December 2009 Pastor's Highlander Column

December 2009
Pastor’s Column

Brothers and sisters,

Advent is upon us, and with it the regular round of discussions, debates and arguments between the civic and sacred spheres about how one should address and commemorate the “holiday season”: is it merely the “holiday season in which we are to wish one another “happy holidays”, or is it the sacred season during which we should bid each other “Christ’s Blessings” during the Christmas Season?

And as we contemplate the eternal and majestic mystery made manifest in the Infinite Word’s becoming incarnate in the mortal infant at Bethlehem, it is an excellent time to return to our study of the Second Commandment against idolatry; to see how it applies and is mediated to us through the Savior’s birth, life, ministry, sacrificial death and Resurrection.

Western Society at the dawn of the Third Millennium struggles and strives to reject God’s eternal Lordship and command. Collectively we seek to depose our creator from His throne and replace Him with idols more to our liking and comfort level. And, we do so at all levels of society from the family in “the living room” to the United Nations’ “hallowed halls on the Hudson”.

We see it in the faces of families that never darken the doors of a sanctuary on Sunday mornings but can always be found at the mall, on sports fields or in restaurants. So, too, we witness marketers’ efforts to replace Christ with Santa and mentions of Christmas to salutations of “holiday good cheer.” Even supposedly “Christian” governments throughout the West have gotten into the act as they pass ordinance after ordinance to supplant not only faith in an unseeable God, but to replace the dominant faith-based ethical system that has guided us for the better part of 2,000 years.

In October’s column we closed out with an observation from C.S. Lewis about theories of penal punishment versus the notion of “corrections”. Lewis noted that in a truly secular society in which God is either ignored or re-imagined (and thus idolized ) then genuine forgiveness, healing, re-birth and re-creation are functional impossibilities. In their place is substituted a theory of unchecked “corrections” in which full mental and social assent and conformity are absolutely philosophically mandated and where temporal punishment and re-education are both endless and brutal.

However, if one truly believes that the God of the Bible is God, and that His own incarnate Son made a penal substitution on our behalf and accepted upon Himself our due punishment, then grace and repentance become not only theoretically possible, but also functional realities. Other systems and theories cannot allow this. Sadly, we Christians have not always lived up to our own best ideals and have accepted, allowed and even perpetuated “Inqusitions” and persecutions too numerous to count. But that is due to our personal and corporate sinfulness and idolatry, not to the God who has outlawed precisely these things and can yet forgive and cleanse us of them.

This is well-illustrated by the wife of a former pastor-colleague of mine in Canisteo, New York. Chinese immigrant Esther Wei Haines describes watching her mother, grandmother and aunt being detained by communist troops after an underground worship service during the Cultural Revolution. When the Red Guards found a scrap of paper on the floor with John 3:16 written upon it, they spent more than an hour forcing the women to stand to attention reciting "Mao is our god and the party is our savior." Esther's mother finally spoke out, saying, "You can make me recite all the slogans for months on end, but that will not change what's in my heart."

That singular offense resulted in her being sent to a re-education center (labor camp) for the next several years. Esther reported that upon her mother's release from prison she was a broken woman.

When a people creates and fashions a God for themselves apart from the God of scripture the results are uniformly abhorrent and evil. Perhaps not immediately, but it only takes a small step to go from false worship of false gods to active persecution of those who worship the true Lord of Hosts — or anyone else who might resist the "New Order."

This is why God issues the prohibition against imagining, forming and fashioning our own gods in opposition or addition to Yahweh Elohim -- “I am that I am, the Almighty God.”

But in the face of such grinding daily assaults against the King and His Law, we have hope and a solid place to stand as we consider the once-for-all work of the One Who made manifest the wisdom and strength of our God in worldly weakness, foolishness and innocence. Christ’s completed work of salvation truly strengthens and empowers the Father’s prohibition of idolatry.

Now it is time for us to move on to a deeper look at God’s nature, His universal claim upon us and the empowerment He gives to us through Christ’s completed work of redemption.

Our review of the Second Commandment throughout Covenant History, from Genesis to Revelation, shows us that the one God of the universe sets the terms and conditions of a permanent agreement with those whom He calls to faith so that a continuing friendship can be maintained. He seals this agreement in the foundations of the friendship, redemption and salvation He has already delivered to those who approach Him in faith with a willingness to keep the covenant. He is our God and He chooses and calls us to be His special people.

We respond to the truth, grace and love of His offer by embracing Him as our only hope in life and in death, and by acknowledging in head and heart our total dependence upon Him as Creator, King and Loving Parent. We must respond to Him on His terms; not on our own.

To do otherwise is akin to having a signed sales contract with the car dealer and the banker. I know I must pay cash each month for the continued possession and use of the automobile. If I suddenly decide to pay several — or even one — monthly installment with farm-fresh roaster chickens because I "just know down in the cockles of my heart" that “everyone loves fried chicken”, I will find myself in a tight spot legally. Beyond that, I soon will be car-less when the re-possession agent catches up with me.

Similarly, the groom who makes vows to love, honor, cherish and support his new wife so long as she stays pretty, keeps a convenient schedule and is willing to make the marriage a three-some will find himself retrieving his teeth from the aisle right after he's regained consciousness.

God is even more demanding (and certainly not less) of His Chosen faithful than that banker is of the buyer, or the bride of her new husband. He has an inherent right to determine and designate not just the person of our worship, but also the manner and form. We may not willy-nilly determine for ourselves that we will worship God with pretty pictures or pretty words, nor may we decide that we will glorify Him in whatever fashion we see fit.

And this command is further strengthened, and we to keep it, by the Advent of God’s own Son. God has given us the only image we will ever need to worship. It is His own "Spitting Image", the only-begotten Son. Christ Jesus is the only acceptable image for worship and service. Apart from Him, as revealed to us in scripture, we are unable to create anything acceptable to God. And that knowledge IS available to us. As Paul teaches in Romans 1:16 -32, we know God's will — truly, if not fully, because in creation He engraved His own image upon us, and this is what makes our idolatries so pitiable. When we rebel against the truth that is so apparent to us and create idols to serve, it is our attempt to etch out and deface that engraved image of God stamped upon each of us when we were born and replace it with another of our own making.

Millions every day do precisely this, and it is called “suppressing the truth” which means that we actively hold it down and cover it over. It is the ultimate game of "cover-up" and the and a virulent form of ignorance. It is similar in nature but far more serious than diving under water and attempting to stay there. I can suppress the truth of my own need for air, but this can only lead to my death. Similarly, I can reject my own God-created existence (and by extension, that of everyone, and everything else around me) but this doesn't change who or what I have been created to be. It merely defaces and devalues it. Ultimately it means that I will treat everyone and everything else accordingly.

But, in His love and grace God has given us His Son who came in innocence to seek and save the lost, to break and banish idols and recover God’s defaced image in us. We must embrace the truth. We must put away our idols and idolatry. We must see and cling to the truth God gave to Moses and eternally confirmed in Christ Jesus.

Grace & Peace,
Pastor Rusty+