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STILL THINKING MORE HIGHLY OF GOD!

Dorothy L. Sayers spent herself on numerous endeavors that have more in common than first meets the eye. She is most widely known as the author of detective stories based on the character of the ultra-suave Lord Peter Wimsey. Those who know her in this way may not have read any of her novels, but have seen her work on PBS. For thanks to the BBC, some of her novels have been dramatized for television.
She is least known as an advertising copywriter. But from 1921 to 1929 she worked for a London Advertising Agency. She was hired on as “an idea man and copywriter.” In this endeavor that paid the rent, she was largely responsible for what became a famous campaign for Colman’s Mustard.

A club was invented, characters concocted, situations devised, and soon members of the Mustard Club and the message of mustard for the masses appeared on billboards, in newspapers, and in magazines all over England. With wit and creativity she solved the problem of a declining ad budget as well as of what was perceived to be a very dull product.

Then, somewhere between being widely known and unknown, a few people in this world know that she was a lay theologian in the tradition of C. S. Lewis and G. K. Chesterton. For that reason, and others, I think we ought to refer to her as D. L. Sayers. At any rate, as a copywriter, as an author of mystery novels, as a playwright and as a theologian, pretty much in that order, she unraveled mysteries with humor and ingenuity.
One of the mysteries that she tackled in her book entitled, The Mind of the Maker, was that of the Trinity. She suggested, in this book, that it’s best to think of God as a creative artist. She maintained that God’s image shines through most clearly in the act of creation – comprising the three stages of Idea, Expression, and Recognition.

The creative cycle begins with an idea, that idea is then expressed in some tangible manner. The manner of expression may be a play, a book, an essay, a piece of furniture, a painting, a building, a lesson, an automobile, or even a series of steps aimed at achieving a well-stated goal. However, the expression of the idea is never considered successful unless it summons an appropriate response from the intended audience.
Playwright Arthur Miller, for example, was said never to relax until he sat in the audience and saw for himself that people got it. If he saw a spark of recognition where people said in words or in their facial expressions,“My God, that’s me!” then he knew the play was a success. Clearly “recognition” completes the cycle of creativity.

Now although God is one, Dorothy Sayers felt that within that unity we could distinguish three distinct people along the lines of Idea, Expression, and Recognition. God the Father is the “Idea” or essence of all reality. As the great “I Am,” all things begin with him. The second member of the Trinity is Christ and, as made clear in Hebrews, he is the “Expression” or the exact representation of His being. He is the image of the invisible God.

However, we’d fail to recognize God the Father as expressed in Christ if it were not for the work of the Holy Spirit. The Spirit at work in the world and at work inside those who have believed the message gives us the ability to not only Recognize God as God, but to Recognize what God is doing in the world.

Now connect this to this great passage in Ephesians where in one long sentence Paul explains to us God’s idea of choosing a people for himself, tells us how that idea played itself out in Christ, and shares with us how the Spirit works within us to bring about recognition.
In Ephesians 1: 3 - 14 we read:
How blessed is God! And what a blessing he is! He’s the Father of our Master, Jesus Christ, and takes us to the high places of blessing in him. Long before he laid down earth’s foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy by his love. Long, long ago he decided to adopt us into his family through Jesus Christ. (What pleasure he took in planning this!) He wanted us to enter into the celebration of his lavish gift-giving by the hand of his beloved Son.
Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people – free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.
It’s in Christ that we find out who we are and what we are living for. Long before we first heard of Christ and got our hopes up, he had his eye on us, had designs on us for glorious living, part of the overall purpose he is working out in everything and everyone.
It’s in Christ that you, once you heard the truth and believed it (this Message of your salvation), found yourselves home free – signed, sealed, and delivered by the Holy Spirit. This signet from God is the first installment on what’s coming, a reminder that we’ll get everything God has planned for us, a praising and glorious life.

Before the foundations of the earth were laid, God had an idea, he had a plan and as he thought it through he took great pleasure in it. His plan was to choose, in Christ, a people for himself. In order for them to enjoy his presence, to feel comfortable in his presence, and for Him to enjoy them, they would have to be holy and blameless.

Also, to be truly blessed, to be lavished upon, they’d have to be raised up to the heavenly realms. In fact, by some means they’d have to be wrestled from the grip of him who held them in bondage. Then, or perhaps simultaneously, they would have to be transferred to the family of God. This, of course, could be accomplished first through a daring rescue operation and then by adoption.

The beauty of this plan was that, if the details could be hammered out, it would show the world God’s glory. For the chosen ones, those who believed the truth, would be a showcase of his glory. In planning, they became a part of his plans and not simply the end result of His plans. After all, they would be on display for everyone to see and this, in turn, could be used to draw others into the family of God.
The plan, however, was not without a great deal of risk. It meant working through a nation that God would identify with as his own. It meant working through flawed instruments both within the nation of Israel and outside of it. It meant bringing everything together at the proper time in a manner that unmistakably had God’s fingerprints all over it.

But, most of all it meant sending Christ into enemy held territory. The Son, as God of course, could handle any hostility directed toward him on his own. But sending Christ as a fully-robed and fully-armed Messiah wasn’t the plan. He was to be sent wrapped in humanity. This meant that Christ was to deliberately handicap or limit himself. The plan called for Christ to exchange omniscience for a brain that had to learn everything the old-fashioned way. It meant exchanging omnipresence for two legs and an occasional donkey. It meant exchanging omnipotence for arms strong enough to cut wood but not strong enough to defend himself against the forces of evil. Above all, it meant putting himself in the arms of two youngsters who didn’t even know what to do with a normal baby.

Then, to top everything off, the day would come when Christ must consciously walk toward the cross, a tortuous instrument of execution. He must continue to lay aside any power, within or without, that would save him. At that crucial point in the plan he must allow himself to be nailed to a tree. He must endure its shame. He must endure the agonizing pain of suffocation. But, most of all he must endure the utter loneliness of bearing the sins of the world.

And all of this does not take into account the weakest link, you and I. I mean suppose we don’t get it. Suppose we watch the play and don’t respond to it. Suppose we try reading the book and get bogged down in Leviticus. Suppose Jesus comes into the world and the world fails to recognize him. In that case, everything would be for naught.

Idea, Expression, & Recognition must all come together for success, otherwise Satan, God’s primary critic, wins. It’s this third stage, the stage where we are called upon to do our part, that the Holy Spirit enters the picture. It is he who brings Recognition. While we cannot perceive the Holy Spirit, we perceive the things of God through Him.

The Spirit may bring a jolt of Recognition through the most ordinary things: a baby’s grin, a sunset, a bumper sticker, an encouraging neighbor, or a chance comment that happens to hit home. Or maybe, the Spirit leads us to a Bible Study, a Sunday School class, or a Church where the gospel is preached and as we sit and listen our eyes are opened to the truth.

Furthermore, when we place our trust in God for our salvation the Spirit takes up residence within us and expands the Incarnation to encompass us. You see, the God who, at great risk, wrapped himself in humanity risk everything a second time by clothing himself with humanity at Pentecost. And, he has been doing it ever since that day.

Why? Why does the Spirit take us residence within us. Ephesians, vv. 13 and 14 of chapter one, gives us two reasons. First, it is the Holy Spirit who places God’s seal upon us. That seal, of course, is in fact the Spirit himself. Obviously, this is in reference to the ancient practice of sealing letters with hot wax and then impressing upon the wax a seal worn on a ring that bears an identifying image. The use of the seal involved three specific ideas.

The first has to to with the idea of authentication. The presence of the Holy Spirit confirms to us and others that we are indeed new creatures in Christ. Granted, others may have reason to doubt that we have been accepted by and reconciled to God but we know that the landscape within us has indeed changed.

The second idea is that of ownership. The Holy Spirit took up residence within believers to mark the fact that you and I belong to him. As I Corinthians 6:20 tells us, “You are not your own; you were bought with a price.” The presence of the Spirit is our reminder that we belong to God.
The third idea involved in sealing is that of preservation. You will recall that the tomb of Jesus was sealed with the seal of the Roman emperor. That seal was intended to keep the tomb free of vandals or of anyone else who, for whatever reasons, might have an interest in violating the tomb. In Jesus’ case, of course, some of the religious leaders were afraid that the disciples would violate the tomb and declare that Jesus had risen when in reality they had simply stolen the body.

This is the idea of the Spirit’s presence within us. It means that God intends to keep us. It’s a guarantee of our inheritance in Christ. It’s a guarantee of additional blessings. It’s a guarantee that God has no intention of losing that which belongs to Him. It’s a guarantee that God will complete what He has started.

After an organ transplant, it is my understanding that doctors must use anti-rejection drugs to suppress the immune system or else the body will reject the transplant. That is, the natural response of the body is to reject what is foreign to it. Just so, the Holy Spirit is God’s agent that keeps me from rejecting my new status or my new identification with Christ. My old immune system needs a daily reminder that God’s presence belongs within me and is no foreign object.

Finally, most of us spend a lot of time praying for others and, of course, when we hardly know what to pray the Spirit does the praying for us. But what we spend little time doing in prayer is listening to what God’s Spirit wants to say to us. This passage, while it may prompt us to pray for others, is a great passage to simply take time and listen to the blessings of God! I urge you to read it in quietness and simply listen – listen to the blessings so as to have a higher view of God!

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