The Seventh Egg

Tuesday, December 23, 2008 -- Week of 4 Advent; Year One

Today's Readings for the Daily Office (Book of Common Prayer, p. 938)
Psalms 66, 67 (morning) 116, 117 (evening)
Isaiah 11:10-16
Revelation 20:11 - 21:8
Luke 1:5-25

I was reading something written by a nutritionist some time ago. He was offering a touch of satire about a report that said it was safe to eat up to six eggs a week. "Don't touch that deadly seventh egg, or you'll die!" he quipped.

Where is the tipping point? Six eggs, safe? Seven eggs, goner?

How about with sin and goodness? How does the scale tip? When biblical writers and any of the rest of us speculate about judgment and heaven and hell, what's the deadly seventh egg? What can you do, or fail to do, that will throw you over the precipice forever? How close to the edge can somebody go and still get pulled back into paradise?

The reading today in Revelation prompted my thoughts. It starts with the "great white throne and the one who sat on it" who opens the book of life and "the dead were judged according to their works, ...according to what they had done, ...and anyone whose name was not found written in the book of life was thrown into the lake of fire."

There is one school of thought that has a pretty simple, pat answer. Doesn't matter about your "works." Only if you profess Jesus as your Lord and Savior do you get your name in the book of life. Once saved, always saved. So a violent, scandalous evildoer who repents at some point in his life and is saved, has his name in the book of life. And a holy person of Christ-like compassion such as Gandhi or the Dalai Lama are "thrown into the lake of fire." That is an unjust system. Not worthy of God.

One of the presumptions behind this notion is that everybody has sinned, therefore everybody deserves God's judgment. But what if you think about this the other way around. Everybody has done good. There is not a single life on this planet that has not had a moment of love or compassion, an act of honesty our courage. Everyone has given and received love at some point. Will God lose anyone who has loved? Everyone who has loved deserves reunion with God. St. Augustine said that sin was love for the wrong thing in the wrong proportion (or something like that).

If some of these partially good and partially evil people are to be brought into heaven and some are to be thrown into the lake of fire, what's the tipping point? Who has the hubris to declare?

Plenty of our biblical authors have offered their solution to the question. So have religious people throughout the ages. In the glory of John the Divine's vision of the "Alpha and Omega" and the gift of water from the spring of life, he also sees the following who are to be thrown into the "lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death": "the cowardly, the faithless, the polluted, the murders, the fornicators, the sorcerers, the idolaters, and all liars." I imagine every one of us falls in one or more of these categories to some degree.

Where is the seventh egg? Every once in a while I tell a white lie. Does one white lie earn me the lake of fire? Six? Seven? Or does it have to be a whopper? If so, how many?

I'm an American, and in my name we have launched shock and awe upon the Iraqi people, a war that has caused the death of nearly 90,000 non-combatant citizens, according to some counts. Our judicial system executes the wrong person from time to time, in all of our names. I use more than my share of food, water and energy while others starve. Am I a murderer?

To some degree or another I am a coward, I am faithless, I am polluted, etc. Where's the seventh egg? How far do I have to go to earn the lake of fire? How naughty could I be and still be recalled from the edge of the lake?

I'm also a pretty good guy. I've done some good things in my life and on occasion been courageous, faithful, pure, non-violent, honorable, humble, reverent, and honest. Not always, but sometimes. What does that count for? Could I get a count so I'll know where I'm needing a few good points to balance some category where I'm on the edge of the lake?

I give up on this stuff. It's never made any sense to me. Moreover, I don't see anything in Jesus' life that would imply that he would send anyone into an eternal lake of fire. Well, he did get pretty riled up about the religious authorities who were pretty certain they were headed to the waters of life and were pretty certain who those others were, those sinners. Jesus was pretty friendly with those sinners. And when the righteous and unjust and violent did their worst and had Jesus tortured and killed, he said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."

I'm just going to do the best I can, and when I don't, confess it and leave it with God. I'm not going to worry about anybody else. That's their journey with God. I'm just going to trust God for justice and for mercy. Most of the hints I get from God point toward a God who is more wonderful, loving and creative than I can imagine. I've got my hands full trying to live in the here and now. I'm not going to worry or speculate about whatever is on the other side. Whatever God wants is fine with me.

Lowell

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About Morning Reflections
Morning Reflections is a brief thought about the scripture readings from the Daily Office of Morning and Evening Prayer according to the practice found in the Book of Common Prayer of the Episcopal Church.

Morning Prayer begins on p. 80 of the Book of Common Prayer.
Evening Prayer begins on p. 117

An online resource for praying the Daily Office is found at www.missionstclare.com
Another form of the office from Phyllis Tickle's "Divine Hours" is available on our partner web site www.ExploreFaith.org at this location -- http://explorefaith.org/prayer/fixed/index.html


The Mission of St. Paul's Episcopal Church
is to explore and celebrate
God's infinite grace, acceptance, and love.

Visit our web site at www.stpaulsfay.org

Our Rule of Life

We aspire to...
worship weekly
pray daily
learn constantly
serve joyfully
live generously.

Lowell Grisham, Rector

St. Paul's Episcopal Church
Fayetteville, Arkansas