“SPIDERS AND
CHICKENS”
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A sermon preached Readings: Psalm 25:1-11, Luke 13:31-35 |
This
is one of the first – but certainly not the last -
occasions when I realize how very much the poorer we are
for the loss of Rev John Lawson
from our regular congregation
here at the Mint.
I know that had he been here with us tonight he would –
from his immense knowledge of 18th Century Church History -
have had an anecdote or two to offer
on his way out of Church after the service.
As it is, we have commended our brother John
to God’s eternal loving care in the world above,
and thank God for his life and all he meant to us in this life.
Meanwhile
our study of Church History
in the Church militant below must continue without his illumination.
Today
marks precisely the 300th Anniversary
of the birth of Jonathan Edwards,
born on October 5th 1703.
I suspect that most people in this country
would associate the name with the triple jump –
but in fact Jonathan Edwards was
one of the most influential ministers in the 18th Century American
revival.
His biography
makes fascinating reading for the trivia
alone.
He was a chocholic who would write to
messengers
begging them not to consume all the chocolate
they were bringing him from Boston
before they completed their journey.
His first four children were all born on a Sunday –
a cause of some ribald mirth in his congregation
in an age which believed that conception and birth
always took place on the same day of the week.
He died tragically as a result of an early form of smallpox vaccination
which killed rather than protected him.
He had great sympathy for the Mohican Indians
in an age when the white settlers
were not necessarily kindly disposed to them –
Edwards even sent his son to live in a Mohican village for a year
to learn their language and culture.
We of
course have only recently celebrated
the tercentenary of John Wesley’s birth.
Three months younger than John Wesley,
Edwards and Wesley never met,
but John Wesley read and studied much of Edwards’ writings –
and even published some them in England,
though typically editing out the bits he disagreed with.
Like
Wesley,
we may find some parts of Jonathan Edwards’ theology
more helpful than others,
but tonight I want to reflect briefly
on three aspects of Jonathan Edwards’ life and ministry –
and try to place them in Biblical perspective.
1. Religious Experience
Edwards
spent much of his ministry
wrestling with the nature of Christian experience
and how we knew whether it was true or valid.
This was not a new question and remains a topic for us today.
Edwards
lived in an age of religious revival
when many revivalists claimed that God was at work
in their ecstatic and dramatic emotional frenzies and outbursts.
Jonathan
Edwards said simply that such outbursts
could be God given and doubtless often were –
but that conversely caution was needed –
the devil could mimic the outer semblance of religious ecstasy
and this was not therefore on its own
a safe or sufficient ground for seeing God at work.
We
are to be known by our fruits –
if and only if religious experience results in peace and love and joy
then is it seen as coming from God.
Paul
of course was faced with similar issues at Corinth,
and you remember there how he gave the gift of ecstatic utterance
a relatively lowly place,
preferring people to speak in a straightforward way inspired by love.
We at
the Mint are not noted for waving our hands ecstatically in the air –
but we can – rightly – show emotion in our worship as we praise God.
We need to remember that that emotion
is as worthy as the love and peace which it produces in our lives.
2. The Church
Jonathan
Edwards finally fell out with his congregation in Northampton,
Massachusetts over the question of Church membership.
His predecessor as pastor had operated an open table
and welcomed all into the fellowship of the Church.
Edwards
came to believe that
those becoming Communicant members of the Church
should first make a public declaration of faith
before being admitted to communion -
which issue, to cut a long story short,
resulted in the Church asking him to leave.
Part
of us must sympathise with Edwards –
living in a society where Church going was in danger of having
more to do with social status than religious conviction,
we can see his concern to lead his people towards
real commitment and affirmation of faith.
But
we are reminded of the Gospel reading for today,
which we read at our morning service –
how the disciple tried to stop mothers
bringing their children to Jesus to be blessed.
Jesus
could have said –
these children have yet to make a confession of faith,
so we must not give them a blessing.
Of
course he said no such thing –
rather “let the children come unto me”.
And
here at this table tonight there is a welcome for all.
Come
and kneel here and thank God that we are all welcome,
whoever, whatever we are, at his table.
And can it be right for a Church to fence a table
when the Lord himself is host of the feast and he invites all to partake?
So
all are welcome –
and we hope and pray that as we come we will hear God
and that his word will lead us
(as a consequence, not a prerequisite of our communion)
to deeper acts of commitment and witness.
3. The Spider
Sadly
the aspect of Jonathan Edwards’ ministry
most frequently quoted are his hell fire sermons.
Sadly because they are the parts of his theology
which are most difficult to reconcile with the Gospel
of free grace as we know it here.
Here
is Jonathan Edwards on the spider -
“The God that
holds you over the pit of hell,
much as one holds a spider,
or some loathsome insect over the fire,
abhors you,
and is dreadfully provoked: his wrath towards you burns like fire;
he looks upon you as worthy of nothing else,
but to be cast into the fire;
he is of purer eyes than to bear to have you in his sight;
you are ten thousand times more abominable in his eyes,
than the most hateful venomous serpent is in ours.
You have offended him infinitely more
than ever a stubborn rebel did his prince;
and yet it is nothing but his hand
that holds you from falling into the fire every moment.
It is to be ascribed to nothing else,
that you did not go to hell the last night…”
What
are we to make of this? Let me suggest
two things –
1. There is a sentimental form of religion which
says we are all OK really,
and being a Christian is pretty much to do with
giving up your seat on the bus for old ladies,
saying your prayers regularly
and taking your library books back on time.
We need reminding occasionally – maybe more than occasionally –
that our faith is about more than that –
it is about the huge gap between God in his purity and love
and us in our sin and our selfishness.
We need reminding that we do not saunter into the presence of God
and treat him casually like a mate down the pub.
God is the gold standard against which the dross of our life is judged,
God is the holy one in whose presence we know
that we are shown up for what we are in all our weakness.
And like Jonathan Edwards,
the Scriptures time and again speak of the judgement and our deserts.
We
may as modern Christians wish to see the flames of hell
as a mythical and poetic image –
but we need to hang on to the demythologised truth
that we deserve the profoundest judgement on our lives.
2. The problem with Jonathan Edwards’ spider
is not that it is held by a thread over the flames.
The problem is in the way he describes God’s response -
“The God that holds you over the pit of hell,
much as one holds a spider,
or some loathsome insect over the fire, abhors you…”
Is
this the Gospel?
There
are only three spiders in the Bible according to my Concordance,
and none greatly relevant to our discussion
(Job 8.14, Isa 59.5 and Prov
30.28 if you want to check them out).
But
there are chickens –
and so at the very end I come to our text – Lk 13:34 -
“O Jerusalem, Jerusalem,
you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you,
how often I have longed to gather your children together,
as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings …”
Here
is the pure and loving God
recognizing the deep sinfulness of human nature –
those even willing to stone the prophets.
But
does Jesus say
“Jerusalem I abhor you and have longed to drop you
like an abhorrent spider into the fires of destruction?”
No he
says
“Jerusalem how often have I longed to gather
your children together as a hen gathers her chicks…”
The
judgement is one of sorrow not anger,
it is not one of loathing but of desperately
heartbreakingly sorrowful and unrequited love.
And
of course –
that sorrowful love is harder to bear and (like coals on our head)
burns more deeply than any hell fire loathing.
But
though our judgment be thus severe,
we know that it is accomplished not by the loathing
but by the tears of Christ,
which will not cease until the very fires of hell are extinguished.
And
so as we bitterly repent of our sins,
we know that the hands of God
holding us over the fire will never let us go.