LIFE IN THE MIDDLE VOICE

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LIFE IN THE MIDDLE VOICE

"Only let us hold fast to what we have already attained" (Phil. 3:16).

There is a fascinating tension in this verse.  "Let us hold fast" makes it sound like we're hanging on to the edge of a cliff–"Hold on!  Don't let go!"  While "to what we have attained" sounds as if we're already there, we've already climbed up onto the cliff–we've arrived, now we just need to stay there.

This tension is everywhere in our Christian walk.  God has done so much for us, more than we deserve and more than we can repay.  "If I can just hang on!  If I can just remember who I am in Christ today."  And yet, on page after page of the Scriptures we read things that sound a lot like:  "Do all you can!  Outdo one another in acts of kindness!  Sacrifice!  Serve!  Give!  Don't hold anything back!"  We feel like we barely have enough together to get through today, let alone race to outdo one another in service, love, and devotion.

But I would like to consider a slightly different perspective.

One thing I've learned over the years is that maturity in Christ doesn't mean serving more or loving more or having more frequent and regular quiet times.  And it doesn't mean giving more hours to the food kitchen or homeless shelter or putting more dollars in the offering basket.  But if it's not these things, what the heck is it?   

I think the key to understanding what it means to grow in Christ, what it means to mature in Christ is spelled out in Philippians 3:16, where Paul says, "Only let us hold fast to what we have already attained."

First, I'm taking it for granted that we all know what is necessary for salvation: grace and faith.  We take our place in Christ's death in order that we may take our place in His life.  As the apostle Paul says in Galatians, "I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me.  And the life I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me" (2:20).  

So what does it mean to grow in grace, in faith, and in belief?  I don't think it means to do any of these better than we now do.  It means to increase our capacity for grace, faith, and belief.  Faith and belief are gifts of grace, and since grace is a gift from God, so are faith and belief.  They aren't so much things we do as they are things we receive and hold onto.  

And this is where we catch up to Paul in Philippians 3:16, "Only let us hold fast to what we have already attained."  Christian maturity hinges upon not so much getting hold of more faith and more belief, it means holding onto what we have already attained.  Faith and belief are like muscles we use to hold onto the grace we have already received.  Maturity is not getting more faith and belief, it's enlarging our capacity to hold onto the grace we have already received.  As we mature, we can't get more, but we can hold onto more.

Let me show you what I mean.  Marathon runners don't have access to any more oxygen than any of the rest of us–we're all immersed in far more oxygen than we need or use.  The difference between us and marathon runners is that they have a greater capacity for oxygen than we do.  They take fewer breaths every minute.  Their hearts beat less often because they process oxygen so much better.  And as a result, they can take more oxygen into their bodies and use it more effectively and efficiently.

Faith and belief are like muscles, and muscles are only good for something beyond themselves.  Big, strong biceps aren't good for much of anything unless you need to lift heavy things.  Faith and belief find their highest purpose in giving thanks and praise to God.  Our souls enlarge their capacity for faith and belief as we practice thankfulness and adoration.  

And this is where I'd like to talk about what we English teacher folks call The Middle Voice.

THE MIDDLE VOICE

In English, verbs (action words) are either active or passive.  In the active voice, I am the actor.  I initiate the action.  For example, "I give advice."  My personal mission statement is packed with the active voice.  Notice the active voice in the verbs I made bold below:  

I will abide in the larger, stronger, quieter life of Christ.

I will affirm the good, the true, and the beautiful.

I will lead my family in paths of grace and truth, living among them as a steward and a servant.

I will be creative within the chaos of art, family, ministry and work.  

I will initiate in my relationships & live authentically, making my desires known to self & others.

I will maintain a well-ordered heart, a hospitable home, and a simple lifestyle.

I will cultivate self-renewal through exercise and rest, regular retreats, and daily silence.

In the passive voice I am being acted upon.  I receive the action.  "I am given advice."  We're uncomfortable with the passive voice because we prefer to act rather than be acted upon.  But sometimes we can use passivity as a defense against having to take responsibility for our actions–we only deal with or address what other people, or circumstances, DO TO US.  Many of us Christians fall into this when we're complimented and we say, "It wasn't me, it was the Lord.  I can't do anything.  I'm just His instrument."  Now, there's an element of truth to this, but we don't see it for what it is until we understand THE MIDDLE VOICE.

So most of us stop with the active and passive voices, but there is another voice, the middle voice.  In the middle voice I am an active participant, but the action doesn't begin with me.  I am joining the action of another.  Tyler Staton says, "We participate in the action, and we reap the benefits of the action.  We are not entirely active.  God's action doesn't depend on our initiative.  Neither are we entirely passive.  God has freely chosen to act almost exclusively in partnership with people.  When we pray, we both participate in God's action and benefit from God's action.  We join God.  All of our interaction with God in prayer happens here–in the middle voice, the voice of participation."

The best example I know of of the Middle Voice is Jesus' mother Mary when the angel Gabriel comes to her and says she will be overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and give birth to the Son of God.  What is Mary's response?  "Be it done to me according to your Word."  Mary is not initiating anything here, God is.  And yet Mary is not entirely acted upon either.  She voluntarily chooses to surrender, to make herself available to the God who acts.

The Middle voice is the voice of permission, of surrender, of offering and sacrifice–even of worship.  These are ALL things that we ourselves DO, but they are all ways we participate, ways we respond, to God's initiative.

We see the middle voice in many of the most powerful and inspiring passages in the Bible: 

We see Isaiah giving Permission: "Who will go for me?"  "Here am I, send me." (Isaiah

6:8)

We see the prodigal son Surrender:  "When he came to his senses, he said, 'How many

of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I

will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against

heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me

like one of your hired servants.’ (Luke 15:17-19)

When Jesus is in the Garden of Gethsemane, he Offers himself, "Father, if it is possible

let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will but as You will." (Matthew 26)

Abraham is told by God to Sacrifice his only son, Isaac.  Abraham would NEVER have

done this if God not taken the initiative/directed him to.

And the Father's command to Worship, emphasized by Jesus, in Matthew 22:  "Love

the Lord with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength" is not something we are

even capable of unless there were Another motivating us, empowering us to.

We also see the Middle voice in Proverbs 21:31:  "The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the Lord."  Victory in all things depends on God alone, and yet ... the horse must be prepared by us for the battle.  There is an interdependence at work here.  We participate together with God.  

And in Psalm 127:1-2, a passage many of us are familiar with, the psalmist says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, those who build it labor in vain.  Unless the Lord guards the city, the guard keeps watch in vain.  It is in vain that you rise up early and go late to rest, eating the bread of anxious toil, for he provides for his beloved during sleep."  How beautiful is that image of God providing for us even while we sleep?  And yet … the builder still builds and the watchman still stays vigilant.  Each participates with God in His work–as do we.

Notice the contrast between that idea and Ecclesiastes 2:22-23, "What has a man from all the toil and striving of heart with which he toils beneath the sun? 23 For all his days are full of sorrow, and his work is a vexation. Even in the night his heart does not rest" (emphasis mine).  What a far cry from the easy rest during which God provides for His beloved!  

This is the mystery and the wonder of the Middle Voice:  He calls us to participation but not control, involvement but not guidance, action but not management.

So let's return to our passage for this morning:  "Only let us live up to what we have already received."  What HAVE we already received?  

Life, Grace, Love, Peace, Forgiveness, Joy

Grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing has been bestowed upon us (PASSIVE VOICE).  But what shall be our response?  How do we participate in this life of grace, this life of entirely unmerited favor?    

Living in the Middle Voice means living what I call the Etiquette of Grace, by which I mean learning to live our entire lives as one big long "Thank You!"  A thank you we live into with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength. 

This past Monday, October 6, I celebrated 22 years since I was told I had cancer.  That news rocked my world.  It looked like I was going to die, and I was more scared than I've ever been of anything because I knew I was in a battle I literally could not fight.  I was driven to my knees, and I spent hour after hour walking and praying at Wildwood metropark.  It's a long story, but the really cool thing is that not only did God heal me of my cancer, he healed my heart of several other things I was powerless over as well.

I learned that God would stop at nothing to make me the man He wanted me to become.  And after my surgery and the news that the cancer hadn't spread, and that I wouldn't need chemo or radiation after all … I was scared all over again, because: If God won't stop at anything to make me who He intends me to be, then I had no idea what I was in for!  And much of the next several years were spent in a place of fear.

It took me many years to recover the Middle voice, to come back to a place where I could pray like Mary:  "Be it done to me according to Your word."

What really helped me was not shielding myself from hard things, but learning to open up and say THANK YOU to the Lord with my whole life, learning to "live up to what I had already attained":  life and hope and healing and joy and peace.  Learning to love and serve and encourage others, learning how to teach and guide students in faith and love not out of a sense of duty but out of a deep gratitude for having been saved out of a place where I could literally do NOTHING except place myself in the presence of the living God and cry out for mercy–and then go out and LIVE MY THANK YOU BEFORE THE WORLD!

Living life in the Middle Voice means we have nothing to prove, no duty to discharge, beyond saying THANK YOU for a Life we didn't create, Grace we cannot earn, Love that has no bounds, Peace we cannot comprehend, Forgiveness we don't deserve, and Joy we cannot contain.  We have all been given grace upon grace, blessing upon blessing, and a grateful, believing, trusting response is all that's asked of us.  I had to learn what the psalmist says in Psalm 86:

"Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; give me an undivided heart to

revere your name.  

I give thanks to you, O Lord my God, with my whole heart, and I will glorify your name

forever.

For great is your steadfast love toward me; you have delivered my soul from the depths of

Sheol."   

~Psalm 86:11-13

Be encouraged, friend, for God, the Maker of Heaven and Earth, who spoke all worlds into being, is both with you and for you.