The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom;
all those who practice it have a good understanding.
His praise endures forever.
Psalm 111:10 (NRSVA)
Croft Pentz is quoted as saying: Of all creation, only man can say yes or no to God. This message is all about our freedom and the choices we can make as free persons.
Freedom from ritual and tradition is a wonderful and dangerous blessing. With it, our souls are liberated to experience Christ, and His power is loosed to work through us; we are also tempted to think we have no responsibility to put it to better use than just exhilaration and joy. In First Corinthians 8, Paul says that we are free from rituals, but not from our responsibility.
My generation was the 60’s. We were going to change everything. All the rituals of the establishment had to go! The one thing my generation misunderstood – just as today’s anti-establishment groups miss the point – is that, while we hated the establishment’s rituals and were trying to change it all, we had our own rituals developing.
If you don’t believe you’re steeped in ritual, try this exercise: name one aspect of your day (today) that is not part of a ritual you’ve developed.
For instance, which leg did you put in your pants first when you were dressing this morning?
On which side of the bed did you roll out today?
Do you brush first, or floss?
How about those shoe laces…did you loop over or under…or did you opt for Velcro because you don’t like laces?
And for you teenagers – just the thought that an adult might have something here – are you rolling your eyes up and to the left, or is it up and to the right? We all have our rituals!
Several years ago there was a campaign pointed at Washington D.C. to Throw the bums OUT! They wanted to elect everyone new to both houses. Even Thomas Jefferson, our founding father/author of the Declaration of Independence advocated regular revolutions of change. He said we should throw out all bills passed by Congress every 20 years and start over.
All those ideas sound radical and, perhaps, make us feel uncomfortable. The reason is because our rituals are tied to our routine – those things which make our lives easier, simpler. We do them habitually, and without too much thought.
We don’t like to change our familiar patterns; we get uncomfortable, irritable and resistant. But, if the routine itself is uncomfortable to us, it is because someone else is comfortable with it, and we’d rather change it! Routines and rituals are no-wins!
Our choices affect more than ourselves. That is why I call our freedom to make individual choices my loaded gun! Whatever I change will affect someone else. Whether it affects them negatively or positively, depends (largely) on which side of the barrel they stand!
Paul pointed to our freedom and responsibility all at once; and he repeated it twice in his letters to the Corinthian church:
All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient; 1 Corinthians 6.12a, 10.23a
Not all choices are evil or good; some are good, some better. The trick is to not let the good become the enemy of the best. I can, for instance, study my Bible – that is good! I could also put down my Bible and rescue a child from drowning in the lake – that would be best!
When making our choices in life, we must consider others; we must consider God’s will, and the lives of other people. We can do that if we do as a Bishop once said to a friend who was weighing a [life] call: "If you are uncertain of which of the two paths to take, choose the one on which the shadow of the cross falls."
Making Good or Poor Choices
The Case of Abraham Genesis 13
A man really wanted to help his son understand the importance of making right choices, obeying, and doing right. So, if his son made a bad choice or a wrong decision, he’d give him a nail, send him to a post out in the back yard, and have him take a hammer and put the nail in the post. And every day that he went through the whole day making good decisions, he’d let him go out and remove one of those nails.
As the boy grew up from the age of about eight years until about fourteen or fifteen, there were always 2 or 3 nails in the post, and he’d be nailing them in and pulling them out. But he got better, until finally, as he grew and matured, all the nails were removed.
When all the nails were removed, he felt pretty good. Then his dad took him out and said, Son, I want you to take a good look at that post you’ve been nailing and un-nailing all these years. The boy looked at it for a moment and saw all the holes where all those nails had been hammered-in over the years; the nail scars were many, and they pretty well dominated the appearance of that post.
His dad said, I want to tell you something, son, about bad choices. You may be completely forgiven; there are no nails left -- no problem there – but you do have the remaining effects. That post will never be the same again.
That is a well-worn story that illustrates how our choices have lasting consequences. Unfortunately, those who are prone to making poor or immoral decisions can see this story in an unhealthy way. The post is viewed as the decision-maker’s life, and the holes as being the ruined quality of that life. This is a natural, but sad, incomplete interpretation.
It is clear that when we make choices, they affect many lives, not just our own; it’s like ripples in a still pond. A husband who decides to do drugs pulls his wife, children, parents, co-workers, neighbors and friends into hard circumstances.
In short, the holes in the post represent not only our own lives, but the collective existence of all mankind.
A ripple never stops. The ripple concept helps us understand a very confusing Bible verse:
...for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me. Deuteronomy 5.9b
God doesn’t hate or punish children because of the sins of parents. There are too many indicators in Scripture that we each bear the responsibility of our own misdeeds. The sense here is the ripples. Whatever we do that opposes God will show up in the generations that follow, because of genetic predisposition; we bear after our own kind. Those things you do in opposition to God’s will are a nail hole in the life of your offspring.
Abram (Abraham before his name change) made plenty of mistakes, poor choices, otherwise known as sin. We will look at some of the ripples – the poor choices of his nephew, Lot. Lot observed Abram in Egypt, and all along the trail. Whatever Abram did was like a nail going in or coming out of the post. There were continuing ripples for every nail hammered by a poor choice.
God Expects Us to Make Wise Choices
One side-road, however, we must be careful to never blame God for the ripples. Christians sometimes pray, asking God to give them special insight or change a circumstance when they’ve directly disobeyed God’s will. They fully expect God to do something mystical/magical to fix everything. That, my friends is almost worse than consulting Madame Sadie the Crystal Ball Gazer. God expects us to make wise, mature and Godly choices. You cannot do that if you don’t live in His will, close to His side (see John 15.1-14).
In C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia there are many challenges to the peace. Aslan the lion represents Jesus, and he is not always present in Narnia (representing the Kingdom of God on earth). The human leaders of Narnia often have to begin the fight without the physical presence of Aslan; they don’t know what he is doing behind the scenes either.
In one such event (in Prince Caspian – book #4), the evil Telmarines have surrounded the smaller army of Narnians, and the outlook is bleak. Peter, the High King of Narnia, tells Prince Caspian his plans to fortify the army and fight against Miraz the Telmarine king.
Some of Narnia’s animals can talk (isn’t fantasy wonderful?), and they express their fear over such a one-sided-looking battle without the presence of Aslan, their ferocious lion-king. Peter tells them to begin preparing despite their fears. “Aslan may come now,” he says, “or later. He will come when he pleases. In the meanwhile Aslan would have us do what we can do.”
That is the sense of this side road – Jesus would have us do what we can do! We do not sit, praying God will drop a solution out of the sky. Every command in Scripture urges us to be involved in working for Kingdom results. Certainly we must pray and trust…and act! But, we must act in accordance with mature, courageous faith in Christ, and in the will of God.
Simply stated,
If we expect God to send solutions to our financial problems, we must act boldly, tithing and giving generously as God has shown us in His Word.
If we expect God to send solutions to our problems with terrorists, we must act boldly, loving our enemies, praying for those who despitefully use us because of Christ’s name…and fearlessly rooting them out of the caves.
If we expect God to send solutions to our health problems, we must act boldly, treating our bodies with respect, balancing rest, work and play with healthy attitudes and exercise.
If we expect God to send solutions to social catastrophes like abortion, we must act boldly, proclaiming the Author of life, and being willing to provide alternatives, such as adoption.
Look at some of the results that happen when we act fearfully, and not boldly…
THE POOR WITNESS OF BAD RIPPLES
BAD CHOICES – LOT’S FOOLISHNESS
8Then Abram said to Lot, “Let there be no strife between you and me, and between your herders and my herders; for we are kindred. 9Is not the whole land before you? Separate yourself from me. If you take the left hand, then I will go to the right; or if you take the right hand, then I will go to the left.” 10Lot looked about him, and saw that the plain of the Jordan was well watered everywhere like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, in the direction of Zoar; this was before the LORD had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. 11So Lot chose for himself all the plain of the Jordan, and Lot journeyed eastward; thus they separated from each other. 12Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the Plain and moved his tent as far as Sodom. 13Now the people of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the LORD. Genesis 13:8-13 (NRSVA)
Lot’s foolishness was based on several realities:
a. He should have deferred first choice to Abram.
b. He chose excitement over excellence. Sodom looked exciting, but God hadn’t ordained that land for the descendants of Abram.
c. He rationalized that the "good life" is an easy life. His own wisdom – had he consulted God – would have revealed the evil nature of Sodom.
d. He didn’t ask wise Abram for advice.
He saw Abram’s failure in Egypt, and supposed his uncle could never help him. The results of Lot’s foolish choices are well chronicled in the ensuing chapters. He pitches his tent toward Sodom, then moves into the city (14.12), and finally becomes one of them, and a city leader also (19.1). The downward spiral of bad choices!
ABRAM’S REWARD FOR CHOOSING WELL
14The LORD said to Abram, after Lot had separated from him, “Raise your eyes now, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; 15for all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring forever. 16I will make your offspring like the dust of the earth; so that if one can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also can be counted. 17Rise up, walk through the length and the breadth of the land, for I will give it to you.” 18So Abram moved his tent, and came and settled by the oaks of Mamre, which are at Hebron; and there he built an altar to the LORD. Genesis 13:14-18 (NRSVA)
This promise to Abram is generally referred to as the Abrahamic Covenant, and will be fulfilled in the Millennial rule of Christ after His return to the earth. Modern archaeology has done nothing but confirm the existence of all the cities of the Abram story: Shechem, Bethel, Hebron, Haran, Ur, Nahor... Lot chose foolishly – Abram chose wisely. The difference is simply stated:
A choice in the flesh is a poor choice.
A good choice is a Godly choice.
Applying the principle
IF YOU WANT TO MAKE A GODLY CHOICE,
RETURN TO THE PLACE OF YOUR CALL.
Friend, there is always a way back to God. Abram was saddled with guilt over his Egypt failure. He had just promised God at Bethel he would follow Him. Then he turned right around and sinned big time! It’s hard to mess it up any worse than that.
Abram went back to Bethel -- the place of his call. You can too. Even if you’ve sinned big time; even if you feel as if there’s no use trying – as if God’s done with you, go back to that point where you met God.
He used Abram after he fell.
He used David after he fell.
He used Jonah though he kept falling.
Remember, His mercies are new every morning!
ENRON – GODLY CHOICES IN THE MIDST OF LOT’S DESCENDANTS
The February 2, 2002 issue of WORLD magazine reports that Sherron Watkins never aspired to be a hero. And she certainly never imagined that there would be T-shirts reading Thanks, Sherron Watkins, Our Hero. Watkins was an Enron vice-president who worked for the company’s chief financial officer. It was there that she became aware of the questionable accounting practices that Enron used to hide the extent of its losses and the lie about its bottom line figures.
Watkins was initially afraid to confront senior management about the irregularities. But after talking to a friend and her mother, Watkins drafted a six-page memo to Enron CEO Kenneth Lay. In it she expressed her concern that the company "will implode in a wave of accounting scandals." She went further calling Enron a "crooked company" whose profits were "nothing but an elaborate hoax." She expected to be fired and was surprised when she wasn’t.
Watkins not only had the courage to risk her job, she -- unlike other Enron executives – but she refused to use her insider knowledge for personal gain. Despite seeing the company coming apart, Watkins never sold her stock….Watkins’ behavior has made her, in the LONDON GUARDIAN’s words, "the toast of America." But as her Sunday school teacher told WORLD magazine, her Christian friends sometimes wonder what the big deal is. After all, she was only doing what a Christian should do.
HOW ARE YOU DOING WITH YOUR CHOICES?
Do you examine your rituals often? Your routines largely determine your choices. Jimmy Hoffa is reported to have said, I have a lot of faults, but being wrong isn’t one of ‘em.
We need to remember that when life is too comfortable, there’s a chance we haven’t been moving forward enough to feel the wind resistance.
And, if you’re making Godly choices, you’ll be feeling the resistance all the time. That’s what happens when God gives you freedom of choice and you choose to pick up a cross daily and follow Him.
