Made in Small Batches

I was shopping for some “healthy” potato chips (admittedly an oxymoron, I know) and found some that were, reassuringly, “made in small batches.”

Which, a few aisles over, led me to realize why I do not need to fear what happens to America.   Crazy I know!  But let me explain.  Recently I have noticed that here in the post-modern USA we believers have a propensity to desire, perhaps even an expectation, that swaths of humanity at a time come to know and love and praise God and see Jesus for the wonderful merciful savior he is.   It is assumed that if just a few celebrities would convert, surely every reader of People magazine would follow?   We could somehow have Tim Tebow give his testimony at the Super Bowl halftime show and that could really work for the gospel couldn’t it?  And if our president were godly and our laws more like the Ten Commandments then surely Christianity would flourish, so the thinking goes.

This is why the current events these days are so hard to take.  I’ve been battling low-grade discouragement for months now, since the sky began falling (or so it seemed) on election day.  As if to confirm for me that doom had arrived, the next week my daughter had a basketball game at one of the local high schools  —a very beautiful historic building in a wealthy suburb bearing the subtle, worldly implication: “good kids.”   I passed a huddle of  lettered jackets laughing over a “smart” phone, and got a glimpse of the apparently amusing screen.  I still regret this curiosity; when I remember it,  I get punched in the stomach all over again.    My queasy heart was not despairing and downcast; no, those words are too happy.  Suicidal is more like it;  a feeling of “get me out of here” – and more importantly, get my kids out too.  It seems the combination of technology and our mistaken ideas of “freedom”  is breeding barbarians.  And now, with the recent rulings on marriage coming down from the Supreme Court, which are sure to create culturally seismic shifts not friendly to Christian life and witness, the fear and dread of the future of our faith feel smothering.  How will the people of God survive, let alone grow?  How can the Kingdom of God advance in these conditions?

At my first Andrew Peterson concert, he introduced a song of hope by saying despair is a sin.  What?  Isn’t despair a normal human response to evil, tragedy and woes?  Isn’t this why we have the Psalms?  Isn’t all  that’s happening totally despairing?  The bible even says that it is better for all when righteousness is practiced.  (Prov 11:11, 14:34, 16:12)  No one believes that righteousness is on the rise here in America.  Can’t we have our own modern day American lamentations?

No.  In fact, when I look in God’s word and at the history of our faith, I see something rather un-American.  The people of God have never been produced by corporate-America-style machinery on a large scale, manufactured without originality or inspiration.  When you are shopping at the grocery store, “made in small batches” means “made by artisans,” “crafted slowly” of “high-quality ingredients,” “distinctively inspired,”  “using traditional methods” and in “small quantities.”     In fact, each Christian is one of a kind and they have  usually been “made in small batches.”

God has always been and continues to be the Ultimate Artisan, combining the high quality ingredients of his spirit and his word using the traditional method of spirit-enabled people preaching that word and loving their neighbors. Beginning with that small batch of twelve and now in small batches called churches, slowly he is crafting ever more new creations that bring him glory and fill them with joy.  God’s technique is organic and mysterious like the growth of a plant, or the blowing of the wind; we don’t know how he does it,  but his handiwork is undeniable. Brick by brick by brick, he is always building his kingdom just how he wants it.  (Psalm 75:3; John 5:17)    I think its safe to say we forget that historically God’s true worshippers have usually been a rare commodity, that true faith in him flourishes in harsh conditions; suffering and persecution are part of the recipe.  His craft is unhindered by whatever his competitors are  manufacturing elsewhere.  Even barbarians have been put out of business before.  Cultural renewal happens as a byproduct of the kingdom taking root in the hearts of his people, as they pursue his kingdom righteousness first.  But expectation that the true church be popular is more American than Christian.  It’s a sin to think that His workmanship must bear the label “Made in America.”  Despair at the “decline” of America is really just disillusion about God’s ways and God’s Kingdom: its reality, its scope, and its ultimate triumph.

Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous!