PCA Conversations

by Clay Holland

Today–everyday, for that matter–we live in the midst of several competing stories, each of which are vying for supremacy.  You may live with uncertainty about what the stories are.  You may live confused about which story to believe.  You may live fully convinced that you are believing the right story – but maybe you’re wrong. You may have no idea what this talk of living according to stories is all about. Regardless of which of these descriptions seem to fit you, here are the stories that I have been hearing the last few months:

The first is an economic story.  It’s a true story, chock full of villains, hopeful heroes and events seemingly outside of anyone’s control, and, because I am not an economist or banker, I can only tell it through stories.  Here are a few pieces of the plot of this story – all of these are true and happened to people I know, by the way…

•    A retired 35-year salaried employee of General Motors was informed in a letter that she was losing the health insurance she worked all of those years to secure effective January 1, 2009.  The company simply could not afford it.  Thank you for your valuable service, yada yada yada, sincerely yours, etc.

•    A 30-year employee of a major Houston financial firm arrived at his office to find his door locked.  A manila folder containing severance information was fastened to the door, and by the time he pulled it off, security was there to escort him out of the building.

•    A young woman just finishing an elite business school was told by the financial firm with whom she had already accepted a job that the offer was null and void and that they had no place for her in the current economic situation.  She now has no job and no prospects for paying off the enormous educational debt she accrued.

You know this story, don’t you?  It sounds familiar.  You may be living one of these plot lines right now or you may be facing the prospect that you will in the near future.  Like I said, it’s a true story – and right now, for many people, it’s on a tragic trajectory.  There is nothing trite here at all for people who lost their jobs, who thought they were going to retire this year, who lost their insurance, who lost their home, who now can’t afford to send their children to college.  It’s a story that is hard to stomach.

The second is a political story. And because I am not a political scientist, you will have to content yourself with my anecdotal evidence. It is one of those “choose-your-own-adventure” stories where, at the end of one of the chapters, you turn to page 130 for plot A or page 250 for plot B.

Plot A, which is the choice for some people, goes like this:  As of last Tuesday…
•    The world and our country, as we know it, are over.
•    Life will never be the same.
•    This could, in fact, be the end of the world.
•    Disaster, of the deepest darkest kind, has struck our nation.

Plot B, which is the choice for some people, goes like this:  As of last Tuesday…
•    All that was wrong is now set to rights.
•    All that was evil has now been turned to good.
•    We have averted potential disaster and chosen light rather than darkness.
•    The one who can save us from all we have created has come.

Theme:  Now, it is not my desire to talk about either Plot A or Plot B in detail – suffice it to say that I believe both are very wrong, and hopefully you’ll figure out why in a second.  What I want us to do is to try to find a common thread in both the economic and political story and to ask ourselves three questions: What is the common thread? How does this thread hold up when we hold it up to the light of the Bible? And What does this mean for how we should live and lead in this world?

So what is the common thread? In a word, the common thread is “security“. Think about it. In the economic story, “security” or “securities” are, literally, the issue. In as much as the stock market is a major player in all of this, we have been finding out whether or not we have been putting our “security” in our “securities.”  If we have, we have seen them fail us in a major way.

In the political story, “security” is also in question: one candidate would have “secured” promise for our country and the other candidate would not. If my candidate won – all is right in the world. If my candidate lost – all is lost in the world.

The fact of the matter is that many people are shaken up right now and some are feeling quite good about things right now.  You are shaken up if you are feeling the crunch of the economic crisis and/or you put your hope in a candidate who lost.  You are feeling good if, for whatever reason, you are doing o.k. financially and/or your candidate is now the President of the United States. Both of these responses, however, are manifestations of false security.  How can I say that?  Well, I can’t – but I think the Bible does.  There is so much here on this that we could spend a long time, but I want to look at two passages from the New Testament.

Consider 1 Thessalonians 5:1-6. See?  What we are experiencing now is the end of the world. That’s what it says, right?  Well, that’s not at all what I’m saying because that is not at all what Paul is saying. In the New Testament, the “Day of the Lord” can mean different things.  Ultimately, it does point to the final return of Jesus, but Paul knew that there would be different historical moments of God’s judgment throughout all of history – and these, too, are referred to as “The Day of the Lord.”

The point is not that I am saying we are under God’s judgment.  God alone has that information, and he has not given it to me, to you, or to anyone you may see on TV. The point is that Paul takes direct aim, in verse 3, at “peace and security.”  He is saying, you think peace and security is the highest good.  You think when you have those two things that all is well and your highest aspirations have been met. Watch Out – that is actually the most dangerous time of all. Peace and security are false gods. It is tempting to worship them and to so desire them that they substitute for God himself.  That is a dangerous place to be.

Consider also Romans 10:1-13. Now if you’ve been around church at all in your life, you may think this is old hat. Yes, yes, Jesus is Lord. Yes, yes, God raised him from the dead. Yes, yes, you shall be saved.  C’mon give me something fresh, please. But this misses the radical nature of what is going on here. In the first century, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, you are simultaneously confessing that Caesar is not. First of all, this could get you instantly killed. Second of all, it is a statement of where you have put your trust – and your security. Caesar does not rule over my life, God does. The inauguration of a new president – however way you think of it – does not rule over my life, God does. The economic crisis – as real as it is – ultimately does not rule over my life, God does.

At issue here is the small phrase embedded in verse 9:  “Believe in your heart.” This does not mean that you just have an emotional moment with God. It refers to the seat of all of your actions and motivations – that’s the heart. So to believe in your heart means that you transfer your trust from whatever you are trusting in to make meaning out of your life unto Christ alone. If you are really trusting in your stock portfolio, you feel it in your heart.  Have you made that transfer unto Christ? If you are trusting in the reign of the President of the United States, you feel it in your heart.  Have you made that transfer unto Christ?

So what does this mean?  How should we live and even provide others comfort in these uncertain times? First, we examine our hearts to make sure that we see who or what it is that ultimately gives us security.  If it is not God alone, through the Lord Jesus Christ, there is always the free offer to come to him by faith. After that we pursue numerous things. We live what we confess – that God alone is our security: God alone is Lord – and no one or nothing else. We hold lightly to the things of this world: the demonstrable fact is that they can go away quickly, and if they are our lifeline, we are in trouble. We recognize that we are citizens of two kingdoms: primarily the kingdom of God, and secondarily of whatever system of government God has placed you in by his sovereignty. And don’t confuse the two.  Seek the good of the second (as Paul says in Romans 13 and 1 Timothy 2) – for the primary reason of the expansion of the first.

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Clay Holland is the Associate Pastor of Christ the King Presbyterian Church in Houston, Texas.