4 minute read
Redundant
by Robert Mohns
This summer I have spent time in a hospital among overflowing corridors filled with the sick, addicted, injured, and dying. As I have observed the human condition in that place, it has given me pause to thank God for the many redundant systems He has created to sustain the human body.
For example, we have two kidneys, two lungs, two brain hemispheres, and multiple fingers and toes. Our liver has the capability to regenerate. Our cardiovascular system has redundant mechanisms to keep the blood flowing when heart function is reduced. We have cellular redundancies and neurological redundancies.
The Psalmist declares: “For You formed my inward parts; You knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are Your works; my soul knows it very well” (Psalm 139:13-14). It is in times of distress that we get a better glimpse of the workings of God in His creating of our bodies. Certainly, at the end of days we will know fully how wonderfully designed our bodies are when they are raised again in perfection.
The word redundant often carries with it a negative meaning in common speech. To be “redundant” is to be obsolete, unnecessary, no longer useful. A person can be laid off because their labour is no longer needed. Their position is redundant.
The word redundant comes to us from the Latin word redundare, which carries the sense of surging upward. If you have been to an ocean shore, perhaps you have seen how waves can pile up one on top of another until you have a much greater volume of water, like in a storm surge.
Scriptures often refer to the church as a living body (1 Corinthians 12, Romans, Ephesians 1 and 4), and each one of us a part of that body. The Lord has also provided this living body with redundancies which create and sustain life even when under stress or distress. Consider God’s gift of Word and Sacrament. He gave us the Word made flesh in His Son Jesus, who has dwelt among us and made satisfaction for our sins, suffering and dying in our place to set us free.
God has given us His spoken Word. He delivered His Word to some people directly; for example, He spoke directly to Adam and to Eve. He has also spoken His Word through the prophets and apostles by Holy inspiration, and He has caused His Word to be written down.
On the day of Pentecost, God provided the Church His Holy Spirit to cause His Word to be spoken in various languages. Today the Scriptures are available not only in one language, but in numerous language groups and dialects found throughout the world. The Word of God is also accessible on many types of media.
He has given His Church pastors to preach His Word into the ears of Christians, and He has provided teachers to help young and old study His Word. He has provided Christians with knowledge of His Word and opportunities to share it in the community of saints, to encourage one another, and to witness to their neighbours.
The Lord has provided His Church with the three Creeds—the Apostles’, Nicene, and Athanasian—and He has provided us with the Augsburg Confession and the other confessional writing in the Book of Concord, which faithfully teach the faith revealed in Holy Scripture. He has provided the Church with musicians to support God’s people in singing hymns. He has provided songwriters with gifts that help us to praise God, repeating back to Him what He has first spoken to us.
The world at large views the church, the Word of God, pastors, and teachers as redundant—obsolete, no longer useful, worthless, and out of touch. And even within the church, there is the temptation to consider many things redundant in a similar way. A person might think: “Well, I have my Bible; that’s all I need. Preachers, teachers, and going to church are all redundant and unnecessary.”
But the Church rejoices in the redundancy that God has created to anchor His bride in storm-tossed seas and provide for her well-being when sin and evil attack her.
It is in times where I find myself at my lowest that I give thanks to God for providing all these redundancies by which He sustains and keeps me in true faith in Christ my Saviour, and by which I am enlivened to live for the sake and well-being of others.
“I wait for the Lord, my soul waits, and in His word I hope.” - Psalm 130:5
