Stephen
Terry, Director
"Come to Me . . ."
Commentary
for the July 31, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"Heal me, Lord, and I will
be healed; save me and I will be saved, for you are the one I praise." Jeremiah
17:14, NIV
Someone once quipped
that you know you have reached old age when you can hurt yourself just getting
a night's sleep. We get out of bed in the morning and walk across the room, and
the snap, crackle, and pop we thought was only a feature of a childhood
breakfast cereal, speaks to us from every joint as we try to get mobile to
begin our day. How did things ever get this way? When we were young and filled
with excess energy, life seemed so full of promise, and decades lay ahead of us
to fulfill every dream. But as the years passed and toil and anxieties took
their toll, we began to feel the weight of the years. First, we only seemed to
tire more easily and were less limber than the child who once summersaulted on
the lawn. We told ourselves if we could get more sleep, take better care of our
health, and exercise, we could regain what was lost, but while it slowed
somewhat, the inexorable decline marched on. Notwithstanding more exercise, we
reach a point where our joints simply no longer support what we want to do.
While working in the garden and noticing the shriveled summer blossoms, we
begin to understand the way of all life, and now we know the brevity of the glory
of youth and of life itself. Like the writer of Ecclesiastes, we discover that
"all is vanity." So much of what we have spent the strength of our youth on has
been for naught but to make us older, worn out from struggling to reach we know
not what.
Has life always been
this way? The Bible tells us, "No!" Mankind was placed in an Edenic paradise.
Invigorated by God's own breath and charged with the care of the created earth
and its creatures. As we shared in earlier lessons this quarter, God also gave mankind
the Sabbath as a gift of rest and grace. Death was unknown and consequently the ravages of aging also. We do not know how
long this idyllic life lasted, but eventually it came to an end through an act
of betrayed trust. Mankind tasted the fruit of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Their bodies began to decay. As it says literally in the Hebrew, "Dying, you
will begin to die."[i]
Their work would now be unpleasant, tainted by the loss of vitality that would beset them.[ii] As a point of emphasis, the
writer of Genesis informs us that each generation experienced shorter and shorter
life spans, with few exceptions. Even if we admit a perfect original
environment and a lack of mitigations otherwise, modern science bears this out
as life spans have increased somewhat as medical interventions, better diets,
and adequate shelter have become more common, implying that we are capable of living longer than we do. We have seen
confirmation of this in reverse as well. The ongoing Covid Pandemic has ravaged
the world population to the extent, with over 600,000 deaths in the United
States alone, life spans in America have significantly decreased.
Some have advocated
that if we were to eat the diet of Eden, which dd not include meat, we would
live the life spans of Eden. It would be nice if it were so simple. However,
the foods of Eden are no longer present, and neither is that environment to
grow them. While mankind has made significant progress in increasing crop
yields and in understanding the principles of sustainability, it has been done
at a high price. Billions of tons of chemicals in the form of pesticides,
fertilizers and selective defoliants are poured into the ground. So much so
that God would have to create a new untarnished bit of earth if he were to
repeat the creation of man today. Those polluting chemicals are washed from our
farmlands into the lakes, rivers, and oceans of the world, tainting the entire
food web from top to bottom. Mankind as an apex omnivore eats through every
layer of the food web accumulating those chemicals in the body as he goes.
Therefore, despite advances in medicine and lifestyle changes, any attempt to
achieve the life spans of the early Genesis account would be subverted long
before that would even be possible. In just one example, the PFAS family of
chemicals, used as a flame retardant and as a stain preventer in products like
Scotchgard, have become so widespread in the environment that almost everyone
seems to have high levels of the chemicals in their bodies. The half-lives of
these chemicals, linked to cancer and other major health issues, are so long
that the likelihood of flushing them from the body during one's lifetime is
remote. And even if there were a process to do that, it is so pervasive
everywhere in the environment, it would be pointless.
This is only one
example. Over twenty years ago, I had the opportunity to view well reports on
contaminants for wells all over Eastern Washington. Most wells had as many as
two dozen different chemical and mineral pollutants. The wells were considered
safe because each pollutant was present in amounts less than the legal limit.
However, to my knowledge, no one has ever done a study of the cumulative
effects of dozens of low-level pollutants all within the legal limit. We
understand so little about our environment. In some ways, we are not unlike a
child taking its bath to get clean but using the same bathwater every time
instead of changing it.
When I was a child, I
watched Science Fiction movies and read comic books and novels that predicted
we were moving toward a futuristic utopia based on science. I was excited for
the possibilities. Instead, humanity seems to be limping into the future. Many
of the people I know are struggling with auto-immune disorders that their
doctors cannot pinpoint the cause of. Others struggle with genetic defects of
various body systems. Many of these manifest later in
life so they are not naturally selected out of the population before childbirth
passes on the damaged genes, condemning another generation to the possibility
of suffering. With all of this, there is little wonder why healthcare is one of
the leading industries in the United States.
Whether we want to
accept the idea of mankind's fall in Genesis, it is difficult to defend the
idea of a utopian future based on science when we seem to be facing an ever
growing threat of disease, natural disasters exacerbated by climate change,
warfare arising from too many people chasing too few resources, and tribalistic
violence based on domination or elimination of the "other," whether that other
be race, gender, political perspective, etc. Nonetheless, some find solace in
the words spoken two millennia ago by Jesus, "Come unto me and find rest."
Ironically, when faith
is needed most, many denominations are seeing a major exodus from their
organizations. But perhaps this is as it should be. Institutional religion has
promised to be the salvation of all for centuries. But it was the religious
institution of Christ's day that hung him to die upon the cross. His message of
love and service was repugnant to the power-hungry religious leaders of his
time. Nothing has changed in that regard. Institutional religion continues to
be about politics and power plays. Rife with nepotism and corruption, the
churches of today differ little from their pharisaical predecessors. Though
they spend millions and comb the earth for new converts, the rising or falling
of the birthrate among the parishioners is more telling about many
denominations' potential for growth or simply fading into irrelevance.
While the world
situation and the corruption within organized religion seems to be dire, hope
remains. We need only turn to the Bible to find it. Failed by their rulers, and
failed by their religious leaders, the people were desperate, and when Jesus
reached out to them, they came in droves. They did not come to the synagogue
for hope. They came to Jesus. Even Jesus' disciples did not come to the
synagogue to find him. The leaders of eh synagogues were not pointing the way.
They found Jesus for themselves. Some sought Jesus because John the Baptist
said he was the Messiah. Others came because of miracles they heard he
performed. Others came simply because he sought them out. But no one is reputed
to have come because he was attending synagogue and the rabbi sent him to
follow Jesus. On the contrary, the religious leaders spoke so much against him
it caused some to turn away. When Jesus asked his disciples if they would leave
him also, Peter replied "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of
eternal life." He understood the simple truth that no one else had the answers
each of us needs. Despite all the Science Fiction movies and stories, science, helpful
though it has been, cannot save us. Government and politicians cannot save us.
The church cannot save us. Even the wealthy, despite their riches, cannot save
us. They cannot even save themselves. Only Jesus can save us. That is why he
came. We are told, "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the
world, but to save the world through him." (John 3:17, NIV) So many centuries
later, his invitation to come still calls us. Will you be among those who
respond?
Take the world, but give me Jesus,
All its joys are but a
name;
But His love abideth ever,
Through eternal years
the same.
Oh, the height and
depth of mercy!
Oh, the length and
breadth of love!
Oh, the fullness of
redemption,
Pledge of endless life
above!
-Fanny Crosby