Unpredictable

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 31:27-34, Psalm 119:97-104 and 2 Timothy 3:14-4:5.

We often talk about science as if it is one thing, but we actually should talk about the sciences, because they are not only about different subjects but they work differently. The hard sciences tend to be dominaTted by math, which makes it easier to predict the results and makes their conclusions more certain. Think physics, chemistry and astronomy. The softer sciences are less about math and mostly a matter of collecting data and analyzing it. Think archeology or paleontology. Even if you have collected a lot of data and done the analysis well, if someone next week digs up a new dinosaur or an older human settlement, the scientific consensus in your field could change. You can't predict that. But the really soft sciences are things like economics, political science and sociology. Because they involve analyzing people.

As a former psychiatric and neurosurgical nurse, I devour the latest research on psychology and neurology, though I know that we still cannot predict what any given individual will do. We are better at predicting what large numbers of people will do, but even they can surprise us. For instance, when a pandemic is killing millions of people worldwide, you would expect most folks to do what they did in a small town in Brazil: almost everyone got vaccinated. But as we know that didn't happen. Which to me is the death blow to the argument that we have no free will. If we didn't have free will, we should be very predictable. When the internet was created, observers predicted that with access to all the world's knowledge at our fingertips, we would become wiser and better. Nobody predicted we would find out that there is nothing so ridiculous, bizarre, dumb or objectively terrible that some people will not believe it or attempt to do it.

In contrast, today's section of Psalm 119 and our excerpt from Paul's second letter to Timothy talk about how useful God's written word is to living a wise and better life. The psalm focuses on how the law or Torah helps one become more understanding. Paul speaks of how all scripture that is inspired by God (literally “God-breathed”) is useful “for instruction, for convincing, for setting straight, and for training in righteousness.” (my translation) And that's why people still read a book that is more than 2000 years old: it contains timeless wisdom. 85% of US households own a Bible with the average household having at least 4. So it's not hard to find copies of God's word. But merely having them doesn't do anyone any good. The Bible isn't a magical item. Possessing it doesn't automatically make people more spiritual or moral.

And today's Old Testament passage tells us that. Jeremiah was a prophet whose ministry encompasses the decades leading up to and including the fall of Jerusalem to the Babylonians. He is the archetypal “prophet of doom,” though he took no pleasure in predicting the fall of Judah. Like all the prophets he accused God's people of violating what Jesus called the two greatest commandments. They turned from God to idols (Jeremiah 2:11) and they mistreated the poor and powerless. (Jeremiah 5:26-28)

But like the other prophets, Jeremiah offered hope. God says, “If you really change your ways and your actions and deal with each other justly, if you do not oppress the alien, the fatherless or the widow and do not shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not follow other gods to your own harm, then I will let you live in this place, in the land I gave your forefathers forever and ever.” (Jeremiah 7:5-7)

Well, that should be easy. God has given his law and if his people follow it, they won't do these things. But of course, they don't follow God's law. Knowing the right thing to do doesn't magically make you do it. John Jay, one of the architects of the Constitution, belonged to the New York Manumission Society—but he didn't free his own slaves. I know nurses who smoke, though they take care of people with emphysema and COPD and heart disease and lung cancer. Some people's knowledge never makes the journey from their head to their heart or to other aspects of their life. God even says of the priests, “Those who deal with the law did not know me.” (Jeremiah 2:8) Yet God's law is an expression of his just and loving nature. Apparently the priests knew the letter of the law but not the Spirit behind it.

Part of the problem is that while they were observing the ceremonial parts of the law, they were not observing the moral parts. From the entrance to his temple God says, “Will you steal and murder, commit adultery and perjury, burn incense to Baal and follow other gods you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which bears my name, and say, 'We are safe'—safe to do all these detestable things?” (Jeremiah 7:9-10) Fulfilling the ceremonial laws does not make up for violating the moral laws. We are to love God and love our neighbor. It's not either/or; it's both!

In fact, the two relationships are connected. In his covenant with Noah God forbids murder because humans are created in God's image. Murder is symbolic deicide. (Genesis 9:6) Jesus said that whatever we do or don't do to others in need, we do or don't do to him. (Matthew 25:31-46) And in 1^st John, the writer makes the point that if you don't love a human being whom you can see, you cannot possibly love the God you can't see. (1 John 4:20) You can only separate the two great commandments to love in the abstract. In reality they are inextricably entwined.

But how can we obey them if merely knowing them cannot make us do them?

Here's an analogy. My word processing program is always underlining words I know are correctly spelled. Sometimes the problem is that the word in question is in Hebrew or Greek. Sometimes the word is a combination of two words it knows separately but not together, like cartop as in cartop carrier. But often the program recognizes a word but not the plural form created by simply adding an “s” at the end, which I find unbelievable. Luckily I can tell it to add the word to the internal dictionary. In other words, I can, to an extent, change the programming in my computer.

In today's reading from Jeremiah God proposes doing the same thing with us. Since we cannot seem to obey the written law God gave us, he says he will make a new covenant, one that is unlike the covenant he wrote in stone on Mt. Sinai. This time, God says, “I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts...” An external law hasn't changed us; only an internal law will.

But how would that work?

When we are in love with someone, they change us. He likes sports, so you start to watch sports and become a fan. She is concerned about the environment and so you educate yourself on the issues and become more active in supporting the changes necessary to keep the world inhabitable. Having kids changes your priorities and you change your lifestyle accordingly. Fathers find themselves having tea with teddy bears and their daughters. Moms become their son's most vocal supporter at wrestling matches. And while kids are not born with a gene for camping, they pick up their parents' love of sleeping under the stars. What and whom we love changes us.

We see this in a negative way as well. Bonnie Parker was not a criminal. Clive Barrow was. She fell for him and their gang killed 13 people. The couple also said their prayers every night, so again we see a disconnect between practicing “religion” and living as God wants us to. And ordinary folks fell under Hitler's spell and became killers or at least complicit in the genocide he inspired. That's one reason God doesn't want us to worship idols, whether gods or men. People become like what they love.

If we want to be like God, we must love him. And the way to do that is to open our hearts to his love. As in says in 1^st John, “By this the love of God is revealed in us: that God sent his one and only Son into the world so that we may live through him. In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins.” (1 John 4:9-10) Jesus came to not only remind us of how God expects us to behave but to show us. And that included confronting the authorities, who wanted him dead. They got their way. But then God took the worst thing we could do—murder his Son—and turned it into a demonstration of his gracious love, by making it the way to wipe out all our sins, offer us forgiveness, and share his eternal life with us.

And one way to open our hearts to his love is by reading about and inwardly digesting what he has done for us. Who hasn't fallen in love with their favorite writer by reading their works or found their personal hero by learning about what they did? By studying and steeping ourselves in the story of Jesus and meditating on the writings of those who knew and were affected by him we will find our hearts warming to his love for us.

And we can and should ask for his help. The Spirit is a gift given to every Christian, not just extraordinary ones. Jesus said, “If you then, although you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13) On the night he was betrayed, Jesus said to his disciples, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments. Then I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper to be with you forever—the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot accept, because it does not see him or know him. But you know him, because he resides with you and will be in you.” (John 14:15-17) Paul tells us, “...the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” (Romans 5:5) When we commit ourselves to follow Jesus and are baptized in the name of the Triune God, we receive the very Spirit of God who empowered Jesus.

In fact without his power we cannot hope to live his life. (Romans 8:8) The whole of the 7^th chapter of Romans is made up of Paul's account of how not even he could live up to God's law under his own power. Then, in chapter 8, he says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. ” (Romans 8:1-5, NET) The problem with the Old Covenant is that we cannot seem to live it out under the power of mere flesh and blood. God's New Covenant, made by Jesus at great cost to himself, comes with the power to fulfill it: God's Spirit in us.

But we must continually consent to the guidance of the Spirit. Paul said not to quench or stifle the Spirit, meaning that it is possible to do that. (1 Thessalonians 5:19) But how? Think of it as driving and ignoring your GPS when it tells you how to get to your destination. God will not force us to follow him against our wills. There are parasitic flatworms that infect the brains of ants, taking them over and controlling their behavior. That is not God's way. As Jesus said to the church in Laodicea, “Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) Jesus will not break and enter into our lives. We must be invite him in.

Following Jesus is impossible if we don't listen to his Spirit within us. I think the reason we see Christians doing things that go against what Jesus says is because they are ignoring the voice of the Spirit. They tune it out when they want to do something they know God would not approve of. And eventually they become deaf to the Spirit.

You can tell because Jesus said that, just like trees, you can identify people by the fruits they produce. (Matthew 7:20) Paul lists the ones that come from operating on the basis of mere flesh and blood as being “sexual immorality, impurity, outrageous conduct, idolatry, sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, ambitious rivalries, divisions, factions, envies, drunkenness, carousing and the like.” (Galatians 5:19-21, my translation) Then he says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” (Galatians 5:22-23) If we let the Spirit work in us we should see these qualities growing and developing in us.

That growth doesn't happen overnight. (Mark 4:26-29) It may not always feel like we are making progress or overcoming all our problems. Paul was troubled by some physical or spiritual problem he calls “a thorn in the flesh.” He asked God 3 times to remove it. “But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'” (2 Corinthians 12:9) Paul came to realize the “thorn” kept him from getting arrogant. He learned to rely on the power of Christ that resided in him. Instead of being dismayed by our inability to do it all by ourselves, we should humbly ask God for help through the power of the Spirit of Christ that is in us. (Romans 8:9)

If the Spirit is already in us, why do we need to ask for his help? Look at it this way. Scientists have found that our bodies conserve our energy. Long distance runners talk about hitting the wall, suddenly losing all energy after about 20 miles. Researchers found that if they drink just a spoonful of a sugary drink, they suddenly get more energy. Their bodies hadn't let them use up all their energy. Some was held in reserve. The promise of more energy coming in, the sugary drink, unlocked the reserve energy they already had. In the same way, asking God for help activates the Spirit within us. Often when we succumb to temptation, it's because we haven't opened up the channel to God. We are not taking the sip of the living water that opens the fountain within.

Paul said, “Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God who works in you both to will and to work, for his good pleasure.” (Philippians 2:12-13) C.S. Lewis points out that the first part of that passage, telling us to work out our own salvation, sounds like it all depends on us. But the second part, saying that God is the one who is working within us bringing out the desire and the ability to do it, makes it sound like it is all on God. As someone said, “Without God we cannot; without us God will not.” God could do everything on his own without us. But rather than making us puppets, he prefers to make us partners. It is rather like having a toddler help you make cookies. It's easier if you do it all yourself. And you have to help them with just about everything. But you do it to teach them how and you include them out of love.

God could have made us predictable like robots. Instead he gave us the ability to choose. It means we can choose wrongly but without that ability we also cannot choose to love. And love is only real if it is a choice. But he knows we still need help. The reason we reject that help is arrogance: the idea we can do everything on our own. And the result of that arrogance is predictable and all around us. Everything we humans think we can control by ourselves is out of control. But if we choose to let him in and let him help, “by the power that is working in us he is able to do far beyond all we can ask or imagine.” (Ephesians 3:20) And that's unpredictable in the best way possible.