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Laughing at God

When Abraham was told that he and Sarah were to have a child, Abraham fell down and laughed. (Gen 17:15-17). He laughed. Sarah, according to Gen 18:11-12, laughed as well. They both laughed at God because both were advanced in years. They were well past the child bearing age. However, the promise that was given to them was not based on their ability. The promise was not in Abraham or Sarah’s child bearing possibilities, but in another reality created by the powerful Word of God. The promise was based in the ability of the One giving the promise to fulfill the promise.

Abraham and Sarah desperately wanted this, but it was beyond reason to think it could be true. Think of laughing at God when God makes a promise. It was ridiculous, but this was God’s Word. It was impossible, but there is still the promise.

We Have Promises on Our Lives

All of us may have a promise on our lives. God has given us the promise, but it is too hard…nay maybe even impossible. You cannot do it. It is beyond your capability to complete. Perhaps your promise from God is not having a child, but maybe it is completing that degree. Maybe it is changing careers into one that God has been pushing you towards for so many years. Perhaps it is victory over that sin that so easily besets you. I don’t know what it is, but I know that you have a promise. This is probably something that you cannot complete, and yet there is still God’s promise.

Like so many stories in the Bible, I understand completely where Abraham and Sarah are coming from. It was impossible. It was their very understanding of their inability that clarified the impossibility. But understand or not, the promise is still there.

Understanding the Impossible

And God comes to us who think that God’s promise is too big for our understanding and simply says, “Is there anything too hard for God?” (Gen 18:14) This week hold on to that idea as you seek to live in God’s promise in your own lives. Then you will see God turn that laugh of disbelief into a laugh of celebration….

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God as The Bubble Gum Machine or The Fire Thrower – Tithe Rhetoric

bubblegum255This is the question asked by Steve Addision at his blog. In Australia, according to the article, more than 60% of Adventist and Pentecostal members tithe.

The question the article asks is why do they do it, While those on the mainline have much lower levels of tithe returners?” The writer gives two possibilities…one is that the Pentecostals and Adventists are closer to a movement than an institution. Another possibility given by the article is that the Adventists and Pentecostals are legalists seeking to earn heaven.

Is Returning Tithe a Guarantee?

This brings a couple of interesting questions. I remember one individual telling me that he kept a record of how far his money went while tithing and then did an experiment of not tithing and looking at his money. He said that his experiment demonstrated that his money went much further when he was tithing. Such evidence can paint a problematic picture. It doesn’t take into account the woman who tithes faithfully and still loses her home. What about the man who tithes to the penny and still dies of cancer. What about the mother who tithes and her child never comes back to the church? This idea only paints a limited picture, unless someone really does wish to stand next to Job’s friends and condemn those who are going through problems as sinners who are guilty of some sin.

When listening to some folks speak of the benefits of tithing, I sometimes wonder if folks are tithing because they want the “window of heaven opened up and a blessing poured out.” (Malachi 3:10) One Stewardship leader guaranteed that you will be financially better off after tithing. Is that why we tithe? He said, I guarantee you will look back and be able to say, “I don’t know how I made it, but God did it!” Is that even true? Can such a guarantee be made? Does the Bible saying “prove me now herewith” mean that you are gonna get that car you always wanted? Does it mean you are going to get that house? I sometimes wonder if this kind of thinking helped to set us up for this economic crash where many were getting too much house, cars, etc, based on “God’s blessing?”
Isn’t this nothing more than an Adventist version of the “name-it-claim-it-theology?”

God will Kill You

Another motivation that I have heard used is so that you will not have terrible consequences put on you if you do not tithe. It seems that our tithe rhetoric is either God will “hook you up” if you tithe, or God will “mess you up” if you don’t.

With this idea we put it all on you. You can guarantee happiness and economic prosperity, all you have to do is put 10%, and make sure that it ends up at the conference office. Or you can have disease, lost jobs, misery, and despair if you don’t.

But life seems to be more complex than this. Sometimes the one who never tithes does get hooked up. That one sometimes gets the job. That one seemingly goes further than the one who returns the tithe. Sometimes the “blessing” seems to appear when we spent that tithe instead of returned it.

Simplistic Rhetoric

Our rhetoric is too simplistic…it is a very Job’s friends type of rhetoric. You return tithe, and you will find the goodies coming from the bubble gum machine in the sky. If you do not, you will find fire and brimstone coming from the same place both now and in the future.

By no means does everyone use these approaches. There are different ones given here and there. I don’t wish to trivialize and minimize others as they struggle with these texts. But I just want us to be careful of the bubble gum machine or the fire from heaven. Because it makes us think we know exactly how the world works and how God will work. And in the end we have no such certainty. All we can do is trust in the God who has brought us where we are and follow that God as God leads, even if we sometimes feel like saying: “Though he Slay Me Yet Will I trust Him.”

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What Bind Does the Sabbath Get You Out Of?

A while back I wrote a post on “E. J. Waggoner as a Practical Theologian.” In it I quoted Waggoner who stated that “Every doctrine of the Bible is for our practical benefit, and should be studied for that purpose.”

Practical and Doctrinal Opposites?

waggonerThis is a very interesting thought for much of our preaching and thinking. Often we think of “practical” and “doctrinal” as being on two sides with a chasm in between. We cannot go over the chasm. So sometimes we preach “practical” sermons, and sometimes we preach “doctrinal” sermons.

Members long for “practical” preaching that will help us live faithfully in our daily lives. However, there is also a call for us to know “doctrine.” We are to gain a deeper awareness and understanding of the truths that hold us up.

We Cannot Forget Doctrine

We cannot forget doctrine. When we do we lose something of who we are. The deity of Christ is a doctrine that is hotly debated in some circles today. However, the doctrine is an important one in our Christian heritage. The doctrine of the Sabbath also has a call on us as Seventh day Sabbatarians.

And for this reason, sometimes we teach and preach doctrines, while other times we teach and preach themes of practical living. E. J. Waggoner comes in and asks us why do we have this dichotomy? Why not preach doctrine by emphasizing its practical relevance? Why not preach doctrine by emphasizing its importance in our daily living? Why not preach and teach doctrine in such a way that we will immediately see its practical relevance just as we see the practical relevance of the traditional “practical” sermons?

Lowry’s Question

In short, we ask the same question that Eugene Lowry, the homilitician, wrote in his classic preaching text The Homiletical Plot. Lowry asks of any doctrine before he preaches it, “What bind does the doctrine get you out of?” In short, how does this doctrine help me overcome a problem?

Certainly there are times for more didactic teaching, but all of our doctrinal preaching need not be in lecture form. If we truly are to teach the Sabbath more fully, then we must find a way to live out the implications of the Sabbath in our daily lives. To do that, we must listen to both Lowry and Waggoner by asking about the practical benefit of the Sabbath. Then we will be in a position to be the witness to the Sabbath that God has called our movement to be.