No, on both counts. Our labor is a service. Its value is determined neither by law nor by wish but by the market. All of us, I suspect, would love to be paid $1,000 an hour. Given that all of us would want this, why don’t we pass a law stating no one could be paid less than $1,000 an hour? Were we to do so, I suspect that some athletes, some rock stars and perhaps a few actors would still be employed. The rest of us, however, would be out of work. There is no employer out there willing to pay me that much. (If you disagree, by all means, let me know who they are.)
I would, of course, also have to let go my butcher, my baker and my candlestick maker. As much as I like them, and value their services, I would rather keep $1000 in my pocket than hire any of them for even an hour. This, is it not, is pretty easy to see? The question is, why do we think dropping the number down to $15 an hour would make any difference to the principle? The concepts do not change simply by plugging in different numbers. I’m grateful my employers value my labor more than $15 an hour. That is, they gladly give up more than $15 in exchange for an hour of my labor.
But what if they didn’t? Anyone whose services are not valued by any employer at a rate of $15 an hour will be out of work. Any job not deemed important enough to pay $15 an hour to have it done will not be done. This, of course, hurts those on the lowest economic rung the hardest. I might have to do a job myself, or leave it undone if I don’t want to trade $15 an hour to have it done. But the fellow who would love to make $10 an hour is out of work and out of luck, all because the federal government thinks it can suspend the laws of economics.
Do people really think in these terms, valuing certain jobs at certain rates? Yes, we, in a manner of speaking do. We all make decisions whether to buy this or that. And this or that can and often does include the labor of others. When I go to the airport I have the option to pay a porter to take by bags at the curb. I don’t, but schlep them to the ticket counter myself. Why? Because I would rather carry my own bags and the few dollars in my pocket than to give someone else my bags and my dollars. I don’t know how much it costs to have a porter take your bags. I don’t know exactly how much I’d be willing to pay. I do know, however, that I am not willing to pay what it cost, or I would have hired one. I’ve never stopped to figure it out because I know it’s not even a close call.
Economics on the small scale matches economics on the large scale. That is, my decision not to hire the porter is the same kind of decision we all make, the same kind of decision countless employees will make when the federal government declares it a crime to trade labor for money at $14.99 an hour. Minimum wage laws hurt those they claim to help, and the rest of us too. The only thing they help is politicians who win votes from the economically illiterate with such dangerous demagoguery. This issue is so simple, so basic, I cannot help but conclude that those who propose and vote for such laws do so knowing they are hurting the poor. They are not that stupid. They are, however, that heartless.
We are adepts not at fighting our sins but hiding them. We gather each Lord’s Day dressed in our smiles, share our praise reports and our health concerns, pat ourselves on our backs, and return home to our gross and heinous sins. We miss this in part because we are preternaturally positive about ourselves. We are willing to confess that there are some weak churches out there, somewhere down the road. There are destructive schools out there, but ours is one of the good ones. There are broken families out there, but ours is, as far as anyone can tell, a model of grace and peace. There are deluded sinners out there, but I thank you Lord I am not like them.
We are more than willing, individually and corporately to cop to the respectable sins. Maybe college football or Nascar is something of an idol to us, but it’s good clean fun. Maybe I lose my temper from time to time, but kids drive everyone crazy, right? I don’t read my Bible like I ought. Sure we don’t tithe, but we’re under grace, not under law. Besides, didn’t Jesus die for sinners like us?
No, actually, He didn’t. Jesus, according to Jesus, came for the sick, not those who have no need of a physician (Mark 2:17). We might have a little tickle in our throat. We might have just a pinch of a fever. But sick? No, that’s not us. That’s those other people. We think we need Jesus because His Father demands perfection, and while we admit we’re not that, we think we’re pretty close. We have a small salvation rescuing is from a small problem by a small savior.
We won’t face what we are. Imagine if you will you’re a member of a medium sized evangelical church, with 100 adult males and 100 adult females. There are six ruling elders and two teaching elders. Chances are good that at least ten of women, and ten of the men have procured or encouraged abortions, several of them while they were professing evangelicals. Chances are good that at least a few are drunkards. Chances are good that at least a few adults are actively engaged in an extra-marital affair. It is likely that at least one member hits his wife and/or his children.
These numbers are still small enough though that we can push them to the side, treat them as aberrations, rather than proof of our weakness. But consider this. According to a survey taken ten years ago by Christianet.com, it is likely that one pastor, three ruling elders, twenty of the women and fifty of the men regularly consume pornography. This is not the people at the church down the street that we never much cared for. This is us. We are sexually immoral.
My point here isn’t merely to rub our noses in our sins. It certainly isn’t to deny the work of the Spirit in our lives. We are, if we are in Christ, forgiven for all our sins, and are most assuredly becoming more like Him. My point here isn’t even that we are worldly. Rather I want us, and me, to come to a deeper understanding of what a mess we are, and I am. I want us to come to a deeper understanding of just how far we have to go. I want us not once, but all our lives to beat our breasts and cry out, “Lord, be merciful to me, a sinner.” I want us to be Reformed enough to embrace the first thesis of the 95 that sparked the Reformation- When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Repent” (Mt 4:17), he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance. I want us to come to understand that the journey from dead in our trespasses and sins to being like Him for we shall see Him as He is is one we have all just begun. Whatever progress we are making is dwarfed by the great distance before us. Though the Great Physician died for us, though the Spirit indwells us, though the Father loves us perfectly, in ourselves we still more resemble the zombies we once were than the Savior we are called to be like.
God gives grace to the humble.
Thesis 42- We must rejoice in the Lord always.
The grass is always greener at that other time. Or, to put it another way, our retro-vision glasses have rose colored lenses. Many of us face the tendency to not only look to the past as a sort of golden age, but in like manner, to look to the present as this present evil age. There is much both within and without the church, for us to mourn about our peculiar moment in history. In the west Christians are typically looked down upon and made fun of. Our churches are filled with those who want their ears tickled, our pulpits filled with men willing to tickle ears. On the face of it, it would seem that these would be among all times the most sad.
When Paul wrote his epistle to the church at Philippi, their problems were not like ours. They weren’t merely laughed at. They faced real persecution from their neighbors, and from the Roman empire, “For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake” (1:29). At the same time they were warned not just of ear ticklers, but to “Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the mutilation…” (3:2). Worse still, the church at Philippi receives this letter from their father in the faith, the man who first planted their church, who loved them with such zeal, while he himself languished in prison. And what was Paul’s command for this church, at this time? “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice!” (4:4).
Sixteen times in these four short chapters Paul enjoins the church to rejoice. What is God’s command for us in our circumstance? That we would rejoice as well. Consider all that troubles us. Go ahead, and make a mental list of all the grievances you now suffer. Now suppose someone made you this offer. You could lose everything that grieves you. It could all be taken away. All you would have to do to have your troubles disappear, is to give up the Pearl of Great Price. Would you take up that offer?
Is this not the very point of the parable of the pearl of great price? Did not Jesus tell us that those who are wise would give up everything they have, every blessing, every comfort, every penny, in order to acquire this precious pearl? If you are in Christ, you have this precious pearl.
And this precious pearl has you, and nothing will snatch you away. All of your troubles then are not in the end the cost of the pearl of great price, but the very gift of the pearl of great price. That is, all our troubles are not things we must slog through to get to the good stuff. Instead they are given to us by Jesus Himself, that we might be made more like Him.
Joy is indeed circumstantial. We should only have joy in these circumstances- where God is on His throne, and where we are His beloved children. If that describes you, then repent of your gloom, and rejoice in this promise, that if we will confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (I John 1:9).
Most of the time when men of good will disagree it stems from competing strategies. We agree on where we want to go. We disagree about how to get there. In this instance, however, while we surely agree where we want to go, we not only disagree about how to get there, but perhaps more important, we disagree about where we are.
The Bible is abundantly clear that all men bear the image of God, are of equal value and dignity, and that we have a duty to treat one another as we would want to be treated. History is abundantly clear that in the west, for centuries, many white people failed in that biblical calling in how they treated people of African descent. The evangelical church was no exception. All sides are still in agreement. Our forefathers did poorly and we want to do well.
There are some in the church whose perspective on change has been deeply influenced by ideologies that are incompatible with the Bible. (Keeping in mind that the same was true for centuries from the other side.) The core of those ideologies is identity politics, defining who we are by our victim status, and others by their victimizer status. There are also, on the other hand, some in the church that have inherited the errors of our fathers, who really are racist and either don’t know it or hide it.
The vast majority in the church, however, are well between those two extremes. But because of those extremes they find themselves needing to yell at the other side, and taking offense at being yelled at by the other side. Throw in the sweet, soothing power to bring forth the blessings of peace that is social media and the heavenly chorus of angels sings. No, that’s not what happens.
Here is how it plays out. Institutional racism and privilege are ineffable crimes that carry immediate conviction with the simple act of accusation. To plead innocence is the one sure sign of guilt. There’s only one thing for the guilty to do- embrace the concept of invisible, immeasurable racist guilt, confess personal guilt over it, and join the raucous crowd that is silent no longer, denouncing this invisible, immeasurable, wickedness that is whiteness.
On the other side we have those whose perspective is equally skewed. These are we conservatives who have never used the n word, much less burned a cross in anyone’s yard. Why, some of our best friends are black. So, if we’ve never committed real racism, and never seen real racism, surely there must be no real racism. Because it is invisible, or at least in hiding, racism can’t be real.
When people who have no animus whatsoever against people of another culture or ethnic background are convicted of racism, it’s hard for them to take seriously the claim that we’re all guilty. When people who have experienced racism talk to white people who seem to suggest it doesn’t exist, they find it hard to believe that even the ones they are talking to are innocent. The truth of the matter is that racism is real. It exists. It is not a phantom. The truth of the matter is that racism isn’t hiding in everyone’s heart. There are people who don’t struggle with racism. We are, as a culture, somewhere in between these extremes.
What do we do? Agree we’re somewhere between these extremes. Agree that it is both better than it has been and not as good as it could be, that the progress is commendable and the lack of progress deplorable. Agree that we all bear God’s image, we all struggle with sin, and in the church, all our sins are covered by the blood of Christ. Black and white matter not a lick. What matters is the red that covers us all.
Though I didn’t think such was possible, my esteem for both my father and the Bible took a rather sudden spike. I was blessed to be sitting in a seminary class, while he stood, teaching. He mentioned, almost in passing, this notion that rocked my world. “Some scholars” he said, and by the way he said it I had a strong suspicion that he was one of those scholars, “believe that the “man” Joshua met outside the wall of Jericho was a pre-incarnate manifestation of the second person of the Trinity, a Christophany. I was blown away as he went on to make the case. He encouraged us to remember that Joshua bowed and worshiped. Had he been with a mere angel from God the angel would have forbidden such worship. That the being received the worship made the case.
That the Father would send the Son further sanctified this already holy moment, as Joshua prepares for the first battle for the Promised Land. Better still, however, was the conversation itself. Joshua, you will remember, has only recently replaced Moses as the leader of God’s people. The wandering in the wilderness has come to an end. The Jordan has been crossed, and now between God’s people and the land stands Jericho and its impenetrable walls. Wouldn’t you be frightened? Confused? Would you not feel the weight of every brink in that wall on your own back as you take up the mantle of leadership? In the midst of this turmoil Joshua finds himself facing a “Man.” Joshua neither rashly attacks, nor shrinks back. Instead he asks what seems to us an utterly fitting question- “Are You for us, or for our adversaries?”
God the Son has not come, however, merely to honor the occasion. Neither was His goal merely to bring the victory. He came instead to sanctify His son, to give Joshua the right perspective. To Joshua’s either/or God the Son replies, “No.” Just as Jesus would befuddle the Pharisees as they sought to trap Him with their questions, here He befuddles us. No? What does that mean? He continues, “but as the Commander of the army of the Lord I have now come.” He explains to Joshua this most fundamental truth- The question Joshua is not whether or not I am on your side or theirs. The question is whether or not you are on My side.”
Whether at war or at peace, in want or in plenty, whatever our circumstances, this is the same question we all face, each day. Indeed when Jesus spoke from the Mount He made much the same point. He did so because we like Joshua need to learn the same point. Like Joshua before us, we look at our obstacles in fear and confusion. Will we be able to win this struggle at work? Will we be able to tame this challenge in our homes? Will we be able to overcome this obstacle at our church? And in our prayer lives, as we meet with our Father, through God the Son, we ask, sometimes in hope, other times in despair, if He is with us, if He will come to our aid, and win the battle for us. And in His grace and terrible sovereign power and authority He tells us, “No.”
God is not a witness to history, choosing sides and cheering His favorites on. God is Lord of History, moving history forward as what it is- His story. God’s grace to us isn’t that He sides with us, but that He has put enmity in our hearts against the serpent and his seed. God’s grace isn’t that He fights for us, but that He, by the power of the Holy Spirit gives us life so that we might fight for Him.
When Jesus tells us to stop worrying about what we will eat and what we will wear, reminding us that the Gentiles worry about such things He, naturally, reasons in the same manner. His message isn’t, “Don’t sweat it- God is for you. He’ll come to your aid to make sure you get what you want. God is on your side.” Instead the command is not to worry about these things, our own interests and agenda, because we are called to passionately pursue the interests and agenda of the kingdom of God. He tells us, “No, but seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. “ The Truth, Wisdom, The Word, He does not change, and neither does His message to us. What He spoke to Joshua, He speaks to us.
Christ speaks the same message in both the Old and New Testaments because He is speaking to the same people- those who by faith are His. That He is Captain of the army of the Lord is grace to Joshua and grace to us because by the same grace we are made soldiers in that army. The same grace in turn is what insures the victory. He is our Captain. He, not Joshua, brings down the walls of Jericho. He, not Joshua, brings His people into the land of Promise. He, not Joshua, storms the very gates of hell. He, not Joshua takes captivity captive. He, not Joshua, is Lord of Lords and King of Kings. And we, because He loves us, march in the victory parade with Him.
