Do Beetles Have A Conscience?
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        Why is it, I wonder, that all people in all cultures have a sense of right and wrong, a sense of virtue, of moral obligation or duty? Only human beings have this sense, this conscience. Can the universal fact of human morality result from purely natural, mechanical, or chemical processes that produce such a phenomenon? Or to put it another way, if there is no God, and if this present reality is nothing more than biochemical and mechanical processes at work, would moral obligations make any sense?

          In the Darwinian model of reality, we are animal creatures whose only imperative is to live and reproduce (without purpose or teleology).  Our success in passing along our genes to one generation and to another and another is the only thing that matters. How can this explain the morality felt by all human beings? Where do we get this sense of virtue and our satisfaction from virtuous acts?

            I am briefly suggesting that our best explanation for this is theism. There are four aspects of moral reality to consider: moral facts, moral knowledge, moral transformation, and moral rationality (virtue and happiness fit together).

            What I am suggesting is that we begin by agreeing that people have a moral sense, and that they see things in terms of “right and wrong.” Generally, people respect virtue and are favorable toward virtuous actions. Yes, certain people, from a defective, antisocial personality, don’t see that, or don’t see it in a way most people would consider healthy and moral.  Those are exceptions. But as a rule, people are revulsed by suffering (even animal suffering). They have pity on those in distress, they come to the aid of people in trouble, they believe we ought not to lie, cheat, or steal, and they take their promises seriously.

          Most people do not fall into the cynicism and nihilism of Nietzsche and others like him in the world (remember, Nietzsche went insane). But if this world is it, and if we are nothing better than reptilian, there is no explanation for this. There is no reason for any animal, even the “human animal,” to have morals, to be virtuous, or to subordinate self-interest to any other cause. There would be no rational explanation for Horatius at the Bridge, the soldier who is willing to fall on a hand grenade, the person who risks his life to save a drowning stranger, the family that shares its meager food with others, or, yes, the neighbor who donates a kidney to a dying man. These things are what we mean by moral facts that call for an explanation, which I suggest naturalism cannot provide.

            On the second prong of the thought process, moral knowledge, how do we know anything about morality in the first place? Where does moral knowledge come from?  We have the fact of moral understanding as noted above, things we “know deep down.” We know of no purely naturalistic, biochemical or mechanical process that would produce such knowledge. Yes, our parents, teachers, and others impart these things to us. But if we look back far enough some original human beings first obtained this knowledge that is passed down the generations.  It is hard to see any nontheistic explanation for that.

            What about the process of moral transformation, that is, the sense we all have that we want and need to be better and do better and attain a state of moral uprightness, even moral perfection? Benjamin Franklin in his autobiography writes of his youthful attempt to live a morally perfect life.  He tried.  But soon things intruded. He felt the pull of impulses and desires that warred against his resolve, and he soon concluded he could not do it, at least not of his own will power and strength. I am not perfect and have never met a perfect person, yet I feel the desire to “be good” and more than good. If we are mere biochemical amalgamations there would be no reason for us to care about this. There’s no reason to think beetles care about this.

          But if we are beings made in the image of a creator and sustainer God, that would be a reasonable explanation for the pull of conscience. What we are looking for here is how to make sense of these phenomena. Human beings are valuable because they are made in the image of God, and our sense of right and wrong affirms this consciously or otherwise.

            Lastly, what about moral rationality, happiness, joy, and peace? That is, does virtue cohere with happiness and fulfillment? Sometimes the “right” thing and the desired thing will come into conflict. We want to steal that cookie, we want to cheat on our taxes, we want to tell a lie to escape shame or punishment, we want to seduce our neighbor’s attractive wife. Leaving aside the possible secular and legal repercussions of following such desires, what would make sense of foregoing giving in to the desire unless it would be our greater happiness, our better satisfaction, at knowing we did the right thing? The ancient philosophers taught that virtue produced satisfaction. From a naturalistic point of view, when the tension arises between caring about ourselves and caring about others, there is no reason not to indulge ourselves. But if there is a God, a good and loving God who assures the ultimate happiness and joy of those who do right, then it makes perfect sense.

            So, the cumulative weight of these moral considerations, I would humbly suggest, really gives us something to think about. It calls for serious reflection on the sources and reasons for our moral imperatives. For me such considerations lead to the conclusion the Christian God who creates us in his image, sustains us and draws us to himself makes the best explanation of these facts.  That in turn leads us to consider what that God says to us about being reconciled to him, in the face of our failure or inability to live up to the moral standards we perceive. The answer, the only answer, is, through faith in Jesus Christ and the sure hope of an eternal future in which we are transformed.
 

          During our worship service there is a place in the Book of Common Prayer (p. 76) that provides four scripture verses that we call the “comfortable words.” As the name implies, these words are there to comfort us, to ease our distress, to give us confidence and assurance. Why do we need that? How does a “comfortable word” provide it?

          First comes the statement by Jesus that all are who are heavy laden should come to him and he will give them rest. In context it says this (11:28-30):

Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.” (ESV)

What is Jesus talking about? He is talking to all of us. We are all heavy laden and wearied. By what? Does he mean by our jobs? Our schoolwork? The pressures of life? Illness? No, not those things, but spiritual things.

          We are weighed down by our sense of guilt, inadequacy, insufficient righteousness, and poor performance in the face of the holiness of God and his perfection. How do we know that is our burden? Every human being who has ever lived has felt that burden, however it may be expressed (see, e.g., Rom 1:18-32). Even the pagans understood, perhaps better than people today, that their lives, their conduct, their actions, their behavior, would not be considered righteous under the scrutiny of divine authority. They had no doubt that some thing, some one, some person or persons, some god or gods, ruled over them and had authority over them, and ultimately would hold them accountable. That is why they made sacrifices to whatever deities they worshiped. This is what Paul spoke to when he addressed the philosophers in Athens (Acts 17:22-34, page 926).

This is what John Bunyan wrote about in The Pilgrim’s Progress:

I dreamed, and behold I saw a man [Pilgrim] clothed in rags standing in a certain place, with his face [turned away] from his own house, a book in his hand [the Bible], and a great burden on his back [his sense of guilt]. I looked and saw him open the book, and read therein; and as he read, he wept and trembled: and not being able to contain himself any longer, he broke out with a lamentable cry, saying, “What shall I do?”

          In the second comfortable words verse Jesus says is that God loved the world, his creation, so much that he took steps to breach the gulf between us and him caused by mankind’s rebellion. He acted where we were impotent. He forgave us and took the initiative with us and for us by joining with us in a unique and inscrutable way through the incarnation. He so loved the world that he gave his only son, that is he gave something most precious, so that those who place their trust and faith in the son, in Christ Jesus, would not die forever but would have eternal life. There is tremendous power, hope, and joy in those few direct and simple words Jesus spoke.

          And though Archbishop Cranmer gave us these “comfortable words” in 1549 from John 3:16, there are sobering words that follow and that really show us just how wonderful the “comfortable” words are (Jn 3:16-21):

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.” (ESV)

          And then we have one of the many statements from Saint Paul, in which he tells us the statement he is making is trustworthy and should be embraced by all of us. That statement is that Christ Jesus came to earth not to judge sinners, but to save sinners. The time for judgment will come in the future. But that was not Jesus purpose or function in coming to the earth. As he said when he read from Isaiah he had come to proclaim freedom, liberation from the yoke of the law.       

And finally, what could be more comforting, more “comfortable,” than what John the apostle wrote when he said if we sin, he might as well have said when we sin, we have an advocate with the father. We have a defense attorney when we stand in the dock. And that defense attorney is the perfect advocate, truly the only one who could be our advocate in that circumstance, Jesus Christ the righteous.

          And he doesn’t only defend us, he rescues us because, as John said, he is the propitiation for our sins. Now that’s a big word probably not seen much today except in the Bible. But it is a word pregnant with meaning and power. Some Bible translations call it something other than propitiation, something like sacrifice of redemption. And that’s a good way to put it. God is reconciled to us not by anything we do, or could do, but by the atonement, the propitiation, performed by Christ Jesus the righteous.

          And when we put our faith and trust in Christ Jesus, that sacrifice, that propitiation, is transferred to our side of the ledger and we are redeemed. We are justified. God justifies us, not because of anything we do or possess, but because of the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The vocabulary of the Bible talks about a declaration by God at the last judgment that we are acquitted because of Jesus (e.g., Rom 2:13, 3:30, pp. 940, 941). 
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          So that’s why we call these brief but pithy statements from the Bible comfortable words. Aren’t they comforting, friends, for people like you and me?
 

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​Saint Paul’s – May 16, 2021 Bad Things/Good Things
 
As we observe the weeks surrounding Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection, we walk with his disciples through an amazing period of ups and downs, despair and reversals, and deep mysteries of our faith.  Seven things stand out.
 

• ONE The last supper. John’s Gospel provides a record of Jesus’s final actions and teachings with his disciples over the Passover, the night before he died. In the Upper Room Discourse, he tells them, “Let not your hearts be troubled (Jn 14:27).  He instructs them, “I am the way, the truth, and the life… 14:6. In the course of the Upper Room Discourse tells them three times he expects them to love one another (Jn 13:34, 14:32 15:17), a very significant repetition of his command to us.  He assures them the Holy Spirit will come, 14:16-17, 26, and that it is good for them that Jesus will leave them so that the Father and Jesus can send them this Spirit.
• TWO His Passion and Crucifixion. After their final meal together and after they hear all the profound and amazing things Jesus has to say, his followers then see perhaps the worst day in human history. But in a way could it be said it is the best day in human history? Because it is the day Jesus proclaims, “it is finished.” His once for all atoning work, sufficient for all people, is completed, is accomplished.
• THREE. In the tomb three days. The disciples cower in that upper room for three dreadful days.  Everything they hoped for has been shattered.  The man they followed and loved for three years has been gruesomely killed and is gone. They fear for their own lives. Can we even imagine how they felt?
• FOUR – Resurrection, Easter!! Then on the third day they learn their Messiah has risen from the dead. It is overwhelming, incomprehensible, and joyous all at once.  Their mad rollercoaster of emotions and experiences continues.
  • FIVE – 40 days Jesus is with them. They are reunited with Jesus, he walks with them, talks with them, preaches to and teaches many (500 at once one time). Everything is unbelievably good again, fantastic, wonderful.  But, it does not last, as Jesus then ASCENDS  to the Fahter, leaving them yet again (Acts Chapter 1). But it is what he said he would do (Jn 14:28). He had to leave them; he came down he must return. In fact it is to our advantage, as Jesus said, for many reasons. Because the Holy Spirit will come,  Jesus will be our advocate with the Father, and even so Jesus will be with us to the end of the age (Matthew 28). Yes, his return is to our advantage, but imagine how difficult for his disciples at that time to see this.
• SIX – Jesus sends the apostles sent back to Jerusalem to ….. WAIT! (John 16:7-8). They had been given a specific charge by Jesus to be his witnesses, but at first he sends them back to wait for the Holy Spirit.  Another ten days they are closeted in an upper room, waiting, unsure, in fear.  What must have been going through their minds! They had Jesus, they lost him horribly, then they had him again, and then again they lost him! It is hard to imagine or comprehend what they experienced and how they maintained faith and unity, but they did.
• SEVEN – Pentecost, the church is born!  After those ten long days the Holy Spirit descended on the apostles and they and the whole world were transformed. They set the world on fire. Like them, we wait for the Pentecost, pray for the Holy Spirit, and trust God.

 
John 15:26 “But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me. 27 And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. 16 1“I have said all these things to you to keep you from falling away. 2 They will put you out of the synagogues. Indeed, the hour is coming when whoever kills you will think he is offering service to God. 3 And they will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. 4 But I have said these things to you, that when their hour comes you may remember that I told them to you.
 
The Work of the Holy Spirit
 
“I did not say these things to you from the beginning, because I was with you. 5 But now I am going to him who sent me, and none of you asks me, ‘Where are you going?’ 6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart. 7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth: it is to your advantage that I go away, for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. 8 And when he comes, he will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment: 9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in me; 10 concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father, and you will see me no longer; 11 concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world is judged.