We are back in Nagoya, Japan after a vacation in China. We went on a "Heritage Tour" through our adoption agency, Holt International (http://www.holtinternational.org/tours/) The experience was wonderful not only for our daughters who reconnected with the land and some of the people of their birth, but for Beth and I. The tour was well organized and a joy to be part of. Hopefully in the coming weeks I can share on this blog some of what we experienced. However, it is good to be home.
Mark 4:26-34
“It’s not about you.”1 That’s the first line of Pastor Rick Warren’s best selling book The Purpose Driven Life. “If you want to know why you were placed on this planet,” Warren goes on to say, “you must begin with God.”
This very God-centered agenda that we cannot discover our life’s purpose by starting with a focus on ourselves and instead, we have to turn to our Creator, and discover the reason God has put us in this world is not new to Pastor Rick Warren.
That of course is not to somehow demean Pastor Warren, rather if you pick up this particular thread of Christian thinking --- “It’s not about you” --- and tug on it you’re going to find yourself face to face with a prominent Christian, a man who we remembered on the 10th of July, his 500th birthday --- John Calvin. “There is not one blade of grass, there is no color in this world,” said John Calvin, “that is not intended to make us rejoice.”
Born in France in 1509, Calvin was a brilliant young man who intended to be a Catholic priest but entered law instead.2 Then, after encountering the writings of reformers such as Martin Luther, Calvin had a conversion experience. “God subdued and brought my heart to docility,” he said.
Breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church, he left France and settled in Switzerland. In 1536, Calvin published one of the greatest theological works ever written, The Institutes of the Christian Religion. This major book, which begins with God the Creator and ends with reflections on government, stands as one of the most important expressions of Christian thought. Not bad work for a 27-year-old.
Calvin’s writings so impressed the people of Geneva, Switzerland, that he was invited to move there and help the church. Calvin’s workload in Geneva was staggering: He pastored a church and preached daily, wrote commentaries on almost every book in the Bible, authored dozens of Christian pamphlets, trained and sent out missionaries, and influenced the schools and the civil government. No wonder Calvin suffered from chronic migraine headaches!
During those years in the mid to late 1500’s the city of Geneva became a magnet for Christians from all over Europe. One of them, John Knox of Scotland, described the city of Calvin as “the most perfect school of Christ since the days of the apostles.”
So what made Calvin and Geneva for that matter so magnetic? As I said, an important strand of Christian belief that Calvin emphasized is the Sovereignty of God. Meaning, Calvin taught that no human being -- whether king or bishop or emperor -- could demand our ultimate loyalty. Calvin famously wrote: “God is Lord over all!”3 This was good news then; it’s good news now. Just look at the words of Jesus in the gospel “This is what the kingdom of God is like. A man scatters seed on the ground. Night and day, whether he sleeps or gets up, the seed sprouts and grows, though he does not know how.”4 God is in control.
It’s not about us; it’s all about God. Meaning that each person has the ability to make choices, whether good or evil, yet those choices do not supersede or control God. Rather, instead it is an important paradox that cannot be explained by human logic: God is always in charge and control, yet we as human beings are gifted by God as responsible creatures, choices are ours. We are not puppets on a string, yet God is in control.
Another prominent theme which John Calvin explored is what is called Prevenient Grace. We know that salvation, deliverance from the power of sin and evil, is possible only through the grace of God. John Calvin explored this central tenet insisting that because God is Lord over all --- that means that human beings, human choices and human institutions cannot manipulate or control God in any way. We cannot be saved by anything but God’s grace, which is a completely free gift to people who trust in Jesus Christ. “My grace is sufficient for you,” said Jesus to the apostle Paul, “for power is made perfect in weakness.” Paul goes on to say, “So, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me.”5
For example, in his opening to his Christian Institutes, Calvin says, “Before God nothing remains for us to boast of, save his mercy, whereby we have been received into hope of eternal salvation through no merit of our own.”6 John Calvin laid emphasis on that fact that we are not saved, God’s love and grace does not come to us by our merit --- meaning our value, or by our works --- meaning the good we do, or by our attempts at human perfection --- meaning what we do to become better people. It is grace alone, according to Calvin, a completely free gift from the God who is Lord over all. That is still good news, 500 years after the birth of John Calvin. All of life is not about us; it is all about God.
Of course, John Calvin also has some controversial thoughts. Particularly around his theme of what is commonly called predestination. For those of you who are not familiar with this theme let me give you an example.
In the American civil war, there was a famous Confederate General by the name of Stonewall Jackson. He was a devout Christian and an ardent follower of Calvin. Jackson was also noted for his strong, unflappable nature. His nickname, “Stonewall,” came from a fellow military officer who, observing him in the confusion of battle, said, “There is Jackson, standing like a stone wall.”
Jackson once responded to a fellow officer who asks him how he can remain so calm in the midst of the fray, Jackson replies, “My religious belief teaches me to feel as safe in battle as in bed. God has fixed the time for my death; I do not concern myself with that. But to be always ready, whenever it may overtake me ? that is the way all men should live. Then all men would be equally brave.”
God fixing the time of our death is predestination. That notion seems contrary to what we know and experience. For example, eat poorly, smoke heavily, drink to excess and you have a higher chance of dying young --- your choice --- nothing to do with Calvin or even God.
That is not what Calvin argued; instead predestination is based on the foreknowledge of God. In Calvin’s thought there is no sense whatsoever that our actions, decisions and choices are foreordained and pre-determined. In short, we can’t blame our bad decisions on God. God did not make us do it. Rather, God offers us grace and invites us to receive what God in his mercy has taken the initiative to proffer. In other words, in life and in death, we belong to God.
For Calvin, this idea that God has fixed the time of death --- predestination --- not only was based on the sovereignty of God, but also for Calvin provides comfort. We do not have to be ruled by doubt or fear, or constantly worry that we are not doing enough good stuff to earn a spot in heaven. Rather, our sovereign God is in control and is offering us the gift of grace.
Our faith does not have to be ruled by doubt and fear; stonewalls. Unfortunately Calvin’s attempt to provide comfort based on the fact that God is sovereign became to be seen as fatalistic. It is unfortunate because I liked the way C.S. Lewis in The Great Divorce hinted at the themes of predestination --- Lewis says there are two kinds of people: those who say to God, “Thy will be done,” and those to whom God says, “All right, then, have it your way.”
In the end, John Calvin believed it was all about God --- not about him. He chose to be buried in an unmarked grave, no gravestone or marker of any kind, so family and people would not be tempted to make pilgrimages to pay him homage rather than God. He wanted our focus to be on the Lord who is God over all and on the grace that is truly sufficient for us.
I want to finish with this illustration that I found: “It’s not about you. It’s not about us. It’s not about him. It’s not about her. It’s not about your boss. And it’s not about loss. It’s not about work. It’s not about play. It’s not about money. It’s not about the economy. It’s not about your parents. It’s not about your kids. It’s not about your wife. It’s not about your husband. It’s not about your friends. It’s not about your enemies. It’s all about God. That’s right. It’s all about God.”7 Amen.
1 Warren, Rick. The Purpose Driven Life. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.
2 Oxford Concise Dictionary of the Christian Church, E.A. Livingstone, Ed., Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK. 2006
3 Institutes, 1.14.3
4 Mark 4: 26-27
5 2 Corinthians 12:9
6 Institutes, PA 2
7 Idea and thoughts for semon and illustration from: www.homiletics.com
