Maney’s Musings

We sat down to table and the officer began his story: “I have served in the army ever since I was quite young. I knew my duties and was a favorite of my superiors as a conscientious officer. But I was young, as were also my friends, and unhappily I started drinking. It went from bad to worse until drinking became an illness. When I did not drink, I was a good officer, but when I would start drinking, then I would have to go to bed for six weeks. My superiors were patient with me for a long time, but finally, for rudeness to the commanding officer while I was drunk, they reduced my rank to private and transferred me to a garrison for three years. They threatened me with more severe punishment if I would not improve and give up drinking. In this unfortunate condition all my efforts at self-control were of no avail and I could not stay sober for any length of time. Then I heard that I was to be sent to the guardhouse and I was beside myself with anguish.

“One day I was sitting in the barracks deep in thought. A monk came in to beg alms for the church. Those who had money gave what they could. When he approached me he asked, ‘Why are you so downcast?’ We started talking and I told him the cause of my grief. The monk sympathized with my situation and said, ‘My brother was once in a similar position, and I will tell you how he was cured. His spiritual father gave him a copy of the Gospels and strongly urged him to read a chapter whenever he wanted to take a drink. If the desire for a drink did not leave him after he read one chapter he was encouraged to read another and if necessary still another. My brother followed this advice, and after some time he lost all desire for alcoholic beverages. It is now fifteen years since he has touched a drop of alcohol. Why don’t you do the same, and you will discover how beneficial the reading of the Gospels can be. I have a copy at home and will gladly bring it to you.’

“I wasn’t very open to this idea so I objected, ‘How can your Gospels help when neither my efforts at selfcontrol nor medical aid could keep me sober?’ I spoke in this way because I never read the Gospels.

“‘Give it a chance,’ continued the monk reassuringly, ‘and you will find it very helpful.’

“The next day he brought me this copy of the Gospels. I opened it, browsed through it, and said, ‘I will not take it, for I cannot understand it; I am not accustomed to reading Church Slavonic.’

“The monk did not give up but continued to encourage me and explained that God’s special power is present in the Gospel through his words. He went on, ‘At the beginning be concerned only with reading it diligently; understanding will come later. One holy man says that “even when you don’t understand the word of God, the demons do, and they tremble”; and the passion for drink is without a doubt their work. And St. John Chrysostom in speaking about the power of the word of God says that the very room where the Gospel is kept has the power to ward off the spirits of darkness and thwart their intrigues.’

“I do not recall what I gave the monk when I took the copy of the Gospels from him, but I placed the book in my trunk with my other belongings and forgot about it. Some time later a strong desire to have a drink took hold of me and I opened the trunk to get some money and run to the tavern. But I saw the copy of the Gospels before I got to the money and I remembered clearly what the monk had told me. I opened the book and read the first chapter of Matthew without understanding anything. Again I remembered the monk’s words, ‘At the beginning be concerned only with reading it diligently; understanding will come later.’ So I read another chapter and found it a bit more comprehensible. Shortly after I began reading the third chapter, the curfew bell rang and it was no longer possible for me to leave the barracks.

“In the morning my first thought was to get a drink, but then I decided to read another chapter to see what would happen. I read it and did not go. Again I wanted a drink, but I started reading and I felt better. This gave me courage, and with every temptation for a drink I began reading a chapter from the Gospels. The more I read, the easier it became, and when I finally finished reading all four Gospels the compulsion for drink had disappeared completely; I was repelled by the very thought of it. It is now twenty years since I stopped drinking alcoholic beverages.

“Everyone was surprised at the change that took place in me, and after three years I was reinstated as an officer and then climbed up the ranks until I was made a commanding officer. Later I married a fine woman; we have saved some money, which we now share with the poor. Now I have a grown son who is a fine lad and he also is an officer in the army.”

—From The Way of a Pilgrim

Years ago when I first read this piece, it made a deep and lasting impression on me. Because of its power as a story, I will generally refrain from commenting on it because it speaks for itself. I would simply point out two things: (1) the sin does not have to be alcohol abuse, it can be any kind of fleshly or spiritual sin; and (2) the story does NOT negate the transformative power of Christ working through his Body, the Church. There is no such thing as an isolate Christian and we are called to love each other and hold each other accountable in our lives.

What about you? Do you believe the Gospel has the power to transform you? Have you experienced the transforming power of the Gospel? Share your stories so that we might watch over each other in love.

Sermon delivered Sunday, June 29, 2008 at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Lewis Center, OH.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Genesis 22:1-14; Romans 6:12-23; Matthew 10:40-42; Psalm 13.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

What’s the Human Condition?

In today’s OT lesson we are confronted with the uncomfortable fact that sometimes our faith and character get tested and we generally don’t like that, do we, especially when it is God who is testing (not tempting) us. In the Genesis account, God ostensibly demands the life of Abraham’s beloved son, Isaac, but because we know how the story ends and the writer lets us in on the purpose of God’s request at the beginning of the story, it is easy for us to miss its important lessons because we read it with 20-20 hindsight. Yet stop for a moment and try to put yourself into Abraham’s shoes (or sandals) as the story unfolds. You are happily living out your life and enjoying fellowship with this God who has called you out to be the father of many nations, who has delivered to you and your wife a miracle baby, and has promised to make your descendants more numerous than the stars (Gen. 15:5). Then one day disaster strikes. This God who has made all these promises to you suddenly demands the life of your only beloved son, the very son whom God had promised and delivered to you when you were over 100 and your wife was in her 90s and well past her childbearing years.

The writer does not tell us how Abraham felt or what he thought when God told him to sacrifice Isaac, but it is not hard for us to imagine because we have all been confronted with moments like this. Being human, Abraham must have felt initially shock and disbelief. Perhaps later he felt fear and anger or maybe Abraham wondered what he had done to deserve this punishment. Despite being known later as the Father of all who have faith (Romans 4:16), Abraham might have remembered that both he and his wife, Sarah, had initially laughed at God’s promise to give them a son in their advanced age (Genesis 17:17; 18:12). He might have remembered further that they had both become impatient with God to deliver on his promise and had taken matters into their own hands when he fathered Ishmael through Sarah’s slave girl, Hagar. So now maybe the chickens were coming home to roost and God was going to punish him for doubting (but not disbelieving) his promises. No, it is not hard for us to imagine Abraham might have had some of these thoughts and fears because they are the very same thoughts and fears we have when disaster strikes in our lives. We also hear these sentiments echoed in the first half of today’s psalm.

Even if we do not know for sure what Abraham thought, we do know what he did, and what he did ultimately required him to have faith and trust in God. The Genesis writer tells us that Abraham immediately obeyed God’s command because he got up early in the morning and set out with two of his servants and Isaac to go to the place God told him to go. He didn’t delay or stall or protest to God; he acted. Note carefully what he told his servants once they arrived: “Stay here and we will come back to you.” Now it is entirely possible that Abraham was just trying to trick his servants so as not to tip his hand regarding what he was going to do. But we get a further insight into Abraham’s faith which seems to indicate Abraham was not trying to deceive to his servants when Isaac asked him where was the lamb to be used for the burnt offering. Abraham replied that God would provide the lamb for the offering. He did not say, “You are going to be the sacrificial lamb, son. Sorry about your bad luck, kid; I’m just obeying orders.” No, he told Isaac that God would provide. Abraham then bound Isaac and prepared to kill him. He must have been very close to doing so because the angel of the Lord urgently called his name twice to stop him. Despite whatever feelings and misgivings Abraham had, in the end he did what God had asked him to do, even if it meant losing the most precious thing in his life. Abraham had passed the test. However, what is more important from our perspective, so had God.

Where’s God’s Grace?

But why did God test Abraham in the first place? After all, if God is all knowing, surely he knew if Abraham had faith and trusted in him. The answer, in part, lies in what Abraham did. Despite his fears and misgivings—and because he was human he surely had them—Abraham trusted God and obeyed him, and in doing so allowed God to prove himself to be trustworthy. The issue is not whether God knew if Abraham had faith in him and trusted him but rather did Abraham really know if God was trustworthy? In other words, the test was really for Abraham’s benefit, not God’s. Abraham had to experience for himself that God was trustworthy and it is only in dire situations that trustworthiness can be truly verified.

I was talking to a friend the other day about his Vietnam war experience. He talked about being battle tested, which enabled him to learn what he was made of. He certainly did not like being shot at or having to endure the extremes of combat, but in so enduring, he learned what he was made of. Likewise, in our own suffering, it is only when we trust in the Lord to help us will we discover that he can be trusted. It is not fun but God can use our dark times to help us grow in our relationship with him.

How? Because trust is one of the essential components of any relationship and is based on intimacy. Therefore it is important for us to know God is trustworthy if we are ever going to have a real relationship with him. It is easy for us to trust in God when things are going well for us, isn’t it, and trust really isn’t earned during good times. In fact, when we enjoy God’s abundant blessings, we tend to get fat and sassy and forget that he is the source of all good things because we are fallen and rebellious creatures. It is exactly in those times that our relationship with God can suffer the most because we start to delude ourselves that we really do not need him to lead a happy and healthy life. No, unfortunately it is not until disaster strikes that we can really see if God is worthy of our trust because only then does God have a real opportunity to prove his trustworthiness which in turn can lead us to a more intimate relationship with him.

I have been reading the book of Numbers in the Daily Office recently and this lack of trust was the essential problem behind Israel’s sin. God had led them out of Egypt and provided them a mighty victory over Pharaoh (the good times). But now as they faced hardship in the desert, the people grew impatient with God and began to grumble against him and his servant Moses. In other words, when things got really tough, they failed to remember God’s mighty acts in their lives and as a result they did not trust God to fulfill his promises to them. Instead, they wanted to take matters into their own hands. As a result, God condemned that generation to wander in the desert for forty years until they had all died. God did fulfill his promise to his people, but not to the generation that failed to believe God’s promise and disobeyed him.

By contrast, when God asked Abraham to sacrifice Isaac, the very personification of God’s promise to him, Abraham trusted God and obeyed. As we’ve seen this does not mean that this was easy for Abraham to do. But the point is that by not losing faith in God and obeying him, Abraham was able to see that God was trustworthy. In Abraham’s darkest hour, God proved himself trustworthy.

We see the same dynamic in the Apostle Paul’s life. In 2 Corinthians 12, Paul tells a remarkable story about being afflicted with a “thorn in the flesh” and pleading with Jesus three times to end his suffering (2 Corinthians 12:8ff). The Greek word for pleading is “parakaleo,” which means to beg, and so we can conclude that Paul’s suffering was great indeed. Yet in the face of Paul’s terrible suffering, what was Jesus’ response? “My grace is sufficient for you for my power is made perfect in your weakness” (2 Corinthians 12:9). Paul then went on to make this remarkable statement: “That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in hardships, in persecution, and in difficulties; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10). Like Abraham, Paul had to struggle with his suffering and trust in the Lord to help him endure. And like Abraham, Paul learned that in his suffering he could count on the Lord to be trustworthy and good to his word. Be careful to note that Jesus did not grant Paul’s request to remove his suffering; instead, he promised Paul the power to deal with his suffering and in so doing, develop a more intimate relationship with the Source and Author of all life. Neither Abraham or Paul found it easy to deal with their dark times but because they trusted God to help them through their struggles, both found that God can be trusted because in their obedience to him, he earned their trust and in the process of earning his trust, their relationship with God deepened and became much more intimate. And if we think about it, this dynamic makes sense because after all, aren’t the things we value most in life the things for which we have to work the hardest to earn?

Where’s the Application?

Likewise, in our own experience as a congregation, we have seen that God can be trusted to help us through our suffering and dark times. Think back to last December. Those were dark days for our congregation. Fr. Ron had been inhibited and we were looking at having to find a new place to worship. Who among us could have imagined this glorious outcome? But it was precisely during those dark times that we had an opportunity to trust God to deliver us and he did—in spades! This knowledge of God’s trustworthiness will also help us in our mission work. God has planted us here in a fertile mission field and woe be to us if we do not go fishing. How much greater our ability to speak of what God has done for us because we had the faith to trust him during the darkest hours of our congregation’s history?

On a more personal level, I can remember the dark days of last spring and summer when it looked like my call to the priesthood would never be realized and I confess that I was sorely tempted to quit. But ultimately I did not; instead I chose to trust in God to fulfill his call to me to become a priest. And when I was ordained, those dark days made my ordination that much sweeter!

So what can we learn from all this? First, trust has to be earned and requires intimacy. As Christians, we need to be reading our Bibles each day and praying. When we do so we can gain a more intimate knowledge of God’s character, his promises, and his mighty deeds and acts. It helps us to remember Whose we are, who God is, and what he wants us to do to walk with him faithfully. Faith always seeks understanding and the daily disciplines of prayer and Bible reading are a good place to start. If we do not know how and why God is trustworthy, we will not likely be able to trust him as we must if we desire to have a real relationship with him.

Second, Scripture constantly exhorts us to remember God and his mighty acts. Abraham likely did that when God asked him to sacrifice Isaac. Paul reminds us in Romans 4 that Abraham put his trust in the God who gives life to the dead and calls thing into existence that are not (Romans 4:17). On his way to sacrifice Isaac, Abraham surely remembered God’s mighty act in blessing an old, barren couple with a son, just as he promised he would do. Remembering God’s mighty acts and past trustworthiness helps us trust him in present times when we don’t have the benefit of 20-20 hindsight.

Last, we need to get into small groups so that we can forge intimate relationships with our fellow Christians. Doing so allows God to use human agency to minister to us during our dark hours and this helps prevent Satan from picking us off one by one when he exploits our broken and fallen natures in the midst of our suffering and darkest hours.

I would like to close by sharing with you how I am trying to practice what I’ve just preached. I share this story because I do not know how it is going to turn out—and it could turn out to be very, very bad—which I hope will make it that much more relevant for you [testimony about my struggles with mom’s illness].

What about you? When disaster strikes or suffering occurs in your life, which it inevitably will, in part because we live in a broken and fallen world, will you seek to learn and obey God’s will for you? Will you trust him enough to allow his grace to work in you to allow you to do what you consider to be impossible? Trusting God in our darkest hours will not guarantee us a “happy outcome.” What it will do is allow us to see that if we trust God during our darkest times, he will enable us to persevere and grow in our relationship with him. It will enable us to see that we are not alone in our struggles nor do we have to come up with our own solutions. The Christian faith is no self-help solution and that is why God reminds us to fear not because he is with us in any and every situation, especially those that are darkest. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

Sermon delivered at St. Andrew’s Anglican Church, Westerville, OH, Sunday, April 6, 2008.

If you would like to listen to the whole sermon, click here.

Lectionary texts: Acts 2:14a, 36-41; 1 Peter 1:17-23; Luke 24:13-35; Psalm 116:1-3, 10-17.

What’s the Human Condition?

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen.

In today’s gospel lesson, Luke paints for us one of the most poignant scenes in all the Bible. Two followers of Jesus, Cleopas and his companion, are walking along the road to Emmaus and they are despondent. The most wonderful person they had ever known and in whom they had put their hopes and dreams had been crucified as a common criminal. He was indisputably dead and buried and now they felt quite alone. Not only were they grieving Jesus’ death, they were dealing with their own violated expectations. Instead of redeeming Israel in the way they expected—probably hoping he was going to free Israel from its bondage to Rome—Jesus had gotten himself crucified and they were devastated.

While they were sharing their hurt and brokenness with each other, Jesus “came near and went with them” but they did not recognize him. The verb Luke uses for recognize is “epiginoœskoœœ,” which means more than to just recognize someone by his or her physical appearance. Epiginoœskoœœ means to know something or someone fully, or to understand, the kind of knowledge that results from a deep and intimate relationship with someone. Luke does not tell us how they were prevented from recognizing Jesus but it does not stretch our imagination to believe that one of the reasons was because they were so self-absorbed in their own hurt and problems.

Jesus quickly got them to talk about what was on their hearts and minds and then Luke tells us just how fully the two misunderstood Jesus and the recent events surrounding him. Their faces downcast, the disciples told Jesus of their shattered hopes and dreams about him being a prophet and redeemer of Israel. That the two called Jesus a prophet is significant because in the biblical context a prophet was one who “speaks for God and interprets his will for [humankind]” (Lasor, Hubbard, and Bush, p. 221). This, of course, would have given anyone thought to be a prophet immense authority because he or she was speaking for God and could therefore be trusted to tell the truth. The prophet’s words would surely be believable but apparently Cleopas and his companion did not quite understand so that they could believe.

Then the two told Jesus an even more amazing story about an empty tomb and Jesus being alive that they had heard earlier in the day from women who had visited Jesus’ tomb. The verb Luke uses for amazed means literally to be driven out of one’s senses and we don’t have to try very hard to understand how a story like this, if really taken seriously, would drive us out of our senses. After all, how many people have we seen raised from the dead?

In telling the story up to this point, then, Luke hits a resonant note with us, doesn’t he? If we have lived long enough, we know all too well about shattered hopes and dreams and how they can make us and our eyes look downcast so that we feel quite alone in the world. Whatever the cause—a broken relationship, the death of a loved one, financial hardship, illness or unanswered prayer—we can relate all too well to Cleopas and his companion when they said, “We had hoped…but now…”

Where’s God’s Grace?

Yet it is to the glory of the God who loves us and gave himself for us that this is not the end of the story. God did not leave Cleopas and his companion as they were nor does he leave us the way we are. What did Jesus do to help his two despondent disciples? Luke tells us that Jesus admonished the two for being slow to understand and believe. But notice that even though Jesus admonished the two, he stayed with them and helped them understand so that later they recalled their hearts burned within them as he opened the scriptures to them. Luke seems to be reminding us here that Jesus is present in believers’ lives regardless of whether we are aware of that presence or even understand fully how he manifests himself to us. Jesus is with us when our hearts are on fire because we recognize his presence and even when we are feeling defeated and quite alone in the world.

Jesus then interpreted the scriptures for them so that they would finally understand that he was called to be a suffering Messiah. In other words, Jesus seemed to be saying to them (and us) that if we are going to make him the basis of our hope (and we should), then we must know what that basis is (the cross). He further reminds them (and us) that scripture is the most important way to help us understand Jesus as the basis of our hope and that if we are to really understand scripture, we must submit ourselves to its authority. Why? Because as Peter reminds us in today’s epistle lesson, the word of God is enduring and living; it has the power to give us life because it comes from God, the Source and Author of all life. We must not try to put scripture under our authority and make it say what we want it to say because we do not have life in us; and when we do, then we are attempting to put death over life and can never come to learn and recognize Jesus in our midst.

Last, it is noteworthy that Cleopas and his companion did not recognize Jesus until they were enjoying fellowship with him at table. This echoes Jesus’ promise in Matthew that where two or three are gathered in his name, there he will be in the midst of them (Matt. 18:20) and here we see a gospel writer joining others in the NT in emphasizing the importance of table fellowship in knowing Jesus. It is from this passage, in part, that we Anglicans find the basis for our glorious way of worship each Sunday in Word and Sacrament.

Where’s the Application?

So what application does the Emmaus story have for us today? First, if we are to take seriously Paul’s admonition to grow to the full stature of Christ (Ephesians 4:13), i.e., to be like Christ, then we must learn what is the mind and will of Christ so that we will better recognize him in our midst. In the process of becoming like Christ, our job is not to ask, “What would Jesus do?” but rather to ask, “What would Jesus have us do?” To learn the mind of Christ so that we can become like him, we must do what Jesus did for Cleopas and his companion—search and correctly interpret the scriptures—because he understood scripture to be the living and breathing word of God. Consequently, we need to read the Bible regularly because it is God’s word to us and it is essential for our Christian maturity. Simply put, it will help us better understand the mind of Christ so that we can be more like him and this understanding will help us better recognize his presence in our lives. We have seen in today’s gospel lesson that Jesus thought so and we have also seen in today’s epistle lesson that Peter believed God’s word to be living and enduring, able to produce the results God wants.

This leads us to our second lesson from the Emmaus story. If we are to read scripture regularly we must humble ourselves and expect God to speak to and work in us when we do. This was the mistake of Cleopas and his companion. They apparently tried to make scripture say what they wanted it to say rather than expecting to be transformed by reading it. Otherwise, why would Jesus have scolded them for being slow to believe what the prophets had declared about himself? In essence Jesus said to them, “Why are your eyes downcast in the midst of this joyous occasion? If you knew what the prophets said, those who spoke and interpreted God’s word, then you would have known this was going to happen and you would have expected my death and resurrection and would not now be sad,” i.e., “you would have joy even in the midst of your own personal sense of loss!”

We see this dynamic echoed in today’s NT lesson. Peter urged the Israelites to repent and be baptized and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit so that the Spirit could help them do the things they needed to do to be saved from the corrupt generation in which they lived. These three voices in today’s lessons represent the consistent Voice we hear in the Bible: we cannot save ourselves; we are only saved by God’s grace and enduring presence in us by the power of his Word and Holy Spirit. Christianity is not a self-help religion; it is a God-empowered religion. Thanks be to God!

When you read God’s word, do you read it with a sense of anticipation that the Holy Spirit living in you is using it to help transform you into being like Christ each day and help you better recognize him in your midst? Or are you more like Cleopas and his companion, walking down the road of your life with your face and eyes downcast so that you cannot recognize the Risen Lord walking with you because you do not know who or what to look for? Early last week I was helped to understand this truth when Jesus enlightened me [personal testimony on calling Ron, my prep for Paul, and my reading of Wesley, mindset and mind set]. When you read scripture with the expectation that you will grow in your understanding of Jesus and his will for you, your hearts will burn within you because he will give you the desires of your heart (Ps. 37:4).

Finally, the Emmaus story reminds us about the importance of being real in the midst of Christian fellowship. While they were on the road to Emmaus, Cleopas and his companion at least had the wherewithal, or perhaps the grace, to talk about their hurts and fears with each other; they didn’t try to tough it out on their own or pretend like nothing was wrong. They were also real enough to share their shattered hopes and dreams with a perfect stranger, and humble enough to listen to someone whom they instinctively knew had the authority and power to help them. Doing so allowed Jesus to help them gain a fuller understanding of scripture and himself so that their hearts burned within them.

What about you? Do you need help in reading the Bible daily or perhaps interpreting it so that you understand it better and be transformed by it? If you do, then the Emmaus story reminds us of the importance of joining a small group for purposeful Bible study and regular Christian fellowship. While it is true that God works in us through the Holy Spirit to help us gain a fuller understanding of his word and purposes for us, it is also true that God uses other humans to accomplish the same, just as Jesus helped the two disciples on the road to Emmaus. If you are having trouble in establishing good disciplinary habits like daily Bible reading, join a disciple group and ask its members to help you. If you are having difficulty interpreting scripture, ask a mature Christian friend or someone you trust in your group, or one of your pastors for some suggestions about a good Bible study or commentary, depending where you are in your journey. The more you are willing to access people and resources to help you in your daily Bible reading, the better you will understand. And the better you understand, the easier it will be for you to recognize the Risen Christ in your daily life. I do not know exactly how this all works but I know it does work because it is my testimony and the testimony of millions of Christians over time and across culture that it does.

Are you content to walk through life with your face and eyes downcast or do you want to have your hearts burn within you because you know that the Lord is risen and really present with you? The choice is yours. He stands ready to help you wherever you are in your journey. How do we know this? Because he has spoken to us through the law, the prophets, through scripture, and most importantly, he has taken on our flesh and given us this promise directly through Jesus, the Word. That’s good news now and for all eternity.

In the name of God: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Amen.

As we enter this season of Lent, it seems to me that the following prayer from William Barclay is quite appropriate. Without the authoritative and reliable Word of God, we are left mainly to our own devices in all our fallen and sinful brokenness. May you find his prayer edifying as you begin your own season of self-reflection.

O God, we thank you for all those in whose words and in whose writings your truth has come to us.

For the historians, the psalmists, and the prophets, who wrote the Old Testament.

For those who wrote the Gospels and the Letters of the New Testament;

For all who in every generation have taught and explained and expounded and preached the word of Scripture;

We thank you, O God.

Grant, O God, that no false teaching may ever have any power to deceive us or to seduce us from the truth.

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any teaching which would encourage us to think sin less serious, vice more attractive, or virtue less important;

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any teaching which would dethrone Jesus Christ from the topmost place;

Grant, O God, that we may never listen to any teaching which for its own purposes perverts the truth.

O God, our Father, establish us immovably in the truth.

Give us minds which can see at once the difference between the true and the false;

Make us able to test everything, and to hold fast to that which is good;

Give us such a love of truth, that no false thing may ever be able to lure us from it.

So grant that all our lives we may know, and love, and live the truth; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

—From Prayers for the Christian Year by William Barclay

Everyone has warned me not to tell you what I am going to tell you… They all say “the ordinary reader does not want Theology; give him plain practical religion.” I have rejected their advice. I do not think the ordinary reader is such a fool. Theology means “the science of God,” and I think any [one] who wants to think about God at all would like to have the clearest and most accurate ideas about him which are available. You are not children: why should you be treated like children? In a way I quite understand why some people are put off by Theology. I remember once when I had been giving a talk to the R.A.F., an old, hard-bitten officer got up and said, “I’ve no use for all that stuff. But, mind you, I’m a religious man too. I know there’s a God. I’ve felt him: out alone in the desert at night: the tremendous mystery. And that’s just why I don’t believe all your neat little dogmas and formulas about him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty and pedantic and unreal!”

Now in a sense I quite agreed with that man. I think he had probably a real experience of God in the desert. And when he turned from that experience to the Christian creeds, I think he really was turning from something real, to something less real. In the same way, if a man has once looked at the Atlantic from the beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper. But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it. In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic. In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those different experiences together. In the second place, if you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map. But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America [from England].

Now Theology is like the map. Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But the map is based on the experience of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God?experiences compared with which any thrills or pious feelings you or I are likely to get on our own way are very elementary and very confused. And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map. You see, what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it. It leads nowhere. There is nothing to do about it. In fact, that is just why a vague religion?all about feeling God in nature, and so on?is so attractive. It is all thrills and no work; like watching the waves from the beach. But you will not get to Newfoundland [from England] by studying the Atlantic that way, and you will not get eternal life by simply feeling the presence of God in flowers or music. Neither will you get anywhere by looking at maps without going to sea. Nor will you be very safe if you go to sea without a map.

—From The Joyful Christian by C. S. Lewis

I read this excerpt from Lewis this week during morning devotions. I had read it before but it caught my eye again, especially because of a discussion we had in our small group Bible study earlier in the week. A common sentiment expressed was that folks were no theologians and they wondered why they needed to study theology.

What do you think? Do you agree with Lewis’ thesis? If not, why? If so, how are you using theology to help you grow in your relationship with God? Where are you on your journey and from where do you get your “maps”? Share your stories with us so that we might grow together in grace.