"Chastening: God's Air-Horn, Hint, & Hoe"
June 30/02 Heb.12:4-11
A Blast to Get Back on Track
It's late at night. You're in the car, driving, still some distance from home after a long day on the road. You're by yourself so there's no one to keep you awake. You turn the radio up a little louder, but the lines on the road and the background music all seem to fade together into a dull blur. Your eyelids are getting heavier and heavier...
Suddenly you're startled by an enormous blast from an air-horn. You look up from the steering wheel and see a transport truck coming at you. Swinging the car back over a couple of feet into your own lane, you breathe a sigh of relief as the semi rushes its tens of thousands of pounds of freight on by you. That was a close one! That trucker blowing his horn to wake you probably saved your life!
In our lives as Christians, we're not immune from suffering. In fact a good deal of pain dogs believers' lives. We may silently complain to the Lord, "Why me? What did I do to deserve this hardship? God, is this your idea of 'blessing'? Why am I hurting so much?" And because of the pain, we're tempted to become bitter and discouraged.
Suffering can be a blast from God's air-horn to get our life back on track for the Kingdom when we were straying, falling asleep at the wheel as a disciple, so to speak. Discipline may have to hurt in order to get our attention and re-orient us to God's path. CS Lewis writes: "The human spirit will not even begin to try to surrender self-will as long as all seems to be well with it.Now error and sin both have this property that the deeper they are the less their victim suspects their presence...We can rest contentedly in our sins and in our stupidities...But pain insists on being attended to.God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our conscience, but shouts in our pains: it is His megaphone to rouse a deaf world."
So our lives may be hurting because God's trying to get our attention through His megaphone, His air-horn. Or difficulties may be His way of passing on coach's hints to us on how to train better for the prize of eternal life. Or suffering may be the gardener's hoe weeding out the things that don't belong in a life lived for Christ's glory. But first let's look closer at this word summarizing God's pain that instructs, what's traditionally called "chastening".
Does God "Punish" His Children - or "Chasten" Them?
When bad things happen, or something goes wrong and we start to hurt, Christians may semi-consciously think, "Uh-oh - what'd I do now? What's God punishing me for this time?" But is 'punishment' really the right term to put on it?
Bingham Hunter in his book on prayer called The God Who Hears says, "Christians who feel that discipline is punishment can easily believe that God is angry and displeased with them most of the time.And no one wants to 1talk with someone who is always mad at them, and so we stop talking to God." But he contends that for the Christian, it's actually inappropriate to view suffering as punishment.
Let's review some of Scriptures assertion about discipline, what in the older translations is called "chastening". Deuteronomy 8:5 sets the pattern by urging us to accept God's training as a child from their loving parent: "Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you." Job 5:17 tells us to accept and not reject God's chastening: "Blessed is the man whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty." Realizing we may misunderstand God's motives and not associate the pain of rebuke with long-term love, Proverbs 3:11-12 says, "My son, do not despise the LORD?s discipline and do not resent his rebuke, because the LORD disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in." God's being attentive to us in the whole process, delighting in our improvement! And at the other end of the Bible from Deuteronomy, our glorified Lord Jesus tells the churches in Revelation 3:19: "Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent." From cover to cover, the Bible consistently reveals that God "gets in our face" to correct and train us through chastening.
Probably the most extensive passage on this whole subject in the New Testament is Hebrews 12:5-11. Commenting on Proverbs 3, the author interprets hardship as God's discipline for His dear children. As we respect those of our parents who trained us in what's right, so we benefit from submitting to God's training too. For "God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness." There is an aim in mind; these are teachable moments by which the Lord is shaping our character, so we will experience righteousness and peace.
A true understanding of the Hebrew and Greek words will help us not get the wrong idea, that God's "out to get us". The two main Hebrew terms mean to "chasten, discipline, instruct, correct" - not inflict punishment. The Greek term means to chasten, to train, to cause one to learn, to instruct; only in the New Testament when Pilate finds Jesus "not guilty" but scourges Him is it used negatively. The words refer to learning, not retribution; to "teach, instruct, train up, point out, make obvious, bring conviction about."
Even in our English language terms, there are subtle but important nuances in the words associated with "chastening". "Chaste" was originally from the Latin word meaning "pure". The dictionary lists the narrow sense first, "not guilty of unlawful sexual intercourse; virtuous"; then more generally, "pure in character or conduct; not indecent". "Chasten" thus means to "make chaste" or make pure. "Chastise" doesn't sound a lot different, but carried the more negative sense of "to punish, especially by beating". The Hebrew and Greek terms in the Bible mean "chasten" much more often than "chastise": the emphasis is on nurture and training rather than punishment.
Because of Jesus' pure atonement for believers at the cross, punishment is for unrepentant sinners, while "chastening" is for believers. Hunter writes, "We must get rid of the notion that discipline is punishment.When God chastises, he speaks in love, not justice...Punishment is the just response of a holy God to the sin and guilt of His creatures.In a technical sense, punishment is the lot only of those who reject God's saving grace and die as unbelievers. It is retribution for what has been done in the past and is especially associated with our final judgment before God.In a word, punishment is hell.Discipline, chastisement and rebuke, on the other hand, are the loving (and not wrathful) responses of a holy Creator.Perhaps most often they are His concerned reaction to our sin, but there are also times when discipline does not seem to be the result of moral wrong.In these cases God may have spiritual maturity and character development in mind when He allows suffering."
Does it seem startling to you that God doesn't "punish" believers but "chastens" them? H.E.Jacobs echoes what Hunter says, distinguishing between "punishment" and "chastisement" -- "the former, as an act of justice, revealing wrath; and the latter, as an act of mercy, love.Since to them that are in Christ Jesus, there is no condemnation (Rom.8:1), they can suffer no punishment, but only chastisement...Where guilt has been removed, there can be no punishment.There being no degrees of justification, no one can be forgiven in part, with a partial guilt still set to his account for which he must yet give a reckoning, either here or hereafter.If, then, all the righteousness of Christ belongs to him, and no sin whatever remains to be forgiven, ...all life's sorrows are remedial agencies against danger and to train for the kingdom of heaven."
Wow! God's not spilling out His wrath on me after all - Jesus bore that at Golgotha. God's not mad at me, just using pain constructively to get my attention and direct me back onto the right path, closer to Him.
THE COACH'S PLAN: OUR PROGRESS AND PRIZE, NOT PLEASURE
Right now I know of many young people in our congregation who are undergoing training of various sorts. One fellow is getting ready for college sports by a regular fitness program laid out for him which takes several hours a day. One young woman is practising an hour a day for an upcoming conservatory exam. Another is taking driving lessons, so she'll be safe on the road and protect the lives of others. Another young man just finished taking a first aid course. All these programs involve some hardship, yes; they take time and energy, yes; they're certainly not easy -- but neither are they viewed as something negative or a punishment. In the same way, God's chastening is like the hints or tips of a coach's training program.
Psalm 94:12 says, "Blessed is the man you discipline, O LORD, the man you teach from your law." In 1 Corinthians 9(24-27) Paul urges, "Run in such a way as to get the prize.Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever." He goes on to say that he makes his body his slave to he won't be disqualified for the prize. We are spiritual "athletes-in-training"!
The apostles reminded those suffering in the early church that there were definite rewards for their hardship: not gold medals, but golden character qualities. Romans 5(3-4) says "we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope." James (1:2-4) tells believers to "consider it pure joy" when they face "trials of many kinds because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." Suffering and hardship are the necessary training ground by which God brings us to completeness of character - a trophy that lasts for eternity.
What is a good coach's objective? That the players enjoy travelling all over the country or the world, staying in nice hotels, eating all kinds of good food, revelling in the best seats in the house when it comes to an actual game? "Here, Curtis, I don't want you to overexert yourself playing in net.Here's a nice soft cushion and some pretzels so you can relax on the bench." Is that the way to win the Stanley Cup? Do the soccer teams get to the World Cup just so the players can delight in visiting cities around the globe and sightseeing? No, they're too busy training! It takes hours of gruelling practice to make it to the finals.
So for the "sport" of the Christian life, God's objective is not for us to have an easy or enjoyable or even pleasant time. Joy, yes; happiness - not necessarily. In this bent world distorted by the fall, a world riven with sin's misery and aching hearts longing for truth and groping for ultimate meaning, the idea that Christians should expect a happy pain-free life in their decades on this planet is a myth. It's "normal" to suffer. We're the key players in a cosmic championship match with the powers of evil, and our Coach isn't going to leave us relaxing (and wasting) on the bench!
Bingham Hunter writes: "Strict training, as Paul implies, is likely to hurt. 'No pain, no gain' is the motto of many athletes. The same is true in the Christian life...Christians in the West have come to expect happiness, peace and security in life. Those who might raise questions about this -- the chronically and terminally ill, for example -- are quietly tucked away behind clean white walls, out of sight and out of the way. But Paul said, 'I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.' (Rom.8:18) Paul assumes that it is normal to suffer. Peter says that Christians are called by God to suffer (1 Pet.2:21). Yet an astounding number of Christians today seem to figure that the discipline through which God works - the physical and mental suffering, hardship, persecution, grief, adversity and so on -- is simply not intended for us. When our pursuit of happiness is disrupted, we grow depressed and convinced that God has turned His back on us. If difficulty persists we know in the depths of our souls that prayer doesn't 'work': we begged God to kiss away our hurt...and He didn't. The measure of God's love, however, is not inversely proportional to the amount of pain, adversity and tribulation we may be called to endure."
Pain is a necessary part of life. When our pain faculties aren't working, as in frostbite or leprosy, something's majorly wrong and permanent damage can result. The pain is a part of growth, a signal drawing our attention to needed change.
WEEDING THE GARDEN: CHASTENING'S FRUITFULNESS AND GLORY
Remember that the Latin root word for "chaste" meant "pure"? When we suffer through chastening it may be God's way of making us pure, helping us eliminate what doesn't belong. [picture] Here's a shot of our garden (potatoes and peas) before weeding this past week. [picture] Here's a picture after weeding - after it's been "chastened", made pure. Was it a pleasant experience? No, it took effort and hard work. I'm sure the weeds would have been protesting loudly! But the "point" of the garden is not to grow a maximum amount of biomass, whether weeds or veggies: the point is to grow only potatoes and peas. To get the maximum harvest, you've got to weed out anything that will hinder.
Jesus refers to this aspect of chastening in John 15:2 when He says of His Father the heavenly gardener, "He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful." Hebrews 12(11) says discipline (chastening) produces a "harvest of righteousness and peace" for those who've been trained by it.
Hunter says, "The fact is that fruit bearing is especially associated with new growth.So fruit plants (and Christians) are pruned.Your business may fail, then, not because of sin or mismanagement on your part, but because God wants you to be doing something else.You can respond with prayer focused on the past: "Why, why did you take away what I've worked all my life to build up?" Or you can anticipate new growth and fruitfulness and say: "This hurts.You know how hard I've worked.But what do You want me to do now? Show me the way, and I'll try to walk in it."
Purity is priceless. Ephesians 5(25-27) portrays Christ as a husband loving His bride the church, giving Himself up for her, cleansing her to present her to Himself radiant, "without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless." Weeding out our sins and shortfalls. CS Lewis comments, "Love, in its own nature, demands the perfecting of the beloved...To ask that God's love should be content with us as we are is to ask that God should cease to be God: because He is what He is, His love must...be impeded and repelled by certain stains in our present character, and because He already loves us He must labour to make us lovable."
This purity, enabling us to bear fruit will bring glory - credit and honour - to God, and to us at the end of time. Hunter explains: "The glory of God, not our happiness, is what we exist for. Humanity is not the centre of things, and God does not exist for our sake. We don't even exist for our own sake. We exist for God's sake, His glory. His promise is that after our Lord has glorified Himself through us, we shall, in fact, know happiness and glory ourselves. In Peter's words, 'Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.If you are insulted because of the name of Christ, you are blessed, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests on you.' (1 Peter 4:12-14) And who can forget Paul's anticipation? 'We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed...our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.' (2Cor.4:8-9,17)"
EARLY CANADIAN CHRISTIAN LEADERS: CHASTENED PURITY
This Canada Day weekend provides an opportunity to look back in history and realize how much good has been bequeathed to us by the suffering and hardships our pioneer forebears endured. (Michael Clarke's book Canada: Portraits of Faith is an excellent resource for this) You may recognize the name of Jean de Brebeuf, Canada's patron saint according to Pope Pius XII. This Jesuit priest witnessed to the Hurons in the first half of the 1600s. He armed himself with an attitude that was prepared to suffer. In his diary he vowed never to let God down if he was offered the grace of martyrdom, saying, "I bind myself, and when I have received the stroke of death, I will accept it from thy gracious hand with all pleasure and with joy in my heart; to thee my blood, my body and my life!" The account of his tortured death is gruesome reading. But it was in his death that his work bore its greatest fruit: biographer M.Solowan observes, "Conversions, which for many years were few in number, grew to number in the hundreds and even thousands in the years following Brebeuf's martyrdom. The dispersion of the Huron spread the Christian faith among the native peoples of the Great Lakes. And these converts formed the Christian communities that the Jesuits were to found among the Iroquois and the natives of the west."
Or there's Eliza Case, a Methodist missionary among the natives in Southern Ontario, and effective camp meeting speaker, during the 1800s. E.Muir writes, "In an era when women were considered to be the weaker sex, Eliza tangibly dispelled the notion. Travel from mission to mission was hazardous, and on one occasion she was thrown from a wagon. Later, a boat in which she was travelling almost capsized in a gale on Lake Couchiching. For a time, she lived with another missionary teacher...in a cramped 17-foot-square bark schoolhouse where they also taught 25 girls how to read, sew, knit, and braid straw. The structure caught fire, and Eliza narrowly escaped. That summer, she lived in a wigwam on an island because of a virulent fever on the mainland. Eliza's days began at 5 o'clock in the morning in winter, at four in the summer. She and other female missionaries were in charge of weekday schools for girls and instructed women in the evening. On Sundays, there could be as many as six sessions - prayer meetings, preaching services, and classes." Through such hard work, long hours, and primitive living conditions, Eliza contributed greatly to the spread of Christianity in Canada and the United States.
And how did Confederation itself become possible? Who did the governor-general at the time say was "the man whose conduct in 1864 had rendered the project of union feasible"? No, it was not Sir John A MacDonald. This man was a leader of Canada's other political party, a devout evangelical Presbyterian, who is said to have "maintained a reputation for incorruptibility and throughout his life maintained a strong belief that biblical morality should govern public life." (And of course his name is on the tip of our tongues!) Who was it? George Brown! (George Who, you say?)
Brown began publishing a newspaper in Toronto in 1844 called the Globe. Like his father who'd brought him from Scotland, George believed personal integrity and morality were essential ingredients for anyone seeking public office. They felt individuals were entitled to full freedom of conscience and expression and to the full protection of the law. Government must not encroach on basic freedoms, and vigilance among the free citizenry was always necessary to curb the tendency of governments to go beyond their proper limits. Brown's paper championed these values and became the official newspaper of the Reform (or Clear Grits), while George Brown himself won the support of the majority of Canada West's (ie Ontario's) electors and became Reform's leader.
However the so-called "Liberal Conservatives" (Tories) under MacDonald and Cartier were in power in the 1860s - a very shaky power; in 1864 the fourth government collapsed in as many years. The Canadas (East and West) were trapped in a futile system of government, ongoing deadlock between the groupings of race and politics. This is where the part this Christian played was so essential for Confederation.
Vincent Marquis writes: "In May 1864, Brown chaired a parliamentary committee studying ways to amend Canada's constitution to break the east-west deadlock that paralyzed effective government in Canada. The MacDonald-Cartier government fell, and another fruitless election loomed. Swallowing his personal antagonism to MacDonald and believing that God had provided him and his colleagues with a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to change the course of history, Brown offered to stake his career on an attempt to form a coalition with his opponents if they would agree to resolve the constitutional impasse once and for all. Thus, the Great Coalition was formed to seek a federation of all the colonies of British North America or, failing that, a federation of the two Canadas. Brown's role in the subsequent Charlottetown and Quebec conferences in September and October 1864 was significant, as was his contribution in promoting Confederation in the Globe and in numerous speeches. Although recent historians have often neglected Brown's role, it was crucial. As his definitive biographer has explained: 'The active force that drove the question of union to the point of decision, opened the way to decision through the constitutional committee, and then made the crucial move that transformed a blank wall of deadlock into vistas of nationhood was George Brown -- in all this, the real initiator of Confederation.'"
Throughout his life, Brown had remained humble. He had refused the lieutenant governorship of Ontario in 1875 and knighthood in 1879. He was instrumental in the formation of the Presbyterian Church of Canada in 1875. Toronto Presbytery testified, "By his pure life and conversion he commended the religion of Christ. He was sustained...by his trust in God, and in the blood of the Redeemer."
George Brown's sufferings were of a different nature than those of Jean de Brebeuf or Eliza Case. But it must have hurt his political future to make that key decision to form a coalition; it was a big risk, not supported by some of his friends. But he acted unselfishly, placing the good of the country ahead of personal or party advantage. Whatever the hardships we may be called to undergo as God's people, in chastening He is showing love not wrath. In the long run, discipline's pains jolt us back on track, and bring the blessing of purity, fruitfulness, and personal experience of Kingdom glory. Let's pray.