When washday comes at our house, I go on alert. I go on alert for a certain noise. If we are washing something heavy, like bathroom mats or a bedspread, I can predict that during the washing process, I will hear great clunks and thunks arising from the basement. It will sound as though somebody is hammering on the walls, as though some thief was trying to wrestle all our worldly goods out the back door. The pipes will rattle and the walls will vibrate; our little dog will perk up her ears and jump; the whole place will suddenly be alive with ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk. What’s going on?
It’s the spin cycle. Our washing machine has gone into the spin cycle, during which it is supposed to turn at higher and higher speeds, until most of the moisture has been thrown out of the fabrics being washed. The spin cycle is perfectly all right, it’s normal. But when you put heavy fabrics in a washing machine, it’s easy for them to drift to one side of the drum. And that throws the machine off balance, so that not only does it vibrate madly; not only does it punctuate our conversation with ceaseless ka-chunks; but also it staggers across the basement floor, bumping things as it goes. And if I just let it go, there’s a very good possibility that the washing machine may damage itself. If I don’t do something during its unbalanced spin cycle, it may end up broken and ruined.
A great many of us live our lives in the spin cycle. We are busy about lots of things, we keep going and going and going, like the Energizer rabbit. We may not be going anywhere in particular. We’re just busy. Just frantically energetic. Go, go, go. In the spin cycle, at high speed, feeling a little wrung out. You know: the kind of person who is always juggling job and family and household and volunteer work and civic affairs, who never seems to stop? The kind of person who takes on so many things he has to leave one activity early so that he can be at the next one late? Someone has suggested that we need an addition to the list of Biblical Beatitudes: "Blessed are those who spin around in circles, for they shall be known as Big Wheels." It seems important to us to stay busy, doesn’t it? It seems as though we measure our value by how many things we get into.
We even have this kind of behavior in church, you know; someone laid a few more dates on my calendar this week, and I repeated a nursery rhyme parody, "Mary had a little lamb; it would have been a sheep. But it became a Baptist, and died for lack of sleep." Most of us know what it is to live in the spin cycle, wrung out from going faster and faster. But that’s normal, it’s OK, we can handle it, usually.
But if in our lives there is an imbalance of some kind; if into our lives we thrust a heavy-duty ingredient; if we deliberately allow something to get hold of us; then we are going to go ka-chunk, ka-chunk. We are going to stagger and stall and we may end up hurting ourselves, sometimes beyond repair. We’ll be out of balance in the spin cycle.
I’m talking about the range of things that we call addictive or compulsive behaviors. Things that we at the beginning choose to do, but we find out that they take us over. And not only do they take us over; they injure us, they hurt us, and, in some cases, they even kill us. At the very least they hurt us spiritually. Addictive behaviors like eating disorders, alcohol abuse, drug use, viewing pornography, sexual promiscuity, gambling, unchecked spending, and a good many others. Some folks would even add work to this list, or even church. But that’s another sermon.
When any behavior takes you over and makes you stumble and stagger and drives you to the brink, it’s addictive. And it’s dangerous. Like the heavy item in the washing machine, when there’s an imbalance during the spin cycle, when we use an addictive behavior to help us deal with a busy life, we are going to get hurt.
Well, I have a question for you. If we are going to talk about addictive behaviors, are we talking about sin or are we talking about sickness? Are we talking about something we do, which we could change, but don’t, and that’s sin? Or are we talking about something that happens to us, attacks us from without, and, poor things, we have a problem, we’re sick, and we need to be healed? Which is it, sin or sickness? My answer is Yes. Yes to both. Addictive behavior is both sin and sickness. Both something we take on and something that takes us on. Yes. Both. But I am also going to insist that there is a remedy for both. Just as the Psalmist said that ours is a God "who forgives all your iniquity, [and] who heals all your diseases", I am going to speak not only of sin and not only of sickness. I am going to speak of salvation. We can be redeemed even when there is an imbalance in the spin cycle.
The poet of Proverbs saw the issue very clearly. His warning is strong, his admonition clear. What colorful language!
Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaining? Who has wounds without cause? Who has redness of eyes? Those who linger late over wine, those who keep trying mixed wines. Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly. At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. "They struck me," you will say, "but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it. When shall I awake? I will seek another drink.”
I
Certainly the poet of Proverbs knew that there is sin in addictive behavior. He knew that it begins with a decision to get into something questionable. He knew that at the beginning we do have a choice. We can say "No". We can see the issue and take responsibility for ourselves, at least at the beginning.
"Do not look at wine when it is red." Do not. Just say “No". Just keep away. And there is a reason. The reason is that if you get started, it will take you over, and you will get hurt. What a graphic portrayal! "At the last it bites like a serpent, and stings like an adder. Your eyes will see strange things, and your mind utter perverse things. You will be like one who lies down in the midst of the sea, like one who lies on the top of a mast. ’They struck me,’ you will say, ’but I was not hurt; they beat me, but I did not feel it.’’’ Feeling no pain, numb, and blah!
I must speak very candidly this morning about why certain behaviors are wrong. I want us to understand why some things are sin. You see, God did not sit up in heaven one day, having a good old time thinking, "Now, what is it they enjoy doing, I’ll make it a sin, so that I can stop their fun." God has not arbitrarily tagged some things as wrong, just for the fun of it. No. God, in His love for us, has called sin those things that will harm us. God cares so much for us that He warns us that certain things will do us a great deal of damage. These things wilt hurt you, they will damage your relationship with others, they will make you feel terrible about yourself, and, because of all of that, they will disturb your relationship with Him. So thus they became sin. Just say “No". Don’t even get started. Don’t even start something which will draw us down and hurt us.
One of the peculiar things about human nature is that we get attracted to repetitive behaviors. We somehow have to keep doing certain things to feel right.
When I was about six or seven years old, I got into the pattern, as kids will do, of eating what I liked first, and leaving the rest aside. I would eat the meat and potatoes and at least work on the salad, but I would hope to beg off of the asparagus and the tomatoes, which I just barely tolerated. Well, my father instructed me to eat in a circle … a bite of this, then a bite of the next item on my plate, then the next, and the next, then a gulp of liquid, and so on. In clockwise order. He was trying something very simple, to get me out of a bad pattern and into another, better pattern. But, you see what habit does? I am still, today, at every meal, eating in that circle. I still take one bite of meat, then a bite of potatoes, then a bite of salad, then I gulp at my asparagus, then a slosh of water, in clockwise order ... then back to the meat, the potatoes, the salad, round and round. Do you see?
Something in us drives us to repetitive behaviors. Something in us establishes habits. Habits begin with a decision. If that is a bad decision, then watch out! Harm is on its way!
Eating in a circle may be perfectly harmless. But some behaviors are not harmless. It is better not to start; not at all.
"Do not look at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup and goes down smoothly." Don’t do it. Don’t start. I realize that I may sound impossibly old-fashioned, but I still argue that it’s best not to use alcohol at all. I argue that it’s best not to start smoking at all. Nor to gamble, nor to look at pornography, nor anything, really, that has the power to take us over. When you give up your God-given freedom to something which can take you over, that is sin. Sin lies in choosing something you know from the beginning will ultimately throw you off balance in the spin cycle, something which you know will mess you up during the stresses of daily living. I personally stand with the author of Proverbs, "Do not." Do not look at the wine, the cigarette, the lottery ticket, the indulgent diet … do not start on anything which will rob you of what God intended you to have. That’s one side of this issue.
II
But we have already said that sin is only one side of the story. The other side is sickness. We have already established that sometimes we make the wrong decisions and we get caught in things that we can no longer control. At that point sin has become sickness. At that point we are beyond our own capacity to help ourselves. At that point we are going ka-chunk, ka-chunk. We are way off balance in the spin cycle. We have become sick.
Just how do people get to the place where they drink to excess? How do they get into eating disorders, where some people, even though they are terribly overweight, just dig their graves with a knife and fork, but others, even though they are razor thin, run to the bathroom and force themselves to hurl? How can this be? How is it that people can keep on doing things they do not enjoy, which do not contribute to their health, and which do not do anybody any good at all? What does it mean?
There’s so much to say. There are many factors. But I will limit myself to this one thing. Negative self-image. Low self· esteem. Not believing in ourselves. The sickness of the human spirit begins not only in thinking too highly of ourselves ... that’s part of what sin is ... but the sickness of the human spirit also lies in thinking too lowly of ourselves. When we are sick, it is that we have come to the place where we feel so inadequate, so guilty, so impoverished that all we can do is to escape. We try to forget. We use drugs or alcohol or food or pleasure or even work, and yes, even church, to forget how low we have rated ourselves.
Hillary Clinton suggested the other day that they were after her husband because he was from Arkansas, and it ain’t cool to be from Arkansas. Well, that sounds silly, and maybe it is grasping at a straw, but could you at least imagine that if you are ashamed of your origins ... your birthplace, your flawed family system, your father and your step-father ... could you imagine that that might be the beginning not only of a towering ambition that would lead you to the White House, but also of a fatal sickness that would lead you to foolish and reckless encounters? Can you see that possibility? Understand, I do not excuse or condone what has apparently happened with Mr. Clinton. But let’s agree that even Presidents can be spiritually sick and out of control in the spin cycle!
Addictive behavior is not only sin; it is sickness. It may be a sin to choose to start certain behaviors. But when those behaviors blend with a negative sense of ourselves, they soon become sickness. And the worst part is that everyone and everything conspires to make it worse and not better. Everyone cooperates with us to make sure we stay out of balance in the spin cycle.
My Uncle John was an acknowledged alcoholic. He was married to my father’s sister, my Aunt Mildred. Uncle John didn’t work much; Aunt Mildred supported the family by serving as the Postmistress of their little Indiana town. Folks sort of turned up their noses at a man who didn’t have a steady job. That helped Uncle John feel pretty useless. In addition, Uncle John never had managed to have his own place to live; he and Aunt Mildred lived in the old family home with my grandmother. Folks thought it was a shame that a man had to depend on his mother-in-law for a place to sleep. I’m sure Uncle John heard that around town, and felt the sting in it. In the summertime, when we would go and visit, Uncle John would ask if he could take me out in his boat, so that we could fish on Lake Wawasee; usually my parents refused to let me go, because they were afraid that Uncle John would start drinking and that I would be in danger. Uncle John knew what they thought of him. It had to have deepened his shame.
And when Aunt Mildred contracted cancer and died at a relatively young age, the instant the funeral was over, my father and another of my uncles told Uncle John that he was no longer welcome in this family, and that he was to get out of town, right away. I often wonder whatever became of him; I never did hear of him again. I am quite confident that he died a miserable, incredibly sick man. He had chosen to sin, yes; but he believed he was no good, everybody confirmed it, and down he went. Ka-chunk, ka-chunk. Out of balance in the spin cycle. Addictive behavior is both sin and sickness.
III
But now, who is it that forgives all our iniquities and heals all our diseases? Who is able to set us free? Jesus Christ is able. Jesus Christ is able to lift our feet out of the miry clay. Jesus Christ is able to deliver us! If you really know this, if you feel this and have experienced this, then the defeat of sin and the end of sickness are not far away. Jesus Christ is able to deliver, even from the spin cycle.
How can He do this? He simply does it by showing us that He loves us. Christ redeems us by demonstrating that He loves us unconditionally. He loves us so much that He went to a cross for us and for our salvation. Do we think of ourselves as junk, as nothing? Look at the cross. Would the very Son of God waste His life or spill His blood for nothing? Would He do this for worthless junk? He would not. No. He does this for His children, for we are worth it. We are worth it! Never mind what we think of ourselves; God thinks we are worth the blood of His Son! We can get started out of addiction if we see how much God loves us.
Oh, today, if you are in the spin cycle, and you are tempted to go out of balance, start with this:
"For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through Him.”
God is not interested in contributing to anyone’s sickness or death; God is interested in giving life! Just to know that is the first step away from sickness and sin. Just to know that God loves us is to begin the way out of addiction.
If you are in the spin cycle, and you think you are going out of balance, look around you, and see brothers and sisters, each of whom has his or her own problems, but who love you. They love you because Jesus Christ first loved them and brought them out. Look at them and know that they do not criticize or condemn. They have caught the spirit of the one who met a woman captured in adultery, and who loved her anyway,
’Let anyone among you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." "Neither do I condemn you. Go your way, and from now on do not sin again."
There is no condemnation in this church; love grows here, and understanding, and compassion. All we want to do is to help others find their way, as we have found our way.
If you are in the spin cycle, and you have to admit that your life is out of balance, the load is too much, the burden too heavy, you’re going ka-chunk, I beg you to turn to the one whose word of hope is,
"Come to me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls."
Turn to Him and begin a journey into balance, a path into life, even if you are in the spin cycle. For He is able! And here is the promise, here is the way:
“So do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. Do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery; but be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What a mighty God we serve! He is able, He is able to deliver. He forgives all our iniquities, He heals all our diseases!
