If you haven’t read last week’s post, “Wishful Thinking,” you need to read it first for this post to make much sense.
I cannot afford to subscribe to Moralistic Therapeutic Deism. I spend too much time holding the hands of those who are suffering and/or dying for that. You see, Moralistic Therapeutic Deism (wishful thinking spirituality) collapses when faced with undeserved suffering. If God’s job is to make me happy, when I suffer, God must have failed me, abandoned me, or never existed in the first place. If God (my “divine butler” or “cosmic therapist”) is to be at my beck and call, then when God does not answer my understandable and earnest prayers for healing, then God has not fulfilled the responsibilities of the job I “hired” God to do—keep me happy—so I will “fire” God. Oh, how many people I have met who have given up their faith in God because they expected God to reward them for being a halfway decent person by making them happy and healthy all the time and God failed to do that!
I cannot afford to walk into a hospital room or into the home of a hospice patient to be with them with this kind of flimsy pop spirituality. I cannot walk in there with a faith with such a weak foundation. Do you remember the story that Jesus told about this? He said, “Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.” Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is most certainly a “house built on sand.” When the storm comes it will be washed away. I need a faith built on rock! Psalm 18:2 declares, “The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.” The Psalms use the image of God as rock over and over. I can’t think of a single time that the Scriptures use the image of sand for God. Real life, with its good and bad, with its seasons for everything (see Ecclesiastes 3), requires a solid faith in a solid God.
So if God doesn’t want me to be happy all the time, then what good is God? Now, wait a second here, I never said that God doesn’t want us to be happy; what I’m trying to say is that God isn’t in the business of catering to our ideas of happiness. Of course we all want enough to eat, a good safe place to live, a healthy family, and a job that we enjoy. There’s nothing wrong with wanting that and it makes sense for us to strive for that and to make it possible for everyone to have these opportunities. However, one of the very important things that God did through the incarnation of Jesus Christ is to redefine real happiness. The word “happy” is often rendered as “blessed” in the Bible. Strangely enough, Jesus never says, “Happy are those who are healthy. Happy are those who are decent folks. Happy are the materially comfortable. Happy are those who fulfill their lifelong dream.” Nope, that’s not what Jesus says. Instead Jesus says,
“Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called children of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
He also says, “Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and obey it” and “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
When I was in college I was diagnosed with “situational depression.” That means that in reaction to something that had happened I had become depressed. The “situational” part of it meant that this wasn’t a chronic brain chemistry issue. They said that with some counseling and some subsequent changes in habit, I’d be able to come out of it, and that is precisely what happened. The reason I bring this up is that I think that what a lot of us rely on (and what Moralistic Therapeutic Deism is built upon) could be called “situational happiness.” But just like situational depression, situational happiness is not lasting. If my happiness is completely based upon things going well in the way that I want them to go well, then I’m going to be in trouble eventually because sometimes life isn’t a beach—sometimes life is more like the other saying about life that ends with a “b” word. That’s why God offers us true happiness, which is not dependent upon our current situation. Actually it is much easier and necessary to be poor in spirit, mourning, meek, hungering and thirsting for righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, and persecuted in the bad times. Happy days (as we think of happiness) are not made up of these things. Usually it is the bad days that are made up of these things. Jesus is saying that we can be truly happy, truly blessed, even in the midst of the worst of times, and even especially in the worst of times. This is what Jesus called “abundant life.”
Once, Jesus put it this way, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Another time he said it like this, “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” In John’s gospel, Jesus talks about “eternal life” all the time. We often make the mistake of equating this only with heaven when we die. That is a terrible misinterpretation. By “eternal life” Jesus means life that comes from, is lived by, and will remain in those things which are eternal, not by what is temporal or “situational.” A lot of people’s faith is built upon situational happiness. I’m telling you, though, that’s a foundation of sand! We need a foundation of rock.
If God can only be found in the happy times, then God will be missing a great deal of the time, and God will be missing when we actually need God the most. We may long for what we think of as a happy life (and this is only natural), however, here’s the ironic thing—very often we have trouble finding God there. Strangely though, sometimes this abundant and eternal life that is built upon true happiness/blessedness as offered by God is actually easier to get a hold on when our current situation is the worst it’s ever been. Moralistic Therapeutic Deism cannot account for this. However, the Cross can! So many people who say they believe in God, even so many people who call themselves Christians, operate without an understanding of the Cross. The cross is the proof of Psalm 23 and Psalm 139. The Cross and the traditional Apostles’ Creed kind of Christianity that emphasizes the Cross is what we need in the midst of real life. What we don’t need is wishful thinking. We need a God we can trust, not a God we can order around.
The true happiness that is offered by God—the eternal kind of life—will enable us, through the power of the Holy Spirit, no matter what our current situation to “rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for [us] in Christ Jesus.” I cannot afford to walk up to the bedside of a hospice patient with anything less than this kind of faith, and I’m of the mind that none of us can afford to walk through life with anything less than this either.
I may continue on this current thought for one more post next week…
Grace and Peace,
Pastor Everett
