Not Yet

The scriptures referred to are 1 Peter 4:12-14; 5:6-11.

This strict Calvinist pastor had just finished preaching about predestination. As he exited the raised pulpit, he slipped, fell down the stairs, twisted his ankle and hit his head on the end of the choir pew. As everyone rushed to where he lay, he was heard to say, “Well, I'm glad that's finally over.”

You don't have to believe in predestination to know that some things are inevitable. Death and taxes, of course, but also that we all will have troubles. Some of them, like this disease, come from circumstances outside our control as individuals. Some of them, like coming down with COVID 19 after not taking precautions like wearing masks and avoiding large gatherings, are a logical consequence of our decisions. Most of our troubles are a combination of both factors beyond our control and how we respond to them.

For instance, experts knew there was going to be an epidemic some time soon because they knew the conditions were there. They knew it would come from close contact with wild or domestic animals. They knew it would spread rapidly because of air travel. And they knew it would not be handled properly or immediately because historically governments don't like to admit such things are beyond their control. And it's not only totalitarian governments who don't want to hear such things. In 1918, trying to rally support for our troops in World War 1, the US government quashed newspaper coverage of the flu epidemic, which originated at an army base in Kansas and was being spread initially by US soldiers. So epidemiologists knew this pandemic was coming; they just didn't know exactly which zoogenic disease it would be and exactly when it would break out.

“Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that is taking place among you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” As we've seen, the subject of suffering is woven throughout the 1^st letter of Peter. Here he is saying, “Of course, you are suffering for following Jesus; what did you expect?” After all, Jesus was crucified for speaking the truth to those in power. And furthermore, Jesus never concealed the fact that if we are faithful to him, we will be persecuted as well. It is as inevitable as a pandemic.

The immediate cause of that persecution was an emperor who claimed to be a god. This letter may have been written during the reign of Nero, the first emperor to take note of Christians. Unfortunately he needed scapegoats. A fire had destroyed most of the city of Rome. Rumors were afloat that Nero, whom everyone knew wanted to rebuild Rome to suit his tastes, was behind the fire. Historians doubt this. Nevertheless Nero, to protect his image, singled out this weird little sect that was said to eat flesh and drink blood at their so-called “love feasts,” which were rumored to be orgies of some kind. So he blamed the Christians for the fire. Among other things, he had some tied to stakes and set ablaze, using them as human torches to light his imperial gardens.

So this was literally a fiery ordeal for some. In fact just a few verses after our reading ends, Peter says he is in Babylon, which may, as in the book of Revelation, be code for Rome. If so, Peter is not talking about persecution from any kind of distance, either physically or psychologically. He would die in this first imperial persecution of Christians, as would Paul.

We would be confused by a soldier who said when he signed up for the military he didn't realize he might die. Peter is saying that facing persecution and even death should not surprise the followers of the crucified Christ. However I guarantee you that it would surprise most American Christians if they were treated as our brothers and sisters in the faith are in some parts of the world where they are persecuted. Because we have a large number of churches that teach people that God's will is for all Christians to be wealthy and healthy, provided they have enough faith. And when people think they have a contract where God will protect them from all adversity, their faith tends to crumble when they come down with cancer or lose a child or suffer from a natural disaster.

We use the word “faith” primarily in two ways. The first that comes to mind for most people is that faith is believing certain things are true. Every human being has faith in this way, and it is not confined to religion. Scientists believe all kinds of things to be true, and unless they have personally redone every experiment themselves, they are accepting it on faith that the scientists on whom they are basing their work did everything properly and accurately and left nothing out. They also have to believe that the experimenters did not deliberately fudge their data. There is in fact a crisis in the sciences right now precisely because a good number of frequently cited experiments, especially in the social sciences and in medicine, can't be reproduced. Scientists are asking themselves, “Which things that we have been putting our faith in are good science and which things are bad science?”

Which brings us to the second meaning of faith. It can simply mean trust. When I was a kid there was a game show called, “Who Do You Trust?” hosted by Johnny Carson. As the title ungrammatically points out, trust needs an object in which it is put. When people are told, “Just have faith,” I'm surprised that the response isn't automatically, “Faith in what? Or in whom?”

Which brings us back to the first meaning of faith: specifically, what is the content of those things we believe concerning the object of our faith, the person whom we trust, the God revealed in Jesus Christ?

First off, we believe God created everything. And the more science discovers about our minds, our bodies, the particles of which everything is made, the forms of energy in the universe, the laws which govern the smallest things that exist and the laws that govern large objects, the more mind-blowing the contemplation of God's creation is. And rather than believe that this intricately connected system is merely the result of an unbelievable accumulation of fortunate accidents, we believe God is behind it all.

Now every child under 12 naturally believes that. And according to Genesis God pronounced everything he made not just good but very good. So why is it not like that now?

At this point I usually explain that we have taken God's good gifts and used them to harm rather than to help one another. And that is why God sent his son to deal with our evil choices and their consequences. But that only focuses on moral evil. What about what theologians call natural evil, things that have no consciousness yet have negative consequences for us?

In Genesis 1 God pronounces his creation good, which in Hebrew means “beautiful or pleasant.” What God does not say is that his creation is “perfect” which in Hebrew means “complete.” In fact in the Genesis 2 recap and close-up on the creation of humanity, it says God hadn't done certain things yet because “there was no man to work the ground.” Why? Because God created us in his image. Which means we too are creative. But if he left nothing for us to do, what would be the point? He didn't just want an audience for creation; he wanted participants. Man was meant to be the gardener in the garden of Eden. Back in Genesis 1 God commissions humanity to rule over and care for his creation. God did not put us in the middle of a completed project to sit around and do nothing with our gifts and tools and skills and resources. He wants us to contribute to creation, the way you let your child help in painting or building or cooking something. He wants us to use his good gifts to make things even better.

Rabbis call this tikkun olam, “repair of the world.” Originally we were to enhance the world, but we did the opposite. We have often used his gifts to make things worse. Some people are blessed with more strength than others. Instead of using that to help and protect those not given that gift, they have used it to dominate and bully those not as strong as they. Some people are blessed with more intelligence. Instead of using that to guide and teach those not blessed with that gift, they have used it to manipulate and exploit those not as smart as they. Some people are blessed with more resources. Instead of sharing with those not as blessed with as many resources, they have used them to coerce the people with less to help them amass more than they can possibly need. Some people are blessed with charisma. Instead of using that to lead and to inspire people to make the world better, they have used their charisma to get people to serve them and fulfill their desire to be admired and worshiped. Imagine how much better the world would be if Hitler had used his gift to get people to follow him to attack the problems Germany actually had rather than to attack Jews and the disabled and Slavs and gypsies and gays. Instead of reforming his country, he deformed it, turning it into an evil parody of a nation once admired for its achievements in the arts and sciences.

God gave us a good world and lots of gifts to use and said, “Let's see what you can do with it!” When we messed it up he sent Jesus to initiate a do-over, not only of people but of the creation we were supposed to be taking care of. And like the prophets before him, Jesus ran into opposition from people who didn't want to hear the truths they desperately needed to hear.

Recently I read about an ER physician who said he is testing people for COVID 19 and when he tells them they have it, some of these people are telling him it's a hoax! He never thought he would get opposition from the people he was trying to save. This guy now knows what Jesus was up against. And what Christians face when they try to be true to the gospel.

I started out talking about Calvinism. One of the things that Calvin taught was what has been called "total depravity." People think he meant that everyone is totally evil. But, no, what he meant is everything is affected by the evil we have unleashed on the world. One meme on Facebook tried to illustrate the spread of this virus by using a very local custom. They said if it's Fantasy Fest, and 9 people are in a room getting into their costumes, and one person is using glitter, how many of those people will ultimately have glitter on them? Those of you who have children will know the answer as well.

Humanity has a kind of reverse Midas touch. Even when we do good, we do some evil. A celebrity lost his aunt to the coronavirus and naturally he was upset. And on Twitter he raged about people eating bats in China. And then someone else pointed out they only do that because they are too poor to eat other things. Many of the people destroying the Amazon rainforest aren't mustache-twirling villains. Many are poor people trying to make a living by exploiting the land. But in the process they are harming the planet and the rest of us and ultimately themselves.

Actors who play villains say they can't do that convincingly if they think of themselves as villains. Everybody is a good guy in their own mind. I was surprised that terrorists watch Star Wars and see themselves as Luke and Han up against the evil empire, by which they mean us! Hitler thought he was the savior of Germany and indeed of the white race. As we've said before, one way of looking at evil is as a very narrow view of what goodness is. It's pretty obvious that if you think of goodness as what's good for you and to hell with everyone else, that's just selfishness. But it becomes harder to see when we expand that definition to “what's good for me and mine.” What's mine can mean my family, or my friends, or my race, or my class, or my party, or my country. But as long as it excludes some people, it is not true goodness. After all, Jesus died for the whole world.

He even died for his enemies. What got him crucified was that he both said and showed in his life that God loved tax collectors and prostitutes and the ritually unclean and the sick and the poor and the Samaritans and the Gentiles and even the occupying forces. He reserved his harshest words for those who thought they were perfect, who thought they didn't need to repent, who thought they were not sinners. And because they were in power and they didn't want to hear the truth, they had him killed.

So it shouldn't seem strange to us if we encounter opposition when we speak the truth people need to hear but don't want to hear. And especially when we speak it to people who have power. They don't think of themselves as bad guys. After all, didn't God bless them with strength and smarts and resources and charisma? It just never occurs to them them he did it not for their good but for the good of all. Even their enemies. And it never occurs to them that the system that allows things to stay that way is far from perfect.

If you think you're always right, you're wrong. If you think this world was once perfect, you're wrong. If you think you were blessed with certain gifts and resources in order to pursue your own happiness, you're wrong. If you think following Jesus means you are magically immune to suffering, you're wrong.

“Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, so that he may exalt you in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you. Discipline yourselves, keep alert. Like a roaring lion your adversary the devil prowls around, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, steadfast in your faith, for you know your brothers and sisters in all the world are undergoing the same kinds of suffering. And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, support, strengthen, and establish you.”

God will finish the world he made good but not yet perfect. That's inevitable. We can be part of the solution or part of the problem. And we will suffer as we are opposed by those who are part of the problem. Because they don't see themselves as part of the problem. They see themselves as good guys, though their definition of whom they need to be good to is limited. We need to keep our eyes on the goal, the kingdom of God, where you will not find those who glory in their own strength or intelligence or resources or charisma, but rather those who realize their spiritual poverty, who mourn now, who are humble, who hunger and thirst for righteousness, who are merciful, whose hearts God has purified, who are peacemakers, who suffer for doing the right thing. And we must trust that, like any worthwhile endeavor, all the pain and hard work will be worth it, when we see what we have been a part of—what no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has imagined, the things God has prepared for those who love him.