The Cure For That "Empty" Feeling? The Rock!

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you
are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear
beautiful…but within you are full of hypocrisy and
lawlessness.
Matthew 23.27-28


Have you ever gone up to an impressive bronze statue of a hero and tapped on it? All you hear is a hollow ring. That’s because, as much as the statue may look like a hero, it is just a statue, there’s nothing inside, nothing of the moral fiber, courage, and values that made the hero a hero. Unfortunately, statues are not the only things to “ring hollow.”

Many of you know I am involved in Boy Scouting, and some know that I even used to be a full-time Scouting professional. I have long embraced and promoted the ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. But I also know that just because someone wears the uniform of the Boy Scouts it doesn’t make them a good Scout. In fact, someone can advance all the way up to Eagle, earn a hundred and more merit badges, and look like a real humdinger of a Scout, and be far from the real deal. How? By never really committing to the core ideals and values of the Boy Scouts of America. Lip service is paid to the ideals. The Scout Oath and Law can be recited over and over, but if one never really seeks to make those ideals the foundation and framework for their life, they are no better than a hollow statue. And no hollow statue has every done a good turn, or made a difference to home, community, or nation. And, when someone makes it to the “top” of Scouting’s advancement ladder, and they are truly missing Scouting’s core ideals and values, well the whole program suffers.

Now, it is not just Scouts who somehow miss or reject the ideals, often it is Scouters (Adults involved in the programs of the BSA) who never really get it, or who have lost it along the way. Often the worst offenders are the “Red Jackets” (Think Pharisees of Scouting; kind of a self-appointed cadre of moralizing guardians, who try to protect their idea of Scouting). I heard recently of a couple of old Red Jackets who tore into a young leader because they didn’t approve of his pants! To them, parading around in the uniform, sporting all the badges and knots had become more important than living the ideals and values of the program. Those Red Jackets were fortunate I wasn’t there, because I would have suggested they learn what it means for a Scout to promise to be “friendly,” “courteous,” and “kind,” before they put their precious red jackets on again. Those Red Jackets disgraced the uniform they are so proud to put on, and they revealed a distressing “hollowness” of character, if you will.

This problem of hollowness is, I believe, a national issue, and not just a Boy Scout issue. You see, the United States was built from the inside out, so to speak. At the core and foundation of this nation were political, social, ethical and moral, economic, and yes, even religious/theological ideals and values. This core was so solid and strong that in a little more than a hundred years it built thirteen colonies into the greatest nation on earth. Now, a little more than another hundred years later, America “rings hollow,” our core, our ideals and values eroding away from the inside out, so that we may still try and look and act as if we were still the same United States of America, but we are not. I can’t even come up with words to describe what we are. But I am certain that, when enough of our nation’s core ideals and values have eroded from inside, there will be a terrible and utter collapse.

Of course it won’t be the first time a once great nation and people suffered thus. Take ancient Israel. Oh, tiny ancient Israel wasn’t great in terms of size or political or economic influence. But, for an all too tragically brief time, Israel took a back seat to no nation because Israel and its people were the chosen covenant partners of God. As such, Israel had an unprecedented core and foundation of ideals and values written by God himself; ideals and values which, if internalized and lived by Israel and its people, would have assured the ascendancy and security of the nation for ever, and which would have supplied an unimaginable blessing to the rest of the nations of the world. Sadly, Israel became a hollow nation under the control of the hollow leadership of kings, priests, and Pharisees who enjoyed being in positions of power and of putting on all the outward trappings of what they wanted others to believe was true Israel. But inside, they were hollow, they had uncircumcised hearts, and Jesus called them out (See Matthew 23.1-36). Ultimately they rejected not only the ideals and values God had covenanted to give them, they rejected God himself, putting God’s Son to death on a cross. And, some thirty years after the crucifixion, came the great and utter collapse of Israel.

Fortunately, that Son of God was the most “solid” human being who ever lived. The ideals and values of godly living, of God himself, and of God’s kingdom, were incarnate in Christ. Jesus didn’t just live to fulfill the law, he is the fulfillment of the law. Jesus didn’t just practice loving God and others, he is love. Jesus didn’t just teach truth, he is the truth. Jesus didn’t come to simply show us the way, he is the way. Jesus didn’t come to tell us about life, he is life, and he came to give us life.

Without an ethical-moral revival from the inside out, without a decided and intentional turning back to what made America, America, there is, I fear, no arresting the decline and ultimate collapse of this country. As for the Boy Scouts, well they could use a few less Red Jackets who have forgotten Scouting’s ideals and values, and a few more Scouters in blue jeans who are committed to teaching those ideals and values to today’s youth.

And finally, because it must be said, the Church in North America has had a decided and growing hollow ring for a long time now. I suspect this is no small contributing factor to the deepening hollowness of the nation. So the Church, too, needs to renew itself from the inside out. I am not talking about “new” anything as the answer for what ails the Church; her only hope is to restore Christ to the place that is his and his alone, at the very center of its life, and also at its head. You can’t get more solid than the Rock.

Jim
www.jimwilkenministries.org
Marion, NC
PS 37.4