Job 42:1-6, 10 October 25, 2015 A CALVIN JUBILEE PART II: A LESSON FROM TULIPS

Transcription

1 22 nd Sunday after Pentecost Year B Newport Presbyterian Church Hebrews 7:23-28 Bellevue, Washington Job 42:1-6, 10 A CALVIN JUBILEE PART II: A LESSON FROM TULIPS [SLIDE #1 JOHN CALVIN IN LIBRARY] Last week, I began a two-part sermon series on John Calvin, the great Protestant Reformer who in the early sixteenth century laid the foundations for our Presbyterian theology and traditions in the Swiss city of Geneva. I briefly reviewed Calvin s biography, his French birth, his education as a lawyer, his studies in Scripture and classical languages, his conversion to Protestantism and exile, and his ultimate establishment of the Protestant Church of Geneva. (If you missed that sermon, the text is available at website.) This week, I want to honor our denominational observance of Reformation Sunday and provide you with an overview of the basic positions of Calvinist theology and how its tenets form the basis of how we do church today. To add some visual aids to understanding why Calvin s theology was so successful and appealing, I ve taken the liberty of presenting some of his most important concepts using PowerPoint. It is also important to keep in mind that Calvin s theology that he brilliantly summarized in his great work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion is somewhat different from the themes and emphases his followers later developed, but few would underestimate the degree of influence Calvin s scholarship and preaching had on the development of what today we call Reformed Christianity. It is instructive to note that Calvin derived all of his theological doctrines from his very close readings of Scripture, often in their original Greek or Hebrew. When you read the Institutes, Calvin does not let a paragraph go by without multiple citations to Scriptural passages to support his analysis. Above all, Calvin sought to align his Calvinist theology, also called Reformed theology, with Scripture s witness to the supremacy of God, Christ s redemption of humanity, and the enduring works of the Holy Spirit. [SLIDE #2 TULIP] Most explanations of Reformed theology use two terribly over-simplified acronyms to touch on its major concepts, but they are nevertheless useful in helping us to remember Calvinism s key points. The first of these acronyms is TULIP. Each letter in the word tulip stands for one of the five major doctrines in Reformed theology. We re going to examine and discuss each one of these doctrine in turn, using pictures that will hopefully help illustrate some of the elegant logic of Calvinism. [SLIDE #3 TOTAL DEPRAVITY] To start, Calvinist theology does not take an especially high view of humankind. In fact, it takes an exceedingly low one. In Calvin s thinking, all humankind is totally depraved, that is, we are all infused with sin from our origins in the Garden of Eden, such that nothing we say or

2 Page 2 of 6 do or believe on our own is capable of saving us. We all stand in condemnation for our sin, and that sin is associated with our very being. Nothing we do can escape this essential fact of our existence. Sin in fact is a condition of being, and particularly, of human being. For Calvin, sin is almost exclusively a noun and not a verb. Some critics of Calvin find the doctrine of total depravity rather negative and outright depressing, but it does have its oddly liberating facets. In fact, more than two hundred years after Calvin died, the delegates to the Continental Congress a number of whom were staunch Calvinists -- took the doctrine of total depravity and turned it on its head when they wrote, All men are created equal in the Declaration of Independence. Total depravity holds that all people, whether prince or pauper, pope or parishioner, are at root the same in God s eyes. No person can throw a righteousness trip on another. No one is inherently superior or blessed. With the doctrine of total depravity, Calvin cleared the way for both the modern church and state to embrace the egalitarian ideals of democratic governance. [SLIDE #4 UNCONDITIONAL ELECTION] So if we are all condemned for our sin, what s the point of belief in God? Calvin responded to that question with a startling declaration: God loves us anyway, despite our total depravity. Even though we are rife with sinfulness, God loves us, and that love is unconditional. God s love is not something one secures on one s own. God s love is steadfast and knows no bounds. And God s love rescues us to use Calvin s terminology, elects us to be united with God, to be saved and brought into God s divine presence in heaven with the rest of those whom God also elects. God knows just who these elect are, and has always known who they are and who they will be, because Calvin s vision of God is that of an omnipotent Creator who can transcend both space and time, just like Job acknowledges in this morning s Scripture lesson. You can probably figure out the potential weakness in Calvin s claim here. Some might argue that there must be some conditions upon which human salvation must be based, or else there is no reason to obey any of God s laws or commandments. Calvin has a response to this concern which we will examine in a minute, but for now, you might want to note that this doctrine is related to total depravity in that no one merits God s love; divine love is unconditional. If you believe that racism, sexism, homophobia or any other attempt to categorically exclude persons from God s grace has no place in the church, you would do well to advance Calvin s doctrine of unconditional election as a core part of your faith. [SLIDE #5 LIMITED ATONEMENT] Yes, the image is shocking, but it does illustrate the doctrine of the atonement quite well, if somewhat graphically. Jesus sacrifice on the cross is sufficient for the salvation from our sin because he takes on the sin of the world unto himself, and his sacrifice is both sufficient and efficacious, that is, his sacrifice is the only thing needed to release humanity from the bonds of its own sinfulness forever. So if Jesus takes on our sins in such a permanent and enduring fashion, then Christians have nothing to fear about doing anything wrong, right? Not so fast. 2

3 Page 3 of 6 Although Calvin was egalitarian in his sentiments about our created being, he was not so generous dealing with who was a part of God s elect. In fact, Calvin held that not everyone was saved. Only some part of humanity was part of the elect, and the rest was not. Jesus came to save humankind from its sin, but not all of humankind was saved. In this sense, Jesus atonement was limited to just those whom God elected. Others remained condemned to perdition. To be fair, this doctrine is probably the most troublesome for our 21 st century mindset as progressive Christians today. The idea that some would be left behind while others would get fast-tracked on the road to salvation offends our universalist tendencies. We don t readily adopt the idea of some being in and some being out because that would undermine our fundamental belief in the universality of God s love. Still others have trouble with the atonement at all, and find it upsetting that God would sacrifice God s son for the sins of others, as if Jesus would be forced to pay the penalty for someone else s crime. In response, Calvin would challenge us to pause and reflect on the situation presented by this image: if Jesus the Christ is willing to go to this extent to demonstrate the depth of his commitment to save us, isn t he deserving of all praise and honor? Isn t this how you would want your Redeemer to act in order to save you? [SLIDE #6 IRRESISTIBLE GRACE] You know what s good for you, don t you? Even if you don t, God knows what is good for you. We may cringe, wiggle, twist and whine, but God s grace still wins out because God is omnipotent and all-powerful in Calvinist theology. Irresistible grace is really just the logical conclusion of the first three points we ve already looked at. If God s grace has been granted to us and God has gifted us with the faith to believe that it is so then that grace cannot be defeated or overcome by any human effort or external force. God always wins in the end, and God s love for us always triumphs. The naysayers challenge this assertion: Don t faithful people sometimes fall away? Don t good people particularly people of faith do bad things? Calvinists dismiss this concern with an arguably superficial observation: if a presumed person of faith falls away and fails to return into the fold, then that person did not have real faith to begin with. We can t always determine with certitude when someone is part of the elect or not, but their actions rarely betray them. Here s where the Calvinist sense of responsibility comes into play. In the Calvinist mind set, one does not do good works because he or she wishes to be saved. Rather, one does good works because he or she is saved, and doing good works whether caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, visiting the lonely, praying for the needy, knitting scarves for the homeless, or simply worshipping God all of these works demonstrate that God s grace has made its redemptive mark on that individual. To put it another way, God s grace is irresistible but that does not give the true people of God license to test that irresistibility. Rather, God s people are to promote and not challenge the gracious reign of God. 3

4 Page 4 of 6 [SLIDE #7 PERSEVERENCE OF THE SAINTS] God s people are graced with an enduring faith through the working of the Holy Spirit, and the presence of that faith endures despite obstacles. Here again, you can see the corollary between this doctrine and the others in the Calvinist framework. If God s grace is irresistible, and people have been gifted with true faith by God, then the expression of that faith by God s Chosen People, or who Calvin calls the saints, is similarly strong and permanent. For Calvin, sainthood is not a status that is conferred by the church establishing a hierarchy of mediators between God and humankind. To Calvin, the medieval Church s practice of canonizing specific individuals as named saints reeked of idolatry, a violation of the Ten Commandments. Instead, Calvin re-defined sainthood to signify a status conferred solely by God on a people who were graced by an enduring faith. That s why in Calvinist theology everyone in this sanctuary this morning is a saint, because your faith has led you here to worship and honor God, and because your presence here makes manifest the working of God within you. When the saints gather in Christ s name, that faith perseveres. So just how are the saints supposed to order themselves when they do gather in Christ s name? [SLIDE #8 CALVINISM S THREE C s] Here, briefly, is the second acronym for understanding Calvinist theology, the three C s that shape both the church and everyday life in Calvinist world view. The first of these, Covenant, reflects God s loving relationship with the people of God. In exchange for being the recipients of God s grace, we offer our praise and worship in everything that we do, not just in church. We do so because we fulfill our calling, the second C. Calling is the plan that God s has for each one of us, and each one of us has been given particular gifts and skills to fulfill that divine calling. Some of us are teachers, others work in health care, some are architects, some are engineers, and some are artists. We are called to be any one of these things because God has gifted us with those skills and abilities. Finally, we don t do these things alone; we do them in community, the final C. Community is both a context for the expression of our faith and a source of our collective accountability. The community assesses our ability to do the things we are called to do. When we meet as a congregation, we vote on our pastors, deacons and elders, and we hold them accountable. We do the same thing in the secular world within our communities, our societies, our charitable organizations, and our political institutions. Today, we think nothing of declaring through the ballot our collective considered opinion on the way things ought to be run, and we deem it our God-given right to do so. John Calvin may have had more to do with that idea than we give him credit for. [SLIDE #9 OLD JOHN CALVIN] 4

5 Page 5 of 6 He married reluctantly and late in life. His wife, Idelette, lived for less than nine years after they wed. They had no children who survived infancy. He never remarried. When he died in 1564, he insisted that he be buried in an unmarked grave in Geneva so that it would not become a site of veneration or pilgrimage. To this day, no one knows the precise location of his gravesite, and only a simple plaque in the cemetery where he is thought to be at rest notes his possible presence there. But John Calvin s legacy was monumental. Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Disciples of Christ, UCC, Christian Reformed, Reformed Church of America are just a few American examples of a Reformed Christian faith and witness that he fostered and that changed the world. We here at Newport are a part of that legacy. As Calvin himself said, However many blessings we expect from God, God s infinite liberality will always exceed all our wishes and out thoughts. There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in the world, that is not intended to make us rejoice. And so may it be. Amen. 5

6 HEBREWS 7: Furthermore, the former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office; 24 but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. 25 Consequently he is able for all time to save those who approach God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. 26 For it was fitting that we should have such a high priest, holy, blameless, undefiled, separated from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 27 Unlike the other high priests, he has no need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for those of the people; this he did once for all when he offered himself. 28 For the law appoints as high priests those who are subject to weakness, but the word of the oath, which came later than the law, appoints a Son who has been made perfect forever. JOB 42:1-6, 10 1 Then Job answered the LORD: 2 "I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. 3 'Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?' Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. 4 'Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you declare to me.' 5 I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; 6 therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes." 10 And the LORD restored the fortunes of Job when he had prayed for his friends; and the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.