Saturday, December 18, 2010

Just a bunch of sheep...

 
The first time I thought of people as "sheep" was in Mr. Ison's Composition II class my first year at Fort Hays State University.  We read the short story A&P by John Updike.  I really liked that story and have read it several times since that discussion one day in the Spring of 1992.

Sheep.  Yes, I think that's a good analogy.  At Answers.com and Wikipedia.org I found characteristics of these animals and narrowed them into 7 broad statements.  Sheep are:
  1. social.  They live in herds and are inclined to follow a leader.  When separated from the flock, they suffer stress.
  2. prey animals. They are vulnerable and defenseless.  Even when not killed by a predator attack, they may die of their injuries or just from panic.
  3. jealous and competitive.  There is a pecking order.
  4. food-oriented but must be led to good sources of food and water.
  5. extremely unintelligent with a herd mentality.  They are easily panicked.
  6. creatures of habit.
  7. stubborn and often go astray, needing patient and reliable shepherds.
Consider the vast intelligence and power of our God.  As the Creator of all things, how does our intelligence as humans (His creation!) compare to His intelligence?  What is a good analogy?  Man:X as God:man - man is to "X" as God is to man.  What is X?  A chimpanzee?  A gnat?  How about a sheep?

When scientific "discoveries" are made the offer evidence that contradicts the Bible, it always amuses me.  For example, I was reading about the Big Bang Theory just last night.  That theory has evolved over the last 25 years so that it barely resembles it's own previous definition.  Yet scientists in every year along the way have been fully convinced that this theory was/is absolutely the truth.  It will continue to change and they will continue to have absolute and firm faith in their flawed knowledge.  And they proclaim their faith with such arrogance!  It is laughable.

What makes this dangerous is that many of us sheep listen to them proclaim this absolute and firm faith and follow them.  It's interesting that the one sheep that other sheep follow is not the smartest, most reliable, or even most fit--it is simply the first one who moves.  With scientists looking for answers to questions only God can answer, they are often the first ones to move.

I have said this before and I continue to believe it:  I am not afraid of science.  The laws that govern our world were created by God.  Science only supports the Bible.  It is man's flawed theories of science that contradict the truth.

But there are other sources of wolves out there that attack the sheep...false religions, temptation of sin, and a herd mentality (our current culture) that prefers to worship the created rather than the Creator.
 
In a quick search, I found that sheep are mentioned 200 times in the Bible.  Many of those are direct comparisons to humans.  Shepherds are mentioned 118 times.  Abraham, Isaac, Rachel, Jacob, Moses, and David were all shepherds.  This was NOT a glamorous job!  In fact, it was quite the opposite.  It was a lowly position requiring reliability and patience.  Yet God chose these humble people to accomplish great things.

When Jesus was born God sent His angel, Gabrielle, to proclaim the birth of our Savior.  Where did Gabrielle go?  One would think that this announcement would come to someone important and well-known...say the king, or the Jewish leaders (Pharisees), or at least the socially and culturally influential.

No.  Gabrielle came to the humble, socially inept, and culturally unimportant shepherds.  These people were not even named in scripture.  After getting past the fear that gripped them when their peaceful evening in the field was interrupted by an angel's voice, they went to see the Baby for themselves.  They shared the whole story with Mary and Joseph then left that stable with their lives forever changed...glorifying and praising God.  Luke tells us that "Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart."  (Luke 2:19)  I love this verse.  Mary is a new mom!  What a beautiful beginning to Mary's new journey as a mother.

Psalms 23:1 tells that the Lord is our Shepherd (Old Testament).  John 10:11 tell us the Jesus is the Good Shepherd (New Testament).

There is, apparently, something about this analogy.

We, as sheep, are easily led astray.  We do not want to be separated from others, which is what happens when we live counter-cultural lives.  It is so much easier just to go with the flow.  We are jealous and competitive, trying to raise ourselves up by pecking others down.  Compared to God, whether we like it or not, we are extremely unintelligent.  The problem is that many of us cannot grasp the fact that we simply do not know the things we do not know.  We are creatures of habit with routines, friends, and surroundings that provide us with a nice little comfort zone.

We do, however, have a Shepherd.  One that is reliable and patient.  In fact, He is so devoted to our care that He gave His life to provide us (the vulnerable and defenseless) with eternal protection.  Through the Holy Spirit, He leads us to the spiritual food and water that will sustain us and help us to grow strong in our faith.

With the Holy Spirit within us, then, God expects us to also go into the world and help shepherd his people...our fellow sheep.

When Jesus told Peter that he would deny Him three times between the time Jesus was taken into custody and dawn of the next morning, Peter could not fathom that he would do such a thing.  But he did.  This trusted friend of Jesus found himself being a scared, lost, vulnerable sheep.

After His resurrection, Jesus talked to Peter again about this incident.  Peter was devastated by his own failure.  Jesus asked him three questions giving him three opportunities to make up for his three denials.  The question:  Do you love me?  Three times Peter answered positively.  (John 21:15-17)  After each of the three questions and each of the three answers, Jesus gave him a command.

Feed my lambs.
Take care of my sheep.
Feed my sheep.

In Updike's story, Sammy chooses to leave the flock when he realizes that the herd's beliefs contradict his own.  He is warned that life will be harder without the security of the flock (the culture at that time).  Strangely enough, Queenie and the others that he is defending neither acknowledge his existence nor realize the sacrifice he made on their behalf.   And he goes out into the day knowing that life will be hard.

And it is.

Thank God we have a Shepherd.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Tough Issues: Why do bad things happen?


The problem of "Evil" confronts many Christians suddenly and in a very emotional way.  Often we have to address this issue with the loss or devastation of ourselves or someone we love.  This seems to often have a polarizing effect...either pulling one toward God or pushing one away from God.  I am, however, a firm believer that Christians who struggle with this issue will find their way back to the God who loves them. (Romans 8:38-39)

God created man and woman, giving them a beautiful garden, food, companionship with Him, and dominion over all things created.  It was perfect!  However, God also wanted to give them something else--free will.

It was important for God to give us free will.  He did not want his creation to love, worship, and obey him because that was the only thing they could do.  He was very capable of making us His puppets with no ability to reason or option to rebel.  But that was not His plan.  God wanted His people to have the ability to obey Him...or not.

With this in mind, the Garden of Eden had to contain an option to rebel.  Without an option to rebel, there could be no free will because every option would be God's will.  So, a tree was included in this paradise, just one tree (the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil) from which Adam and Eve were not to eat.

We were not the only creatures that God created and gave free will.  Angels were also given this opportunity to choose.  The only creatures that are mentioned in the Bible as being made in God's image, however, are men and women.  Just as we experience envy, it seems very likely that these other creatures with the ability to reason would feel the sting of this emotion on occasion.  This probably made it especially tempting to entice us to rebel against our maker.  And Satan, a fallen angel, did just that.

I am not particularly mad at Adam and Eve for doing something as stupid as eating the one fruit that God forbid them to eat.  It is my belief that I would have done the same.  In fact, those who would criticize the decisions of our first parents are suffering from what C.S. Lewis refers to as chronological snobbery.  After all, how many choices have I made in my life that are in direct violation of the commandments of God?  And I will also add that you can't blame only Eve.  Read the verses for yourself to see just where Adam was.  (Genesis 3:6)  That's right.  He was right there with her...not off gallivanting through the Garden as is often depicted when this act is recreated in artistic works.

We chose to rebel.  Just as God knew we would.  Yes, of course He knew we would.  He knows everything.

Could God have chosen to stop Adam and Eve from eating the fruit?  As I mentioned earlier, the tree was necessary to provide an option for us to exercise our free will.  Stopping Eve from taking that first bite would have done likewise.

So why didn't God just kill the serpent (Satan)?  Didn't Satan's interference unfairly affect Eve's ability to make a rational choice?

God will not (and cannot) contradict Himself.  As Paul tells Titus, God cannot lie.  (Titus 1:1-4)  Since the angels have free will, God would/could not interfere with Satan's plan.  Since we have free will, God would/could not interfere in Eve and Adam's decision.  If He had interfered in any of the evil events that happened at that time, He would have stripped his creations of free will.

So sin entered the world.  With consequences.  God had to banish them from the Garden.  You see, there was another tree there from which God had to save us.  This was the Tree of Life.  Eating from this tree would have made the consequences from the first sin eternal.  Adam and Eve would have lived forever in sin.  God showed them mercy by banishing them.

We all have choices to make.  We are given free will to make our own choices.  And we all have consequences (good and evil) from those choices.  We cannot forget that other people also have free will.  Just as Satan's free will affected Eve's free will, which affected Adam's free will resulting in consequences for all of us, the same cycle happens today.  The sins of others have consequences for them and for us.  Our sins have consequences for us and for others.

We ask things like, "Why did God allow Hitler to kill all those people?"  Hitler had free will.  The people that influenced Hitler had free will.  This doesn't mean that God ordained these things to happen.  St. Augustine's conclusion in his book On Order (386 a.d.) aligns with my view, "God judged it better to bring good out of evil than to suffer no evil at all."

The reality of the situation when facing this evil overwhelms us as beings with limited knowledge and power.  We forget when facing the evil on this earth that our time here is very short in the scheme of an eternity.

And next comes the question, "But what about disease?  Why does God allow cancer (or AIDS, M.S., Alzheimer's, etc.) to kill good people?"

I have two thoughts on this; first, we live in a cursed world that is deteriorating.  I have no idea where and how these diseases began, but they may be related to this deterioration...which was caused by our first sin.  Without sin, humans would've lived forever in companionship with God in a perfect world.  Our human lifespans were eternal!  Once sin entered the world, however, we started deteriorating...aging.  In early Bible recordings, the world was still "healthy" enough that humans lived very long lives.  In fact, theologians estimate that it took Noah 120 years to build the ark and he was about 600 when the rain came!  Was he a freak of nature?  No, that's just how it was.  Our lifespans got shorter and shorter until man's knowledge of science allowed us to develop medicines and easier lifestyles through technology.  But the world has continued to decay and we are suffering the consequences.

My second thought is that they may be related more directly to sin itself.  Some diseases may come from the sin of the sufferer or the sufferer's parents.  For example, some diseases can be linked to sinful habits--overeating, sloth, drunkenness, mistreating one's body with drugs and even cigarettes, promiscuity, etc.  But I have to wonder if diseases that seem to have no cause actually started through some mutation that occurred many, many years ago due to a single sinful act.  Let me make it clear, I am NOT blaming the victims of disease for their own suffering.  My thought is simply that this evil had to have an origin.  Sin and deterioration are the only options I see.

Thankfully, as St. Augustine indicates, God uses these things for good.  In fact, Paul says as much in his letter to the Romans.  (Romans 8:28)

There are also philosophical reasons for the presence of evil.  Could there truly be "good" without it? At what points in your life have you drawn closer to God?  Really consider this.  Was it during times of contentment...or times of struggle?  So, is suffering necessary?

I think it is.  And we need to remember that Jesus Christ suffered FOR us in the most brutal of ways without deserving it.  God knows exactly what it means to physically and emotionally suffer.

Peter talks about the trials that we face here throughout his books of the Bible.  He reminds the new Church (the believers--not the people in a specific building) that "Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit."  (1 Peter 3:18)

We are promised in Isaiah and reminded again in Revelations, "The Sovereign LORD will wipe away the tears from all faces; he will remove his people’s disgrace from all the earth."  (Isaiah 25:8, Revelations 21:4)

One day the sins will be erased and evil will be gone.  I hope you are back here to enjoy it with me.
_________

Suggested Resources:

CS Lewis:  The Problem of Pain.  (1940)
Mars Hill Church Sermon Series:  Trial
Ravi Zacharias:  How Can a Good God Allow Evil in the World?
RC Sproul:  The Problem with Evil
St. Augustine:  The Confessions of St. Augustine, Book 2: The Anatomy of Evil, multiple translations/editors