A Way to Live

This past Sunday the via sacra (sacred road) series continued with a message entitled “Saying Yes and Saying No”, a meditation on the spiritual path of change. The text which ordered our thoughts was from Paul’s letter to the church at Colossae:

You have died with Christ, and he has set you free from the spiritual powers of this world. So why do you keep on following the rules of the world, such as, “Don’t handle! Don’t taste! Don’t touch!”? Such rules are mere human teachings about things that deteriorate as we use them. These rules may seem wise because they require strong devotion, pious self-denial, and severe bodily discipline. But they provide no help in conquering a person’s evil desires. [Colossians 2:20-23]

These words are part of a longer discussion on what constitutes the nature of the Christian gospel. Paul is addressing the commonly understood idea that change comes by way of saying no to what harms us, a usual reference point for religion. We often think that religion serves us by first describing a way to live and then guards that way with a list of forbidden things. We might think of the ten commands of Moses with it’s “do not...” language. And while Moses list is ultimately life-affirming (we are not served well by lying and murdering), what tends to stand in our consciousness is the formula itself, the language of forbiddance. This may be the thing Paul is trying to correct, a sub-par view of what our faith is about, a cheap and infantile form of religion that exists by what it doesn’t do. Of course, in the narrative flow of how these commands come to us, it is important to see how God’s covenant people needed these commands as a way to protect the life given to them; these were rules to protect the relationship that had already been formed. The rules were not there to make the relationship but to protect it.

But let us step back for a moment. The French mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal wrote, “All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end.” Pascal was commenting on human nature, that we do what we want. We follow our desires, and it is our desires that tend to determine our actions. Even those things we would say we don’t really enjoy doing – our work, our disciplines – we do for the outcomes that we hope to gain. So we do what we want. But what if what we want is not good for us? What if our very desires are corrupted? This is the point where we come into a more correct focus of what the Christian gospel offers us. The gospel is a clarification of our deepest wants, a discovery of the truest and deepest joys, a celebration of life itself. The gospel is our entrance into the life we always knew we wanted but never quite knew how to describe. “You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore” (Psalm 16:11).

John Piper is the author who coined the term “Christian hedonism” for this generation of Jesus followers. It is his contention that joy, and all things that maximize joy, is the sustaining and transformative secret of the Christian life. In other words, we are changed by journeying towards those things epitomize real and true life, and not merely by avoiding those things which hurt us. While commands are useful, they are not life itself, and Jesus calls us into life.

Saying yes to the bigger things must come first and be firmly planted in our orientation before we are able to say no. Whatever we learn to say no to (and plainly we must) is only made possible by the bigger yes of living, the joy and peace and love we want – and find – in Jesus. The gospel teaches us this vital lesson, that without a bigger yes, any list of forbidding “no’s” is bound to crumble under the weight of our desire to live.

Our via sacra series continues this Sunday with a message entitled “Household Economics”. We hope that you can join us at 9:29 or 11:11 am.

Bob