Friday, June 4, 2010

Obedience, Joy and Good Works - part 1

A lyric from one of my favorite singers, Michael Card, goes, "There is a joy in the journey. There's a light we can love on the way. There is a wonder and wildness to life. And freedom for those who obey." For many I suppose that first line catches them as there is joy in the journey with Christ. But for some reason that last line caught me. Is there really freedom, if not joy, in obedience?

I've gone on record for the view that our stance as believers is faithful witness or better yet listening and obedient. Yet that seems just so far away from happiness and freedom - those two seem to be tied to each other. And therein lays the tension and the mystery.

In group we are studying the parables and are in the midst of the Parable of the Lost Son, and the study guide seemingly had a misprint as it labeled the parable that of the Lost Sons - great insight provided. The video seemed to focus on the older brother - the seemingly obedient one. Now we can’t ignore the younger brother of course as that sets up the stance that joy and freedom aren't really found in having money and the ability to do as we please with that money. Now to that older brother who was obedient and loyal to the father - seems rather clear from the parable he wasn't in the midst of joy either whether the younger brother was there or not.

It seems to me that we are still living out this tension today. On one side we have a culture that seems to glorify freedom and self-actualization. On the other side are those who argue for following the rules, if you will, laid out in Scripture. Many would say being obedient to a set of rules is surely opposed to any understanding of freedom, and if you get down to it, self-actualization without relationship seems pretty barren. Somehow, being in relationship includes release of some freedom – sort of like the kenosis of Jesus (Philippians 2:7 NRSV). I’m not sure either of those camps have freedom, let alone joy and happiness.

What if we came to understood joy as less of an emotional response to circumstances, and more of a state of being or a place we enter into. What if we understood joy as the result of being where God is at work and we have the unbelievable ability to be a witness to that activity or be actually a part of it. Joy as an emotional response seems to be fleeting and in many ways out of our control (of course we should already be aware of that, Job 20:4 – The Message, “Godless joy is only momentary”). Joy as a state of being or place we enter into is actually a foretaste of that which will not be temporary and indeed will characterize our existence (joy is found in communion with the Trinity, 1 John 1:3 – The Message, “this experience of communion with the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. Our motive for writing is simply this: We want you to enjoy this, too. Your joy will double our joy!”).

Next time some more on obedience and joy.

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