It All Depends

I like balance, don’t you? Maybe it is the age-old principle known as the golden mean that is born into us and taught by Aristotle and others. The principle holds that virtue lies between the extremes. To be sure, Anglican spirituality in many aspects highlights the middle way. How blessed it would be to find the middle path to travel avoiding deficiency on the one side and excess on the other. As the ancient Greek philosopher, Aristotle had it, virtue lies on the path of temperance and moderation. Travel this middle way, and goodness and beauty will accompany you.  How does one ever get the right balance between the pretense of radical self-sufficiency and inert dependency? As a human being, you are neither helpless nor are you your own personal savior.

There are so many things you just have to do for yourself. There are plenty of things for which you need the help of your neighbor. There are also some very special things for which, the Christian would say, you need God. I believe it was the brilliant 4th-century bishop and theologian from North Africa, St. Augustine of Hippo, who said, “Work as though everything depended upon you; pray as though everything depended on God.” Your responsibility to walk the path of your life and make good decisions is yours but you are not responsible for your own salvation.  I remember an entry in the spiritual classic My Utmost for His Highest, by Oswald Chambers, in which he taught God does for you what you cannot do for yourself. For example, you cannot rid yourself of the condition of sin, or reward yourself eternal life. Chambers also asserts that God will not do for you what you must do for yourself. God will not force you to walk aright or take up habits that bolster your well-being. Sanctification is a synergy between the grace of the Holy Spirit and your human will.

This week and through the season of Advent we get the message of the prophets to lean on God and to work like heck for our deliverance. Tis the season for hearing Handel’s Messiah. When you do, the first Recitative, Air, and Chorus you hear will be from chapter 40 of Isaiah, which is also our Lesson for Sunday, 2 Advent. You remember: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people…” all the way to “And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed.”  Pull up the performance of these sections on your device. It is both instructive and artistically rewarding.

The passage has the voice of God telling the Prophet what to say to the people of Judah. We think this was from the time when the people of God were in exile in Babylon and hoping for God to rescue them and send them home. It all depends on God for this rescue, and God wants them to know it is coming, it will happen. The tender word to the people is for their comfort, a word that means “soothing,” but in the Hebrew, nachamu, means even more - “to strengthen.”  The people must know the glory of the Lord will come effectively to strengthen them and get them home. The highway will be smooth, with hills shaved low and valleys filled up flush, limiting the curves and making the way straight. Being the flock of God, the Savior will feed them, gather up the lambs, and gently lead the mother sheep. The entire passage is Isaiah 40:1-11, which you should read, but I will include some highlights here:

Comfort, O comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that she has served her term, that her penalty is paid…A voice cries out: “In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. Then the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all people shall see it together…A voice says…to the cities of Judah… “Here is your God!” See, the Lord God comes with might, and his arm rules for him; …He will feed his flock like a shepherd; he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry them in his bosom, and gently lead the mother sheep. 

These are incredibly great tidings for a person or a people feeling little hope. When you have something to resolve, who is to bring the solution? Well, it depends. For the truly human responsibilities, you will be involved with all the skills you have. For the truly enormous spiritual needs, only God will do. Our ultimate deliverance depends upon God. I hope that you find yourself traveling the balanced middle way, knowing you cannot do it all. There is a path between the delusion you are absolutely self-sufficient and the sad impression that God must solve everything for you. Do your best. At the same time, hear the prophet’s message from God to take comfort and strength from the promise. You do have needs that only God can supply. God will come through for you on a straight highway: you will be fed, lifted, carried, led: whatever it takes, you will be brought home.