Scripture: Genesis 1:26-31; 2:7-9, 15-22
Introduction
- My dear friend Susanna approached me with the idea for today’s sermon.
- We had both just heard about yet another senseless killing at the graduation ceremony last week.
- We’ve all been to graduation ceremonies for friends and loved ones.
- I’m a dad and I attended high school graduations for all five of my biological daughters.
- You see I have to say “biological daughters” because I have a complex family situation.
- For the past 20 years, with Leslie, I have come to think of her daughters as my own.
- Life is complex that way; people are complex; cultures are complex.
- Graduations are such joyful celebrations yet to see a father and son ruthlessly gunned down is something that should pierce the heart of each of us.
- What has our world come to with these ever-increasing senseless killings?
- Where has concern over human life gone?
- Maybe it’s the way we have reduced these events to their simplest parts
- Susanna suggested to me that our society has embraced a philosophy of “reductionism.”
- What is “reductionism?” Never heard of it. com says:
According to reductionism, seemingly more complex events and things can be entirely explained and understood in terms of seemingly less complex events and things. For example, reductionism says that the mind-boggling complexity of the human brain can only be understood by examining the individual chemical reactions within the brain. Once we understand the individual pieces, the entire puzzle falls into place.
- Reductionism suggests that since the person was killed by a gun, the guns are the problem and must be controlled.
- Reductionism distracts us from the holistic fact that people have no respect for human life
- What is happening in our world? How can so many people just indiscriminately take a person’s life like it is nothing?
- Since today is Father’s Day, I want us to turn our attention to the Father of us all.
- There are three items of truth that we need to understand about this reductionism stuff:
- It comes from science
- It ignores complex relationships
- It allows evil to find a voice
1. It comes from science
- I understand the analytic value of reductionism in solving scientific problems.
- I make a living as a systems analyst and must often troubleshoot issues.
- When something breaks or goes wrong the best approach is to isolate and identify.
- Reductionism is a great tool in those cases.
- But, when it comes to social issues, reductionism doesn’t work because it doesn’t consider the whole.
- The Bible tells us why this doesn’t work: We are made in the likeness of God.
- God said: “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
- So, God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.
- Mankind was created BY GOD; LIKE GOD. And GOD cannot be REDUCED.
- I ask myself, who would want to reduce God to anything less than He is?
- And furthermore, if we are created in the image of God, who would want to reduce us?
- Then it occurred to me: Satan is behind this reductionism of people.
- We have made such an idol out of science and marginalized God in the process.
- We live in a world that is becoming more and more driven by hate.
- More senseless killings and now viciousness by even children.
- We are dealing with Satan’s attacks right here in this neighborhood and he uses children.
- We have destruction of property even as we offer our facility to the local kids to play.
- Then the enemy starts prodding them to do things like tear down the stage we built.
- Thank you to Wayne and Lee for permanently resolving that problem and improving it.
- These are kids who are one minute playing soccer or riding their bikes and the next vandalizing the building; breaking in; throwing food meant for the needy on the ground.
- Reductionism would say that since this vandalism is caused by neighborhood children, they need to be defended against; protected from; prosecuted; punished.
- And Satan will love it if we do because that will turn them away from Christ.
- Reductionism seeks to label and compartmentalize and simplify people.
- But people are far too complex to treat scientifically.
- Look around us. We are constantly barraged with labels and identities for people.
- Racism, gender identity, and religious affiliation are all being used to divide and hate.
- Even in the Southern Baptist Convention, a battle is raging over the rights of women in ministry. Fortunately, we are not in that fight.
- The science of reductionism ignores the complexity of people and the image of God.
- The science of reductionism ignores the importance of each of us to God.
Then the LORD God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
- Despite all the hateful ways that people are being marginalized through these labels, we forget that God created every one of us from dust at His own hands.
- We are all precious to our Father God.
- The science of reductionism has become a powerful tool for the enemy.
2. It ignores complex relationships
- I recently preached on the importance of the Trinity and their mutual relationship.
- In the Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit exist in a constant state of relationship.
- Jesus demonstrated the importance of this relationship as He prayed to the Father.
- The Holy Spirit descended visibly onto Jesus at His baptism as the Father declared His love and support for His Son.
- People are complex and they organize themselves in numerous and complex ways.
- Think of yourself: you are a part of a family; you are a part of this church family; perhaps you live in a community like the Masonic Home; you have relationships to all sorts of people.
- Reductionism ignores the holistic nature of our complex relationships.
- Father God realized the importance of relationships to His creation.
- The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”
- Reductionism has shifted the focus away from seeing others as whole persons to instead, seeing them as their label.
- We forget that these people have families; they love someone; they are loved.
- We forget the incredible importance that each of us has been given by our Father God.
- We forget that all human life is precious regardless of people’s behavior or labels.
- Don’t let the enemy cause us to ignore relationships through reductionism.
- People are complex and exist in complex relationships with each other.
- We need to consider people holistically in context with their relationships.
3. It allows evil to find a voice
- Humans were not supposed to know about evil – or good for that matter.
- As far as the original humans were concerned, they only knew Father God as good.
- They lived in the garden with their Father and walked with Him and only knew Him.
- They never had reason to even suspect there was anything to know apart from God.
- In the middle of the garden were two special trees: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- We know that there wasn’t really a temptation inherent in Adam or Eve want to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- We know this because they avoided the tree because God said to leave it alone. He said:
You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.
- I left out the Scripture part about when they did disobey God and ate from the tree.
- Who was it that talked them into defying God’s order and eat from the tree? Satan
- With the increasing evil in this world and total disregard for human life, it would seem that ole devil has done it again.
- This time, the temptation is not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.
- No, THIS TIME, the temptation is to reduce everything to its component parts; oversimplify; dumb things down; generally DE-HUMANIZE.
- I know, I know if you are like me, you’ve never heard of this before. Reductionism is a head-scratcher – like why do I even care about it?
- Its like so many things with Satan: he doesn’t want us to know what he is up to.
- He prowls around masquerading as something good for us when all the while his intentions are purely evil.
- And now his influence has found some real traction through reductionism philosophy.
- Why destroy people when you can just reduce them to a meaningless pile of flesh?
- Yes, this trend is very real and provides yet another weapon in the enemy’s arsenal.
- Guard yourself from eating from this new tree because the fruit is quite rotten.
- Our heavenly Father sees us for who we are and loves us in all our flaws.
If God sees us holistically than we must likewise see ourselves and others the way He sees us.