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A War for Simplicity • Sermon • Submitted
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· 17 viewsThere is a simplicity that characterizes children that is neither childish or foolish when expressed through adults. He is no simpleton who simply trusts the Lord.
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King James Version Chapter 18
Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven.
King James Version Chapter 14
Brethren, be not children in understanding: howbeit in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men.
King James Version Chapter 11
Would to God ye could bear with me a little in my folly: and indeed abear with me. 2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, fthat I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. 3 But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
Definition of simplicity
Definition of simplicity
plural simplicities1: the state of being simple, uncomplicated, or uncompounded2a : lack of subtlety or penetration : innocence, naivetéb : folly, silliness3: freedom from pretense or guile : candor4a : directness of expression : clarityb : restraint in ornamentation : austerity
There is a simplicity evidenced in children:
Among the youngest, babies and other small children may laugh at the game peek-a-boo.
Boys and girls may find great joy in pretending.
I witnessed at camp this year, the simplicity of a young man finding amusement in the simplicity of picking up a small plastic food container by a Styrofoam cup connected to the aforementioned tray via some left over cheese sauce in the container.
Could what we have labeled as immaturity and childishness be the same simplicity that allows us delight in simple pleasures.
I.E. taking joy in the simplicity of one’s salvation.
I do not think that Christ meant for us to be as unknowing, ignorant children.
He must have been after something else in what he said.
Children may appear to among the most gullible of a given population.
Yet, is it really gullibility as much as it is simple trust that is aware of no reason not to believe that would give a child good reason to doubt what he or she has been taught or told?
Compromise trust with a child and they will eventually learn to distrust.
Then they will trust in the knowledge that they cannot trust people, which is, ultimately, no way to live.
If they don’t, then it may be safer to conclude that they are gullible, irrationally trusting.
What do you do when you are convinced of another’s good-will toward you?
I will propose the kind of simplicity we need is one that simply believes what it holds to be true; simplicity in Christ
Simplicity that is able to see nature, can see a sunset, or a particular arrangement of clouds in the sky and be able to awe: this is God’s world!
Simplicity that is content enough to take joy in simple things, in simple pleasures.
Receiving a gift of flowers;
On the other hand, this is not a negation of complexity or depth.
The greatest things in life boil down to very simple things.
The Law and the Prophets hang upon two laws
Love the Lord; Love thy neighbor as thyself.
But once one comes to the terms with such simple terms, the fleshing out will prove to be complex.
The implications of it all...
Beware of so-called sophistication which comes at the expense of simplicity.
High-mindedness; one’s head so far up in the heavenlies that he has gotten out of the orbit of earth quite altogether, where up and down can come into question.
His or her feet are not firmly planted on the ground
Follow me: this is not because they are so heavenly-minded that they are of no earthly good or so sophisticated that they have transcended the simple.
Really, this kind of sophistication has its breakdown, not in its internally consistency necessarily.
Atheism’s breakdown is not in its complexity
From this ground there is no objective basis for human dignity
Its breakdown is in its simplicity; at the fundamental level.
It is bankrupt in its simplicity.
Really, I am not convinced that we can properly appreciate the soundly sophisticated and wondrous complexities of life if we have failed to appreciate the simple things, or, in another word, simplicity itself.
Complex machines and systems start from very basic parts.
If they are linked together in their proper order there is consistency and complexity.
Complexity is simply a multiplicity of simplicities.
When we see a brilliant painting, sculpture, or other piece of art, it is composed, really, of many small, seemingly inconsequential parts, having been put together just so, creates a stunning piece of art.
There is guided simplicity that leads to brilliant complexity.
The way Christianity works is along these lines.
What works in the believer is simple faith, not complex, theological affirmations that reach no higher than the peak of their cranium as they think and no lower than the dip of their chin as they enunciate every simple syllable of their confession.
That is not to say that complexity is at odds with simplicity.
It’s not.
In conclusion:
Do not settle for childish, even foolish, resentment for knowledge, for wisdom, for understanding; yet, do not become so high-minded that you believe yourself to have gotten beyond the simple things of life, beyond simple pleasures, beyond the simplicity of the gospel, leaning on your own understanding rather than the God who gave it.
The truth is rooted in simplicity, but works out into unfathomable complexity; the same line of consistency runs through it from beginning to the end.