Go grasshoppers
The visiting preacher offered words of commitment, conviction and courage to the fragile congregation. He drew their attention to the example of Caleb, the young Israeli spy who believed that Moses could and should lead God's chosen people into the land of Canaan and conquer it. Caleb was wowed by the opportunities he saw in the Promised Land - "a place of agricultural abundance and great potential. It was the place to settle down.
But not everyone in the scouting party saw it quite the same. Caleb's report may have been true, but it wasn't the whole story. Conquest was no sure thing. There were lots of obstacles in the way, including fortified cities and intimidating armies. Indeed, only one of Caleb's fellow spies shared his conviction that victory could be at hand. Ten others were convinced that any assault they might mount would be thwarted and the people would all perish. From a military perspective, they faced unwelcome odds.
If Caleb focused on opportunity, his colleagues fixated on opposition. They had eyes for the giants in the land, and “to ourselves we seemed like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them" (Numbers 13:33).
What about now?
Fast-forward a few thousand years. Even in our day and age, opportunity and opposition abound in large measure. We commission our scouting reports and get the lay of the land. The preacher sought to bring the message home. “What are the giants in our land?" he asked rhetorically, then quickly filled the vacuum with a list that included the decline of Christian values, increasing secularism and Internet pornography.
Now, this particular catalog of concerns is a pretty standard lament in conservative Christian circles in North America - "and not without reason. Our country is less Christianized now than in previous generations. Many of our institutions are governed by secularist ideologies that deny a proper place for religious belief. And Internet pornography is a plague.
But here's a problem. Conservative Christians have been waging - "and largely losing" - these particular battles for the past few decades. We have cajoled, fulminated, resisted, protested, lobbied, legislated, appealed, contested and carried out all manner of activity in the name of God. We've been super busy defending what we understand to be His ways.
So why aren't we winning? In brief, it's because we've been fixated on the opposition. Our activity has been mostly defensive. It's been protecting and conserving, not seizing new opportunities. Contemporary Canada is not a Christian country that just needs to be tweaked back to its values. Christians are a minority population in an indifferent, sometimes hostile, society. Get used to it. That's our situation. That's the scouting report.
Not the whole story
But again, it's not the whole story. Secularism seems strong, but its grip is tenuous and will not last. That giant is playing a weak hand. Ultimately, religious devotion trumps materialism. Human beings will seek God. Even if it seems that ungodly forces have the fortifications and the armies, we have plenty of opportunity to live authentically as Christians. We are free to practice and demonstrate the precepts of our faith - "the virtues and values we hold dear. In the end, this will matter more than most of our efforts to legislate or otherwise require them. They are only truly meaningful when they are lived.
Similarly, modeling a better way will be more effective than loudly deploring or aggressively seeking to outlaw sexual licentiousness. Although our culture seems to deem biblical views of sex prudish and old-fashioned, the time will come - "and may now be here - "when a strong, positive message about the joy of sex as an expression of covenantal fidelity is what people long to hear. And why can't the same technologies that deliver pornography be creatively repurposed to channel Christ into every seeking heart? The opportunity is here.
Caleb may have felt like a grasshopper, but he and Joshua trusted God to overcome opposition. For 40 years, they were denied that opportunity because the chosen community fixated on the obstacles. In due course, however, Joshua and Caleb were vindicated and their people prevailed. Go grasshoppers.
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