Stephen
Terry, Director
God's
Mission to Us: Part 1
Commentary
for the October 7, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"For God so loved the world that he gave
his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have
eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world,
but to save the world through him." John 3:16-17, NIV
The biblical narrative begins in
the best of all possible places --"in the beginning." But the beginning of
what? The beginning of the universe? Few would go so far, even among biblical
literalists. Is it referring to the beginning of our planetary system? Some
might think so since the account in Genesis, chapter 1, mentions the creation
of the Sun and the Moon. But the same passage states God made the stars also.
Are "the stars" synonymous with the universe? If so, and we insist that God
created the solar system during creation week, would it be such a stretch to
say "universe" instead of the Sun, the Earth, and the Moon? And what of the
other planets? Why are they not mentioned? Does this not seem strange since the
Pleiades are mentioned three times--twice in the book of Job and once by the
prophet Amos? We can see several of the planets transit the night sky with the naked
eye, their steady glow differentiating them from the twinkling stars.
Too often attempts at
rationalizing a scientific basis for creation week fall short in that they
depend on making a smaller picture of God. He can create the Earth in a week,
but not the universe. He can create the moon, but we have no biblical explanation
for the other planets in our system. Biblical literalism demands an apologetic
that would explain everything, even when there is no biblical explanation. But
at some point, the literalism breaks down because literalism was never intended
in the first place. Even the early Bible writers understood that. For example,
the initial account about the animals that needed to go into Noah's Ark said
that the animals were to be pairs. This made sense because the entire earth was
populated from a single pair of human beings based on the earlier story.
This became problematic when
viewed from a priestly perspective. Where were the sacrifices to come from? If
one of a pair is sacrificed, the species becomes extinct. But if there were
more animals of each species, in particular, the ones deemed clean for sacrifices,
the problem would be solved. However, the problem is not actually resolved, for
after Noah's Ark lands, God tells Noah that the animals, just like the plants
before in Eden, were to be considered food. If this were the case, extinction would
still loom unless the diet is limited to only those clean animals taken on the
ark by sevens, presupposing the dietary limitations of Leviticus, chapter 11.
My point is if we insist on
literalism, we end up like the proverbial Dutch boy and the dike, continually
searching out leaks and sticking our thumb in the leak to save the day. At what
point do we run out of thumbs and begin to build a proper dike? In other words,
are there more effective perspectives that nonetheless preserve the intent of
the narrative that has been passed down to us? A metaphorical understanding
might serve us better than a literal one. That literalism also requires
inerrancy to have any hope of functioning as a basis for faith. Metaphor does
not. Metaphor also allows us to say, "I don't know," when confronted with the
ineffable mystery of God. The literalist does not have that option. They are
compelled to answer every challenge with apologetics. This in turn leads
naturally to the "god-in-a-box" scenario where God is incapable of operating
beyond the confines of that container. Whatever lies outside the box, God just
wouldn't do that.
When we limit God like that, God's
desires and actions become remarkably like our own. This is because our experiences,
and the inculcation we have received by rote and by example are the only tools
we have for developing a God we can believe in. We have not learned to seek God
beyond those parameters. We find it difficult to grasp anything outside of what
we consider our normal horizons. Then to make matters worse we purge from among
us those who retain some ability to see over the horizon, those who wonder if
God can be found even there. With such shortcomings, we are little different,
except in degree, from those who worshiped gods of valleys, rivers, or
mountains and who held that traveling to a new region meant the original god of
the home turf was no longer with them. We have come to recognize that God transcends
those hills and valleys. But we are stumbling at the idea of God transcending
all we understand, so in our unwillingness to move beyond those limitations,
God comes to us.
This is not a new idea, for even
in those first few chapters of Genesis, God walks with mankind. He did so from
the beginning, until humanity chose to walk according to their own understanding.
They no longer felt the need to walk with God, even hiding from him when he
came for a walk. I can imagine the tears in his voice when he called out "Where
are you?" Eventually, recognizing his wounded heart, they came before him and
those walks in the garden ended as it became clear they no longer wanted that.
The prophet Amos asked, "Do two walk together unless they have agreed to do so?"
(Amos 3:3) God and humanity were no longer in agreement about the world. Despite
that, we are told that Enoch later found a way to resume those walks with God
and became so close to God that he forsook human companions to live with God.[i]
I believe that God misses those
walks, and those who feel something is missing also miss them. God missed them
so much that he made the effort to take on human form to walk with us again. For
thirty-three and a half years, he walked with us. Initially he walked with us
as a child, then he grew to adulthood and walked as a man, seeking those whose
hearts were open to walking once again with him. He found that most were so
caught up with the cares of surviving in the world humanity had brought into
being that they had little interest in leaving all behind like the disciples did
to walk and talk with God incarnate. And when Jesus, with his teaching, threatened
their livelihood, their power, their status, they killed him. Such was the gulf
created when humanity went their own way in Genesis.
One might think that at that
point, it was all over for humanity, that they had passed beyond the pale,
beyond any hope of reconciliation. From a human perspective, this should have
been the case, but a few had learned the joy of walking with God again, and
they shared that joy with others who came to desire it, too. Jesus shared that
the walks were not over when he left. He said that the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
would come to walk with us, and in walking with him, we would learn even more
than Jesus had shared. But that wasn't all. Jesus shared that he would also
return to walk with us again and that nothing would prevent that.
Daily, hour by hour, we are
reminded of the mess we have made of this world by going our own way. Even
those who may wish to save the world and return it to a more livable state are
opposed by those who would not hesitate to slay their brothers and sisters as
they slew Jesus to prevent a better world, a world that would challenge their power
and greed. Even as I write this, thousands are being swept into their graves by
a world driven insane by the lust of a few to own everything and save nothing
that does not succumb to their will. Jesus says we do not need to live like
that, but humanity responds, "Yes, we do!"
Though they slew Jesus, and he
ascended to heaven. That did not mean the end of God's presence here. The Holy
Spirit may yet be asking tearfully, "Where are you?" of each of us. Like in the
ancient account, we may be hiding from him, believing we are not fit to walk
with him. Maybe when we get our lives straightened out, we can consider it, but
not now, not when we are still struggling to get it together. But if God
transcends our understanding of him, maybe we sell him short when we think he will
not want to walk with us as we are. Jesus turned no one away, no matter what
others thought of those who came to him. Would we expect the Holy Spirit to be
any different? God loves a walk. He hopes we do, also. It is time to remember
how it was once and can be again.