Stephen
Terry, Director
God
Loves Freely
Commentary
for the January 4, 2025, Sabbath School Lesson
"He defends the cause of the
fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving
them food and clothing." Deuteronomy
10:18, NIV
The year 1844 is significant for
Seventh-day Adventists. It is the year that the Baptist evangelist William
Miller calculated would herald the return of Jesus. He arrived at this date by studying
timelines in the book of Daniel and substituting years for days in prophecies. His
prediction did not come true, and the event came to be known as the Great
Disappointment. Despite that failure, Seventh-day Adventists claim today there
was no failure in the prophecy, only in understanding what it meant and today
teach that it was the moment that Jesus entered the Holy of Holies in the
heavenly sanctuary and began what is referred to as the Investigative Judgment.
Although the Seventh-day Adventist Church did not incorporate until 1863, it
traces its beginnings to that disappointment.
While the denomination, two
centuries later continues to remember that day in 1844, another event that took
place a few years prior to that also has resonated through
the subsequent centuries. It is when Charles Dickens, in serialized form,
published the novel "Oliver Twist." The novel speaks directly to today's
headlines where we read of women who have died needlessly from childbirth
complications because draconian laws have denied them medical procedures that
would have saved their lives. Oliver was a product of a similar scenario. His
mother died giving birth to the boy. With no one to raise him, he ended up in a
workhouse for orphans. Abused and underfed, he one day had the temerity to ask politely
for a second helping of food. Those who ran the workhouse decided it was time
to rid themselves of such a troublesome child and delivered him to an
apprenticeship with a mortician. The abuse there was even worse than in the
workhouse and Oliver ran away. With no way to support himself, he came to the attention
of thieves who were always on the lookout for such waifs to train as
pickpockets and thieves. In their company, Oliver felt as though he had found a
sort of family who looked out for one another. But as they groomed him, he
failed to see that they were no different than those at the workhouse and the
mortician's shop. They only saw value in him if he could provide value to them.
As time goes on, several encounters help Oliver to see more of the true nature
of his companions. But he also encounters someone who is genuinely interested
in his welfare. His gang plots to use Oliver to rob the man, but the plot falls
apart and Oliver comes to discover that the man is a relative and the story
ends with the orphan finding family that loves and cares for him. I would that
every orphan finds such a happy ending.
While we defend our
denominational stance as one of perfect theology that singles us out as God's
special remnant, we are indicted by stories like "Oliver Twist," for we know
that situations like his continue to exist. Sometimes brought on by our own
lack of love and compassion when we deny needed medical care to young expectant
mothers. We fail to adopt and take into our loving care orphans who end up
aging out of foster care with no family support to help them build a future. And
instead of providing a safety net to provide for those who would otherwise fall
into a criminal lifestyle like young Oliver, we demand ever more harsh punishments
and incarcerations as the response to such criminality. Instead of caring for
these, we build multimillion dollar worship edifices that we visit by late
model automobiles driven from our million-dollar homes once per week and are
entertained by preachers and entertainers with hundreds of thousands of dollars
of media equipment with cafeteria kitchens to feed ourselves in a "safe" social
environment. And we never have to experience an encounter even once with
someone like Oliver who lives in a completely different world of want and
struggle, a world we make sure our own children do not experience.
A few decades ago, I belonged to an inner-city
Seventh-day Adventist Church. We decided to do a survey of the neighborhood around
the church. Most of the members commuted to the church from the suburbs and had
no idea of what to expect. We found that the neighbors had no clue what the
church's purpose was in their neighborhood or what went on in the church. We
discovered crack houses, including one where a small boy lived and was
befriended later by a youth pastor. We witnessed those who were mentally ill,
standing on street corners shouting epithets at the world, and found those of
both sexes who were passed out from excess alcohol consumption in building vestibules
where the residents simply gingerly stepped around their bodies as they entered
and exited the building, revealing this was a normal experience in their
building.
The youth pastor I mentioned
brought a more Christlike approach to doing church and developed a program to
reach the neighborhood around us. Today, they might call that program "woke." While
we did not have that terminology then, the wealthy suburban members fought the
youth pastor every step of the way, from his failure to wear a jacket and tie,
to his use of contemporary music, and his welcoming of street kids into the
church. The first thing we did under his leadership was to have a community
meal together. I remember when we went door-to-door to invite the neighbors, I
had one of the suburban Adventist ladies with me, and she found the neighborhood
so scary that after the first home we visited, she demanded to be safely escorted
back to the church so she could drive home. Despite such challenges, with our
invitations and word of mouth spread among the neighbors by those we visited, there
was a large turnout. Neighbors and willing church members had a pleasant meal together
that built bridges for later activities. This bore fruit as increased
enrollment in vacation Bible school, a neighborhood block party, and a Friday
evening youth gathering each week to give the kids an alternative to being on
the streets. The church even sponsored the kids on a youth camping trip. Sadly,
the church members all refused to allow their children to go on the camping
trip because the neighborhood kids were going, and they were afraid what might
happen to their children. The youth pastor later reported that the neighborhood
kids were the best-behaved group of young people he had ever taken camping. Primarily
because of his outreach to the neighborhood the youth pastor's contract was not
renewed. The church members wanted someone to babysit their children, not
someone to do outreach to non-members.
Is it perfect theology if it is
not resulting in outreach and the saving of the lost? In the "Parable
of the Sheep and Goats," Jesus told us that how we treat others is the
same as if it were done to him. If we drive others away because we fear that
contact with them will harm us somehow, we will drive Jesus away also. If we
would avoid the prisoner because we feel they got what they deserved, we would
feel that way about Jesus too. If we would deny food and drink to someone who
has no apparent job or address and drive them away feeling they were too lazy
to deserve help, we would drive Jesus away also. If we would drive children
away because they are not our children, we would drive Jesus away too.
Have we become so in love with
what we own that we cannot love the lost for fear that they might threaten what
we have built? Are we unable to love freely because of this? The poor have some
justification for behaving like this since they may not even know where their
next meal is coming from, but for those who do not have that worry, and are
well clothed, housed, and secure that excuse will not fly. Are we willing to
have loving characters fit for heaven? How heavenly would it be if everyone
there is as niggardly as so many are here? I may be able to reproduce a
prophetic timeline down to the crossing of every t and the dotting of every i,
but if I have no care for the Oliver Twists of the world, what have I gained?
Once we have entered heaven, that prophetic timeline becomes meaningless as
having passed into history, but if the love God has grown in our hearts, it
will be just as vital there as here. We can hold forth like William Miller
about when Jesus is expected to return but we have the power to bring the
kingdom of God near already. The key is to love freely, not simply loving our
own, but loving as God does, loving both saint and sinner, not because of who
they are, but because of who he is. Remember, we were created in God's image,
created to be loving as he is. And if we are afraid of what might happen if we
love everyone, "perfect love casts out fear." (1 John 4:18)