The last time we were in our “faith” category, we talked about the Gigantic Joy that God takes in his creation, the work of his hands.  Well, listen, God is not like the selfish kid who doesn’t want to share his toys with others… he graciously invites us to participate with him in this extraordinary joy of his! 

We specifically do so when we develop God’s creation, the work of his hands. 

The Bible teaches us that God works with his creation in two ways.  In other words, there are two ways in which God’s will is done on earth as it is in heaven:

1.  God works with his creation DIRECTLY (with no mediation whatsoever).

2.  God works with his creation INDIRECTLY (by involving human responsibility).

Think of a human king who does some things himself, but he gives orders to his servants for the doing of other things… so it is with God!

God has placed the earth in its orbit… God summons the seasons to come and go at their appointed times… God makes the seeds to grow… God causes the animals of the world to reproduce themselves… these are things that God does directly, without our involvement.

But there are other tasks — tasks that are pointed toward the development of creation — that God has entrusted to his image–bearers.

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Listen to how Frederick Buechner once described what could be a typical congregation as they gather in preparation for this thing that God has ordained… this thing called “preaching”:

“In the front row the old ladies turn up their hearing aids, and a young lady slips her six year old a Lifesaver and a Magic Marker.  A college sophomore home on vacation, who is there because he was dragged there, slumps forward with his chin in his hand.  The vice-president of a bank who twice that week has seriously contemplated suicide places his hymnal in the rack.  A pregnant girl feels the life stir within her.  A high school math teacher, who for twenty years has managed to keep his homosexuality a secret for the most part even from himself, creases his order of service down the center with his thumbnail and tucks it under his knee.”

Buechner then goes on to describe the one who preaches:

“The preacher pulls the little cord that turns on the lectern light and deals out his note cards like a riverboat gambler.  The stakes have never been higher.  Two minutes from now he may have lost his listeners completely to their own thoughts, but at this moment he has them in the palm of his hand.  The silence in the shabby church is deafening because everybody is listening to it.  Everybody is listening, even himself.  Everybody knows the kind of things he has told them before and has not told them, but who knows what this time he will tell them, out of the silence he will tell them?  Let him tell them The Truth.”

“If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
—Christ

Under the “Quick Links” on the side, I have a link that tells you a little bit about a book (Life Together) written by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.  He’s one of those heroes of the church’s story who should really be better known than he is. 

Here’s just one little gem from that book:

“It is the struggle of natural human beings for self–justification. They find it only by comparing themselves with others, by condemning and judging others. Self–justification and judging belong together in the same way that justification by grace and serving belong together.”

Think hard and deep on that.  Turn it around in your mind until it starts bearing the fruit of repentance and wisdom.

If you haven’t met Bonhoeffer yet, this post is for you.  Let me tell you a little bit about him…

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“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” This is something of a motto in the wisdom literature of the Bible.

But what does it mean that fearing God is the “beginning” of wisdom?  Is the fear of God just a place to start?  Is it just a beginning stage that you eventually grow out of and then move on to other things as your wisdom matures? 

And what does it mean to “fear” God anyway?  How do we define this fear?  Stark terror?  Cringing?  Wincing?  Keeping him at arm’s length because you’re always apprehensive, nervous, and suspicious in his presence?

Let’s treat the second question first.

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