I like to sing, but it isn’t my favorite thing to do. Am I really doing all of this just so I can do that forever? There has got to be something more to life than for me to spend it proving that I have the right stuff to do the right things at the right times so that I can get to the right side of the other side of life that we call death. Life is more than running through an obstacle course just to get to the feast at the end; my heart tells me this is true. Otherwise we would just be trained monkeys in a cosmic science experiment, or even worse, a circus sideshow meant to amuse some greater being of intelligence than our own. But isn’t this exactly what the lifeboat question teaches us?

To be continued...