Written by Dawn Rutan
I spent Sunday afternoon watching the perennial favorite The Sound of Music. It occurred to me as I watched that Maria had more problems with becoming a nun than just falling in love Captain Von Trapp. She also had some significant theology problems. When she first is ordered to leave the convent, what is the song she sings on her way? “I have confidence in confidence alone; besides which, you see, I have confidence in me!” Don’t you think a novitiate should be stating her confidence in God alone?
Then after the Captain affirms his love for Maria, she sings, “For here you are, standing there, loving me, whether or not you should. So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good. Nothing comes from nothing, nothing ever could. So somewhere in my youth or childhood, I must have done something good.” So apparently her belief is that you eventually get what you deserve. Even though she could only remember her “wicked childhood,” she is certain that she must have done something to earn this love she now received.
What amazes me is that in the 30 or 40 times I’ve seen this movie I’ve never once considered the heresy that it is propagating! We probably all have times when we get caught up in the drama or the tradition that we don’t really think about the fallacies we’re taking in. (Television is a great anesthetic to the brain.)
Right after watching the movie, I picked up a book I’ve been rereading, Shame Interrupted, by Edward Welch. In writing about the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3-12), he quotes Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the first beatitude: “It means the complete absence of pride, a complete absence of self-assurance and self-reliance. It means the consciousness that we are nothing in the presence of God. It is nothing, then, that we can produce; it is nothing that we can do in ourselves. It is just this tremendous awareness of our utter nothingness as we come face to face with God. That is to be poor in spirit” (p. 142).
Jumping ahead to the sixth beatitude, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” Welch comments, “One good message from this beatitude is that pure is possible for the poor in spirit. How can that be? When you assemble the pieces you have so far, you know that pure is possible because you are purified by Jesus. Pure is something that is done to you. You receive it by faith through the gentle yet powerful touch of Jesus” (p. 149).
Among the many great lessons of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus points out two keys here: 1) We have no confidence, ability, or righteousness in and of ourselves. 2) All that we have comes from God through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection. Based on those two realities, we can cling to the other promises in that sermon– “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. Therefore do not be anxious…” (Matthew 6:33-34). “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you… how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (7:7,11).
I’ve needed these reminders lately when the promises of Scripture have seemed to apply to either the past or the future, not the present. So Friday evening I started compiling for myself a list of scriptural “Promises for Today” and the beatitudes were one of the first places I stopped. I also spent considerable time in the psalms, and Psalm 27:1 has come to mind several times in the past few days: “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?”
Here are just a few of the other promises I pulled out:
- Psalm 37:5-6- “Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him, and He will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as the light, and your justice as the noonday.”
- Psalm 57:2- “I cry out to God Most High, to God who fulfills His purpose for me.”
- John 15:5- “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from Me you can do nothing.”
- James 5:11- “Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.”
- Isaiah 30:15- “In returning [repentance] and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength.”
In this second week of Advent the Peace candle is lit. Peace is built on the foundation of hope. Peace becomes a reality when we fully believe and have confidence in the God who keeps all His promises. Jesus Himself was the fulfillment of many Old Testament promises, and He continues to fulfill promises today and every day. We can depend on Him while we await the fulfillment of the final promise of eternal life in the kingdom in His presence.
“It is impossible for God to lie. We who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us. We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul” (Hebrews 6:18-19).
