No Boundaries: Mediations on Father's Day

In the early portion of the 20th century, the Woman's Right Movement began to make many large strides forward; many things that traditionally had been considered improper or impossible for women had then been extended to them. In the midst of these changes, one man wrote in to a newspaper discussing some point and asking this question: “Have women gone too far?” And in answer to this, a woman wrote this response: “People have always been saying that women have gone too far and they will go on saying it til Doomsday. But the march of women must go on.”

And that briefly summarizes the general attitude of our world for the last century or two, and I don't mean specifically regarding the issue of women's rights. For a variety of causes, social, moral, or scientific, the heading has been: “The march must go on.” The attitude is one of unlimited scope and ambition. To say that something cannot or should be done is seen as mere negativity; the empty derision that goes on around every advancement. Nothing is accomplished by listening to the naysayers and the march must go on. The whole attitude was captured in the name of a certain popular clothing brand: “No Boundaries.”

And certainly, to some extent, this attitude is justified of her children. Things are accomplished today which even sixty years ago would have been so unimaginable that nobody would have even thought to call them impossible. Walls that were once thought unbreakable cannot now be even traced. Social divisions and distinctions which once seemed as static and solid as marble seem now as unreal as the mist. The things that people were once saying couldn't be done have been done. If naysayers had been listened to, we would not be living in the world which we presently are. They were ignored, and the march has gone on.

But the attitude brings with it certain questions which become particularly relevant as we celebrate Father's Day. The question is becoming more and more pressing whether there can even be such a thing as Father's Day or Fatherhood. If there are no boundaries, then the structure of the family cannot be something solid and absolute. If there are no boundaries then there is no reason why instead of a father and mother you might have two mothers or two fathers or twenty-five fathers. And if there are no boundaries, there is no reason why a man who fathers a child should bother to pay any more attention to it rather than going off to buy some milk or follow some other goal or start some other family. And the march of men goes on.

But we have to understand one thing. If the march of women or men or anybody else can go on and on without ever being stopped by anyone or anything then it must be really true that there are No Boundaries. And that can only be if this world is a blank slate; an empty paper on which we can mark whatever lines we want. You can march on and on in an empty field. You cannot do it inside a house. If this world we live in; if the fabric of life in which we are all born entangled is really a completely empty and meaningless thing then, and only then, can there be No Boundaries.

And, in fact, that is what our society believes; that this world is an empty slate that we can fill. “Believe in your own answer.” “Follow your own path”  “Let your heart be your guiding key.” Those kinds of statements make sense, and only make sense, if this world is a blank slate; we can only make up our own answers if there are no answers already; we can carve our own path only if there are No Boundaries.

I need to be clear. This idea of the world being a blank slate doesn't always mean living wildly or recklessly. Sometimes it does, but sometimes it leads to conscientiousness. If we have a blank paper, we can cover it with silly or obscene graffiti; or we can fill it with rules and diagrams; we can write a poem or a law or a joke or nothing at all. But the point is that you can only do all of that with a blank sheet of paper. You cannot do it, at least not as well, if there is already something on the page. You can create your own rules and then keep them or break them; you can create new virtues or new vices. But you can only do it if there truly are No Boundaries.

But we have to remember one sober fact. If the world is a blank slate, then the march can go on. But if the world is a blank slate, then there is nowhere to march to. An empty world is free of fences and walls—but that is because there is nothing of value there to protect. Life, on any theory, must be a journey. But if it is a journey without boundaries it must also be a journey without destination. The march goes on because it never reaches home.

This is the point we have reached in our beliefs as a society. A belief that there are no boundaries and also no goals; life can be lived with ultimate freedom and ultimate despair; we can do anything we want but there is no point in doing anything at all. The banks of the river of life were torn down so that it could flow freely, and now it lays in a shallow pool; stagnant and unmoving.

And that is why so many of the words of Scripture cut across our minds with a strange sharpness and roughness because the voices of the prophets and apostles come from a very different kind of world. Paul was not marching on and on in an infinite void without boundaries or meaning when he cried out: “See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.” Those words come from a world of boundaries; a world of dangers and prohibitions. You do not say: “Be careful and diligent in your walk, not drunk or unwise, but wise and alert” to someone walking through an empty field. You say it someone walking through dangerous territory, among walls and precipices and thorns and pits. “Redeeming the time, because the days are evil” is not the language of someone who believed in No Boundaries.

All of that comes from Ephesians 5. To understand why Paul talked like this, you have to go back to Ephesians 1. Paul did not see this world as a blank slate, because he believed it was a page written by the word of God. He did not think we could go making our own plans till Doomsday because he believed God had already made a plan; a plan which had been made before the foundation of the world and which had its termination in Doomsday and beyond Doomsday. The KJV describes God's plan as Predestined which means “marked out beforehand.” This world has an inherent structure and meaning because it was made by God and made for a specific purpose. The world has been spoiled by sin but that does not change the plan of God.

We live in a world of boundaries. But to say that in public today raises a quite reasonable objection. People will say, plausibly enough, that people have said there were limits and have been proved wrong. Things said impossible have been proved possible, and things said unhealthy for society have been tried and found healthy. And that never would have happened if people had believed in limits and boundaries. That is why we have to remember what Paul says in Ephesians 5:17: “Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is.” Because the world was made by God, there are limits and boundaries in it, whether we like it or not. But to know for sure what they are, we have to know the will of God and we can only know that by studying His word and listening to His voice.

Again, people might make another plausible objection and they would begin with what Paul says in Ephesians 5-6. Paul outlines a diagram of the family, with the husband in a position of authority over his wife and the parents in authority over the children. And it can be objected, with a good deal of positive evidence, that this kind of structure has often led to terrible things. There are times when husbands have claimed this authority over their wives and have used it in horrible ways. The power of parents over children has sometimes been used with cruelty and selfishness. That is why many people today support the complete eradication of this traditional family structure. But, once again, the answer to that is the same. This world was made by God and therefore we can only understand how to use it properly through God. Husbands have sometimes misused their authority over their wives, but they wouldn't have done it if they had loved their wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. Parents have mistreated their children but it is precisely because they did not truly follow the command to “provoke not your children to wrath: but bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.”

It is precisely because there is an inherent meaning and structure in the world that we must be careful and diligent in how we live. “See that ye walk circumspectly” implies that there is one path, narrow and hemmed by dangers, and if there is, we have to be very careful about reading the map. We must follow God's word and be continually filled with the Spirit who is the source of wisdom because this world is a world of dangers and obstacles. We must “be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God” because only then will we be able to make it through the battle of life.

This world has boundaries because it was made by the plan of God. And because there is a plan, then there is a purpose. One of the keywords of Ephesians is the word “walk.” Life, on any theory, is a journey. We are all walking through this world. But there is all the difference in the world between someone who is walking in order to go somewhere and someone who is walking because they have nowhere to go. There is all the difference in the world between a pilgrim and a hobo. 

As Christians, we are going somewhere in life. And I don't simply mean that we are going to that future consummation, to the resurrection and the new heavens and earth. Paul told the Philippians that our conversation--that is, our lifestyle, our citizenship and identity--is in Heaven. In other words, even when living here on earth, our life is tied to Heaven. George MacDonald described this world as a world full of shadows and said there is another world where are the solid things that cast the shadows.

In Ephesians 5:32, where, right in the middle of a discussion about marriage, Paul says “this is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.” And then, in 6:1 “Children, obey your parents in the Lord.” And again, in 6:4, where he tells parents to bring up their children “in the nurture and admonition of the Lord.” 

Earlier in Ephesians, Paul had been talking about the church. Here he has left the church and walked into the common home of everyday life, but that home may still have the presence of God. Every house may become the house of God; every ladder may be Jacob's Ladder. The family is not an arbitrary convention for safely running human society like the American Constitution. It is a possible epiphany. And while that is especially true of the family, it is true of all our human actions and relationships. Because this world was made by God, we have something to do in it; to be the praise of the glory of His grace who hath redeemed us and made us sit in heavenly places. 

G. K. Chesterton did much of his writing during World War I. During one of the great assaults of Germany against England, he wrote these words: “The hammer-strokes are coming thick and fast now; and filling the world with infernal thunders; and there is still the iron sound of something unbreakable deeper and louder than all the things that break.” (“The Superstition of Divorce”) We live in a time of upheaval and turmoil. The last year and a half have shown more dramatic changes than one might have thought possible in so short a time. Things once thought established have been torn down. Promises have been broken as well as laws. The breaking of walls has brought danger as well as freedom. The creed of No Boundaries has shown us possibilities of terror and despair as well as of progress. The hammer-strokes are coming thick and fast against much of what was once thought solid and dependable... and still there is the iron sound of something unbreakable deeper and louder than all the things that break. 

That which the world has made the world will destroy. That which a man creates will return to the dust as man does. All that is in the world passes away... but he that doeth the will of God will abide forever. That which is built on an eternal foundation can not be washed away by the winds and rains of time.  We do not know what yet may change and disappear in life. But we do know this; that the plan of God remains unchanged. In this world, there are real boundaries and limitations; life has an inherent structure and meaning. And because of that, we must find and live out God's will, in our own lives and our relationships with one another. For we have this hope and possibility, the possibility of living for God even in the midst of this common life. 

And the result of that is joy. It may sound harsh and limiting to talk of dangers and duties; of limitations and boundaries. A passage like Ephesians 5 does seem to carry a tang of danger; yet what is the upshot of the whole matter? “Be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul had equally harsh and abrupt warnings for the Philippians but in the midst of it all he said: “Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.” This life is a dangerous journey; this life is a battlefield. But in the midst of it all; God is at our side. There is need for caution but there is never need for terror; there is cause for sadness but there is never cause for despair, so long as we have Him with us. This world is a world of boundaries, but the greatest boundary of all is not a restriction but a promise, the promise of God which alone gives us hope or joy.