Today’s Scripture Reading (October
29, 2014): Acts 2
There is an
old story about a man who tries to avoid an appointment with Death. In the
story the man is hard at work in Philadelphia when he hears that Death is
coming to meet with him that very evening – that today is the day that his life
will end. The man has a lot of things that he still wants to accomplish in
life, so he decides that he is going to avoid Death by leaving the city. In
fact, he decides to leave the country. He quickly grabs his passport and heads
for the airport where he boards a plane heading for Toronto, Canada (apparently
death has an aversion to the cold, so going to Canada makes logical sense.)
Once in Canada, he sets himself to his business taking care of his Canadian
connections and then begins an evening walk through historic downtown Toronto
before going to his hotel for the night. He had already booked an early morning
to flight back to Philadelphia – safe in the knowledge that Death would have
left the city by that time. And as he walks by the Air Canada Center (home of
the Toronto Raptors and Maple Leafs) he is met by a man who is hurrying along
the sidewalk with his head down. The two men bump into each other and the man
looks up into the eyes of Death himself. The man dies on the streets of
Toronto, and the moral of the story seems to be that if you have an appointment
with Death, that is an appointment that must be kept. Fate can never be
cheated.
The idea of
an inescapable fate is a mainstay in a lot of tragic writing, and especially
the Greek tragedies. But it has also obtained a foothold in Christian
tradition. The idea that everything that you will ever do in life is already
written in the Great Book of Life is just another way of saying that we are
great believers in an inescapable fate. And this is an aspect of Christianity
that I have struggled openly with. The idea of an inescapable fate may be
comforting to some, but it seems to take a lot of the striving out of life. If
what will be, will be on autopilot, then why should I bother to keep trying
hard for the things that I want out of life – because it seems that either they
will be or won’t be outside of any effort that I might put in. And if people
are either saved or condemned ahead of time, than why bother putting effort
into missional and evangelical endeavors. The fix is in, and there isn’t
anything that we can do to change it.
Some like-minded
people have argued that this belief in Christian fate, especially that there is
nothing that we can do to be saved, is a lie of Satan that the church has
adopted. Luke says that Peter warned them and pleaded with them to make the
change in their lives. Peter did not seem to believe in this idea of an inescapable
fate, but rather he seemed to believe that every man was in charge of his own
destiny – and that every person is responsible for his own salvation. If he is
obedient to the dictates of God, then God’s grace will cover him. But we can
also choose another way, and in that we become like someone who refuses a
blanket even though they are cold. It is not that the blanket isn’t there, but
we still have to be willing to wrap ourselves up in it if we are going to make
use of its benefits.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Acts 3
No comments:
Post a Comment