Stephen
Terry, Director
Remember, Do Not Forget
Commentary
for the December 4, 2021, Sabbath School Lesson
"On the day you were born your cord was
not cut, nor were you washed with water to make you clean, nor were you rubbed
with salt or wrapped in cloths. No one looked on you with pity or had
compassion enough to do any of these things for you. Rather, you were thrown
out into the open field, for on the day you were born you were despised. Then I
passed by and saw you kicking about in your blood, and as you lay there in your
blood I said to you, 'Live!'" Ezekiel 16:4-6, NIV
Throughout the Bible, we are
called to remember the tragedies of the past, and just as the Stigmata are
evidence of the Crucifixion always present in Christ's hands and feet, so the
marks of tragedies, both personal and corporate remain present in both mind and
body for each of us. We may wonder why the Bible narrative offers an understanding
of humanity's experience back to a planet miraculously birthed, cast into the
cosmos, a stellar field, given shape and purpose by the voice of God. We were
called to a high purpose, to be the image of God, the image of love.[i]
One might think that the Edenic paradise God created would be the perfect place
for love to thrive. But instead, betrayal and blame spawned in human hearts
through the efforts of a deceiver who had lost his place in heaven.[ii]
If humanity was made in the
image of God, the Devil committed himself to effacing that image, and to do that,
he had to destroy love. When Adam and Eve betrayed the trust God had placed in
them the image began to sour. They blamed everyone for their betrayal, even God.
Love would have admitted their failure and with repentance, sought forgiveness.
But the record indicates they did neither and were driven from the Edenic
paradise. Most of their offspring chose to bear the image of the serpent rather
than the image of God, and Earth eventually became a hell hole. The image of
love replaced with the image of Narcissus, caring only for oneself at the
expense of all others, enabled the strong to take what they wanted from the weak.
We need only look at our own time, to get a glimpse of how bad it must have
been. It does not take much imagination to understand if the evil of our day
was universal, how horrible that would be. We may find it tempting to think
that we are more civilized and that an extremely thin and faltering blue line
protects us from descent into utter chaos. And we continue to believe this even
though flash mobs of looters enter stores with impunity and carry off whatever
they wish, assaulting store employees and security guards who attempt to
interfere.[iii]The
Bible tells us that it got so bad in ancient times that God intervened with a
flood to put an end to the evil. Only eight survived that cataclysm. But
whether it was eight or eight thousand, once the Noahic flood abated, the
problem afflicting humanity remained. Narcissists like Nimrod continued to bend
others to their will and even challenged the ability of God to do something to
stop it by building the Tower of Babel.
Time after time, as he did with
Noah and his family, God called out people to live in his image, the image of
love. Sometimes he called individuals like Abraham, or Joseph. Sometimes he
called entire nations as he did when he called the Israelites out of Egypt. But
often selfishness prevailed, and families and tribes quarreled among themselves
and with one another. Abraham's herders fought with the herders of his nephew
Lot, destroying their united purpose to follow God's call. Lot's selfishness
revealed itself when he chose what he thought was the best of the land for his
family and separated from Abraham. That selfishness led him to lose everything,
even his wife, and to drunken incest with his daughters, resulting in
descendants like the Moabites and Ammonites who vexed and assaulted the
descendants of Abraham (Israel) continually. Whenever Israel saw God as their compassionate
sovereign, they prevailed. But whenever they chose to follow in the path of licentious
selfishness like these descendants of Lot, they suffered. Despite that, they
rejected the path of love whenever they had a chance to gain by rejecting it,
even enslaving their fellow Israelites, and seizing their property for
themselves. God raised up faithful prophets who spoke out against this evil.
But they were often tortured, imprisoned like Jeremiah, or murdered like Isaiah
and Zechariah.
By the time of Christ's
incarnation, they had managed to feel so secure in what they were doing that
they defined God in their image rather than the other way around. Therefore,
they refused to recognize the image of God in his son. But the common people,
whom they had been oppressing and from whom they extorted their wealth and
power, recognized the true image of God, the love and compassion that Jesus
brought into the world, and they flocked to him by the thousands, sheep seeking
a shepherd. Those who purported to speak for God and represented him as supporting
their wealth and power refused to recognize him because he challenged the foundation
of their man-made religion. Unable to silence his outpouring
of love in any other way, they murdered him. They did not realize that his
death would be the ultimate demonstration that the image of God is in
self-sacrificial love for others, not in gaining wealth and power according to
our selfish desires.
Despite the prevalence of
self-centered evil in the world, God continues to have those who recognize his
true character and seek to emulate that in their lives, even though they might
lose their lives in doing so. Most of Christ's apostles, the eleven who remained
true to his teachings, followed his example in losing their lives at the hands
of those who worshipped wealth and power. Those who followed often did the
same. Stephen, a deacon, was stoned to death. Paul, a Pharisee, who witnessed
and approved of Stephen's stoning, later gave his life for the same cause.
Ironically, Paul was stoned outside of Lystra, just as Stephen had been outside
Jerusalem, but nonetheless survived the experience, only to be beheaded later
in Rome for sharing the good news of God's love for humanity.
Paul wrote of his sufferings
with floggings, shipwreck, stoning and imprisonment.[iv]
We may think we would be like Paul in the face of such treatment. But too
often, we are on the side of the persecutors as Paul once was, unable to see
our true state until we have our own experience like he had on the road to Damascus,
and we discover how blind we have been to the truth. But giving up the life of the
selfish is not without challenge. I have been assaulted and threatened with
murder and imprisonment when I was in the military over my faith. Those were
frightening experiences, but they were also opportunities to experience miracles
of deliverance that impacted my entire life since.
One of the most important lessons
I had to learn was like Paul's. Corporate religion saves no one. It is only a
banding together of individuals who cannot even save themselves. They create
dogma in a vain effort to force themselves to be what they think a Christian
should be, but in doing so they betray that they have no understanding of God's
character. They think that God, like them, is looking forward to destroying the
wicked. But the difference is when we realize that God sent Jesus into this
lazar house of evil and death, not to judge our wickedness, but to save us.[v]
But those who claim to represent God today would not even venture to the home of
a wicked person despite the world's need to carry life and love to every corner.
In this they reveal they only want God to leave them alone to focus on their desires
in lieu of loving others. God was willing to cross a universe because of his
love for them, but they are not willing to cross a street for love of their
neighbor. But it does not have to be that way.
God can change us if we ask
him. The one who made us in his image, can restore that image. Like restoring a
classic automobile, it may be a difficult and engaging process, but eventually
our real value will shine through as God's love lights our hearts afire. But in
doing so, we should not expect riches, power, and status. Those things reflect man's
character, not God's. The Epistle to the Hebrews tells us what we might expect.
"Women received back their dead, raised to life again. There were others who
were tortured, refusing to be released so that they might gain an even better
resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
They were put to death by stoning; they were sawed in two; they were killed by
the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted,
and mistreated-- the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and
mountains, living in caves and in holes in the ground. These were all commended
for their faith..." (Hebrews 11:35-39) This is not the faith or the character of selfish
greed that prosperity preachers would have us believe in, but it is the character
of God. How fortunate we are that it is.