Stephen
Terry, Director
God's
Mission to Us: Part 2
Commentary
for the October 14, 2023, Sabbath School Lesson
"Then Jesus came to them and said, 'All
authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore, go and make
disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the
Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely, I am with you always, to the very end of the age.'" Matthew
28:18-20, NIV
For two millennia, the Christian
church has followed this teaching. The earliest example is found in the Bible
when the first Christians were gathered on Pentecost and received the ordination
of the Holy Spirit. Peter stood up and gave the first evangelistic sermon. He
began with recounting biblical support for Jesus' messianic office and how
those hearing his message failed to recognize and honor the Messiah. He set
before them the negative consequences of that and called them to repentance and
baptism that they might also receive the Holy Spirit just as they had received
it. The Bible tells us that thousands responded to his message and gave their
hearts to God and were baptized.
This same model of evangelizing
the world has prevailed to the present day with many modern denominations
arising from the fervent response to the gospel call. Our own Seventh-day
Adventist denomination arose on the shirt tails of a time often referred to as
the Second Great Awakening when calls for repentance and baptism were frequent
and the response to those calls often resulted in the formation of new fellowships
of believers. Even today our established churches will invite specially trained
evangelists to come and hold crusades in hopes of building membership, although
the results often pale in comparison with Peter's at Pentecost.
While Peter brought thousands
into the fold, in the North American Division, we feel we have had great success
if we manage to see a dozen or more take a stand for church membership. Too
often, even with those greatly reduced numbers, we count ourselves fortunate if
even two of those are still active and growing in the church a year later. Some
blame the Post-Modern secular world for the poor results. This defeatism in the
face of secularism as much as says that what Christ offers cannot compete in
this modern age. It may have worked two millennia ago, but people are more
sophisticated today. This attitude, which portrays God as unable to compete in
the public square says that God is small, insufficient, like an old stuffed
toy, missing an eye button and ready to be tossed in the corner or on the rubbish
heap as we search for more stimulating engagement elsewhere. However, this
attitude is closer to petulant boredom than true enlightenment about the
situation.
Another blame game is played with
the professional evangelist. I have sat on church boards where some would say, "If
only the evangelist had done a better job of preparing them for baptism, they
would still be fellowshipping with us." This is self-deceiving blame, for it
ignores precedent. Those who have responded to the call of evangelists throughout
the centuries have often had less preparation than the several weeks of
instruction provided by Adventist evangelists. Despite that, great movements
arose from those penitents who came forward. Showered with prayer and blessed by
the Holy Spirit, the evangelist did reach those hearts, and they did take their
stand to join the Adventist church. The baby was born. But it did not thrive.
Who then is responsible for the lack of spiritual nutrition that would have
enabled it to grow up into the full measure of the gospel and God's intent for their
lives? Could it be us?
Sadly, even among the saints,
there is a lust for power and all the political trappings that go with that.
New members with new ideas and who haven't learned who is in charge politically
in the local church tend to threaten all of that. They come onto the scene in
innocence, not knowing what feuds lurk just beneath the surface and who they
should or should not make friends with. As surely as they inadvertently find
themselves pulled to one faction or another, the slighted faction will begin to
point out their failings and question their conversion. And if in their immaturity,
they make a mistake about what is and is not allowed for Adventists, they may
even leave the church mortified by the response.
When Jesus shared the parable of
the weeds in the wheat, he told the workers to let it be.[i] It
was not their work to root out the seeds planted by the evil one. Both the
wheat and the weeds were to be left until the harvest when the angels, not
humanity, will deal with them. So why do we still want to purge the church?
Perhaps because it was never about cleansing the church in the first place but
rather about manipulating others and demonstrating power over them. When James
and John wanted to burn down a Samaritan village, they did not love those
Samaritans.[ii] They
only wanted to demonstrate their own power and force others to respect that
power. Jesus saw through their motivation and would not allow it. So much of what
passes for Christianity these days is a continual bemoaning that others refuse to
submit to our claims to power in the church and then we take the Lord's name in
vain by claiming that their failure to respect our authority is the same as refusing
to submit to God. The God who burned Sodom and Gomorrah to the ground is more
in line with our desire for power than the God who would not even presume to quench
a smoldering wick.[iii] We want God the destroyer
to back us up in our political power plays. God the lover really doesn't help
our ambitions much except when we call our opponents unloving and unchristian
for not recognizing our authority. How does a babe in Christ survive in that milieu?
Only if they can fasten themselves to the Holy Rock before the waves of strife
begin to beat upon them.[iv]
In Matthew, chapter 22, Jesus
talks about a king who is organizing a wedding banquet for his son's marriage.[v] He
invites the well-to-do people of his kingdom. They refuse to come, even to the
point of killing some of the servants the king sent to invite them. After
dealing with the murderers, he then sends his servants out onto the highways
and byways to invite everyone they meet, both the good and the bad. The banquet
hall is then filled. But then the king spots someone who attends but has no
desire to show deference to the king or his son. He has that guest removed. The
meaning comes out when we recognize that one of the images identified with
Jesus is that of the bridegroom. The king, his father, would be God the Father.
God invites all who are enjoying the benefits of his kingdom to the wedding of
the Lamb, Jesus. But some ignored the call through his servants, the prophets
and the apostles. Others even went so far as to murder them. God then invites
everyone to the wedding feast. Some of them may be those hated by modern
Christians, thieves, prostitutes, drug dealers, LGBTQ people, murderers, or pedophiles.
God calls both bad people and good. But the most important point of the parable
is the same as the point in the Parable of the Weeds and the Wheat. It is God
who deals with those who do not belong, not us. That sinner that may seem so
heinous to us, may be responding to the Holy Spirits pull on their heart. Our rebuking
harshness may not only quench that fire, but that fire may also die in the
hearts of those who witness our cruelty, uprooting them as well.
Sadly, some have no greater
desire in life than to be Phinehas,[vi]
running about the church and spearing everyone they can who does not conform to
their idea of what a Christian should be. But everyone we wound like that may
be swept beyond the hope of salvation, and we may one day face accountability
for what we have done. God is fair. He will make sure everyone has an adequate
chance for salvation, but I doubt he appreciates those who drive away the very
ones who need him most and whom he is calling to him. If we want to understand
how God feels, we need only ask an evangelist who works hard to bring people to
Jesus, only to have them driven away by the harshness of the saints.
The media plays repeatedly on
television and in the theaters that the only way to deal with evil is brutally
with weapons or martial arts. Jesus came to show us a better way. Why are we
still struggling with this? What part of "love your enemies" do we not
understand?