A
sermon shared with my dear friends at First Presbyterian Church, Spring City,
TN, December 10, 2017
Are you striving for Peace or looking
for a Faustian Bargain?
How frequently in daily life do we pause
to ask, “Am I living a holy and godly life waiting for and hastening the coming
day of the Lord?” If we believe his promise to come again, are we striving for
peace without a blemish suggesting otherwise, or are we hoping it will not be
tomorrow?
You may, or may not have heard of the
man “Doctor Faust,” (or
Faustus)? A 500-year-old legend dating
to the late 15th century describes an educated man who was
dissatisfied with life and impatient to gain the knowledge of the future to
give him power over today. Satan offered him a deal to have it all. People widely identify with this story as a
reflection on life. Famous playwrights and authors wrote of it. In the 1500’s
the playwright Christopher Marlowe, and in the late 1700’s, the famous German play/novelist
Johan Goethe, made the legend famous with their own version. Goethe supposedly worked on and off on this
story for at least 60 years.
The story of Dr. Faustus was originally
a Christian moral story. It sounds somewhat the event on the mountain in the
forty days in the desert when Satan offers Jesus all powers.
Doctor Faust was a highly successful
magician and alchemist (we would call him a chemist or scientist today) who realized
the more he learned about life and living the more he discovered that he could
not gain enough human power through the knowledge of life to shape, control and
enjoy the present. He drifted away spiritually
and concluded pure happiness can never be had. Satan offered Faust a bargain to
lead him through the world for 24 years satisfying Faust’s desire for all knowledge
and power and at the end, Satan would claim Faust’s soul for payment.
In Goethe’s play, Faust did not believe
Satan could make good on the bargain so he accepted the offer of finding true
human knowledge and power that in the end did not include happiness. Satan led
him to a beautiful woman who Faust fell madly in love, but his Satanic-given
powers led to the ruin and death of her family. She survived but Faust overwhelmed
by grief and shame over his deeds abandoned the woman and continued with Satan.
Satan continued to lead Faust to great
worldly power. Faust tamed and controlled the world of politics and nature and had
it all. Then, Satan calls in payment of
Faust’s bargain.
In the old legend, the Devil carries
Faust off to Hell, with the moral that all the powers one gathers in life
cannot save the soul of one who deals with the devil for worldly gain.
But in Faust’s play, Faust’s grief and
shame over his evil deeds to the beautify woman and her family torment and never
leave him. When Satan calls in the deal, the angels of heaven directed by God’s
forgiving grace deliver Dr. Faust to heaven. God forgives and brings him into
eternal grace because of Faust never stopped repenting in sorrow and shame. Goethe’s
(and our) moral is God shows the gift of unmerited grace to every sorrowful
repenting soul. For them, deals with the devil do not work. Dr. Faust is a tale
of Christian faith and God’s grace.
Why spend so much time on the story of
Dr. Faust and his bargain with Satan? The weariness or loss of hope in the
present and God’s care and action for us in the future parallels the message in
2 Peter. 2 Peter talks directly to the danger of despair and loss of hope, the
same woes that the playwright Goethe revealed in Dr. Faust.
It is worth noting that Paul’s letters
are a window into the life and conflict within the early Christian
congregations. The collected letters at the end of the New Testament (James, 1
Peter, Jude and 2 Peter, 1,2, 3) are called the “catholic” or universal letters.
As universal letters read by the church
at large, they present a window into life of Mediterranean Christianity in the
time after Paul has passed from the scene and the last remaining Apostles were
dying. It was a time of worry over
mockery and persecution for their faith, and a time wondering about when or if
Jesus shall return, and who if anyone would lead them after the Apostles were
gone. The text of 2 Peter suggests Peter, probably the last remaining disciple,
is near death (see 1:12-15).
The Christian world of 2 Peter maybe 80
or 100 years after the crucifixion, was stressed by tension and arguments over
scripture for all these reasons. Many Believers doubted that Jesus would return
and some who had lost hope created alternative versions of Christianity that focused
only on living for the present, not the future. They said satisfy your physical
desires now since there is no future.
Faust and 2 Peter go directly to this
point of living for the present day. 2 Peter reminds us time for
the Lord is different from time for humanity. To the Lord, a thousand years are like one day.
2 Peter tells us not to let our
impatience with the future make us doubt his promises because the Lord is good
for his word. God loves us. The passage brings me back again to the ant and the
grasshopper fable. Do not forget that Jesus said he will come as a thief in
the night and everything will be revealed. The message the writer of 2
Peter sends is, “be on guard.” As Paul says to the Philippians, “work out your salvation with fear
and trembling.”
Boiled down to its core, 2
Peter urges us to be aware of two things, (1) our vision of the future of Jesus’s promised return; and (2)
whether we are using the present as a time for moral transformation and
preparation to get ready for the future, or using the present only as a time to
satisfy material wants.
Our faith assures us that we know the
day of the Lord will come to pass. Should we despair of the future? Or should
we get ready for its coming? Peter’s
answer is hold on to hope, not despair, because, “We shall not walk this road
alone.” If our faith sustains that belief in the future, then we need to ask
whether or not we are using our time in the present for moral transformation - or
not.
The tale of Dr. Faust and his bargain
with the devil explains or amplifies 2 Peter. It also is a good example of why we
ought not dismiss the drama of famous novels and plays as not being the stuff
of our own lives, but read, read, read. Every
day, great literature describes the challenges that we might consider our own
Faustian bargains.
Look around at our own world for
examples. First, I'm not quibbling with anyone's political views, you are entitled to them. I am talking about choice and behavior. We have a president who enjoys support by many Christian groups who
expect him to defend their specific denominational values in the political scene. Many of them have
heard his open admission of using his power to abuse women and his broad
disdain for women and anyone with less money and power than he has, and excuse it because
he may further their political cause. We
have a man running for Senate with strong evidence showing as a 30 year-old man
he abused under-aged teenagers. This man shows a life-long, total disregard for the
rule of law and our Constitution. Elected senators and their party
officials, many who proudly wear the label, “Christian,” say they need the vote
of this morally corrupt man in Congress to achieve their political goals. They
say his actions, even if proven true, are minor thing. It is better to elect a
morally corrupt ally than allow an honest person of the other party to win. After all, God is on our side…
Now, none of us know what faith sits in
the heart of these people, and though we have admission of real transgressions
of some, in others we may never get proof one way or the other about what sits
in their heart. But it is a fact that the political leaders and their
evangelical supporters who claim the be followers of Jesus do say
it is better to elect corrupt men than a good person in order to achieve their political
objectives. They are more than willing to overlook evil deeds done in the
pursuit of power. To me, that is a perfect
Faustian bargain.
They ask Satan for power at the expense of everything spiritual that they claim to believe. In the end, they shall answer as to whether they repent to their maker.
They ask Satan for power at the expense of everything spiritual that they claim to believe. In the end, they shall answer as to whether they repent to their maker.
But this political issue of abuse of
under-aged teens and women is just a small part of a bigger problem.
These same evangelical folks push to
proclaim Jerusalem the capital of Israel. They read about the battle of the eagle and
bear, and how the ascendancy of Jerusalem marks the beginning of the Parousia, the
Day of the Lord (Go read the Revelation of John). They have waited long enough for
the Day of the Lord and want the power to bring it about now! Never mind God’s time, they operate on their
time seeking to force God’s hand thereby denying God’s own power. They seem like the folks in the time of 2
Peter who lost hope in God’s timeframe, and like Dr. Faustus.
The core question is, “Are we ready to trade faith, love and hope for the future that God has promised for the immediate reward of worldly gain?”
The core question is, “Are we ready to trade faith, love and hope for the future that God has promised for the immediate reward of worldly gain?”
Has Christianity deteriorated today into
forgetfulness of the promise of the Lord’s coming? Do these political positions above represent
what we believe as Christians? Have we transformed Christian practice into
pursuit of happiness, pervasive suspicion of outsiders and completely
disconnected ourselves from God’s time? Have we forgotten that in this time of
waiting that we are expected to be the force for peace that shapes the world for a better future
by our own personal moral transformation, not our power?
The Day of the Lord will come with the
Parousia or with our own death.
I wonder if we have forgotten Paul’s
three core principles, Faith, Love, and Hope. Do we have the faith to answer 2
Peter’s questions, “What sort of persons ought we to
be in leading lives of holiness and godliness that waiting for and hastening
the coming of the day of God? Do our hearts contain the love of others to hope
and work for their well being? Are we striving to be found by the Lord Jesus
Christ at peace, without spot or blemish and regard the patience of our Lord as
salvation?” Do you like 2 Peter’s words, “Regard the patience of the Lord as
salvation?”
This coming day of the Lord may panic
you, but it ought to make you dream. Take
me. Relatively speaking, I am an old man with a young heart. But I still dream dreams about the future. Really, I do. Naysayers cut off the future, dreamers are all
that we all have for the future. I dream
about your future. Every time I look at
one of our young people I imagine what great things they will be doing in the
world in 5, 10, 20 years from now as great parents, doctors, mayors,
scientists, pastors, and more, making it a better place because you adults all helped
them get there. I want them to look at you
and me, and our leaders and think, “I can do a better job if I do not let
Faith, Love and Hope die. I can make this a more peaceful place with my own two
hands as I wait for the Lord.”
They need our help. The future needs their hope. Are you working for peace for them knowing it
will come in God’s time? Or are you negotiating a Faustian Bargain?
