Dying Crickets and the Horror of Sin
August 28, 2008
“… the more you minimize sin, the more will grace decline in value.” (Martin Luther, Commentary on Genesis)
The Christian’s lot is to live, not in despair, but in a tension of spiritual sorrow and joy.–Otherwise, he or she must be spiritually dead, or numbed, or dying. The onset of these emotions marks a healthy cultivation by the Holy Spirit and an earnest seeking after righteousness.
Yesterday, I was standing at the back of a large crowd of students, who gather every Wednesday here at Dordt, to sing praise songs and invade each other’s personal space. To Freshman, these evenings often seem some of the most impressive moments of community on the Dordt campus–an offering of praise magnificent in volume and youthful vigor, lead by worship teams bursting with energy. Yesterday, Wednesday Worship mostly spoke to me of the horror of sin.
We were singing the beautiful sounding song The Heart of Worship by Matt Redman; which includes lines that I earnestly wish I could honestly say: “We’re coming back to the heart of worship/ and it’s all about you, it’s all about you Jesus…”. Except that I honestly believe our worship is more self-centered than ever. I won’t enumerate the ways that it is self-centered, as I am still struggling with the inherent arrogance of much of our methodology and the crassness of our attempts to drum up spiritual fervor.
But I will say this: as I stood at the back of this crowd, ruminating self-consciously on the event that was occurring in front of me and in me, I glanced at the floor to my left. Just beside the wall, a cricket lay where he had apparently been stepped on but not completely squished. His bent legs were moving feebly–two of them not moving at all, because they had been broken–as he tried to push himself with his mangled limbs toward a patch of light several inches from where he lay.
It wasn’t doing to happen. He was to enfeebled to reach his goal–to die in the light perhaps. And then the most amazing thing happened, and as I watched the Praise and Worship around me seemed to disappear as my focus narrowed on the tiny drama beside me. My little cricket stopped trying to push himself toward the light, lifted his back legs, and began to chirp. The irony of it hit me like a bat. In all our youthful health and life, the sin-imbued “worship” of myself and my peers, could not hold a candle in purity to the dieing hymn of a crippled cricket. The cricket made the effects of sin an opportunity to praise God by fulfilling his musical function even in his last moments, but we make our praise of God, as often as not, an opportunity to add to the world’s load of sin.
Posted in Sin
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August 28th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
“And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.”
When I read your article today, I remembered this passage from 1 Kings 19:11-12. It is amazing to me how the Lord teaches us through insignificant and mostly ignored things or events.
And you are right… our sin is the most despicable part of our lives, that we have to carry on our backs like a dead corpse, until our journey here on earth is over. Isn’t that Paul’s dillema in Romans 7? But Romans 8 is not far behind… “There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus…”
Thank you again for this thought provoking meditations. They can only lead the reader to worship Him - the great I AM.
August 29th, 2008 at 2:10 am
Ah, thank you. Here’s an interesting providence–when writing today’s meditation, I was feeling a bit depressed, to be honest, having failed to move beyond the spirit of Romans 7 to Romans 8–the natural progression, as you pointed out. Thanks for that. The Psalm behind this meditation–which I failed to mention, because of time constraints–was Psalm 13, which beautifully illustrates that same progression. — Because, after all, the converse of Luther’s comment is that the more we emphasize sin, the more will grace increase in value!