The Wills of God

May 30, 1999

Douglas S. Long

North Raleigh United Church

When Denise and I were looking for a place to land, a place to live and work after returning from our stint with Habitat for Humanity eight years ago, we read a big stack of church profiles.... descriptions of churches that were looking for ministers. This was quite a learning experience in itself. I never forgot one part of one of those profiles. I don’t remember where particular this church was, Minneapolis maybe, I can’t remember, but I haven’t forgotten one of the weekly meetings they had listed in their normal calendar. It was a 12-step-group called ... ‘Fundamentalists Anonymous.’

At first hearing that sounds like a joke, but there are some religious concepts we learn as children that we spend years trying to ‘unlearn.’

‘Fundamentalists Anonymous,’ in this case, was a support group for those who had grown up in a rigid religious tradition that they were trying to wean themselves from, but because they had become almost totally dependent upon that system they needed weekly therapy, they needed a support group. Moving into a different way of thinking was what they wanted desperately to do, but the old system was so entangled in their whole way of thinking and doing things that it would be a long process toward recovery.

I'm guessing that for every one of us there are theological tidbits from our past that we have figuratively shelved for the time being, that we've placed inadvertently on a back burner until something, some word, or somebody, yanks it to the front of the stove.

A couple of years ago, Mike stirred up one of my pots.

Mike is one of my best friends. We met when we were about 14 and have been close ever since. Mike is also unique. He’s the only person I know who, a few years back, had a nice boat and a nice airplane, but whose car has been out of inspection for several years. At the time his headlights didn't work and rather than fix them, he just didn’t drive at night. Now that he has four children, he has a car that can be driven at night. (…but only because he feels like he has to.)

In so many ways we are different but in so many more we are alike.

We grew up together. ...worked in summer jobs together, played football and soccer together, dated the same girls, (Not at the same time but I must admit Mike had a habit of somehow ending up with the girl I started off with. Fortunately Denise wanted to have a car she could drive at night.) We even ended up at the same college/university, Wake Forest. I went there because that’s where all aspiring Baptist ministers wanted to be. Mike went there because he wanted to walk onto the golf team.

We’ve been through enough together that, I doubt, despite what may be different about us, we’ll ever find enough to separate us. ... which is why I think the description brother best fits.

Anyway, I had the opportunity to see Mike when I was down from Ohio a couple years back. I was explaining that Oberlin, the town where we lived and the church where I pastored was a wonderful community, but that despite that, we were considering relocating back to NC. Denise was in the running for a job down here she was excited about, and, if it came through, we probably would be returning. I was sharing with Mike that this was an agonizing decision because things were going so well where we were… and then …he asked me… if I thought it was the will of God that I should have ever gone to Oberlin at all.

Now the response I heard, from me, was interesting enough that I thought I’d take the opportunity of a sermon to pursue it a little.

(Don’t you ever say something that you ...kind of like? ... something that, after it comes out, surprises you a little?)

Anyway, what I said was, "I don’t know about the will of God... I don’t use that term very much anymore... in fact, outside reciting the Lord’s prayer, it’s been a long time since I remember consciously using the term at all... but I would say that was in the realm of God that we went to Oberlin."

"You see," I continued, thinking out loud, "the will of God, at least in the way we used that term when we were growing up, implied one thing, one way, one option that God was offering to us and the question was whether we were going to do God’s-one-way or ...something else. The will of God. Now the realm of God," I was on a roll, "is more symbolic of a whole range, a circle, if you will, of possibilities, all perfectly good options within the sphere of what would be, what term should we use, ‘endorsed by God.’ And so," I concluded to Mike, "I think more in terms of God’s realm than God’s will."

You know, the more I think about it, the more I agree with myself.

I’ve always had a bit of a philosophical problem with the similarities of no freewill and submission to God’s one, single, perfect will for my life.

You see, if we don’t have freewill, then... I don’t want to know about it! I mean, let’s face it, if it’s all fore-ordained, then what difference can I make. (You Presbyterians have never been able to satisfy me on that score. If, in the ‘sweet bye and bye’ I learn it was all fore-ordained I’m still going to choose not to believe it.)

If it's all pre-ordained, then what's the point?

But I'm not so sure I like the there's one will and I submit route any better.

Growing up I was taught that God had a plan for my life.... a plan.... one perfect plan... my mission, should I decide to accept it... was to seek out that perfect plan. What was it that God had in store for me? Would I do the will of God? ...or would I submit to a more worldly will, a more worldly way, i.e. ...mine.

I can remember one of my ministers saying to a group of us in high school, "I want to be able to walk up to you 10 years from now and ask you if you have discovered and are doing the will of God and I want you to be able to say , ‘Yes!’"

There was a perfect path for us, a perfect mate, a perfect vocation. We had only to find and follow the will of God.

Of course, in that one will, one way tradition, the only way to prove to anyone you were actually following the perfect path God set before you was to choose a church related vocation.

And even here you had to be careful or the choice may seem muddied.

Have you heard the one about the minister who was offered the pulpit of a church where the salary was four times where he currently served. Upon hearing of this the parishioners of his current church were impressed to see him in private prayer at the altar over the matter. One of them stopped the minister’s little boy in the street and asked "What’s your father going to do?"

"Well, " said the young boy, "Daddy’s praying, but Moma’s packing."

…so even church related vocations can be suspect.

Anyway, I was taught there was one will of God for my life... just one true will.

Now, if doing God’s will means submitting my freewill to the one will, one path, one way that God has chosen for me as perfect and right and holy, then I’ve lost my freedom again. Somehow, that’s not a whole lot more appealing than everything being fore-ordained. Either way, I lose me, ...so where am I in this?

I titled this sermon "The Wills of God" but honestly that sounds a little too jarring. What I mean to simply say though, is that there is more than one path for us to choose from, more than one single and right will to find and follow.

Leslie Weatherhead, in his classic little book (that I'm sure some of you have read) The Will of God, offers the helpful distinctions of the Intentional, Circumstantial, and Ultimate will of God. What God had intended (the Intentional will) is altered by human free will and so in those new circumstances God’s will is something else (the Circumstantial will). When all is said and done however, God will be victorious (the Ultimate will).

As I said, this is helpful, but it still seems too confining to me.

No, what makes much more sense, Mike, (‘though it’s me I’m talking to) is that there are any number of possibilities within God’s realm for us to pursue. No one knows what I’ll do. I don’t know. God doesn’t know. My mother doesn’t know. That’s why we call it free will.

On the other hand, just because we’re free doesn’t mean everything is O.K. There are boundaries, limits in the realm. Some decisions are clearly outside the circle, while others, may be teetering near the edge. In truth, I think most of us live our lives in and out of the circle.... back and forth. Some things we do are within the sphere, other decisions we make are outside the boundaries of God’s realm.

...and I think we know which circle we are in most of the time. ....whether we’re in God’s realm or outside it. We feel it. The realm of God resonates with the image of God within us. If we’re not resonating, we’re not there.

There has to be more than one single path. So I say, Mike, that the realm, the way of God is not a narrow path, it is absolutely full of options and choices.

Maybe a river is a better metaphor for the realm/will of God... sometimes there are broad slow expanses, and plenty of wide open spaces to explore,

...other times a narrow turbulent channel where the choices are more limited and defined.

A river image has limitations too, though. You can portage around rapids, not to mention drown in them if your not careful.

Part of the problem, it seems to me, is we think, or we’ve been taught to think, too directionally. That is to say, we’ve always got to be going somewhere. There is some place we want to be, some destination downstream we think we must reach.

Maybe, just maybe, doing the will of God, being in the realm of God, is not a journey at all. ...maybe it’s not about where we are headed but where we are... right now.

Maybe we’re too focused on going somewhere. Maybe we need to just be.

I remember the oft used opening to prayer, perhaps you do too… O God, in whom we live and move and have our being. That's living in the realm.

Now, to close, four quick references/observations to words of Jesus concerning the will and realm of God.

The first thing is this. I've heard this phrase, 'it was the will of God,' used far too many times as one to cover the unexplainable. I remember being at a funeral of a child tragically killed in a car accident. The distraught parents were receiving people in a long line who wanted to express their sorrow and sympathy and as I got closer to the parents I could hear the words offered. Do you know how many times I heard… 'It was the will of God.' And I wanted to say, 'what kind of God are they talking about?'

Let me read a few of the words of Jesus to you.

Matthew 18:12-14 Jesus is speaking to the disciples.

"Tell me. Suppose a man has a hundred sheep and one of them strays; will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hillside and go in search of the stray? I tell you solemnly, if he finds it, it gives him more joy than do the ninety-nine that did not stray at all. Similarly, it is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones be lost."

It is never the will of your Father in heaven that one of these little ones be lost. Nor is it the will of God that one of these little ones die tragically, or be harmed in any way.

So my first point is this… It is totally improper to use the phrase… It was God's will …about any tragedy. It's not the God of Jesus and I don't want any part of a God like that. Nor do I believe, do you.

Two: We have this hidden understanding I think, that if we could just truly know the will of God, everything would fall into place. What I want to say is that, knowing the will of God is not enough. We need the will to do the Will.

In Luke 22 we find Jesus in Gethsemane, praying, the night before his crucifixion. Jesus' prayer was not for guidance, but strength. ‘Not my will, but thine be done."

There are times when we are facing a choice, one single event... and contemplating the will of God in many cases such as this is not only a prayer for discernment but also a prayer for strength... knowing what God would lead us to do, we summon the strength to do that will.

In Weatherhead's little book, he quotes the poet Drinkwater in this regard:

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