Consequences

Pat and Grandson were playing with Legos when the piece she was playing with came apart.

“You need to put that back together,” Grandson said.

“And, what if I don’t,” Pat asked, teasing.

“Then,” Grandson said, “there will be terrible, awful consequences.”

At five, my grandson may have a better understanding of how the world works than some adults.  Both action and inaction have consequences.  Some benign; some “terrible” and “awful.”

Losing weight is tough, so why bother.  Walking around with all that extra weight is a pain; but maybe there’s an easier way.  We see this easier way at work when our stores are rife with obese thirty-something men and women darting around in the little scooters provided for the genuinely disabled.  Walk to burn at least some calories? No. Ride.  Years from now, will they be dealing with the “terrible, awful consequences” of heart disease and diabetes?

We treat the office affair as simply the recreational activity of two consenting adults; keep your work done and there’s no harm, no foul.  Some even imagine themselves to be medieval lairds entitled to both wife and mistress with no consequences.  But consequences are hard to escape—“terrible, awful consequences” like divorce, distrust, alienation from our children.

As I began writing this piece, Bill Cosby had just been indicted; no, he hasn’t yet been convicted of sexual assault.  He claims all the women accusing him consented to his advances, consented to any sexual liaisons.   I wonder: like many other celebrities, did he believe he would escape the consequences of his serial adultery (now, there’s a word we don’t hear very often anymore)?  But “terrible, awful consequences” can be very patient.  Now, after decades of hiding his behavior from his admirers, the man who was the first African-American to star in a major TV series, who humanized “Noah,” who endeared us to “Fat Albert,” and who made us wish we had a doctor like “Cliff Huxtable,” will likely be remembered for the contempt he showed toward the women who worked with and around him, for the betrayal of his own wife and children; and for his disdain for the family values he claimed to promote.

Of course, it is easy to point fingers, to pretend we are above such behavior.  But, because we are children of Adam—the first to imagine he could escape the “terrible, awful consequences” of his behavior—we are prone to the same folly of those we wag our fingers at. 

The Bible continually reminds us there are “terrible, awful consequences” attached to our rebellion against God.  Paul put it tersely, “the payoff of sin is death.”  Preachers and theologians may debate about the exact meaning of those words but none of them say, “Don’t worry, it’s not as bad as it seems.”  The consequences--spiritual, physical, psychological, social—are terrible and awful. 

But in the same place where Paul speaks of the payoff of sin, he also says “the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)  Death has been trumped.

Please note, while preachers and theologians may debate about the exact meaning of those words, few suggest the “terrible, awful consequences” were just forgotten.  Instead, these preachers and theologians tell us the consequences fell upon Another.  Here’s how Paul puts it, “… while we were still helpless (that is, unable to do anything about the ‘terrible, awful consequences’ of our sin), … Christ died for the ungodly.” The consequence of our rebellion was death; on the cross Christ took that consequence upon himself.

For Grandson, the terrible, awful consequences of not taking care of his Legos might be timeout or being unable to play with them for the remainder of the day.  To learn the importance of taking care of his toys he might have to face those consequences from time to time. 

But the consequences of adulthood are not the consequences of childhood.  They usually have a more long-term impact.  The “terrible, awful consequences” of smoking may be ruined health, diseases that cannot be passed on to another.  That’s the way things work.

Yet the most terrible, most awful consequences we humans face—the consequences flowing from our rebellion against God—can be passed on to Another.  In fact, the Bible tells us they have been.  We simply need to accept what Jesus has done for us, accept it by faith, knowing we have done nothing to deserve this gift of life.  Surely to ignore such an offer would be terrible and awful.