Hope in the Midst of Cynicism (Part 3)
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Anxiety.
Grief.
Anger.
Fear.
Are these appropriate emotions for Christians? I think Groves and Smith are correct when they say:
Christians often see negative emotions, the ones we would describe as feeling “bad,” as signs of spiritual failure. Anxiety is proof that you don’t trust God. Grief is failure to rest in God’s good purposes for your life. Anger is just plain old selfishness. It seems that Christians are never only dealing with negative emotions. Instead, every dark feeling also carries with it a sense of spiritual failure, guilt, and shame about having that dark feeling. (Untangling Emotions, 15)
A couple of weeks ago I introduced to you a chart. Here is how we would apply that. If you’re struggling with cynicism (last week’s sermon was convicting)…then you’ll be tempted to embrace the sunny optimism on the other side—or what we might call toxic positivity. It majors on beauty—that’s good…but it does so at the expense of truth.
What it often does is it takes a comfortable truth and magnifies it so that an uncomfortable truth can be denied. It will take a verse like “rejoice always”…a beautiful and wonderful truth...and then inflate it so that another truth…like Jesus’ cry “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me”.
It will take a verse like “do not be anxious for anything” and turn that precious comforting verse into a cudgel to whack anyone battling anxiety. It won’t sit with Jesus in the Garden as he weeps and sweats drops of blood.
We see this cheery optimism on full display in Jeremiah 7:1-11. Let me set that up for you…what you’re going to hear in this verse are some of the promises of God that are distorted. The people believed, rightly, that the temple belonged to God. It was a symbol of His presence, His love, even His promise that they would dwell in the land.
They took the beauty of something like Exodus 34:6 about the Lord’s compassion, His deliverance, the recounting of the story of Exodus…the Passover, etc…and they inflated it to such a way that it muted the truth of God’s heart for justice.
Listen here and see if you can hear the religious distortions:
The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Stand in the gate of the Lord’s house, and proclaim there this word, and say, Hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel: Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words: ‘This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord.’
“For if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.
“Behold, you trust in deceptive words to no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal, and go after other gods that you have not known, and then come and stand before me in this house, which is called by my name, and say, ‘We are delivered!’—only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house, which is called by my name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord.
Did you hear it? They were saying, “The temple of the LORD”…they were trusting in deceptive words…as Jeremiah 6 tells us they were saying “peace, peace, when there was no peace”. They proclaimed deliverance over themselves while they were turning the temple into a den of robbers. They were shedding innocent blood, worshipping other gods, and trying to keep the name of YHWH on the door of the temple—as if He was entirely okay with these actions.
This is what optimism will do. It doesn’t have to be anchored to truth. It doesn’t have to be consistent. It doesn’t have to have a foot in reality. Things are just true because I want them to be. Things are excellent and wonderful simply because I say so. I’m shutting out all the negative vibes, I’m not going to hear anything negative…nope, not gonna go there…just shut it all out.
And then we can Christianize this toxic positivity and give it a few Bible verses and a few theological principles. But what I want to show you today is that this is NOT hope. In fact it keeps us from living in actual hope.
Furthermore, I want to show you how this can be harmful to the people in your life, and how it can be devastating to a Christian community. Then we will end with real hope.
There is a type of optimism that is entirely divorced from reality. We’re not talking about that today. I’m talking about the Christianized version of this—the core of it is true theology at the wrong time—thus making it untrue. It’s right on beauty, it’s even right on the goodness of God, and the effects of the gospel. But it gives us what might be called an over-realized eschatology.
That’s a nerdy way of saying…it believes that all the benefits, all the truths, all the realities of heaven, are fully present right now. No sickness in heaven…well, you shouldn’t have sickness now. No death in heaven…no death now. No anxiety, grief, fear, anger in heaven…well, we shouldn’t have those at all in the present. God has redeemed us. This is how one modern day prosperity teacher says it:
God never planned that we should live in poverty, physical, mental or spiritual. He made Israel go to the head of the nations financially. When we go into partnership with Him, and we learn His ways of doing business, we cannot be failures. Failures are not God-made. God never made a weakling or an inefficient man…You can’t be a failure, for His wisdom is your wisdom; His ability in every department of life is your ability. All you need to do is to study the Word of God and get the knowledge that is imparted to you there. Then He will give you the ability to make your life a success.
You want to see a New Testament version of this? Look at 1 Corinthians 4:8-13
Already you have all you want! Already you have become rich! Without us you have become kings! And would that you did reign, so that we might share the rule with you! For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things.
The Corinthians believed that they were living in the blessings that are reserved for the future. To steal a popular phrase the Corinthians believed that they were to begin living their best life now. They believed true things but applied them at the wrong time. They wished to acquire on earth what should be sought in heaven.
There are three things that Paul focuses on in verse 8. First he says, “Already you have all you want”. The word there for want is a word that means “full”. It usually refers to full. It’s what you feel like after gorging yourself at Golden Corral. “I can’t eat another bite. I have everything I could want”. Here Paul is likely thinking of being satiated with food and the pleasures of life but he is likely also speaking of being spiritually satisfied. Across the board they were satisfied.
Then he says, “Already you have become rich!” They are making bank. They are living in prosperity and blessing. They are experiencing the wealth of God in their life today. If they were Americans they would be living the American dream.
Then he says, “Without us you have become kings!” Kings can have anything that they want. They reign. They rule. They are in control. They call the shots. If they want something they get it. You see how intertwined all three of these terms are. And it reaches its climax here. The Corinthians have become as kings.
Now where could they get such an idea?
Certainly it’s possible that they’ve just outright swallowed some of the worldly philosophy of the day. As some have noted Paul is employing some of the language that was “common to triumphalist, self-congratulatory, religious experience in a number of religious [groups] of the time.”
It is also likely that worldly wisdom had hi-jacked the Corinthian reading of the Scriptures. On one hand it is likely that many within Corinth did not believe in a physical resurrection. We will see more about that when we get to Chapter 15. But for now it is enough for us to note how that belief is related to verse 8. If there is no physical resurrection it means that everything that is “future” is already in the here and now. It is for them to enjoy in the present.
Therefore, when Paul comes to them with reality…when Paul is suffering…when he is the “scum of the world, the refuse of all things...” they don’t have a category for it. They end up rejecting Paul and his ministry.
There is another picture of this in the Old Testament. Listen to Dt. 28:1-2
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.
Obedience brings blessings. When you obey God, he’ll bless you.
Or Dt 28:15
“But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.
Disobey God and you’ll be cursed. When you disobey God, you will not have blessings. Good stuff happens to good people. Bad stuff happens to be bad peopel.
Now let’s say that a man is following after the Lord, he is prospering in all that he does, he is thriving…overflowing with camels, his family is growing, his farm is extending its borders…every metric you could use to measure success—this dude has it.
What do you conclude? He must be obeying God. He’s a righteous dude. But then all of a sudden he loses everything. His children die in a tragedy, he loses his fortune, he even starts getting sick himself. What do you conclude?
Homeboy must have done something to tick God off. He must have disobeyed God’s commandments. He’s experiencing the curse.
And don’t pretend like we don’t still think this way. Bad stuff happens to you or someone else and you start thinking—okay God, what are you trying to show me. What do you want me to learn? What did I do wrong? How are you trying to rebuke me? Or someone else happens…okay, how is God trying to light them up…what’s he doing here...
And so if you’re tasked with counseling this guy, what do you do? You start asking what he might have done to cause this, tell him to repent, get back in God’s good graces and you’ll start having blessings again.
Now, I’ve just described for you the story of Job. That’s what happens. His friends come to him after he lost everything…and throughout they say things which are mostly true. Often their basically quoting something like Dt. 28. Their theology isn’t all that horrendous…it’s just wrongly applied. They don’t know the whole story.
Again…they are inflating one truth to drown out another. Now this might not seem like optimism at face value but it really is…it’s kind of the same toxic positivity....they don’t want to hear Job’s words, they can’t enter into his emotions…their counsel is simplistic…repent Job. Stop feeling these bad things, stop talking this way, stop fighting against God…and things will get better for you.
This is how optimism can harm others. And even yourself. Let me show you this.
What are emotions? They are a bit like the dashboard lights on our car. They are indicators of something going on under the hood. It might be wrong. It might be an indicator of something major. Might be something minor. But emotions tell us that something is going on under the hood.
I had a car when we were first married. A Mitsubishi with about 3 million miles on it. Bought it for like $200. It had a bit of an oil leak…like maybe needing to buy a quart every week or so. And it had really annoying dash lights…nobody wants to hear those things…it’d beep and scream at me....PUT IN OIL!!!!
But that was super negative. I didn’t have time to look under the hood. No time to fix the problem. No time to even put in oil. But I did figure something out…if you turn off the car and then restart it…you’ll get another 10 miles before the crazy beeping starts again. It was only about 15 miles from work to home…so there was a stoplight where I could turn it off and then back on pretty quickly. Great plan. The beeping stopped. I learned to just ignore the dashboard light. (Another solution is to just listen to really loud music…that’s preferred to the beeping).
There was only one problem. My car really did need oil. One day it started beeping…I pulled over…turned the car off…tried to restart it…nothing. My engine had seized. My motor was locked up…apparently that happens when you don’t put oil in it.
This is what optimism does. This is toxic positivity. You have anger (better quiet that emotion)…mask it with some music. You have anxiety…shhh....better hide that…figure out how to turn off the beeping. You have grief....let’s turn up the music—let’s drown it out with some booze.
Do you also see what this looks like in a church setting…you have those emotions…your dashboard light is beeping…but these things are rebuked, we learn quickly to hide these things...
I’m anxious! “Don’t be anxious”! Quick—grab a piece of dark tape…cover up that light…I just feel so broken, so much shame, so much guilt…if the people around me knew what I was really like…they’d kick me out on the curb…better hide. Better buck up, better pretend, better put on the mask...
What’s happening though is that we’re denying reality. We don’t yet live in glory. There are broken things. We grieve…yes, we grieve as those who have hope…but we grieve. Death is awful. Jesus wept.
And we do so much harm when we become like Job’s counselors. Their dull optimism was rebuked by God. They weren’t speaking truth because good theology wrongly applied, stinks.
What happens with Job is that he is reaching out in pain, he wants comfort, he wants someone to hear him, to just sit with him, to grieve with him, to acknowledge his pain, to help him even share a better story and process…but what he gets instead are platitudes…he gets a rebuke…he gets a hidden rebuke wearing the mask of positivity…toxic positivity.
Can you hear Job’s heart here:
Then Job answered and said:
“No doubt you are the people,
and wisdom will die with you.
But I have understanding as well as you;
I am not inferior to you.
Who does not know such things as these?
I am a laughingstock to my friends;
I, who called to God and he answered me,
a just and blameless man, am a laughingstock.
And they respond to this pain by digging in to their theology…they don’t have room for Job in their theology. He’d pop the bubble of their optimism—their comfort—their view that if they do good, if they believe good, if they channel all the good vibes—that they’ll be safe and secure and #blessed.
Let me give you a picture here that might help to tie all of this together. Let’s imagine that I tell you that this Christmas, 7am, you are going to get a blessing that is just overwhelmingly amazing. It’ll blow your mind. Something like you’ve never seen or possessed. It’s going to be yours.
That’s true. It’s reality. It’s going to happen.
Here is what optimism does. It tries to change the date on its calendar and wind up the watch to 7am (do people wind watches anymore?). It tries to change reality by changing the clocks.
Then the clock reads 7am, December 25th…but it’s really October, 29 and you don’t have that blessing…it doesn’t come just because you change the date.
But hope is different. Hope acknowledges reality. It’s October 29th. The promise isn’t ours yet. We still live in the muck and the mire. The promise is certain…it will be mine…oh yes, it will be mine…but not yet. And so I wait for the clock and mark the days off on my calendar.
You see hope engages our emotions—even those dark ones. It engages reality. It looks under the hood. And it does so because hope gives confidence in the present.
I grieve. This is today. But it’s not always going to be my day. And so that reality infuses my grief even today…I grieve as one who has hope. I grieve as one who says, “this isn’t the end of the story. This doesn’t get the last word. This is a comma…this isn’t a period...”
You see optimism doesn’t have the fortitude for pain. Optimism can only survive on limited facts. In order to keep optimism afloat you have to deny reality. You have to rebuke Job. Anxiety, grief, fear, anger…you just have to shove those to the side.
But hope has muscles.
GOSPEL
And that’s why optimism isn’t hope.