Thought for Today
Genesis 2:7 then the Lord God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and the man became a living being . . . 15 The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Luke 20:9 He began to tell the people this parable: "A man planted a vineyard, and leased it to tenants, and went to another country for a long time . . . 13 Then the owner of the vineyard said, 'What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.'
Two phrases from my career as an engineer are on my mind today: ‘fit for purpose design;’ and ‘fail-safe design.’ I am, however, considering both phrases from the standpoint of a minister; specifically, as a Christian, Protestant, Reformed Tradition pastor.
The ideas behind those phrases are simple. A quality product is one whose design meets the declared purpose for which the product is intended. Such a product is ‘fit for purpose.’ The second phrase is a bit more complex. Certain products, by their very nature, are inherently dangerous. The phrase ‘fail-safe design’ comes from the early days of railroading, specifically from the design of the locomotives. Due to several train crashes, the throttles on the locomotives were eventually equipped with what became known as a ‘dead man switch.’ The concept was the origin of today’s concept of ‘fail safe design.’ For me, the most obvious demonstration of the idea this time of year is the design of my snowblower. It has 2 handles for grasping and steering the snowblower. Each handle has a spring-mounted lever on top. One lever controls the blade for cutting through and blowing out the snow. The other lever controls the self-propelling drive. As long as I grasp each handle, depressing the levers, the snowblower moves forward and cuts through the snow, blowing it through a chute. If I let go of either or both handles, the motor continues to run, but the snowblower sits still and/or does not clear the driveway. It fails in a safe mode.
Hopefully, by now, you are wondering what in the world any of this has to do with theology or with our relationship with our Creator God. Whenever I read the Creation stories in Genesis, I am reminded of the tee-shirt theology I have seen, embossed with “God doesn’t create any junk” or some similarly worded idea. We are God’s children, “Genesis 1:26 Then God said, "Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness;” therefore, being created in the image of God, according to the likeness of God, we are not junk. By the definition of who and whose we are, we are a fit for purpose design. God created us fit for the purpose for which God created us. Whether we are still tilling the garden or are practicing some modern-day profession, we are a quality product . . . whether or not we act like it always.
As to the ‘fail-safe’ aspect of our design, the debate continues. God did create us to till Eden. God only gave us one condition, “Genesis 3:3 but God said, 'You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the middle of the garden, nor shall you touch it, or you shall die.'" We all know how that turned out. We did not fail safely! We managed to crash God’s design and no longer reside in Eden.
Much of the rest of the Bible deals with God’s attempts to correct our failure. God chose Abraham, relocated him to a Promised Land of milk and honey. God promised Abraham descendants. When we again crashed the system, God sent Moses to free those descendants from slavery and gave them a law for their safety. Eventually, God sent Jesus. Jesus neatly summarized the situation using the Parable of the Vineyard.
As Christians living today, we know how well that turned out. “Luke 20:15 So they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him.” Today we live with the question of the rest of verse 15, “What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them?”
Of course, God being God, he did not leave us to our own devices. Our fail-safe mechanism today is the Holy Spirit. For his own reasons, God’s design includes Free Will, offering us the choice of whether or not to listen to the Holy Spirit. Will you listen? Will we all listen? “Joshua 24:15 as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Stay safe, listen for and to the Holy Spirit, trust God,
Pastor Ray