If only the Lord knew what we know. . .

One of the stranger things that this pandemic has brought to light is our tendency to judge God according to the standard of today's science and to suggest that the Lord has suffered from a lack of wisdom and knowledge that we routinely enjoy today.

Individual cups are largely the result of fears that the risk of transmitting disease or something less harmful but equally distasteful.  The chalice has to go because it is unclean or at least less sanitary than individual cups.  If only the Lord had known what we know with all our science and studies and testing, He would surely have begun where we have ended up and there would be no chalice at all.  While there were many who harbored such an opinion before COVID 19, that number has surely increased and the unqualified wisdom of science is pitted against the institution of our Lord with the suggestion that we know more than Jesus knew in the Upper Room.

The dangers of gluten have brought many to the conclusion that wheat in the bread of the Lord's Supper is untenable and unkind to the many with gluten allergies.  No matter that the issue of gluten allergies is inflated by those who simply follow fads and trends and in those fads and trends gluten has become a bad things today.  However, the real danger here is not gluten but the idea that the Lord was deficient in His knowledge and if He had only known what we know, He would have used some other bread for His supper.

And of course that brings us to the whole issue of alcohol.  Wine is simply unsuitable for a Sacrament (or ordinance) in which children, pregnant women, nursing mothers, recovering alcoholics, folks on certain medicines, and those who simply do not like the smell or taste of wine are being asked to take and drink.  If only the Lord had known what a danger alcohol is and how many prefer something else, He would surely have ditched the wine and turned Cana's jugs into Gatorade or smart water or something else that was healthy and tasty.

Don't even start me on incense!  Why would God have commanded the use of incense when smoke is a danger to the lungs and so many are allergic to it!  Why, indeed!  If only the Lord had known what we know, He would have commanded the use of those Glade scents that only gently linger in the air and offer a variety of scents that would appeal to the broader population than incense.  No, let us all agree that the Lord was simply naive or ignorant in His choice of incense.

I think you get my drift.  But that is the problem.  Is the Lord so ignorant and naive that He did not know better than to choose or use things that we would come to find as harmful or dangerous?  Or could there be another problem here?  Could it be that we have come to believe in science more than even God's Word?  Could it be that this is another way in which we have placed our reason above God's Truth?  Could it be that we have decided that preference is the same as science and elevated our own desires above the saving will and purpose of God?

Everyone of us knows that life post-COVID 19 will be different.  Some of those differences will be temporary, lasting only as long as our memory of the virus is fresh and its threat more recent.  Others will last longer as we have adjusted ourselves to the changed landscape of a virus and our fears.  I expect most households will keep a bit more toilet paper on hand, not to mention masks and hand sanitizer!  I expect that we will be more reluctant to extend the hand to shake, especially with strangers.  I expect that some folks who have switched to individual cups because of the corona virus will make their temporary choice permanent.  I expect that some of the goofy things we did in a time of emergency will become more permanent and we have not heard the last of Facebook live streamed services and Zoom meetings.  I expect that the needle for many folks will have been advanced a bit more toward caution and suspicion of the historic practices of the Church.  Some of these we will tolerate but we dare not make our peace with the idea that if Jesus had known better He would have done things differently.  There is no hope for salvation in a Savior whose wisdom and vision is as limited as ours.  There is no promise of deliverance in a Lord who was a mere creature of His era and could not have foreseen a world as we know it.  There is no Gospel left in a Savior and His sacrifice that have been rendered quaint by the passage of time and our own inflated wisdom and scientific ways.  We will have to deal with this -- not simply as a national church issuing a position paper but as pastors who daily deal with a people who are tempted by what passes as science to believe that we know more than the Son of God knew.  So be warned, my friends, for the days are coming when the itching ears of our people will hear the voice of the world more clearly than they hear the voice of God in His Word.

760 What God Ordains Is Always Good

1 What God ordains is always good:
    His will is just and holy.
As He directs my life for me,
    I follow meek and lowly.
        My God indeed
        In ev’ry need
Knows well how He will shield me;
To Him, then, I will yield me.

2 What God ordains is always good:
    He never will deceive me;
He leads me in His righteous way,
    And never will He leave me.
        I take content
        What He has sent;
His hand that sends me sadness
Will turn my tears to gladness.

3 What God ordains is always good:
    His loving thought attends me;
No poison can be in the cup
    That my physician sends me.
        My God is true;
        Each morning new
I trust His grace unending,
My life to Him commending.

4 What God ordains is always good:
    He is my friend and Father;
He suffers naught to do me harm
    Though many storms may gather.
        Now I may know
        Both joy and woe;
Someday I shall see clearly
That He has loved me dearly.

5 What God ordains is always good:
    Though I the cup am drinking
Which savors now of bitterness,
    I take it without shrinking.
        For after grief
        God gives relief,
My heart with comfort filling
And all my sorrow stilling.

6 What God ordains is always good:
    This truth remains unshaken.
Though sorrow, need, or death be mine,
    I shall not be forsaken.
        I fear no harm,
        For with His arm
He shall embrace and shield me;
So to my God I yield me.

Text: Public domain