God’s Hard-Crust Sandwich

 

Most of you know that I have the very high privilege of teaching Christian’s old class in Systematic Theology. It’s called “From God to Gone;”  Or from the “Doctrine of God” to the “Doctrine of being Gone:  Eschatology.”

 

Every time I re-teach that class, my temperature rises as we approach Soteriology:  the doctrines of Salvation; the Gospel.  The Gospel is News too good to be true.  The Gospel is purest comfort and rest and peace.  Nobody could even believe the Gospel if the Holy Spirit didn’t create the miracle of belief in their soul.  It is just too good to be true.  There just is no bad news to the Good News.

 

But this delicious core, this soft center of delight and pleasure and security is bracketed by hard sayings.

 

Not too long ago Christian preached about Truths that can only be known in tension.  Remember his Power-Point drawings of the Golden Gate Bridge…?  The Gospel is one such truth. It is preceded by hard; rock-hard sayings, and followed by some tough, hard-crust issues.  These harder realities are dynamic opposites; not contradictions.

 

And here’s the first dynamic tension right off the top:  the Good News itself makes no sense whatsoever except in the constant presence of The Bad News.  Only in the dynamic tension between the two is the Good News good.  Salvation is only really good news if Condemnation to Hell is its surrounding milieu.  When the two are seen together, the Good News is GOOD.  And the bad news is bad; but they need each other to be rational. To get stuck in either polarity is to be religiously aberrant or worse.

 

So let’s look at all three:  Bad News, GOOD NEWS!  Hard Sayings--tough crusty chewing.

 

PRAYER         Father, You are the Ultimate Realist, and the only believable Utopian.  You have given us OUTRIGHT Your Precious Son, the Bible, The Gospel, Redemption, and even Eternal, Everlasting, Deathless Life.  Life Forevermore.  This is too good for belief.  Your Spirit must create it in us, and we spend decades trying to appropriate it afterwards -- mind and emotions. Bless our thinking together this morning so we see Truth in its living dynamics and balances, so we know how to do the Easy, Light Yoke, and its dynamic opposite:  the Way of the Cross.  The darkness of this adversarial culture is closing in fast, and we need to be strong.  Amen.

 

                                                THE FIRST BAD NEWS

 

The world is controlled by lies.  In our Theology class we try to make a list;  a constellation of them to see how our culture has doomed itself.  One of the commonest lies out there today is that human beings are good, in fact, more than good; they are Divine!;  they are gods!  They have just forgotten who they really are.  People will be OK and do OK once they truly realize this lost truth.  This is a disgusting Lie.

 

The Gospel is bracketed by Bad News.  The first bad news that the Devil does not want the world to know is that man, created in God’s Image, and fabulously, wonderfully made and valuable, has ingested a virus that affects everything he does, and now even his prayers are sin-laden.  Far from forgetting he’s a god, man has forgotten that Satan is his father, and he is a son-of-the-devil. Man has fallen from a great height, and sin has poisoned everything.  Nothing is now the way it’s supposed to be. 

 

Just a moment’s reflection on what things sin has defiled helps.  Look at music, $, pleasure, sex, marriage, history (I’ve been reading Josephus and Bishop James Ussher; two men who chronicle the ancient histories.  It is foul tale!  The annals of the old world are terrible.  I wonder why they bothered to preserve them!)  Look what sin has done to the family and child-rearing, to education, to medicine, Psychology, women, men, Religion!  (Look at all the nutty religions we generate!  Talmudic Judaism, Mohammedanism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Pantheism)  …to Christianity. To cities.  To animals, to you-name-it.

 

Because of the universal and incurable defilement of sin, Man must now face Two Deaths: Physical and Spiritual;  Death and Hell.  This is very Bad News.  Man does not know where he came from,  or where he is headed, or why he is going about doing all he does:  meaning and purpose are gone absolutely. He is suspended in black space over a fathomless abyss;  Man is truly lost-in-space; lost to God, to hope, to even himself.  The nether crust of this very difficult sandwich is very hard, indeed. This is the milieu of the beginning of the Gospel.  Into this scene of Hopeless Despair comes The True Light.

 

                                                            GOOD NEWS!

                                                   (The Soft, Delicious center)

 

The Gospel is like a meaty, delicious center in a sandwich made of crusts, tough ones.

 

The Gospel is pure Good News.  It is free, rich, gentle, holy, pure, comforting, lovely, soft, protective, secure, happy, amazing, and as I stated earlier; too good to be true.  It requires a miracle to believe it.

 

In the Gospel God sees The Despair and acts.  He takes the blame and the punishment we deserve; eliminating the horror of the Second Death. He gives His Very Best to us.  He loves and pursues us. He calls us individually to Himself.  As His Son said later:  “You didn’t chose me, I chose you.”  He elects us, chooses us, spots and picks and selects us by hand!  He pardons us for being human and fallen, and accepts us with all our faults and tendencies and inclinations and propensities and weaknesses and habits, and even our besetting sins! (When’s the last time you read the Seven Deadly Sins:  Pride, Greed [Covetousness], Lust, Sloth, Envy, Anger, Gluttony.)  Before He adopts us and marries us He knows all the little and large betrayals we need pre-forgiveness for; and we get it! Forgiven for things we haven’t even done yet!  He washes us, clothes us, enrobing us in glorious spiritual arraignment like Christ’s.  He feeds us, makes us nap and sleep and rest.  He wants us comforted, secure.  The soft Gospel core is spiritual childhood and non-responsibility.  His son warned us to become like little children for whom Somebody Else does everything!

 

The inner core of this large truth is a glowing warmth and light.  To be assured of all this happiness is a great spiritual achievement and the Gospel’s central call.  The gospel really is a light and easy yoke.

 

In the gospel we are pardoned, justified (just-if-I’d- never sinned!).  My hopeless moral indebtedness is paid off 100%.

 

There may be a momentary start of alarm if the little children of God hear Him say they must be perfect, but it is quickly stilled and even makes the comfort more wonderful.  The perfection needed has been granted outright, deeded, given, handed over gratis to the sons of God: imputed, reckoned, credited, attributed, declared.   We are chosen, and sought, and called, and adopted, and washed, and clothed and fed.  We are taught to rest and to sleep, and to abandon all worry over ourselves. We are Saved and Sanctified and Glorified.  It is OVER.  Done.  Finished.  It is Christianity’s central tenet.  Sola Fide.  By Faith Alone: and the Faith in Him is something He did in us and for us.  Belief in Christ Jesus is always a wonder and a miracle.

 

The Gospel is a perpetual place of love and happiness.  We are saved; for free, sans the obligations of work.  It is Home.  It is Peace.  Rest. Happiness.  It is Mary’s heaven, not Martha’s Kitchen.  Mary sat enraptured and full of joy.  Martha labored.  Jesus said Mary was doing the ONE THING NECESSARY! She was resting in Christ, in the Pardon, in the Gospel, in the peaceful center.  In the delicious middle.  (Read the selected Scriptures.)

 

                                                   THE UPPER  CRUST

 

Ever seen a mom watching children at play, and one of them gets hurt?  He comes crying to his mom who picks him and presses him to her bosom.  If he’s hurt bad enough, he may cry long and then actually fall asleep.  Pure childhood comforts. Gospel.

 

After a while he may wake and glance quickly at the other children, and turn his head back into his mother’s comfort.  But then he steals a second glance.  Then he looks balefully upon his comrades, glowering.  And after a bit merely distractedly.  And then with dawning interest. And suddenly he’s off her lap, and running into the fray thinking he’ll not get hurt this time in all THAT fun!  He’s not a baby anymore, he’s a warrior.

 

For most Christians God wants a normal life. He wants a good marriage, and decent career, sufficient income to tithe and maybe a bit more.  He approves of modest indulgence in pleasures and travel and possessions.  It’s the normal way.

 

But there are not a few in the church who have nothing turn out.  I was talking to someone who just lost her job.  And to one whose marriage is most painful (tell stories)  Their Christian childhood nursery has turned out to be a dangerous military campaign.

 

I showed this sermon to Christian a couple of weeks ago, and he changed my crusts around, and commented that to many Christians, the delicious, gospel center is the whole story, and they feel they’ve been handed a wonderful, open-faced sandwich.  “But then,” he said, “slips in the issue of HOLINESS and the picture changes.”

 

So we know that this Salvation and Comfort we have has consequences.  It has dynamics.  It has dynamic opposites. If the Gospel is free (and it is), it may cost me everything.  If God accepts me just the way I am; He also will not leave me that way.  If I am adopted and fed, I am also disciplined and trained.  If God wants me to rest and sleep well, He also wants me to sweat and perform aerobic output.  If He has given me all, He may expect Sacrifice back.  If He has given me righteousness and sanctification by mere imputation, reckoning, crediting, attribution, He may want me to implement in fact what I am by decree.

 

If God wants me to be his baby and His child; His toddler; He also wants me to be his adolescent, graduate, adult, champion and, yes, even martyr.

 

If He has given His All, then He may ask me if He’s more important than my health, or career, or marriage, property, plans, dreams, or reputation.  And if I say He is more important, then He may test the veracity of my words by affecting one or all of them.

 

So the Gospel is primarily and centrally Rest, but it requests (demands) Holiness.  It is pure Grace, but Law, too.  Comfort’s first, but Sacrifice may follow.  Pleasure and Self-Denial, too.  Quietness and Labor. Security and huge risk.  The blessed relief of Babyhood, coupled with the possibility of martyrdom. Doubleness.  Truths in Tension. Love and Fear.  Joy in Sorrow.  Strength in Weakness, Dignity in Disgrace, Riches in Poverty, Life in Death.

 

Since we have Eternal Life, He may count this life forfeit.  He has the right.

 

Scriptural phrases and expressions that come to mind:  “taking up the cross, faith without works, laying down my life, receiving punishment as sons, rejoicing in affliction, not my will but thine, conformity to Christ in his death, suffering for the sake of the Name, the fellowship of His sufferings,” and many more.

 

The Good News is, indeed, followed by some tough, crusty after-words.

 

I made a list of some tough words:  disappointment, loss, discouragement, mistakes, set-backs, frustrations, aggravations, defeats, failures, weariness, rejection, insult, pain, illness, injury, delay, back-tracking, repeating, being fooled, forgetting, hurry, confusion, embarrassment, shock, shame, and on and on.

 

What indeed do we do with such things!?  “So What?” as they say here in the Chapel.

 

                                                  CHEWING HARDTACK

 

The Scriptures are clear.  We are to gladly welcome hardships; welcome them all as from a wise and loving Father’s hand. All.  Nothing can get through to us except by His permission.  Look at Job. Scripture weighs them all as “light and momentary afflictions” working an Eternal Weight of Glory for us.

 

Christ Jesus did not come to have a Life or Career or gain a Dynasty.

 

He came to die.  We should imitate Him in this as much as He wills for us individually. He will give us as much of a life as He thinks best, and it is up to us to be delighted in His will with what remains.  I am not promoting passivity here, but submission. Nothing can come to us without His wise and loving foresight. The world says “Get a Life!”  The Gospel says “Get a Death.“

 

It is only for a short time that Faith must be tested and toughened.  Tested Faith gets greatly inflated Rewards:  Glory forever, Ease forever, Peace forever, Joy, wealth, position, security, comfort, strength, vigor, holiness; Glory!  FOREVER.

 

So listen to an old lesson from the DeuteroCanonical book; the Apocrypha.  This is the Book of Sirach.  Chapter 2. (Read.)

 

                                    My son, when you come to

                                                Serve the Lord,

                                    Prepare Yourself for trials.

                                    Be sincere of heart and steadfast

                                                Undisturbed in time of

                                                            Adversity.

                                    Cling to Him, forsake Him not;

                                                Thus will your future be great.

                                    Accept whatever befalls you,

                                                In crushing misfortune be

                                                            Patient;

                                    For in fire gold is tested,

                                                And worthy men in the

                                                            Crucible of humiliation.

                                    Trust God and He will help you;

                                                Make straight your ways and

                                                            Hope in Him.

 

Kiss the rod.

 

                                                THE GOSPEL CENTRE

 

God loves me.  I cannot understand why.  He has proven it innumerable times.  It is true.  I believe it.  He loves you, too.  This is His Central Gospel Message.  Abide in His Love.  Abide in His Word.  Abide in His Gospel.

 

Learn how to sit down and indulge in God or walk and indulge in God, or drive. Indulge in Rest, in Comfort.  Learn how to accept all hardship.  But even more learn how to seek God and enjoy Him, and feed on His pure-grace Gospel.  Learn how to thrill to truth like Mary did and Martha didn’t.  Purest Pleasure!  Spend time in the Book, and acquire a taste for it.  Know how to dwell “in the Heavenlies.”  Learn how to pray long and true and wisely until He lets You in.  God “kisses” us.  Learn how to greatly enjoy and remember each time.  Keep a list!

 

Don’t go to bed at night.  Instead, climb into the Everlasting Arms and surrendering all worry and responsibility and ambition, sink down into unconsciousness and total security. If you have had to be courageous and strong all day, surrender it up to a child’s release.

 

The Gospel calls us primarily to Rest and Pleasure.  We need to learn these skills.  It also calls us to losing our life.  Do it willingly, trustingly.  There are two honed skills here.  1) Learning how to enjoy Him in absolute peace.  Learning that He Himself is our Exceedingly Great Reward, and our Portion in this life and the next. 2) Learning how to take the difficult.

 

Sing, pray, study alone and together, remember.  Mind the checks.  Follow the impulse of love and wisdom.  Seek God, find God, Live off Him.  Make Him the first priority of life.  Set time aside.  Keep a journal….  Go to Him in the morning first thing, and the last a night.

 

One last note.  God is Trinity.  We enjoy the Father differently than the Son or Spirit.  Jesus relates to us delightfully and differently than how  the Spirit or Father does.  We have triple comforts!  Each unique!

 

Psalm 119: 49 & 50 puts it all in one place:  “Remember the Word (of the Gospel) to Your servant, Upon which You have cause me to hope.  This is my comfort in my affliction, For Your Word has given me life.”  Both things in one place:  the hard, the soft;  the comfort the trials.

 

Christianity is so sane, so balanced, so able to cope with reality!  It is so reasonable, so fair, so believable  ---  so not-nutz!  We just can’t lose!  Everything works together for our good!

After eating all the hard delicious sandwich, it ends in total positive ness forever

 

PRAYER

 

Oh, Father, Oh, Jesus.  Hear us by Your Spirit.  We need Your love.  We need Your comfort.  We need a Good Word that is Totally Good News.  We are poor and weak. Take us into Your Eternal, Your Everlasting Care;  into Your Heaven.  But we’re adults, too, and need constant correction and guidance.  Help us be Little.  Help us grow up.  Help us know how to do the right amount of both dynamics every single day.  Our need for both is absolute.  Amen.