Stephen
Terry, Director
The Family
Commentary
for the October 10, 2020 Sabbath School Lesson
"How sweet are your
words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth!" Psalm 119:103, NIV
In 1975, I had the privilege
of enrolling at Walla Walla College to study for the pastoral ministry. I had
little idea what all was involved, but soon found myself one of a couple of
dozen new faces in Freshman Greek. I was so naïve about what preparing for the ministry
meant that I had no idea that Greek was a requirement. Many a beginning
theology major faced that course with trepidation and viewed the teacher to be like
Gandalf facing the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad-dûm, declaring "You shall not
pass!" Indeed, several did exit the theology program, unable to wrangle the
mysteries of Greek. However, this was not for lack of effort on the part of the
teacher. Lucille Knapp was a warm and loving instructor who taught us many
useful techniques that proved helpful for those, like me, who went further with
biblical languages than the minimum required for a theology degree. For
instance, she taught us that learning vocabulary could be hastened by using
muscle memory. This meant writing the words as well as reading and saying them.
This is like the musician who does not need to think consciously about where to
place their fingers next in performing a piece as the fingers seem to already know
where to go and thinking about it would actually trip up the performance. Whenever
I sit at the piano and feel this happening I feel like the Psalmist who wrote, "I
praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are
wonderful, I know that full well." (Psalm 139:14, NIV) When I learned about
this from Professor Knapp, it was like discovering a special feature in an
automobile you owned for years but had never used.
Another statement of Ms.
Knapp's that has remained with me all these decades later was an illustration
she shared. She told us that, as babies, Hebrew children were brought to the
synagogue where the rabbi would place their finger on a passage of scripture
that had honey on it, and then place the child's finger to their mouth to teach
them from the very beginning of life that the word of God is sweet. We are told
that Saul's son Jonathan, when exhausted during a battle, ate some honey and
his eyes brightened with renewed energy.[i] Similarly, passages from the Bible
have refreshed me with renewed hope and resolve when faced with challenges that
sometimes never seemed to abate. Many others have shared with me that they have
felt the same. But for some reason, despite that, we often choose to forego
that refreshing. Occupied with the challenge that besets us, we feel we cannot
disengage from the battle to seek that relief or all will be lost. When we do
this, we may find our defenses collapsing around us as the structures we
created to fend off the onslaught collapse under the weight of the stress and
the fragility of our construct.
When that happens, we
may find ourselves in the pit of despair, trying to desperately reconstruct our
lives out of the broken pieces left to us. But even if we succeed to cobble
together some rickety framework to try again, we will find that there is always
a challenge that will be stronger than our defenses. While we are "fearfully
and wonderfully made," we were never created to face the world alone. The Bible
tells us we were made in the divine image.[ii] God's intent was not for us
to grovel in the dirt at his feet. It was to have fellowship with him where we
could walk side by side, facing the world and the future together. God eagerly
looked for that relationship.[iii] Sadly, it was not God, but
man that chose to leave the relationship because of guilt and shame after betraying
God. The Old Testament of our Bibles is a written record of the history of that
betrayal, as well as a record of individuals who, over the centuries, looked
for ways to restore what had been lost. For many of us, something within our
hearts yearns for that. Perhaps that is why we still thrill over stories like Star
Wars. Something within our being feels called to something greater than what we
are. Without the relationship we were created for, we can feel like a puzzle
with an important piece missing. Knowing that we need something more and not
finding it or understanding what it is can bring us to despair. But the
experiences and insights found in the Bible can guide us, like a road map to
find what is missing.
For many, the Bible is
the last place they care to look for answers. Instead they try to self-medicate
their darker feelings away with alcohol, drugs, sex, hobbies - anything that
will momentarily distract them from the pain they feel deep inside. But there
is only one real answer that can last. We need to fill the hole in our hearts
with the relationship that was intended to be there. Filling it with anything
else is tantamount to putting diesel into a gasoline engine. It not only will
not work, but it will also leave a bigger problem in its wake. We really need
heart surgery.
I play guitar, and one
aspect of playing guitar is that when we begin to learn to play one, it hurts
our fingers terribly. But as we continue to practice, we form hard callouses on
our fingertips. This protects our fingers from the pain caused by pressing on
the strings. The hardness of our fingertips then allows us to play longer,
although never endlessly. Even with callouses, pain can eventually return if we
play long enough. Our hearts can become like my fingers. As the world gives us
pain, our hearts can harden also. Most of us know what is meant when we say
someone has a stony heart. They have been exposed to so much pain for so long
that their heart has become like a rock. They may feel this makes them
impervious to pain, like the callouses with the guitar strings. But it can also
make them impervious to joy, peace, and perhaps most important of all - love.
Love is what the
relationship we were created for is all about. God wanted someone to love,
someone capable of loving him back. While he weeps over what has been lost and
the hardship it has cost us,[iv] we struggle with loss as
well. God has given us another gift to help guide us back into relationship
with him. He has given us the ability to be in familial relationships with one
another. Those family relationships can teach us much about what it takes to be
in a relationship. They can help guide us to restoration of what was lost. Adam
and Eve apparently taught their sons to seek God, for both approached God with
sacrifices. But apparently something was lost in translation. Abel chose to
give what God requested as a sacrifice, while Cain felt God should be happy
with whatever he chose to bring. We see this in relationships today. In healthy
relationships people listen to what the other is saying and respond appropriately.
In unhealthy ones, they are more concerned about advancing their agenda than in
engaging appropriately. This has been the source of much sadness and conflict
in the world, but that was not the plan from the beginning.
Some have desired a restored relationship so strongly that God responded and spoke
with them, appeared to them in dreams and sent angels to meet with them. Their
hearts were open. But today, many have hearts that have been too hardened by
the difficulties of life. While the answer of getting rid of those stony hearts
seems obvious. We do not have the specialized tools to do it ourselves. Like
with a fine-tuned and computerized automobile that we need to take to a service
department under the manufacturer's control, we need to come to our creator to
deal with the heart problem. He promises to fix it. He says, "I will give you a
new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of
stone and give you a heart of flesh."[v] We need to diligently seek
him. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God says, "You will seek me and find me when
you seek me with all your heart."[vi] When we do that, we will discover
that God has always been closer than we thought, as Paul pointed out in Athens.[vii]
While God created us
to be in relationship with him, to be a part of his family, he does not compel us
to be. Like Cain, we can choose to go our own way. God is willing to continue to
bless us, even if we reject him. "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the
good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous." (Matthew 5:45b,
NIV) But what we miss from that relationship will far outweigh any advantage we
may feel independence gives us. And the stony lump in our breast that weighs us
down with despair will continue to be our normal. We were created better than
that.
