It Takes a Hinge

[HKHaugan]

Epi.16 It Takes a Hinge

I am a dunce when it comes to computers. If I go to a computer store or one of those cellphone places, the techs there whip around on the keys explaining what they are doing (assuming I understand) and I am totally flummoxed by both their ‘tech-ese’ and their speed. If I have the hollow-eyed appearance of an ‘non-techer’ then they give me that look, you know the look, that ‘What’s-wrong-with-you-why-don’t-you-get-what-I’m-saying?’ look. In one sense I kind of come unhinged, so to speak. Unhinged by the fear of appearing inadequate, which I am. I hate that and I hate myself in the process, for being exposed as a tech dummy. But I need those guys because I couldn’t be writing this if it weren’t for them when there is a crash. So I swallow my pride and say, ‘You’re the man’ or ‘When do you think it will be ready?’ What I am saying here is that fear is the hinge in the moment that takes me from personal security to insecurity. I find this is true for a heap of others as well.

There is a reason (probably three) I start with this picture.

First, there is a universe of technology with its ‘clouds,’ terminology, structure, theories, science and equipment, so far beyond my grasp, that I have to face the fact of my ignorance, my attitude and my need to live in it the best I can. I need a more secure hinge.

Second, I need a person who is a personal precise proficient professional. I need to understand the basics for the situation in which I find myself. I have to let someone teach me which takes the attitude of humility so I don’t have to fear what I don’t know and at least feel secure in what I do know. It’s a hinge thing.

Third, when I find the person, the understanding of my need for him and the humility to be taught, it is precisely then that I am free to exercise my ability to think, put my thoughts down and feel secure in the process. I no longer think about whether or not my computer or phone is going to function or not function. I just go on with my project whatever it happens to be. The tech is available. I feel secure about that. He has the expertise which I learn more about as I depend on him and I can continue to call him for advice. I need a hinge person with a comforting hinge word to get on with what I’m led to do.

When Paul closes the eleventh chapter of his letter to believers in Rome, he gives a foundation upon which he builds a case for a most important part of his letter, the nature of the Body of Christ, each person’s part in it and the gifts that make it work. That foundation is essential because it shows how utterly dependent we are on the mercy of God. He made that clear in his seventh chapter and how inadequate he was to even be considered for the task the Lord had given him.

For Paul that was then and this is now and every generation to come. Our inability to grasp how far beyond human understanding is the whole of existence and especially the One God who created it all. This is how he puts it: “Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable his judgments and his paths beyond tracing out! Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor (11:33-34)?” It’s this very passage that forms the basis of all his following insights and continues in Chapter 12 with a ‘Therefore.’ Therefore is the hinge upon which he sums up the first eleven chapters and then swings into the ‘how,’ the way to carry out everything that went before it. ‘That was then, this is now.’ Paul has stated his case. Now he tells us how to live the spiritual way, like a lightning rod, our daily lives grounded by faith individually and personally.

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God—this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will (Romans 12:1-2).”

Again, the first eleven chapters of Paul’s letter to Roman believers give us the ‘what’ God has done for us. The last five chapters, eleven through sixteen, are the way we respond to Him and for Him.

The ‘Therefore’ is stated with an urgency to consider God’s mercy, that is, His attitude of grace and love that taps our deepest need, to be right with a God who is right and makes us right with Him. This means complete and total dependency on God. Without it, we can’t experience the riches He has prepared for us through faith. This is exactly why we have asked the Lord Jesus to be our personal Lord because He alone can restore and mature us. Even the slightest self promoting thought can derail us. This is why the Lord sent the Holy Spirit to be a personal counselor. Sin so easily distracts us. The Spirit keeps our wheels on the track.

I found the hinge.

All of the previous chapters,1-11, show our spiritual position, our latitude and longitude, in Christ. His Cross is our spiritual sextant, our hinge. Like a sailor taking his position with a sextant, we lay the Cross with its horizontal and vertical beam on our lives, past and present, to see its forgiveness, grace, truth and love, to set our location. The vertical beam gives us our relational position with God (our spiritual longitude) and the horizontal beam gives us our relational position with others (our spiritual latitude). When and where those two cross, we have our spiritual location. We know where we are and where we are going. Knowing our position, we are secure regardless of what we encounter along the way. We have our destination and the relationship to get us there. This means that there is not only life after death, there is life after birth! Thus Paul’s plea, “ Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God---this is your spiritual act of worship (12:1).” Therefore is the visible word that swings on the invisible reality of faith. Thus therefore is trusting the Lord then having the faith to do what follows the therefore. The word appears twenty times in Romans. Beyond the 12:1 use of ‘therefore’ there are nineteen other ones that have a hinge function. Each is preceded by a principle and the succeeding by an action.

To begin spiritually living is where worship starts. The personal worship that Paul calls our sacrifice. That worship is spelled out in the rest of Paul’s letter. But it’s not the Sunday morning ritual. Worship starts where the mind, heart and spirit in every person are located at any moment anywhere. The question is this: is that moment given to God and His Word or to the fear for social or economic survival? Or is it recognizing the holiness, the perfection, the control that our Almighty God has offered us? Is it yielding to the Lord, the Father’s Son, who sacrificed His life to show His life was the only way to live? Is it recognizing with praise and thanksgiving His resurrected presence and direction through His Holy Spirit, what He has done for us personally and that He is present with us in the moment?

Now, that’s onlythe beginning. We’re just getting into worship. How much worth, value, investment do we give God in our conscious moment to moment experience? That’s what Paul is driving at when he says we need to offer our bodies as living sacrifices. The body, meaning our mind, heart and spirit, the image of God in us, working together in balanced action.

One word, ‘therefore,’ is the hinge between our location (chpts.1-11) and our destination (chpts.12-16), our position in Christ and our destination, the Kingdom of Heaven. What we discover in the process is this is taking place in every next moment. When sin unhinges us, we tell the Lord and He re-hinges us. He forgives us so we can move on in the Spirit with His gifts, His fruit and His program. All of this is our personal worship, personal growth and the personal knowledge of God working in us.

But Paul is speaking collectively as well. This is when believers meet together to praise, thank, listen and glorify God with song and sharing. There we give our testimony, share what we have been through both good and bad, pray for and with one another. That, however, is but a fragment of the worship Paul calls for, because the real work has just begun. We keep the hinge of ‘therefore’ between Who we worship and what we do as worship. The Cross of Jesus is laid upon both.

The rest of Chapter 12 is the equipment necessary to do the work. There are three sections to Chapter 12, the gifts of the Spirit, personal job description (vs.3-8), the fruit of the Spirit, God’s atmosphere (vs.9-13) and our spiritual attitude in every next moment (14-21). God provides it all. That’s where we go next.