“They call it the Goldilocks Principle!”
I had never heard of the Goldilocks Principle until I read my friend Jack’s Wyman’s outstanding piece entitled “Just Right.” Whether it was the porridge, the chairs, or the beds, Goldilocks tried and tested each of the three until she found the one that was “just right.” The Goldilocks Principle states that something must fall within certain margins, as opposed to reaching extremes.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears actually went through an evolutionary process before arriving at the tale most of us know so well, a process which made the fairy tale much more entertaining and attracting to readers, I would say both young and old. It has been interpreted as illustrating the literary rule of three, sometimes called “the dialectical three,” explained as "the first is wrong in one way, the second is wrong in another or opposite way, and only the third, in the middle, is just right" … the idea that the way forward lies in finding an exact middle path between opposites is of extraordinary importance in storytelling."
But the G.P. goes way beyond the field of literature, intruding into cognitive science and developmental psychology, astrobiology, medicine and drugs, economics, business, software development, communication, mathematics, statistics, design, and has been applied to the political realm as well. I can’t believe I have survived all these years without the aid of the Goldilocks Principle.
But maybe I knew about it without naming it. Pastor Enoch last Sunday mentioned, with a pinch (just the right amount) of sarcasm sprinkled in, that every good sermon had three points, and the old joke has been “3 points and a poem” not to mention the adage of “poor point, pound pulpit.” I have preached on “Them that will, them that won’t, and them that don’t” and Buddy used to say that God answered prayer in three ways, “Yes, No, and Wait a While.” The Goldilocks Principle has evidently been in the midst of my adopted cabin, even while I was lost in the woods. Somewhere lurking has been the three bears of the G.P.
The Gospel, however, cannot be fitted into the middle choice of three extremes. The Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ is an extreme! Forget the margins, we live, breathe, and do so for eternity based on the ultimate extreme. I’ll give you three evidences, just so it looks like I’m staying on topic, and you’ll see that there is not, neither ever can be, any middle ground. I’ll call it the Golden Truth Principle. These three extremes are defined by the word “must,” proving by definition (necessary, imperative requirement) that there is no trial and testing and that there is no “this, that, and then just right” in the Golden Truth Principle that God sets forth. We see it in the extreme of John 3:7 where “Ye must be born again.” We see the extreme as well in Acts 4:12 where we are told “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.” And we see the extreme once more in the great story of the Philippian Jailer, when, in the midst of the night through the miraculous intervention of God, the foundations of the prison were suddenly shaken, all the prison doors were immediately opened, and all the prisoners’ bands were completely loosed, causing (along with the testimony of Paul and Silas) the trembling jailer to rush in and fall down before Paul and Silas, begging “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30) And Paul, knowing that this was no time for the Goldilocks Principle, did not say, “Just be a good person and trust Buddha, or the Pope, or someone else somewhere in between” but rather said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved,” (Acts 16:31)
The Goldilocks Principle might get you “3 hots and a cot” in the three bears’ cabin in the wilderness of this life, but it can never get you to the Father’s House In Heaven where eternal blessings abound. For that, we need the Golden Truth Principle of The Gospel of the LORD Jesus Christ “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6) There is no middle ground, there are not three possibilities, there is no Goldilocks Principle with God! Thank God that we stand with the Apostle Peter when he was asked about the G.P., and Peter responded, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
He is our “Must, " and that's a lock!
Love and Prayers to all,
Pastor
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