J. Douglas Dortch, Jr., Ph.D.
First Baptist Church, Tallahassee, FL
“Creation: No Roll of the Dice”
From the Series "Beliefs that Build Community"
Scripture: 2 Timothy 1:8-10
January 13, 2008
In a day when people sue one another at the drop of a hat or a spill of a cup of coffee, businesses have to be careful to cover themselves as best they can. That’s not altogether a bad thing; many lawsuits happen because somebody got careless. But you have to admit that at times it’s not just the lawsuits that are frivolous; so are the “caution labels” that businesses use to warn customers of the potential hazards of a particular product.
For example, I read about a caution label that was affixed to an electric router. The label read, “This product is not intended for use as a dental drill.” While that label may seem to be unnecessary and downright silly to most of us, you never know what a desperate person with a toothache is liable to do.
As far as most products go, every product has a specific purpose. A key opens a lock; it’s not really created to cut open a box or pry open a jar. At times we may try to make things serve ancillary functions, but that’s not what they’re designed to be about.
I believe the Bible teaches that all of Creation follows precisely the same principle. Every created thing in this universe, both animate and inanimate, has its own integrity. That is to say, everything exists for a specific purpose, that purpose being to magnify its Creator and to bring glory to God. Everything in Creation follows that principle; including us. But in fulfilling that purpose, every aspect of Creation brings glory to God in a special and unique way.
So what is it that we humans are here on earth to do? That very good question is taken up by Paul’s second letter to his son in the faith, Timothy.
In First Timothy, Paul talks about how the church organizes itself for ministry, which is an important topic. God is not glorified and Christ is not lifted up by a church that pulls against each other in a thousand different directions. In Second Timothy, Paul gets a bit more personal and conveys to Timothy what he perceives to have been the real purpose of all that he has tried to do for Christ. Second Timothy is one of Paul’s last letters, if not his very last, and contains powerfully honest reflections on how life has gone for this intrepid apostle.
And to no one’s surprise, for Paul the sailing was not always smooth. There were times of distress. There were periods of persecution. They were setbacks and defeats. There were heartbreaks and disappointments. And yet, at no point did Paul ever lose his passion for God’s purpose. How did he manage that? His second letter to Timothy tells us that he did it on the basis of his conviction that from the very beginning of time, God has been about something through Jesus Christ that cannot be frustrated, halted, or overcome. “This grace,” he writes Timothy, “was given us in Christ Jesus before the beginning of time (literally, “from times eternal”), but it has now been revealed through the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who has destroyed death and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel” (vv.9b-10).
The theological word for this eternal purpose is “Providence.” This world in which we live is not the product of aimless coincidences that came together billions of years ago. Providence states that the entire Universe is sustained by an Unseen Hand, and Christian faith confesses that this Hand has been revealed through the nail-scarred sacrifice of Jesus.
Someone might ask, “So what difference does all this make?” The answer to that question depends on how comfortable you are with chance and coincidence.
Quite honestly, most people today are quite comfortable. In fact, someone has observed how providence has been displaced by luck as the ruling theme of life today. In other words, rather than believing that you and I are a part of God’s unfolding story, more and more people today are choosing to believe that we live each day with the roll of cosmic dice, and if something bad happens to us, that negative occurrence can by good fortune be overturned by the next toss. Once upon a time, people parted company by saying things like, “God be with you,” or “Godspeed.” Now, what do we say to one another? “Good luck!” “Best wishes!”
On this point the Bible is crystal clear: God is not making things up as He goes along. God brought about this world with a distinct purpose – that purpose being to display His majesty and His glory. And though things do not always go according to God’s plan, those setbacks don’t mean that God has lost the day or given up on His intentions. Providence doesn’t mean that everything always turns out well – just pick up a newspaper and turn on the television. Providence means that there is nothing or no one that can ever prevent us from fulfilling the meaning and purpose that God has for each of us. It means that though there are broken places in this world, those broken places are the places where God is most present – healing, helping, restoring, sustaining.
That’s where Paul was coming from in his instruction to Timothy. In this second letter Paul is somewhat worried that Timothy is becoming demoralized in the face of the challenges that are before him, challenges of false teachers and self-serving leaders – people who are telling Timothy that his way, the way that Paul taught him, is too risky. After all, look where it got Paul – prison!
And to keep Timothy focused on that which God has called us to be about, Paul beseeches Timothy not to be ashamed of taking risks for the gospel of Jesus Christ, for it is in suffering for that gospel that we best experience the power of God.
It takes faith to believe that in the midst of all the chaos and confusion that this life is in fact going somewhere. But for those whose hearts are stayed on Christ there is no other way to live than to live in the way of him who was God’s Son and our Savior, and who gave his all in order to find the peace that comes from living in the center of God’s Will.
A while back, the Wall Street Journal ran an article on the making of string figures and the obsession that it has become for stressed out professionals like investment bankers and research engineers, people who are looking for something to slow them down and get them relaxed.
String figures sound way too stressful to me. You take a string and wrap it around your fingers, and through a series of loops and openings, you form amazing creations like “the Witch’s Broom,” “the Cup and Saucer,” or the more exotic “Two Fish Swimming Apart,” just a handful of creations mentioned in the Journal of the International String Figure Association. (Yes, there is such a thing.)
The journal’s editor is a California biochemist who claims that the group includes mathematicians and anthropologists, musicians and CEO’s. When asked to explain the fascination that these people find with twiddling their thumbs and looping yards of string, the editor replied, “It’s just a miracle that out of a tangle of string something will just pop into view.”
I think that’s what the Bible is calling us to see when it comes to this world that God has brought about. Granted, there are times when we get all tangled up in the strings of expectations and demands and obligations and responsibilities. We wonder if there’s any rhyme or reason to what we’re going through each and every day.
But when we begin to look at our little lives and then this larger world from the standpoint of the God who created it and is in the process of redeeming it through His grace in Jesus Christ, it’s just a miracle that out of the tangle of our lives something will just pop into view – something grand, something glorious, but not something that we brought about; something that has been revealed through our Savior, Christ Jesus, who brings life and immortality to light through the gospel, and who calls us to a holy life because of his own purpose and grace.
You see, how you approach this life means everything in terms of how you come to be able to manage the tough and disappointing times that ultimately will come everyone’s way. If you assume that life has no real purpose and that things just happen by the roll of the cosmic dice, then your life won’t contain any measure of significance and you’ll spend your days just going through the motions.
But if you believe that there is a larger purpose to life, then you will be more willing to give of yourself to that Presence which is behind the Purpose and you will trust in that Presence to be with you and to see you through.
The way some people live makes as much sense as someone using an electric router as a dental drill. So what do we do? Do we put warning labels up so that people might come to their senses?
No, I don’t think people would pay any attention. We’ve spent centuries trying to scare people into holiness and it hasn’t worked yet.
Maybe we should just do what Jesus asked us to do. “If I be lifted up,” he said, “I will draw all men unto myself” (John 12:32). After all, it is he who has saved us and called us to a holy life – not because of anything we have done but because of his own purpose and grace, a grace given us before the beginning of time.
Jesus took a risk, and in so doing he experienced in his resurrection the power of God. Can you do the same in order to experience God’s power in your life?
If you can, then it’s not “good luck” that I would wish you; it’s “Godspeed.” For mere existence is not life; life only comes when we go with God and when we find ourselves, like Jesus, always and abundantly in the center of God’s Will.