... in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen. Through the prayers of our holy Fathers, Lord
Jesus Christ our God, have mercy on us and save us. Amen. Glory
to You, our God, Glory to You.
O Heavenly King,
the Comforter, the Spirit of truth, You are everywhere and fill all things, Treasury
of blessings, and Giver of life: come and abide in us, and cleanse us from every
impurity, and save our souls, O Good One.
Holy God, Holy Mighty, Holy Immortal,
have mercy on us (three times).
Glory be to the Father,
and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost, as it is now, was in the beginning, and ever
shall be, world without end. Amen.
The
Gospel
John 3:13-17
No man has ascended
up to heaven, except He Who came down from heaven, even the Son of Man Who is
in heaven. As Moses lifted up the
serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up; so that whoever
believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life: for God so loved the
world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him would
not perish, but have everlasting life: for God sent not his Son into the world
to condemn the world; but that the world might be saved through Him.
The
Homily
Condemnation
Before we focus on
our main text which is Romans 1, we thought it absolutely necessary to consider
some salient facts, for which purpose John 3:13-17 seemed particularly well
suited. It is commonly understood that the
first three chapters of Romans deal with the condemnation of all mankind. Several theories abound: God condemns no one,
God condemns every one, God condemns those who sin, etc.
We on the other
hand, are not in search of theories; theories are nothing more than
opinions. In terms of heavenly spiritual
things, only one opinion matters, not mine, not yours; only God’s opinion, only
Jesus’ opinion, only the Holy Ghost’s opinion matters, and these three are in
perfect agreement. So we thought it good
to try to put the issue in perspective from Scripture.
The salient points
from John are these: 1. Jesus is the Man
Who matters. 2. Jesus is like Moses’
brass serpent, which is necessary because of human sin. 3. As in the days of Moses, human sin has
rendered humans in a condition of immediately impending death. 4. As with the brass serpent humans must look
to Jesus in order to be healed of their lethal and terminal disease. 5. John explains this as being rooted in
God’s love. 6. God extends life, only
because of simple faith: humanity must look to Jesus, to receive life. 7. Simple faith is established in the reality
of experience, the pains and pleasures of life.[1] 8. There is no easy believism, humanity must
follow Jesus, through the Holy Ghost as He leads through the wilderness of
life: failure to follow results in a lonely death in the wilderness.[2] 9. John further explains that the purpose of
Jesus’ coming is not condemnation.
Now we may draw some
conclusions: 1. We conclude from these
sentences that God does not condemn individual people directly or personally. 2. We see that God has more than adequately
provided for the expiating, healing, justifying, rehabilitating, and
reconciling process in all its details and facets: that He has done this for
all Israel; indeed, He has done this for all the people of the world.[3] 3. Since God obviously does condemn
something, the only thing left that is condemnable is human behavior: God does
not condemn us; He condemns our evil actions.
4. If we cling defensively to our actions, seeking to justify them
before God, we will be condemned with our actions; however, we will have in
reality condemned ourselves, by willfully choosing death, rather than life.[4] 5. Philosophically, someone will surely
complain that this does not let God off the hook: God still has unrepentant
sinners cast into the lake of fire, which is certainly true. However, upon further consideration, we see
that even though God is more than acquiescing in this process, He does finally
yield to our selfish wishes to give us what we really want, a life separated
from Him. 6. So, in terms of moral
culpability, we are the cause of our own damnation. 7. In terms of God’s justice and sovereignty,
God is the final cause of our damnation. Nevertheless, such is not the result He wishes
for any of His children. God wishes for
all His children to turn to Him and live; yet He forces no one to love Him.
Humanity
What is, is. There are many things in life over which none
of us have any control. There are other
things which we can only change with great effort, and we may choose to walk
away, concluding that it is just not worth the cost and energy. Still others are more easily moved, but
careful planning is still warranted.
Finally, there are those things which we are deceived into believing are
most easily done; things done in our sleep; things accomplished with one hand
tied behind our backs; they are so easy: these are the ones that catch us in
mistakes, we assume too much about them, and that is exactly where we go wrong.
We especially
deplore those things which are being done to us in the name of science: for
example, vivisection[5], chimerism[6], genotoxicity[7], gynecomastia[8], or any number of other genetic
disorders,[9] which may or may not be
caused by chemical or physical side effects.
Now we are confronted with the most recent insult to human dignity, genetic
modification[10]. Our point is not to harp on the risks of such
science; but rather to point out that changes may be brought about which are both
harmful and irreversible.
Nor are these
changes merely chemical and physical; several of them were specifically aimed
at tampering with mental, ethical and moral behavior, such as brainwashing[11]. Suffice it to say that we are often being
changed by influences that may be quite accidental; but sometimes these influences
are deliberately malevolent, in ways that no human being understands. Some of these influences may attack our
spiritual nature, tempting us to sin in subliminal[12] ways, and undermining our
sense of right and wrong.
In other words, our
tendency to sin may be the result, not of a completely natural, especially genetic,
force, but by a force amplified by genetic modification and/or by mental
programming. There is nothing new here;
it has long been thought that a steady diet of pornography or violence will
result in perversion. The danger could
also be in the water we drink. It is
well known that, “Bad company corrupts good morals.”
What happened,
happened. We can no more change the past
than we can move the sun one foot in space.
Nor can we change what Paul wrote.
We may not like it, but we cannot change it. Our task is not to undo the past or regret it. Our task is to find out exactly what Paul
wrote, figure out what it means, and apply it as accurately as possible in our
lives. If someone chooses to reject what
Paul says, that is their business, it’s not our problem, it’s just the way it
is. That doesn’t change our task, does
it?
Morality
Modern man is
conflicted, confused, and divided over ethics and morality. The argument that my genetics have changed
seems to mean that my moral behavior should also change. If I have an urge or potential, I necessarily
also have the moral right to use that potential. Let’s examine how bad an idea that really is,
and why genetics and morals must be kept separate. Science may determine my genetics, but
ultimately, only God has the right to instruct my morals.
I have the skills to
pursue nuclear engineering (BSME, 1965). Had I started a few years ago, I could easily
be a nuclear bomb designer today. In my
lifetime, I’ve been within feet of nuclear bombs on several occasions (43BW,
1966-68). I certainly did my part in
preparing for the delivery of such devices (43FMS). Had I been of perverse inclination it is not
inconceivable that I might have conspired and detonated such a device. This is as far as science can guide us. Should I ever detonate such a nuclear weapon,
thereby murdering thousands of people? That
is ethics? The answer is absolutely not;
I may not ever go there.
In WWII we developed
weapons that were far more devastating than the nuclear bombs of that era. Firestorms[13] were deployed at Dresden
and Hamburg, Germany, as well as Tokyo, Japan.
Their level of devastation made nuclear weapons seem like fire
crackers. Today everybody knows and
talks about Hiroshima and Nagasaki; nobody talks about Dresden or Tokyo, and
evidently few know. I suspect that the
results were so horrific that we have suppressed their memory. Should we have used the Firestorm just
because we had the capability? What
business did we have taking so many civilian lives, even in war? Ethics and science simply do not mix.
Whatever science or
the happenstance of life may or may not have done to us, we must keep our
ethics distinct. It seems that we have
too often followed our scientific capability on the path of destruction,
without ever considering the ethical implications of such decisions. Nor are we really free to adopt the ever
changing and fad prone ethos of humanity.
We must strive with all our hearts to discover and follow the ethos of
God in heaven.[14]
[1]
This is the root meaning of faith which derives from the Greek idea of
pathos. It is simply impossible for
faith to be some sort of abstract, theoretical, or even esoteric thing. Faith cannot possibly have faith as its
object as in, “Keep the faith, Baby.”
Faith only exists in that which is absolutely concrete, a firm
foundation, which in this case is the Undivided and Consubstantial Triune God.
[2] To
fail to follow Jesus in the wilderness is no different than denying that God
exists. The Israelites of history were
all saved from Egypt; even a mixed multitude were saved with them. However, not all of the Israelites of history
were saved to the Promised Land. Almost
all of one generation died in the wilderness, because of their obstinate and
persistent unbelief. All of them fled
from the idolatry and slavery of Egypt and Pharaoh. All of them witnessed the saving power of
God. These were not legends they had
overheard. These were concrete realities
learned in the forge and furnace of life.
As the hammer of God built them into a Holy People, many ran away from
reality. They died….
[3]
The brass serpent is for all Israel, some either neglected or refused to
look. Jesus is the healing and saving
cure for all of the people of the world without distinction. Even so, some will either neglect or refuse
to look.
[4]
The sole purpose of God’s actions appears to be to separate us from our own
fatal actions, so that we may be healed, and may be fit to live in His
presence.
[5] A science
fiction which has proved to be altogether too prophetic:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Island_of_Doctor_Moreau
http://www.bestcollegereviews.org/10-incredible-real-life-mad-scientists/
http://www.oddee.com/item_96484.aspx
[6] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimera_(genetics)
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genotoxicity,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
[8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gynecomastia
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_genetic_disorders,
http://io9.com/10-unusual-genetic-mutations-in-humans-470843733,
[10] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_therapy,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_bacteria,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_food,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_mammal,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_organism,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetically_modified_virus
[11] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mind_control
[12] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subliminal_stimuli
[13] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Dresden_in_World_War_II,
http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestorm, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Tokyo,
and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5FD1IXWqKos
[14] If
you have been blessed or helped by any of these meditations, please repost,
share, or use any of them as you wish.
No rights are reserved. They are
designed and intended for your free participation. They were freely received, and are freely
given. No other permission is required
for their use.
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