Wednesday, August 17, 2011

Ultimate bargains

Ever been a bargainer with God? You know those, "If you help me here, God, I'll ...." I sure have, lots of times, plenty of which came during New Orleans Saints football games or during Atlanta Braves baseball games. Sometimes they win, sometimes they lose and my fingernails are ravaged in the process.

The late George Carlin, a funny but sometimes dirty comedian, once said in a routine about how we miss-use the language, "When two airplanes come close to each other, it is not a near-miss as we say. It is a near hit."

Fact is, one can get a different outlook on life if one has a narrow miss or a narrow near-hit. A brush with death can motivate, can turn a life, can cause reflection that brings new life. The Bible often calls it being reborn. Once I was lost, now I am found, the hymn reminds us.

In the 116th Psalm, the writer reflects on being saved from death.

He writes, "Death stared me in the face; hell was hard on my heels. Up against it, I didn't know which way to turn; then I called out to God for help. Please, God," I cried out. "Save my life."

With a successful bargain signed, sealed and delivered, the writer looks back, "What can I give back to God for the blessings he's poured out on me?" In other words, what is his end of the bargain?

"I'll lift high the cup of salvation—a toast to God! I'll pray in the name of God; I'll complete what I promised God I'd do, and I'll do it together with his people."

His end? He is well aware that God will do what God promised. So, the writer must as well to complete this divine document. He promises to complete God's actions with God's people. He'll tell others about the nature of God.

Then the writer makes plain what might be missed. "When they arrive at the gates of death, God welcomes those who love him."  The NIV says, "Precious in the sight of the LORD
is the death of his faithful servants."

Either way, it seems the bargain is this: For my love, for my adoration, for my faith, I will be loved in return when I breathe my last.
Kim Fabricus says of this bargaining with God, "For here is what religion, at bottom, is all about: it’s about making a bargain with God. And the bargain goes like this: Lord, I give you my faith and all that goes with it: the church-going, the praying, the giving, the rectitude, the extra mile, and so on; and you, God, in return, you’ve got to be fair. If I keep my side of the bargain, I expect you to bless me with good things – health, work, family. I don’t expect life to be all strawberries and cream, but I do expect a sense of proportion – no serious illnesses, traumatic divorce, or kids on crack. Of course if I don’t keep my side of the bargain, if I lapse and behave very badly – hey, nobody’s perfect! – fair enough, I get what’s coming to me. But, Lord, we both keep to the contract. And there is an unwritten codicil to this contract: other people – they too must get what they deserve: as the righteous must prosper, so the sinner must suffer."

It seems to me that there is no real financial bargaining, because we have nothing to leverage our bargains with. We own nothing that we can take with us, take to him to give. To be saved we must empty our pockets and open our hands and show God that we've left nothing in our grasp. We come to him with nothing, praying that he will not just understand, but love the absence of things. It is called being broken, not being bargained.

What we come to God with, finally, is our faith that He will be all we need. The irony is He will save us not because we've offered him a bargain but because we've acknowledged that without Him we can do nothing. It is unmerited mercy, un-purchased grace. un-bargained salvation.

Perhaps that is the ultimate bargain, though. We are given salvation. We give surrender and nothing else.

In the fabled end of the day, that is what the bargain, the covenant, is. It is us being given not what we deserve but what He desires for us. It is His mercy. It is His love. It is His grace.

And if the Saints or Braves win, it pales beside arriving at the gates and being let in, a preciously loved child of God.


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