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Godfinders
Every person is designed to seek for God.
Presenter: Larry Kirkpatrick
Location: Clark Fork Seventh-day Adventist Church, ID, USA
Delivery: 2011-03-26
Publication: GreatControversy.org 2011-03-28 22:36Z
Type: Sermon
URL: http://www.greatcontroversy.org/gco/ser/kirl-godfinders.php
Driving in Sandpoint Thursday I found myself waiting behind an automobile at a stoplight. It had three bumper stickers on the back. One said “Question War.” One, that the future belongs to the peaceful. But the third especially caught my eye. It said, “Sorry I missed church. I was busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian.”
Before we consider her sticker, let’s read from the Bible. Acts 17:24-27:
God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; Neither is worshipped with men’s hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us (Acts 17:24-27).
Hold that thought; we shall return to it, for those lines speak to us about godfinders. But now, back to the sticker.
Was its owner mocking the idea that church matters? Mocking Christian values? Fears? This person has some opinion about church and morality. She favors peace and is anti-war. But perhaps she thinks that Christians oppose peace and approve war. And she is right—some do. And yet, for most Christians the opposite is true. If we could sit down and process some of these questions with her, we might find that we are much closer together than we might have thought?
Something is going on here. Maybe it is this: They reject what they think we stand for; we reject what we think they stand for. That is, there is either a communications gap or a biases overlap.
Probably, the owner of the bumper sticker is neither a witch nor lesbian. Being anti-war and pro-peace suggests that this person opposes aggression against others. And yet, her bumper-sticker seems to attack Christianity. That’s fine; we can take it. Truth is truth whatever people think. But she is sending mixed signals. Her expression of beliefs is inconsistent. If you are against aggression there is no place to take a random swipe at Christians.
She cares about right and wrong and has some kind of definition of what’s right and what’s wrong. It may be bent, but it remains. She is potentially reachable. The key issue with her right now probably is not the Sabbath or an understanding of baptism. It will be issues of right and wrong—how she forms her values.
Our Scripture says that God is everywhere present. He gives life to all living things, including people. All men are related to each other. He made us all of one blood. We may not treat each other as though we are family, but we are of one family nonetheless. God determined where we would live; He gives everyone a starting place.
For what? For seeking Him; for feeling one’s way toward Him; for finding Him.
For godfinding.
Life is godfinding. Fundamentally, by nature, we are worshiping beings. To be spirituality-seeking is deeply laid in the human design. This is a great strength but also an exploitable weakness. It opens the door to the possibility of substitution—the attempt to fill our God-need with something other than God.
Substitutes
As we mentioned, the woman with the bumper sticker probably is not actually a witchcraft-practicing lesbian. She thinks well enough of witchcraft to use it to make light of Christianity. What is witchcraft about today, in 2011?
It has two key elements. One is manipulation of the world. The other is philosophical; it proposes that there is both bad and good magic. The philosophy is, do whatever you will so long as you do not harm another. It also proposes that it is a means of being in harmony with nature. The interesting thing is that it appears that most practice of the occult had died out long before the development of modern witchcraft, starting in England. Gerald Gardner (1884 - 1964) is the foremost figure in the development of modern Wicca, and, indirecly, in interest in witchcraft.
Notice that modern witchcraft provides an alternative worldview, an alternative morality. Here are some lines from one resource:
Wicca acknowledges the polarity of the Divine, which means that both the male and female deities are often honored. A Wiccan may honor simply a non-specific god and goddess, or they may choose to worship specific deities of their tradition, whether it be Isis and Osiris, Cerridwen and Herne, or Apollo and Athena. In Gardnerian Wicca, the true names of the gods are revealed only to initiated members, and are kept secret from anyone outside the tradition. . . . for most Wiccans, there’s nothing supernatural about magic at all—it’s the harnessing and redirection of natural energy to effect change in the world around us. In Wicca, magic is simply another skill set or tool.
Their observances include sabbats and esbats. They also believe that everyone is responsible for their own actions, and that if you harm others it will return to harm you. The point here is not to outline an alternative belief system but to show that they are exist and that they are more or less consistent systems in themselves. They do not sell themselves as being evil but as being good, rational, and spiritual.
They are substitutes.
They are alternate paths, alternate means of enlightenment. As western views of reincarnation are fine-tuned for western consumption, so with other philosophies. They are substitutes for truth as revealed from heaven in the Bible.
Lucifer chose to embrace the idea that he could be independent from God; independent in existence, independent in forming his own morality, and so on. The essence of it is that he does not need God. He can be his own god. Surely the angels, like us, are created as spiritual beings. They must seek for the divine. If one rejects God as divine, the only other that can be divine is oneself. One can worship himself. He can propose that he has the divine in himself. Then he need not look far to find god.
And here is where it gets really interesting, because if I need not find God outside of myself, if I need not interact with the community of those who are seeking Him, then I don’t need church. Church is the assembly of those who seek and worship God. God says that He is especially found in community. “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20). But, if I am divine already, I need not subject myself to others to find God. I am god. Then the bumper-sticker makes perfect sense:
“Sorry I missed church. I was busy practicing witchcraft and becoming a lesbian.”
I do not need church. I do not need community. I define my own morality.
That is, I am doing substitution.
People seek God; it is the one thing that we cannot help. As Jacques Ellul would put it, it is a determination, a part of our setting which God has set up. There are things we get to choose and those we do not. Luke said as much in Acts 17:26. God determined our boundaries, He set up the world, He chose what would be the parameters of our individual existence. And in setting those boundaries, He had a purpose. Acts 17:27: so that we would search for God.
So, we are all godfinders. Inevitably, we are hunting. We look for Him. But on whose terms, His or ours? The Bible tells us His terms for seeking. Every other “system” makes its own terms. A priori, each one of them begins with the assumption that God may be found by other means. That is, now, rather than one truth, the truth as you and I understand it is hidden among multitude of counterfeits, each one pleasing to unconverted inclinations. The counterfeit is a means of resisting deep change and being your own god.
Godfinding
The Bible says,
Hear instruction, and be wise, and refuse it not. Blessed is the man that heareth me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors. For whoso findeth me findeth life, and shall obtain favour of the Lord. But he that sinneth against me wrongeth his own soul: all they that hate me love death (Proverbs 8:33-36)
In context, this is the conclusion of Proverbs chapter eight’s discussion of the benefits of wisdom. But I find that we often have a wrong idea about what wisdom is. Wisdom is defined in Proverbs chapter eight as including an attitude of respecting one’s Creator (Proverbs 8:13). People are prone to define wisdom as insight concerning how the world works gained irrespective God. The popular culture is laced with concepts of this separability of insight from God. Back when I was a kid, the first Star Wars movie included “the force.” The hero’ mentor told him, “use the force, Luke.” See, power was there to be manipulated. The force does not use you, you use the force. Darth vader used it for evil; Luke Skywalker used it for good. The force has a positive and a negative side. Does that begin to sound familiar?
It sounds a little bit like witchraft. Which sounds a little bit like philosophy. Which sounds a little bit like create your own reality. So what do you think? The film series has made over five billion dollars and is one of the three biggest box office hits of all time (the other two are James Bond and Harry Potter). Do your own thing, on your own, be your own god; hey, its popular.
But those who do not find God (capital G) bring harm to themselves. If you hate God, that is, if you choose to disregard Him, the Bible warns that you love death. Those who love death will have what they love if they do not turn back. But, fortunately, we are godfinders. While we are prone to try out substitutes, God also built into us a rational component and the ability to weigh, to evaluate. In seeking God, we are searching or feeling after Him. Along the way we may reject the substitutes, and keep in search of the truth.
Us Versus Them and Them Versus Us
It is difficult sometimes to keep back from immediate disagreement with other seekers who may seem to be starting with false assumptions. Many are sure that all “spiritual” roads lead to the same place. No. Most spiritual roads lead to self-destruction. But God prefers to lead us to see goodness; He forces no one to embrace goodness. He is at work, leading, impressing, guiding, all without removing anyone’s free will. And He is working with those who are hungry for the ultimate. Even Jesus did not persuade everyone in His inner circle.
One of the missing pieces in these thoughts this morning is about what is wrong with humanity. And there is something that is desperately wrong. We call it “the Fall” and as Christians, we believe that it happened when Adam and Eve disobeyed God and the two original human parents of the human race were damaged by their disobedience. We believe that there are consequences that have come down onto the descendents. Not sin, but consequences from sin. because of this, people tend to make poor choices and to self-indulge. They tend to be at least partially blind to their predicament. As Christians we hopefully have more clue. But even converted people remain afflicted by the bent nature. We sometimes make mistakes, misunderstand, say the hurtful things, and let our biases get carried away. And so, they reject what they think we stand for; we reject what we think they stand for.
Suggestions, for you and me both? Pray more. Talk less. Smile more. Refuse to take offense. Be yourself. Don”t argue, but be the argument. Trust God. He loves us and He loves them. He wants them in the kingdom and we want them in the kingdom. Everything does not need to be solved today. Truth neither rushes nor lags.
We need not condemn those who don’t think as we do about God. Remember, every heart is engaged in godfinding. Every person is engaged in educating—and deeducating himself. He is searching, choosing, testing, exploring, tasting to see if that version of God is really good (Psalm 34:8).
We are not talking about those who have made a final choice, who have joined themselves absolutely to evil, who have made themselves, as Satan, resolute rebels and sealed themselves in enmity with Him. No doubt there are some, but perhaps fewer than you or I might guess. Nor is it our business to guess. Our business is to let our light so shine.
Conclusion
People are searching for God. And God is searching for people. He is not a harsh person. He is loving and kind. He has His eye on the godfinders for good. They don’t always mean what they say. Underneath their certainty they may have doubts about what they have tried so far. Are we ready to receive the help of the Holy Spirit and live out the simple faith that God has given us? Is this church a place where Heaven can send godfinders? GCO
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