Presented to Corps 614 Regent Park, Toronto, 31 July
2016
by Captain Michael Ramsay
To view the 2022, Alberni Valley, Vancouver Island version, click here: https://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2022/03/gen-119-121-mt-5-means-are-ends.html
It seems like forever since I had the chance to
address everyone here from the pulpit. The mission teams from Oklahoma led the
previous two services (and did a great job; it was great to have them) and the
two services prior to that Susan, the kids and I were on furlough.
Furlough saw us travel quite
a distance. Susan and the girls drove 3000 km to music camp in Saskatchewan. I
then flew 4500 km to Victoria, 1600 km to meet them at camp and drove another couple
of hundred to visit Swift Current before we drove the more than 3000 km back to
Toronto. I know that some of you have been reading through Genesis and Exodus
this summer and for those of you who have you will know that all this travel is
a little like the people we meet in the Pentateuch. There is a lot of
traveling: maybe not as far as across western Canada but then again they were
walking! (and with all their kids and all their stuff and all their animals).
Today in our text, we meet Terah, the first of our
travellers, Abram’s father. God calls Terah to move and he travels 950 km from
Ur of the Chadeans to Haran en route to Canaan. And God doesn’t take him on the
most direct route before he settles; if you look at the map Haran really isn’t on
a straight line to Canaan and he never quite makes it to Canaan, Terah stops in
Haran (in present day Turkey).
Next God calls Abram to continue his father’s journey
to Canaan but God doesn’t take him on the most direct route either.[1]
God takes Abram all the way from modern day Iraq on the east of Palestine
through the Promised Land all the way to Egypt which is to the west of the
Promised Land before he comes all the way back to settle in Canaan after a
journey on foot of about another 2000 km.
A generation or two later God also takes Jacob all the
way from Canaan to Mesopotamia (Iraq) and back to Egypt where he dies.
Then, of course we know the story of Moses: instead of
walking straight from Egypt to Canaan, the Israelites do a number of big laps
around the desert. They even get right to the border of the Promised Land where
God and Moses say ‘no you can’t go in’, so they spend 40 years doing laps,
wandering around the desert. Now I like running but I can’t say as I would
necessarily like doing laps for forty years around the desert.
I normally run near where I live here. When I was on
furlough I ran through some nice wooded areas on Vancouver Island – I did a bit
of running and kayaking when I was on vacation. When I was on furlough I also
read a lot of this big book, which is a collection of sermons and speeches by the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr.[2]
There was one point the reverend kept coming back to
in a number of speeches that really resonates with me. His opponents accused
him of being a communist. Of course, in the USA during the Cold War that was
often an accusation rich people would toss out at civil rights activists
because Americans were genuinely afraid of communism – every time they turned
around it appeared one country after another was throwing off the yoke of imperialism;
they were afraid that world wide revolution might strike America.
Martin Luther King Jr. did come in contact with many
people who were instrumental in liberating their countries from capitalism. He
fought for a lot of the communist-embraced values that the US at that time was
opposed to: equal rights for women, equality for ethnic minorities, significant
economic reform.[3]
When people pointed out to MLK though that, as far as the USA was concerned,
these were communist ideas; MLK would reply that he differs from the communists
in one key way. “Lenin”, he said, “believed that the end justified the means.”
As a Christian I can never believe that the ends justify the means because God
reminds us that the means are the end – what you do on the journey reveals who
you are in the end. This is true. Do the ends justify the means? No, the means
are the end.
For example if we want to end excessive incarceration
and violent oppression by violently throwing off our oppressors and
incarcerating them then– intentionally or not- we will find ourselves having become
the violent oppressor.[4]
Anyone who has ever seriously studied patterns in world history will note that
this is true whenever a remnant survives. This is one reason why the Middle
East is in tumult and this is one reason why the US is in so much
turmoil today that countries with large black populations are officially warning
their citizens not to travel to the USA.[5]
Violence breeds violence. The ends do not justify the means. As Gandhi, whom
MLK loved to quote, said, ‘an eye for and eye makes the whole world blind.’ Do
the ends justify the means? No, the means are the ends [5.5]. If we want the world to
see the truth then we need to help our adversary see, not pluck out his eye. For
if we pluck out his eye; as he is able, he will do the same to us and we will
be left as a couple of blind bullies beleagueredly badgering brothers while begging
by the side of the road. Gandhi, like Tutu and Mandela after him, is a great
example of helping our adversary to see. A society at peace with its former oppressors was created in a
way it never would have been through violence. The means of violence always brings the
result of violence. The means of peace is what brings the result of peace. And
Jesus is the Prince of Peace.
Do the ends justify the means? No, the means are the
ends. Oswald Chamber says, ‘God is not working toward a particular finish - His
purpose is the process itself.’[6] Terah
stops in Haran. Another example from the Pentateuch where God is walking miles upon
miles with people who never reach their destination: The Israelites of Exodus. They
whine and complain a lot about their travels. They want a different means to
achieve their ends. They want the direct route. Sometimes they get so upset at
the means by which God is leading them that they just want to abandon God’s
means and ends altogether because it is too hard, they think, to achieve His
ends.
Do we remember Numbers 14, the story of the Israelites right on the precipice of the Promised Land: it was theirs for the taking?[7]
God provided the end. God just wanted them to join Him in the means. The
Israelites refuse the Lord’s means. God responds, therefore, Verse 30: ‘Not one
of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except
Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua...
There is more to this story too. After they reject
God’s means to the end of the Promised Land, the Israelites attempt to obtain that
very same end, by their own means, without God. Numbers 14:41: But Moses said, “Why are you
disobeying the LORD’s command? This will not succeed! Do not go up, because the
LORD is not with you. You will be defeated by your enemies, for the Amalekites
and Canaanites will face you there. Because you have turned away from the LORD,
He will not be with you and you will fall by the sword.” And they did. The end
in and of itself, even when it is God-ordained like here, is not by itself the
important part; an important part is the God-enabled means. Matthew 16:26: “What
good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?” (Mark
8:26, Luke 9:25). Do the ends justify the means? No. The ends are the means.
Jesus tells us very much the same thing in the Sermon on the Mount. To transliterate through the lens of means and ends the pericope we read earlier, Jesus said,
You all know the goal, ‘You shall not murder, and
anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But let me tell you about the
means to that end: don’t even walk down that road; anyone who even gets angry with
a brother or sister will be subject to judgment.
And you all know that, ‘You shall not commit
adultery.’ But I tell you that anyone who even starts to explore those means by
so much as looking at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
You all know about an ‘eye for eye, and tooth for
tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. “You have heard that it
was said, ‘Love your neighbour and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your
enemies and pray for those who persecute you. This is the means by which you
will rid yourself of your enemy. If you act like an enemy, you are an enemy. If you act like a friend you are a friend. The ends don’t justify the means. The
means are the ends.
You all know the end ‘Do not break your oath, but
fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made.’ But the means here is the
important part: you should not even need to swear an oath. You should be honest in every part of your
life so that whatever you say, whether you say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ or anything else
it is just as good as an oath even on the Bible or on your mother's grave. The person who tells the truth is
an honest person. The person who does not is a liar. Do the ends justify the
means? No, the means are the ends.
If we walk along
the path of sin hoping to reach holiness we will be sadly disappointed.
Conversely if we never walk towards sin, we will never arrive at sin. Do the
ends justify the means? No. The means are the end. Oswald Chambers again: ‘God is not working toward a particular finish - His
purpose is the process itself.’
He who walks in the darkness does not see the light
and she who walks in the light does not get lost in the darkness. Do the means
justify the ends? No. The means are the ends.
This is true in our daily lives with each other and it
is just as true with our relationship with God. Jesus and Salvation isn’t about
a destination, an end of going to heaven when we die; Salvation is the means of
how we live with God from today unto eternity. Salvation isn’t an end, a
destination to arrive at; it is a means, a way of life. So, can we do evil as a
way to try to enter heaven? No. Do the ends ever justify the means? No, the
means are the end. The means, which is ultimately our very relationship
with our neighbour and our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ is all that matters. He is with us and
He wants us to walk with Him and talk with Him both now and forever. And that is the means by which you and I can live the most blessed life both for now and forever.
Let us pray.
---
[2]Martin Luther King Jr. , A Testament of Hope: The Essential Writings and
Speeches of Martin Luther King Jr. Ed. James M. Washington (HaperCollins: New
York, NY, 1986)
[3] CBC News, 'That time Walmart
pulled T-shirt with slogan: 'Someday a woman will be president!' (Wednesday
July 27, 2016) http://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-wednesday-edition-1.3697363/that-time-walmart-pulled-t-shirt-with-slogan-someday-a-woman-will-be-president-1.3697368
[5] Reuters, ‘Three countries urge
caution traveling to U.S. amid protests, violence’
(July 10, 2016 ) https://ca.news.yahoo.com/three-countries-urge-caution-traveling-u-amid-protests-163444836.html
[5.5] cf. Mahatma Gandhi, Letter to Nehru, August 17, 1934 in Jawaharlal Nehru, A Bunch of Old Letters, p. 118: means to me are just as important as the goal, and in a sense more important..."
[5.5] cf. Mahatma Gandhi, Letter to Nehru, August 17, 1934 in Jawaharlal Nehru, A Bunch of Old Letters, p. 118: means to me are just as important as the goal, and in a sense more important..."
[7] Cf. Captain
Michael Ramsay, Judges 4, Numbers 14:
Salvation, Take it or Leave it. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The
Salvation Army, 02 Oct. 2011,
http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2011/09/judges-4-numbers-14-salvation-take-it.html
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