Obedience: the Fruit of Revival
Stephen Terry
Commentary for the August 3, 2013
Sabbath School Lesson
“Therefore, there is now no
condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus
the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and
death.” Romans 8:1-2, NIV
One of the
great joys in my life is during late June and early July when the late spring
rains bring forth bushels of blossoms in our rose garden. White, peach, deep
red, mauve, yellow, and tropical orange colors bring a party atmosphere to the
summer yard. Hummingbirds, butterflies and dragonflies flit among the bushes
intent upon errands that have continued for thousands of generations of both
plants and animals. Each according to its purpose contributes to the
continuation of life for the other. Life is the melody that plays on the summer
breeze as the harmony of all these players gently spreads among the flowers.
Some might
consider this a chaotic scene as no two blossoms are the same. Every leaf also
has its own fractal geometry on display. The hummingbirds are each unique, as
are the various insects whether flying or crawling. The sense of order one
might expect from a honeybee returning repeatedly to the same rose bush is
belied when the bee never takes the exact same flight path. Nor does the nectar
harvester visit the same flowers in the same sequence each visit. A random
diversity of behavior and appearance seem to be everywhere, yet somehow the
overall impression is one of great harmony. How can things be so “out of
control,” and yet be totally in control?
Often we
define control as uniformity of behavior and appearance. We even praise those
who manage to conform in both aspects to some golden standard. We call these
the obedient ones. They do not threaten the status
quo with random thoughts or actions. Yet, this is not the thought that
comes to mind when we look at a rose garden. I have not heard someone exclaim
about the flowers, “Look how obedient they are!” No, we praise the flowers for
their beauty, not their uniformity. Perhaps that is because obedience is not
why flowers bloom.
A rose
simply blooms because it is a rose. It does not try to conform to a standard to
prove it is a rose, but we can readily tell it is a rose, even so. If it is not
a rose, no amount of attempted obedience to that standard could make it one. Supposing
a lily could somehow sport thorns and produce rose petals, would it then be a
rose? Maybe it would deceive some, but it would still be a lily trying to be a
rose and not an actual rose. Being what we were meant to be may not be a
question of obedience, but of purpose and harmony. The best thing a rose can be
is a rose, and the best thing a lily can be is a lily. Maybe the best thing we
can be as well is ourselves.
Unfortunately,
there is no shortage of roses telling lilies to become roses, and even some lilies
tell other lilies the same. Instead of encouraging one another to be what we
are, we find it all too easy to try to make others over into our image. Those
who acquiesce to this pressure we call “obedient.” Those who don’t are
considered rebellious. Why do we find it so much easier to identify uniformity
as good and diversity as bad? While we often equate uniformity and order with
proper Christian behavior, maybe our attitude about this is more closely
related to ancient Greek culture than to any divine endorsement. Greek
understanding of the universe was dualistic, offsetting the nomos against the anomos. Loosely translated this is law against lawlessness.
However, the difference encompasses far more. In essence it was often
considered the difference between ordered predictability and utter chaos.
While this
may be enough in some instances to drive the desire for uniformity, it becomes
even more powerful when that order becomes identified with divine will and the
chaos as against it. In that case, uniformity becomes good and diversity
becomes evil. However, there is much that is neither black nor white but rather
grey on the spectrum of morality. In such an ambiguous universe, a world view
based on the nomos versus the anomos may present us with a false
dichotomy.
Some
Christians find such dichotomies comforting because it reduces faith to a
simple matter of obedience to the good. They do not trouble themselves with
ferreting out what is actually good, claiming that God has revealed that truth
in the Bible or even in extra-biblical revelation. Armed with proof texts to
back up their assertion, they seek to push others to obedience and conformity. However,
life is rarely so clean. For instance, what help is this black-and-white
thinking to a young obstetrician faced with a difficult birth where he must
decide between the life of the mother or the child? Which choice then is the
good one and which one the evil one? What proof text will resolve this difficulty?
Dichotomies can have a way of producing these devil’s dilemmas. When we are
unable to face these dilemmas because our dualistic faith has not given us the
tools to cope with these problems, we can find ourselves pushed into the realm
of theodicy. We can find it difficult to reconcile the concept of a benevolent
God with the realities we encounter in our world.
Theologians
spend much time and effort in crafting intricate apologetics intended to keep
the ship of faith from running aground on these shoals of doubt. However, those
shoals might not exist if we did not so fully identify ourselves with this
ancient Greek understanding of the world. Perhaps there is a more inclusive way
of understanding our world that also glorifies the God we believe created it.
Maybe in some instances people, ideas, things and methods are not good or evil,
but simply different. Perhaps it is possible to embrace those differences not
based on the principle of uniformity, but rather the principle of harmony.
Harmony does
not require uniformity in order to be beautiful. In fact, discordances and
tension can even enhance the beauty of the melody. We see this when a piece
composed in a major key suddenly gives way briefly to a relative minor chord. This
produces unresolved tension which then resolves when the melody returns again
to a major chord. The tension does not diminish the piece but draws us into the
overall desire for harmony. It makes us one with the song.
We see this
same interplay of diverse and contrasting colors and textures in the rose
garden. Just as some Christians do to one another, we can attack the rose bush
for its prickliness, but if we do, we may walk away with only wounds for our
trouble. But if we accept the thorns as part of the garden and instead focus on
the symphony of color and fragrance, our experience is a completely different
one as we find ourselves uplifted and comforted by our presence in the garden.
We can learn
much from the rose garden about ourselves. A rose continues to be a rose no
matter what happens to it. Even trampled into the ground and crushed, a rose blossom
will exude its fragrance into the world. It is not a matter of obedience that
causes it to do so. Perhaps it should not be a matter of obedience for us to be
whom and what we were created to be either. Maybe we were never created to all
be in agreement and uniform in our opinions or ways. Could it be that those relationship
tensions were all part of the plan to make the overall harmony more beautiful?
Perhaps the
black-and-white dualism that says that everything is either good or evil has caused
us to miss the rich palette of color that surrounds us. Is it possible to paint
our world with color that glorifies the One who created it without the
necessary starkness of a dichromatic effigy to our own moral misinterpretations?
Can we integrate the tensions brought by those who disagree with us into our
understanding in such a way as to make the overall harmony more attractive than
before?
Perhaps we
feel that heaven will be a place where no one ever disagrees with anyone else.
Surely this might be the case in robotic heaven where every robot is programmed
to the same program. However, robots do not grow and evolve. They simply remain
the same until they wear out or are replaced by a newer model. But humans do
evolve and change, and they often do so through cognitive tension. Competing
ideas are resolved through compromise and mankind moves forward. When this
tension is seen as evil, the process breaks down and tension becomes conflict. Ultimately,
whoever is able asserts control and dominates the other party and unity is
enforced, but harmony is lost and growth, both physical and spiritual, becomes
harder and harder to achieve as fewer and fewer competing ideas are allowed to
surface.
Emphasizing an
obedient unity without allowances for the necessary tensions of diversity does
not do justice to the revelation of Divine character in the world around us
where every flower, every animal, every being, every snowflake, every grain of
sand is unique and different and fulfills perfectly its place in the symphony
of nature. Perhaps we should consider joining this Magnum Opus Dei and add the melody of our lives to its harmonies. A
glorious riot of color and joy might be the result.
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