Monday Morning Music Ministry

7-8-24

Sin. It might have different names (or euphemisms or disguises) but it is something – a challenge, a problem, an incipient cancer – about which all humans are aware. All peoples in all ages in all ways have dealt with it; almost always censoriously, of course, because our core instincts have recognition of right and wrong. When societies stray from these inherent beliefs – and rules that follow – they deteriorate. And fall.

A corrupted respect for sin’s effects has not prevented entire cultures from occasionally – in fact, more than occasionally – dismissing its dangers, lying to themselves. We see it in history. We see it today. We see it in our midst.

That’s “human nature.” People of both the Christian and non-Christian traditions, societies calling themselves religious, and even aggressively pagan or secular cultures, fall prey to sinfulness. Usually they nominally are opposed to what we call sin.

But, you know, you can be against things like boredom and forgetfulness and even cancer, too, but these things visit us all anyway. I frequently parry arguments from secularists and agnostics and atheists about sin (and other aspects of reality like fatal diseases or natural disasters or school shootings) – variations of “How can a loving God permit such things?”

I always remind myself that people who complain in such fashion are (even subconsciously) not arguing that there is no God; they are, in effect, confessing an inability to understand His ways. One of many answers, of course, is that God could have created a world of robots with no free will; where there would be no reason to challenge and be challenged, to “advance” and better oneself; where impulses of love and charity would be needless. Boring?

In a larger sense, a world where there is no such thing as sin would be a world where forgiveness, redemption, and salvation would be unknown qualities; where songs like “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound” would be useless and confusing; where the desire to embrace joy would be, well, superfluous.

This is all academic, if not rhetorical, because such a world does not exist. In the meantime – excuse me while I thank God – uncountable lives through history have been ennobled by artistic expression that praises God; music that exalts God; charity that serves God. Ah, how about all the hatred and killings and wars in the name of religion, those secularists and agnostics and atheists ask. Thank you for the distinctions, I reply: they have been in the names of religion, not God – two very different sources of love and hate. Now go to your rooms.

So… there is the problem of sin. And sin is not yielded to, by definition, except by temptation. In the 1970s the TV comedian Flip Wilson made people howl with laughter when one of his characters would scream, “The devil made me do it!” Humor’s foundation is a sense of recognition, and in this case it is not true that the devil makes us do anything. We can recognize that the devil may tempt (one of his job descriptions) but cannot make us do anything.

The recognition comes with acknowledging that we blame the devil – or a thousand other “tempters” – but seldom ourselves. “Everybody does it.” “It’s no big thing.” “Who does it hurt?” and so forth.

That part of the Lord’s Prayer, “Lead us not into temptation,” has always stumped me somewhat. The Bible assures us elsewhere that God will never tempt us beyond that which we cannot endure (I Corinthians 10:13) and outside what is common to mankind. So, right before petitioning God to deliver from evil, why suppose that God would “lead us” into temptation; and therefore pray to be delivered from that situation? In the meantime – please give us “daily bread” and forgive us our trespasses…

Yes; why?

Speaking very personally, I regard Biblical conundrums like this not as flaws nor contradictions nor spiritual “gotchas.” There are some points – for instance, when the Rapture will take place – where I think God wants us to think and pray and think and pray some more, to keep us on our toes. Thinking and praying about sinning, it is useful to note that in one sense the entire Bible is a family album of sinners. Take a look – murderers; cheats; whores; adulterers; liars; betrayers… and those are just the heroes.

Well… take heart, sinners. That fact is a message that you are not alone. More importantly, do not enter the realms of self-condemnation. Do not hide your faces from God. Do not act like all is lost – least of all, that YOU are “lost” without hope. God hates sin, but loves the sinner. And He loves repentance and redemption most of all.

Among the Bible’s great sinners (don’t be surprised at the list), Job learned humility and obedience; Jonah learned grace; Abraham learned to be willing to sacrifice; Moses learned responsibility; David learned about confession and the need for forgiveness; Elijah learned to seek Heavenly guidance; Peter learned what the Holy Spirit could provide.

… all these people – every one a sinner – and so many names in the Bible, we properly regard as saints. And they are.

And we can be on that honor-roll, too. We were all sinners; and all may be redeemed. Remember that Christ died for us… “while we were yet sinners.” The sweetest thing in life, as we interact with friends, even strangers, is to greet and be greeted as “former sinner!”

God, our loving Father, does not lead us into temptation. In fact… neither does the devil. We lead ourselves; we yield because, basically, we want to; nothing compels us. We can resist – and when we need a little help, that’s why the Holy Spirit was sent. One of His Biblical names is The Helper.

No temptation, no sin, is greater than the great One who lives in our hearts. Lead yourself not into temptation.

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Click: Temptation

6-12-17

A guest blog essay this week by my old friend Pastor Gary Adams of the Kelham Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Gary and I went to high school together in Old Tappan NJ and shared, among other things, an admiration for William F Buckley. I could quote Bill, but Gary was able to add a dead-on impersonation and the distinctive pencil-tapping of the conservative hero.

Our most memorable adventure was the afternoon we got booted from Mr LaFemina’s Economics class. Our crime? Gary made a joke, and I laughed. The teacher was actually the funniest person in the entire school, so this must have been a bad day for him. Silver lining: we were banished to the History Department Office… where I cleverly (?) engaged its chairman, Mr Newman, in a discussion of our favorite scenes in Mozart’s Magic Flute.

We turned an embarrassment into a plus; climbed from the valley to a mountaintop that afternoon. Well, sort of. This is a segue to Gary’s guest column here, inspired, he suggests, by our Monday Ministry blog last week about life’s valleys. He wrote this for his church’s newsletter, Kelham Korner, and he packed a lot of Biblical history and Christian wisdom into an e-mail’s confines, better than I did.

In last week’s blog, titled “Are You Tired of Living in the Valley?” Rick mused on mountaintop experiences and mentioned a song by Dottie Rambo, “In the Valley He Restoreth My Soul.” The song notes, “Nothing grows high on a mountain, so He picked out a valley for me.”

I had never really considered that.

Some quick research revealed that in Colorado’s mountain communities “only three non-indigenous species (not native to the area) were found thriving above nine thousand feet,” the Piñon pine, Rocky Mountain juniper, and Green Ash. Food crops that grow at high altitude include leafy greens (lettuces, spinach, collards, turnip greens); root vegetables (carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, potatoes); peas; broccoli; cauliflower; Brussels sprouts; as well as various herbs. Some growers have had limited success with varieties of corn and pumpkins and Russian tomatoes (under cover). Food crops generally grow poorly on the mountaintop. Too little moisture, harsh conditions, and limited space to plant contribute to the difficulties of growing enough on which to survive when living on top of a mountain.

Mountaintop experiences draw our attention in the Bible: Noah and his family landing the ark on top of Ararat (Genesis 8); Abraham offering Isaac and receiving God’s promise of a Lamb (Genesis 22); Aaron and Hur holding up Moses’ arms (and staff) in the battle against Amalek (Exodus 17); Moses receiving the Ten Commandments (Exodus 32); David buying the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite (2 Samuel 24); Elijah and the prophets of Baal (1 Kings 18); Peter and James and John with Jesus on the mount of transfiguration (Matthew 17). All draw us into visible signs of God’s presence.

Each mountaintop experience comes surrounded by valleys. The ark rested on Ararat after the greatest worldwide disaster in history in which all but eight people died. Abraham journeyed to Moriah knowing God had called him to sacrifice his only son. Moses’ experience against Amalek came after the people of Israel were on the verge of stoning Moses for having no water.

While Moses was on Mount Sinai receiving the Ten Commandments, the people of Israel were in the valley building and worshipping a golden calf, and three thousand Israelites died as a result. David bought the threshing floor to build an altar to God to stop the plague that came as a result of his foolish numbering of the people. Elijah’s confrontation with the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel came in the midst of widespread idolatry and suffering (a drought of three and a half years) and was followed by Elijah fleeing to the cave in the desert where he heard God’s still, small voice call him back to complete his service.

And Peter and James and John’s experience on the mount of transfiguration followed Jesus’ announcement of his coming betrayal and crucifixion, followed by rebuking Peter for acting in the place of Satan.

Then there was Mount Calvary.

Truly, that was a great mountaintop experience for us. We sometimes forget it was preceded by Jesus’ sweating “as it were great drops of blood” (Luke 22:44) in the garden of Gethsemane. We forget that on Mount Calvary our Savior paid the horrendous price of bearing our sin. Could Jesus have borne the sufferings of Calvary without the prayer of Gethsemane?

Just as few crops grow on the mountaintop, we cannot live on the mountaintop. Rambo’s song says, “The Lord knows I can’t live on a mountain, so He picked out a valley for me…. Then He tells me there’s strength in my sorrow and there’s victory in trials for me.”

While we might prefer the mountaintop, the conditions for growth lie in the valleys. If we were never tested, we would never know God’s strength. If we were never tried, we would never know God’s faithfulness. If we were never broken, we would never know God’s ability to remake us and mold us into His image.

Craig Curry’s song, Still, is a declaration of faith in the faithfulness of God affirming that we will still trust, we will still praise, even when we are broken and wounded and in the valley, because “we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. … to be conformed to the image of his Son” (Rom. 8:28-29).

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Click: Still