Peace?

I listened to a Rob Bell sermon this morning that really encouraged and convicted me.  (I realize that many people at this time are not huge Bell fans, but that is not what this is about.)  It made me think about so many things God has been teaching me lately especially in a new place at a new job.  This is just a small summation of such thoughts.  

Ecclesiastes 4:5-6 says, “The fool folds his hands and eats his own flesh.  Better is a handful of quietness (tranquility) than two hands full of toil and a striving after wind.”

We can live with our hands completely folded, so disengaged and ‘checked out’ from the world, or with a closed fist where we are so busy and stressed and worried.  Both are destructive and quench the work of God in us. 

The writer of Ecclesiastes says it is better to live with one hand in quietness or tranquility.  This is neither of the extremes.  It is counter cultural.  The closed fist is so prevalent in our cultures (American and Korean and others I am sure).  Because we still think we have to earn something, achieve something, or receive some kind of approval, so we work so hard we can’t rest because that means we’d have to stop and that could mean failure.  We normalize words and phrases like, “things are just so crazy right now” or “I’ll have time later, I’m just so stressed now” to make normal what is truthfully quite unacceptable for Christians.  Truly, the Good News is we already have approval, achievement, and success.  We are chasing after things we already have. 

To live with one hand in tranquility is counter cultural, and to be at peace is not normal.  If we are not living like this, how do we expect others to see Jesus, if it just looks like the normal “crazy, worried, stressful” life?  How do I expect my students and co workers to see Jesus if I am so stressed about my lessons because I want to be approved by the school, that I forget I am already approved and I truly can be at peace and rest and do my best? 

On the other hand, we cannot live ‘checked out’ with our hands folded.  For this says, “what have I to contribute?”  You forget that you have much to contribute as an image bearer of the almighty God, to reflect Him and bring Him glory and instigate His Kingdom on earth.  There is so much more to life than waiting around for the next great thing, the next shopping special, the next tv show.  There is so much more to who we are and who we are made to be.

Why do we venture to these extremes?  Because we have forgotten who we are.

When Jesus was baptized by the Baptizer what did the voice of God say to him?  “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”  Jesus had not died yet, or rose from the dead, or even begin his earthly ministry.  He had not yet drawn large crowds to Him or perform miracles.  But God was pleased with Him. 

God is pleased with us.  Just as we are.  Just where we are at, in our everyday lives.  I love what Bell says: “Jesus has great faith that everyday, ordinary people can change the world.”  Why else did he choose fisherman for disciples?  A fisherman was a pretty low status, dishonorable job in their day, and these were the ones he said, “Follow me.”  He asks everyday, normal people to follow him just as they are, what they are doing right now. 

One thing I took from a reformed seminary that I think has shaped everything about my theology is actually very similar to these thoughts Bell presents (whether he knows it or not):  The idea that the indicatives (being) compel the imperatives (doing), not the other way around.  Why did Paul write so many letters?  Most of these church congregants were struggling with their identity in Christ, right?  They could not get their walk with God straight and kept going back to the Law in hopes that it would make things better again.  But Paul reminds them in every letter of who they are as temples of the living God in the new covenant instigated in the blood of Christ.  I promise you when you read one of Paul’s lists of “do’s” before it there is a statement of being, a confirmation of who they are.

I think Paul would have a lot to say to us today who worry ourselves about approval and achievement and marry with the world’s idea that what you do makes you who you are.  Paul turns this approach on its head.  God is well pleased not because we are great, but because Jesus shed his blood and conquered all of sin and death by his glorious resurrection.  God is pleased with you my dear brothers and sisters not because of anything you’ve done or will do, but because you are his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ.  Let us rejoice in this, and keep one hand in tranquility. 

So as usual, Jesus calls us to live this third way.  To live a way counter to the extremes of our cultures.  There is a way to live life with contentment and peace.  I think if the Old Testament wisdom literature writer can believe this and write this, we in the new covenant have No Excuse.  For He has died and risen.  God is well pleased.  Let us not run after things we already have, but run to Him for He has already given us everything we need.  Let us rejoice, as we remember in this time of spring and newness, the new life that He has given us because He has conquered death and is alive!  He is risen, and we are raised with Him as his sons and daughters.  How precious this truth is.  Let us show the fully alive, beautiful, peaceful Jesus to all nations.  

(the description of the hands is insight from Bell's sermon.  if you'd like to listen to it you can download it on his website or on itunes.  the sermon is called "three kinds of hands" from mars hill's sermon series on ecclesiastes)