As a young man I was fascinated with Christian biographies.
I remember the story of Jim Elliot, a
missionary to Ecuador. His biography was called Shadow of the Almighty: The Life and Testament of Jim Elliot and was written by his wife Elisabeth because Jim had died—killed
by the very people to whom he had gone to preach the good news of Jesus Christ.
Jim lived by the principle, “No one is a fool who gives up
what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” This did not mean that he
looked for the ultimate sacrifice that he ended up paying, but that in his
desire to proclaim Christ he was prepared for any consequence. I don’t believe
a generation has ever passed without some members of the Christian Church
experiencing this same fate. We are called to witness to people about One whose
promises we desire, and whose commands we love to keep, no matter what the
cost. And we are invited to know God even as we know ourselves and those
closest to us.
Inner knowledge and a yielded disposition is what God offers
and expects. The collect for today captures it all, especially as we ask God to
“bring into order the unruly wills and affection of sinners.” Now the word “sinners” is a loaded term. We
might feel a little better accepting the term—people who have a tendency to
(m)uck things up—as an adaptation of the description of the human condition
from Francis Spufford’s book Unapologetic: Why, Despite Everything, Christianity Can Still Make Surprising Emotional Sense
which am using on my teaching series this year.
In whatever way we can relate to the idea of our inadequate
and faulty nature, I invite us to get there, and not play games with ourselves.
Recognize our part in human messiness and failure so that we have some
substance or weight in the request that God bring order to our unruly wills and
affections. Only discipline and a yielded spirit can actually bring about the
strength of a Jim Elliot. And it is okay actually to ask God to bring the
order about!
A number of years ago I coached track-and-field and
cross-country running. Over a gradual period of time we started to bring order
to some pretty unruly wills and affections in beginner athletes. When a new
recruit sat on the corner of the street believing that after one mile she could
not possibly run another step, that was not the time to tell her that by next
month she will probably be running five miles! The athlete’s will was so unruly
and her affection so turned in on herself and her discomfort that she would
have quit on the spot. Yet, what joy it was to see her running several months
later at distances and speeds she would never have thought possible.
You wait those several months until perhaps you find
yourself once more sitting by your athlete, eating an ice cream cone—a fitting
end to a ten miler—all inner turmoil intact and under control and a sense of
self-confidence that seemed to have come from nowhere.
We all begin such endeavors somehow. The coach begins where
the athlete is at and trusts the training process. At the early stage it is
only the coach who can see the future and how the finished product will look.
And because it is strong and beautiful—full of self-possession and toughness of
will—we keep on.
We know the outcome. It is gaining what you can never lose,
and to get there we take our athlete along a path of losing what she cannot
keep—her life of ease, no pain, comfort-zone only. With God the stakes are much higher but the process is the
same.
The Hebrews author speaks of Jesus as having learned
obedience from the things he suffered. In fact, his very suffering was his
obedience as He did the will of His Father. When the Greeks wanted to meet him,
He knew that He could meet them only one way—by dying like a grain of wheat
that falls to the ground, changes
nature, and is raised into something new as the grain transforms into wheat. In
Jesus’ case that someone new would be able to place His Spirit into His
followers and through them enter into the Greek world and into the whole world.
When seeking His son’s obedience, God knew what the outcome
would be. God could see the shining light of resurrected love and joy on the
faces of those who would believe and feel their sins forgiven; and their unruly
wills and affections ordered for the sake of pure joy.
Jesus faced the ultimate test because of all the smaller
tests in which he had been made ready to put his life in his Father’s hands. He
yielded many, many times and found joy and assurance in that. And so he could
yield that final time upon the Cross.
God’s goal is not our martyrdom, but it is to have our lives
be witnesses to His love and purpose for human beings. God’s goal is to have
our lives in His hands, our vision to be shaped by His promises and hopes, and
our hearts growing and reflecting His love for all. So where do we begin?
First, we begin by being persuaded of these things—that by
ourselves we are unruly, disordered, willful, a mess-up. Second, we accept that
by knowing that what God asks of us, He has already performed in Jesus Christ.
Jesus had to yield to God to bring order. Third, we acknowledge that God sees
the belovedness we will become, long before we can see it in ourselves. And
that belovedness is about knowing God as we know ourselves. God knows the
ultimate outcome and calls it joy.
So how do we begin? We begin by paying attention and
yielding ourselves up to create the time to pray, study, worship—all of which
becomes purposeful and intentional. And we find that we make that first step in
everything we do to be the question, Lord
what would you have me do even before we let each day, each phase of our life,
unfold?
Jesus simply said, “Father glorify your Name.” And He heard
the reply, “I have already and will glorify it.” As it is with the Master, so
it will be with the follower. You are no fool who gives up what he cannot keep
to gain what he cannot lose.
Amen
