Puritan Hedonism
Job 38:4a, 7; Proverbs 8:29-31; Philippians 4:3-4; Luke 2:10
The readings for this sermon are snapshots taken from several parts of scripture.
First, from Job--
God asks, “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?...On what were its bases sunk, or who laid its cornerstone when the morning stars sang together and all the heavenly beings shouted for joy?
....
And next, from the Message version of Proverbs--
Lady Wisdom (Sophia) shouts,
"When God ... staked out Earth's Foundations,
I was right there, making sure everything fit.
Day after day I was there, with my joyful applause,
always enjoying God's company,
Delighted with the world of things and creatures,
happily celebrating the human family.
....
From the letter to the church at Philippi--
Paul writes: "Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice."
....
And finally, from Luke's Gospel--
The angel said, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people'
~~~~~~~~
Puritan hedonism: now there’s an oxymoron[i]!
When you think about the Puritan ancestors of our UCC, would the word hedonism ever pop into your mind?
Amid the familiar images of dour faces and dark dress, no—
hedonist is not a descriptor I’d typically place with Puritans.
Rather, I’d probably reserve the term for a college party gone wild,
like the one that caught a lot of attention just down the road this past semester.
I ran across this delightful little phrase—Puritan hedonism[ii]—as I was researching one of the historical doctrines of our church’s Reformed roots. Hal preached a little about the Reformation 2 weeks ago, and a couple of our Confirmation youth treated our class to a mini-lecture while on retreat last weekend.
But the real reason I was researching was not for history’s sake,
but because of an evocative note I’d read somewhere about delight and joy being intrinsic parts of our faith lives in the present. And of all places, I found it in a religious catechism from the 1640s.
The Westminster Catechism, which strongly influenced our Congregational forebears,
has as it’s very first tenet:
Q. 1. What is the chief end of man?
It’s that “enjoy God forever” part that has stuck with me,
particularly in light of this year’s Stewardship campaign:
To God’s Extravagant Welcome—How Do You Respond?
With enjoyment?
I think, yes—that is my answer today.
To God’s extravagance, I want to respond with extravagant enjoyment.
… But how so?
~~~
Say you’re sitting in your monthly book club,
and one of the group walks in with some
freshly-baked and buttered bread.
How do you respond?
With steam still rising from the cloth draped around it,
you each break off a hunk and take a deep (….ahhh….).
Maybe memories of your mom or grandmother’s kitchen rise in you
as you touch the yeasty goodness to your tongue and (…..mmmmmm….).
What better response could the bringer of that bread ask for?
Enjoyment!
Or, since I neither bake nor do my friends want me to,
if I’m invited to dinner I do my best to find the right bottle of wine to bring to the table.
And, when I arrive and hand it over, how does my host respond?
Even if he has his favorite Pinot already picked,
he doesn’t stick my bottle on the shelf to save for another occasion.
The wine was given, and so it’ll be shared,
enjoyed together, extravagantly savored as a gift.
And isn’t that how our spirits want to respond to God’s own extravagant gifts in our lives?
~~~
The various scriptural tidbits that the liturgist just read are some of the “proof texts” given with the Westminster Catechism’s answer to it’s primary question: “Humanity’s chief end is to glorify God, and enjoy God forever.”
Joy! says the angel: this gift of Jesus born is for all people—enjoy!
Rejoice! exclaims Paul: again, I say rejoice!
And that wonderful woman Wisdom from Proverbs:
day after day with my joyful applause,
enjoying God’s company and delighting in the world.
Pleasure in God: our greatest response: holy hedonism!
The Westminster Confession was blessed with approval by our seemingly drab and severe Puritan predecessors[iv]—how can we respond with any less enjoyment?
~~~
One perennial challenge to this “enjoyment of God’s blessings” ideal—
this taking pleasure in the abundance of beauty and
resources in our mountains and rivers and rich, rich foods—
has always been the criticism of over-indulgence and unequal sharing.
Isn’t extravagance a waste?
And yet, if we are glorifying and enjoying God in the truest, most loving sense,
then we are essentially sharing and caring.
In a familiar justice-passage from the prophet Isaiah, we hear this call:
“Ho, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and you that have no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price. Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that that which does not satisfy? [Why do you waste your abundance on stress and anxiety and things that aren’t life-giving, that aren’t in the realm of enjoying God’s gifts when you have them?] Listen carefully to me [Isaiah preaches,] eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food.”[v]
And then, in the New Testament, Jesus is always getting criticized for his extravagance—
whether for eating meals with outcasts and sinners or
healing on the Sabbath or
accepting someone’s wasteful bath of expensive anointing oil. And every time—in different ways—Jesus asks:
why would you hold back?
To God’s extravagance—seriously!—how do you respond?
~~~
I mentioned a few weeks ago that, while on the medical mission trip last month,
our team visited an indigenous village of the Wayuu community.
Throughout our time in Venezuela, we’d been among many poor people;
but the residents of this village seemed to be some of the poorest yet.
And still, the day we spent among them was a
celebration with the most extravagant kind of welcome!
For our lunch, the Wayuu community sacrificed a sheep.
Not in the sense of ritualistically sacrificing an animal on an altar,
but in the original meaning behind the act.
That is: the people chose to sacrifice—
to let go of or relinquish something of great value to them,
a significant resource of their village—a sheep!—
for the act of enjoying our company and enjoying God’s abundance.
That was a sacrifice, an offering, a true gift given with pleasure
through the knowledge that they were rich—
richly blessed in their community and their enjoyment of God.
And they responded by joyfully sharing that with all of us.
This type of extravagance is not a waste, despite the people’s fiscal poverty.
It was enjoyment of God’s life-giving gift of relationship—
so we all “delighted in rich food,” as Isaiah insists we do.
How else could we respond?
~~~
To God’s extravagant welcome—how do we respond? With enjoyment, I hope.
With joyfully sharing our delight in all the
wonderful abundance of this world.
By joyfully sharing with Fort Collins our enjoyment of knowing an extremely welcoming God
through this community called Plymouth Church.
And yes—that includes joyfully putting our pledge-promises into the offering plate,
making a true sacrifice and saying Yes!—
look what we can do together in God’s wonderful world! Let’s enjoy it!
I’ve got this wonderful fresh-baked loaf of bread that God has brought to my table—yum!
And I’ve got this delightfully rich bottle of Port that God has poured out for me—bottom’s up!
And in response to the abundance that God has given us,
in response to the dedication and gifts of this company of people,
we really do have pie to savor and share following the service!—
so let’s enjoy it in the name of God!
For God’s sake, even!
How do we respond to God’s extravagance?
What is the chief end of human life?
Perhaps, at least part of it is: to glorify God and enjoy God forever! Amen!
[i] Although not really—because Puritans were known for wearing bright-colored dress and enjoying both booze and sex! But that’s for another sermon J.
[ii] Found in John Piper’s 1996 expanded edition of Desiring God: Meditations of a Christian Hedonist.
[iii] The Westminster Shorter Catechism.
[iv] The Living Theological Heritage of the United Church of Christ: Volume 2: Reformation Roots, pages 552-554.
[v] Isaiah 55:1-2 (NRSV).
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