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Monday, November 2, 2009

The Healing Virtues of the Soul: Perseverance



When life hurts, it’s not easy to keep going. 

Most of us, at some time or other, have experienced some kind of “dark night of the soul”----a time when perhaps we have come close to losing faith in life, losing hope for the future and giving up on faith in God.

A couple of weeks ago, just before Wednesday night Bible Study, a stranger showed up at the church unannounced.  According to the report I was given, they randomly stopped by the church to ask one question:  “Do you believed in once-saved always saved?”  This person wanted to know whether or not someone could lose their salvation.  When I heard about this, I wondered what could shake a person so much that they feel God had abandoned them?

During these very difficult economic times, we are hearing and reading about increased fears, worries, violence and suicides.  When our life situation puts us under great pressure, it can feel as if the weight of the world is upon our shoulders.  Life suddenly feels more like a wilderness than an oasis.

Life Can Quickly Become A Wilderness
Today’s Scripture in 1 Corinthians 10: 1-13, reminds us how difficult it was to for the people of God to persevere in faith.   God led them out of Egypt ‘under the cloud’ and “passing through the sea” toward the Promised Land.  The miracles happened, the people set free, but catch how quickly tragedy followed.  Most all of them, including Moses, did not make it to the Promised Land.  Even though, as our text says, they were “baptized into Moses,” ate the same spiritual food” and “drank the same spiritual drink”, we also read that “God was not pleased with them” and they were “struck down in the wilderness.”  When we would expect the most from these very blessed-to-be-alive people, we see the least.   Immediately following the miracle, we find one, big, spiritual mess. 

Do you remember the news reports several years ago about those American teenagers who, for no real reason, one night got into a car together and went up and down city and country streets bashing bystanders with ball bats, while videoing the whole thing as they cheered and laughed at the misery and pain they caused.   It was so terrible how quickly these careless and evidently brainless youth, who should have had the rest of their lives before them, did something so messy, so foolish, so stupid and so disastrous, it put the rest of their lives in great jeopardy and hurled them into a moral wilderness. 

It’s scary to think how, almost without warning, life can suddenly become barren, lifeless, and threatening like a wilderness.  A couple of weeks ago, Susan Klebold, the mother of Columbine killer, Dylan Klebold, came out of her silence, saying she had “no inkling” her son was suicidal, until she read his journals after the 1999 high school massacre. She wrote, “The rest of my life will be haunted by the horror my son caused…  Dylan’s actions changed everything (she) believed about herself, about God, about family and about love.”  (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/10/susan-klebold-columbine-k_n_316447.html

The experience of wilderness is especially tragic when we only expected only a goodly “Promised Land” for ourselves.  My wife,Teresa, knew a young girl in her community who went to the beach with some friends expecting nothing but a good time.  One night she went to a party and ended up falling off a high rise apartment patio to her death.  Was she pushed?  Did she jump?  The mystery of what happened was never fully solved.  The only thing known for sure was that she went on trip to celebrate with great dreams of promise, but this dream quickly became her parent’s worst nightmare.

It seems to take much more effort to persevere on the right path, but it only takes a couple missteps for your life to become a train-wreck.  Have you ever thought about how easy it seems to give in to the negatives around us, than it is to do as the Bible says, to think about “ whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if ….”  The emotional negativism of a Rush Limbaugh is much more alluring than taking the time and effort to consider the more rational, constructive criticisms of a John McCain or Lindsey Graham.   Evil can be so much fun.  Doing or being good, seems, as one youth put it,…so…boring!

Before the time of Jesus, the Greek philosopher Socrates did not believe that there was an evil force in the world which tempts or pulls us downward.  He believed that, to persevere in the good, humans need only to choose knowledge instead of ignorance.  Much of our western philosophy of education works on this premise; believing that when you educate someone you then solve the whole problem. 

While we Christians can agree with Socratic thinking on many points, and we can affirm that an education can change a person’s life (The knowledge of truth sets us free, too).  There is, however,  a serious shortfall in Socratic thinking, which is not wrong but doesn’t go far enough.  Some of the worse evils this world has ever known did not spring up out of ignorance.  The greatest evils, hurts and pains occur when people don’t persevere in the truth and the knowledge they already have.

Just consider how Socratic thinking stands up to overwhelming evil of the Holocaust perpetrated by the Nazi’s among people who were, at that time, some of the most educated on the face of the earth.  Most Germans deliberately choose to ignore the great evil that was going on right under their noses.   They weren’t ignorant because they didn’t know, but they “ignored” what they knew.  Or consider also, even closer to us, the great evils of greed in our own time.  Do you think those Wall Street firms knew what they were doing, or were they simply working ignorance?  The great personal evil perpetrated by Bernie Madoff when he swindled the life savings of the innocent through creative, financial scheming having full knowledge that what he was doing was wrong.  He knew the truth, but did not persevere in it.  

We live in a world of increasing information.   Computers, internet, and cell phones, bring a world of limitless information to our fingertips.  It is estimated that human information doubles in 5 years and a child in school today gains as much information in just a few years which took their grandparents a whole lifetime to obtain.  But, as Einstein once commented, having increased information does not necessarily mean gaining knowledge.   Our grandparents, who had much less information, might also add that even increased knowledge, does not mean increased wisdom.  The greatest Socratic education at the best school in this world, does make or guarantee you are going to continue to be a good person, doing your best to make the world a better place.  Unless you persevere in the good and the truth you know, everything can be lost.
 
GETTING LOST IN THE WILDERNESS
There are people who might debate this issue and they might bring some very well rehearsed theories about the Perseverance of the Saints, like John Calvin did, like the Westminister Confession did, and like many of us Southern Baptists have done with one of our own favorite doctrines, called “Once Saved, Always Saved.”    But the apostle Paul is not debating.   He is trying to warn, when he says, “these things occurred as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did.”  

I remember when I went to college, how I had a friend who was a “Free Will Baptist.”   Free Will Baptist do not believe in “once-saved-always-saved” like I was taught and we got into some interesting debates.   Once, in trying to convince him that “by grace” we stand securely in God’s hands, I quoted him that wonderful word of Jesus in John 10:28 which says: I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand.”  When I quoted this verse to him, his comeback was simple and scary: “You’re right.  The devil can’t steal us from God, but that doesn’t mean we can’t throw it away or walk out on God of our own “free will.”  

His words caused me some confusion until I finally came across these words: “The faith that fizzles before the finish, had a fatal flaw from the first.”   These clever and catchy words come from the late Baptist theologian Dale Moody, who affirmed why perseverance is so important and spent much of his life studying the issue.   Can a person lose their salvation?   Moody would say that question avoids the real issue.  The real issue is this: if your faith is true and remains true, you will persevere.  That’s why it is called the Perseverance of the Saints and it is not called the Perseverance of the Backslider, or the Perseverance of the apostate.  The warning Paul gives us about losing faith when we go through the wilderness is a real warning.  This is why perseverance is so important.  If you fall away, then your faith isn’t saving you, is it?  This is why Scripture says, “he who endures to the end, is the one who will be saved” (Mark 13.13) and it says “by endurance you will gain your souls.” ( Luke 21:19).  Saving faith gives you the strength to persevere.

 The Israelites did not have saving faith and did not persevere because they succumbed to Idolatry.   When the Israelites traveled through the wilderness, they lost focus and became distracted. Of course, idolatry wouldn’t happen to us in this modern world, would it?  We wouldn’t let anything distract us or put anything else between ourselves and God, would we?   We would never forsake the calling and claim of God on our lives and trade it for what Israel did, “eating”, ‘drinking”, and playing our way through life.   We would never “tempt” God by daring him to save us from the “wrath to come” even when we don’t care that much for living for him today.  

There is an old joke about the evangelist who, after preaching a long sermon, gave an altar call.  "Come to the altar and give your life to Christ!" he said. Nobody came.   
In frustration, the evangelist said, "Come to the altar, as a way of saying that you love and honor God." Still nobody came.
In even greater frustration, the evangelist appealed to the congregation, "Come to the altar as a way of saying that you want to live a better life."   Nobody came.   Finally, he pleaded,  "Look, if you love your mother, come down to the altar.  Okay?"   http://day1.org/1473-the_peril_and_the_promise_of_being_met_by_jesus .
There are some very respectable reasons for not persevering.  Like Israel discovered, following God through the sea” and “under the cloud” can be uncomfortable, demanding, and challenging, especially while walking through the wilderness.  That is why, after the baptism in the Red Sea, they decided not to persevere, not to endure to the end, but went after their own gods, preferring their old lives, deciding to play their way through life by letting their own desires rule
Paul’s warning reminds us today, that in these “wilderness” times, the most important question of our lives is not what belief or doctrine do you hold on to, but who holds you and enables you to persevere?  What good, what love, what hope, what faith continues to guide you, not just for a few miraculous moments, but what “goodness” and what “mercy” follows you all the days of your life?  
Enduring the Wilderness Moments
 So, here comes my final question: How do we keep on trusting, believing, and looking up, even when we encounter the terrors and temptations in our own spiritual wilderness moments?   How do we prove our faith to be a true, saving faith that perseveres?   

If you find yourself in a spiritual struggle, or lost in a spiritual wilderness, the first thing Paul recommends is to “Look Out.”  “If you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.”  Perseverance always includes vigilance.  Jesus most pressing two words to his disciples were, “Watch and Pray!”   He did not say these words because it would get easier after they believed in him.   No, Jesus own warning implied that following faithfully into the future would require great vigilance for perseverance.  Listen to Jesus’ own echo of Paul’s warning in Matthew:  21 "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven.  22 On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many deeds of power in your name?'  23 Then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; go away from me, you evildoers.'  ....Everyone who hears these words of mine and does not act on them will be like a foolish man who built his house on sand.  27 The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell -- and great was its fall!"  Matthew 7:20 - 8: Need I to say more than Jesus or Paul warned?   If you think you don’t have to persevere in your faith—watch out!    

Paul also says, “Look Around.”   “No testing has over taken you that is not common to everyone.”   God doesn’t go around sticking his leg out to see whether or not we will fall, but faith will be tested.  So, look around.   If you are not counting on denying yourself, taking up your cross to follow Jesus, what are you really counting on?   

I think it is very interesting, that not long after Mother Teresa died that a study of her private diaries she left behind to be read after her death, revealed that she was not only a person of great faith, but she was also a person who great struggles in her own spiritual wilderness with doubt in her life.   We can understand, can’t we?  With her constant work among the poor, especially with those suffering in the poorest part of the world, Mother Teresa also faced tremendous doubts about the love and existence of God.  Nothing challenges faith more than facing unexplainable pain and suffering.   Mother Teresa wrote about these struggles honestly in her diaries, but what is most interesting, is that even when she had doubts, she didn’t give up and as the great preacher Fosdick once preached, she persevered in God’s work and mission because she came not only to doubt, but also to doubt her doubts.  She looked around and realized that the pain, the testing, and the doubts come to all so she persevered. 

Paul continues that we must not only look out and look around, but we must also “Look Up!.”  “God is faithful.  He will not let you be tested beyond your own strength.”   Do we understand what Paul is affirming?   This week I was reading a book by retiring Theologian from Harvard, Harvey Cox, who recently wrote about the “Future of Faith”.  In the book he is making the point that our faith is more than just about doctrines and more about beliefs, but is about truth that is greater than mere belief.  Our beliefs about God can and should develop ,grow, and even change over time, but there is a mystery and truth about God that grows and goes beyond anything we can ever know in this life. 

The point Cox’s makes is important for our perseverance: The God who can hold us must be bigger than the God we hold.  Do you realize that the greatest struggles in our world are not about what we know for sure, but the great wars and struggles are mostly over difference that can only be settled in our hearts?  We will persevere not just because we have beliefs about God, but because we trust God and because we love God and we can only trust God when we know God is faithful.   This is what Jesus knew,  even when he felt forsaken, after he felt the words, “My God, Why have Your Forsaken Me,  he still trusted the Father he loved and his words on the cross where, “Father in Your Hands, I commend my Spirit.”   If God is not bigger than I know and if God is not bigger than my doubts, then he can’t be God.  It is only the God who is bigger and beyond me, who is faithful. 

But now we come to the last recommendation from Paul in our text. 
You can’t miss where Paul puts the most pressing question about perseverance.   In his way Paul says to us, "look in!:  “God will not let you be tested beyond your own strength…he always provides a way out…You are able to endure….that is, if you want to…  The biggest question is “what’s inside of you?”  It’s not how big is the trial nor is there any help, but the question, Do you really want it?  What do you really want? 


Clarence Jordan was a man of unusual abilities and commitment. He had two Ph.D.s, one in agriculture and one in Greek and Hebrew. So gifted was he, he could have chosen to do anything he wanted. He chose to serve the poor.
In the 1940s, he founded a farm in Americus, Georgia, and called it Koinonia Farm. It was a community for poor whites and poor blacks. As you might guess, such an idea did not go over well in the Deep South of the ’40s. Ironically, much of the resistance came from good church people who followed the laws of segregation as much as the other folk in town. The town people tried everything to stop Clarence. They tried boycotting him, and slashing workers’ tires when they came to town. Over and over, for fourteen years, they tried to stop him.
Finally, in 1954, the Ku Klux Klan had enough of Clarence Jordan, so they decided to get rid of him once and for all. They came one night with guns and torches and set fire to every building on Koinonia Farm but Clarence’s home, which they riddled with bullets. And they chased off all the families except one black family which refused to leave.
Clarence recognized the voices of many of the Klansmen, and, as you might guess, some of them were church people. Another was the local newspaper’s reporter. The next day, the reporter came out to see what remained of the farm. The rubble still smoldered and the land was scorched, but he found Clarence in the field, hoeing and planting.
“I heard the awful news,” he called to Clarence, “and I came out to do a story on the tragedy of your farm closing.” Clarence just kept on hoeing and planting. The reporter kept prodding, kept poking, trying to get a rise from this quietly determined man who seemed to be planting instead of packing his bags. So, finally, the reporter said in a haughty voice, “Well, Dr. Jordan, you got two of them Ph.D.s and you’ve put fourteen years into this farm, and there’s nothing left of it at all. Just how successful do you think you’ve been?”
Clarence stopped hoeing, turned toward the reporter with his penetrating blue eyes, and said quietly but firmly, “About as successful as the cross. Sir, I don’t think you understand us. What we are about is not success but faithfulness. We’re staying. Good day.”
Beginning that day, Clarence and his companions rebuilt Koinonia and the farm is going strong today.  (Holy Sweat, Tim Hansel, 1987, Word Books Publisher, pp.188-189).


When I was in California a couple of years ago, Teresa and I walked into a little small artist shop in the little town of Sausalito.   We found some very unique refrigerator magnets that were hand painted, and about all we could afford in that very expensive shop.  The one I liked and bought was a famous quote from Sir Winston Churchill, which said, “When you’re going through Hell, keep going.” 


This expressive saying reminded me of what we had gone through in recent days: the death of my father and mother a year apart, the incurable illness of our daughter, and the impossible work of leading a church to move in a direction, what the minority wanted, but majority did not.  “If you are going through Hell, keep going.”  Keep going, says Paul, because God gives you the strength to endure and he will provide a way through, but only if you keep going. Amen.


© 2009 All rights reserved Charles J. Tomlin, B.A., M.Div. D.Min.

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