Fine Prints: February, 2007

What About Moral Absolutes? February 3

Hallelujah Hoedown!  February 10

Groundhog Day, Prophets and the Sabbath  February 17  

What's in a Name? February 24

What About Moral Absolutes?

A few weeks ago while visiting the Grades 7 and 8 Sabbath School, I volunteered to answer any questions they might have about my work as a pastor, our congregation or our denomination. No sooner had I thrown out the offer than they took me up on it.

"What do you think about stem-cell research?" one of the young people asked. And before long we’d discussed a broad range of knotty ethical issues. While the topics varied, the underlying question remained the same. Do circumstances make a difference? Or are the moral laws governing our behavior totally inflexible?

A few days after the discussion, I came across a letter to the editor I’d written in response to a editorial that appeared in Ministry magazine back in May of 199l. It was titled "Are There Moral Absolutes?" My reply said:

"Much as I would like to embrace the position taken in the editorial ‘Are There Moral Absolutes?’ (May 1991), I believe that it fails to mesh with reality on at least three fronts.

"First, in our complex world it’s nearly impossible to know in many situations what course of action violates God’s Law and what course honors it. Take the case of a woman facing major complications in pregnancy. The medical experts are unanimous that allowing the fetus to develop to full term will result in its death and its mother’s death. So which shows more respect for the command not to kill: terminating the pregnancy in an attempt to save one life? or simply praying and leaving the fate of both lives in God’s hands?

"Second, the nearly universal practice of Seventh-day Adventists suggests that the claims of the Ten Commandments are somewhat flexible. For example, while we believe that the fourth commandment prohibits buying and selling on Sabbath, few Adventists would have qualms about buying medicine for a person who’s seriously ill. Yet why do we compromise? Isn’t our God as able to reward human faithfulness by saving the sick today as by delivering men from a fiery furnace 2,500 years ago?

"Third, even when we ‘accept the Bible as the final authority,’ we encounter equally complex problems. God directed the Israelites to annihilate (murder) whole nations. He directed Israel in the conquest (theft) of land they had left voluntarily and to which they no longer had legal claim. His chief liberator during the exodus didn’t tell Pharaoh of his intention to leave and not return, but merely requested (lied about) a three-day spiritual retreat in the desert. And if the sixth commandment is absolute, why do we commend Abraham for his willingness to offer his son as a human sacrifice?

"I admit that I’m attracted by the simplicity, security and certainty to be found in the moral-absolutist position. However, it’s out of touch with the facts. While the Ten Commandments lay down eternal principles that are always valid, at times we have to weigh all the principles impacting on a situation and decide which principle or principles will take priority. This approach, while not as comfortable or as tidy as moral absolutism, meshes more nearly with both the biblical record and the historic practice of the Seventh-day Adventist Church."

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

Hallelujah Hoedown! 

I hate to admit it, but while driving through north Georgia a few weeks ago, some deep-seated and carefully masked bigotry oozed out. Before I knew what had happened, some really narrow-minded comments had escaped my lips. And a few highly judgmental thoughts that didn’t make it into words were rattling around in my mind.

It happened like this: Leonie and I were driving down a back road after having attended a beautiful outdoor wedding. I suddenly noticed a church parking lot that was filling up with cars. It’s good to see they can draw such a crowd on a Saturday night, I thought. Then, as we neared, I read the words on the illuminated marquee. They invited me to that evening’s "Hallelujah Hoedown!"

And that’s when the bigotry took over.

Now I’ve never been to a Hallelujah Hoedown, so I can’t tell you from firsthand experience whether a Hallelujah Hoedown is a great idea or a bad one. I don’t even know whether the Hallelujah part refers to the kind of music used for the hoedown, or whether it merely refers to the venue where the hoedown is being held. Either way, it left me uncomfortable. Disgusted might be a better description.

I’m sure I muttered a slur or two about my disdain. But I couldn’t deny that the parking lot was full. A lot of seemingly happy people were making their way toward what was probably the church hall. And they appeared excited to be there.

When I was a student at Newbold College in England, one of my favorite Sabbath-afternoon activities was to go to evensong at St. George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle (which is one of the many places where the Queen of England maintains a residence). Somehow, a Hallelujah Hoedown didn’t seem quite as spiritually classy as an evensong at St. George’s. But the hoedown crowd was a lot larger than any evensong crowd I ever saw. So something was scratching someone where it itched. Someone was being blessed socially, spiritually or both.

Which brings me to my reason for writing. Most of us look at the world through fairly restrictive lenses. If it doesn’t suit my tastes, if it’s not what I grew up with, if it’s not what I’m used to, it’s bad. Totally. No redeeming features.

The really big problem isn’t just my bigotry. It’s that nearly everyone else is as bigoted as I am! And none of us can agree concerning what to be bigoted about. I’m certain I’m smarter and more upright than you are–so where in the world did you ever get the idea that you’re smarter and more upright than I am?

Jesus once said, "I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen." I wonder if He was talking to the evensong crowd about the Hallelujah Hoedown people, or whether He talking to the Hallelujah Hoedown people about the evensong crowd. Or maybe He was talking to some other group about both of the abovementioned.

One thing is certain: Jesus could relate to the whole spectrum of humanity a lot better than most of us can.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor

Groundhog Day, Prophets and the Sabbath

[The following was excerpted from a pastoral letter written by Rabbi Rick and Elissa Sherwin to Congregation Beth Am, Longwood, FL. ]

February 2 was Groundhog Day–the day a groundhog comes out of its hole to predict the coming of spring. If it sees its shadow, there’ll be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means that spring isn’t all that far away. (To be honest, shadow or no shadow, we can safely predict spring’s early arrival in Florida.)

The weather, like any other natural force affecting the world, involves a combination of variables that lead us to make educated guesses. In the broader sense of life itself, we know there are no guarantees that what we predict for ourselves and for the world will come to be.

Some people see biblical prophets as fortunetellers, predicting with certainty what’s yet to be. The Rabbis of the Talmud understood only too well that the role of a prophet is not to predict the future, but rather to help people understand the need to freely make choices based on the eternal and universal values towards which all humanity should strive.

While we often speak of what might be, and we make predictions of what will be, prophets speak of what should be. Professor Abraham Joshua Heschel posited that biblical prophets weren’t necessarily charismatic figures. They were individuals who were sensitive to the capacity of humanity to be evil, even as we have the capability to overcome that evil.

The prophets speak to us today about responsibility and respect. They aren’t afraid to tell us where we’re going wrong, or where we might end up, should we make unhealthy decisions. They remind us to focus on creating society as it should be, based on the universal and eternal values that apply to all people equally.

Both scriptural selections for this Shabbat involve women who are considered prophets. In the Torah, Miriam, Moses’ sister, danced with the women after crossing the Red Sea, teaching them to rejoice in God’s gift of freedom. Rabbinic legends tell of her presence accompanying the Israelites through the wilderness, strengthening their passion to achieve the dream of being a free people in the Promised Land.

In the selection from the Prophets, Deborah, a compassionate woman with a fiery spirit, led the Israelites into battle, defeating the Canaanites. She warned the Israelites not to remain satisfied with today’s victory and not to fear whatever battles they might face tomorrow. In poetic terms, we may look west to the beauty of the sunset, but our vision must be focused to the east and the dawn of a new day.

Jewish tradition refers to the Messianic Era, the time when the world will be as it should be, when every day will carry the spirit of Shabbat. Shabbat is a day to remove ourselves from the daily stresses of life and to take time to read and to think, to enjoy and to appreciate, to pray and to prophesy.

From sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday, our primary focus is to see the world as it is and to chart a course for creating the world as it should be. In the Torah, Moses exclaims (Numbers 11.29): Would that all people become prophets!

In a very real sense, we are.

Shabbat Shalom!

What's in a Name? 

In Bible times names meant a lot more than they do today. These days we look at a book of names before a baby is born and ask whether we like the sound of this one or that. We don’t ask many questions about what the name actually means or why we should attach it to a particular child.

We’re equally casual in the designations we attach to ourselves. And we give little thought to the responsibility that comes with any collectively worn label. For example, is the picture others will have of an "American" more attractive or less so after people have interacted with me? And what about the word "Christian"? Would the idea of being a Christian be more appealing after people truly know me? What about the term "Seventh-day Adventist"?

The summer after I graduated from high school, I signed up to sell religious books–specifically Seventh-day Adventist books. In the old days such sales people were described as "colporteurs." By the time I undertook the venture, they were more commonly called "literature evangelists." And by the time the summer was over, I had decided that "fish out of water" was a more apt description in my case. Selling wasn’t my forte. But that was all yet to be discovered.

Armed with enthusiasm and spurred on by a sense of mission and adventure, another late-teen and I drove to our assigned territory in northeastern Missouri. We knew that in the not-too-distant past an adult literature evangelist had been stationed in the area. We also knew he had faced some kind of problem and was no longer there. But no one elaborated. And we weren’t so impertinent as to ask for details.

One day I knocked on the door of a home near the edge of town. The uniform of the man answering my knock made his profession clear: He was a postal worker. I asked if he had children, and he said he did. So I began to share with him the many merits of the 10-volume set of Bible stories I was selling.

The man took one of the books from me and thumbed through it. "I’ve seen these books before," he said. "My wife bought them about a year ago for our children. The man who sold them to her was a really great salesman. In fact"–he looked straight at me, pausing for effect and making sure that I was definitely listening– "he was such a good salesman that next month he’s going to marry her. I suppose you’re a Seventh-day Adventist, too."

What was the appropriate response? Apologize? Assure him that not all Seventh-day Adventists were like the super-salesman who’d stolen his wife? Ask if he’d like to study more deeply into our beliefs and practices?

Before I could regain my power of speech, he closed the book and handed it back. "I don’t think I’m really interested, thank you," he said. "And I’m rather in a hurry. So if you’ll excuse me, I’ll get back to what I was doing before you knocked."

So what’s in a name?

Whatever we put into it, I guess. And that’s sobering.

Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor