Divine Justice

The book of Isaiah has four sections that get called the “Servant Songs.” They get called that because they all begin with or incorporate the phrase “behold my servant.” They catch the ear because they make clear the purpose and method of the messiah. The later ones – Isaiah 50:4-9, Isaiah 52:13-53:12 – are more attuned to the Lent and Easter seasons with that last one practically carrying the season. “He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. (Isa. 53:3 ESV)” And yet it ends with not only the servant’s vindication, but his deliverance of many. “Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. (Isa. 53:11 ESV).” But the earlier ones – Isaiah 42:1-9, Isaiah 49:1-6 – are more attuned to Epiphany. The second one is about the servant as “the light for the nations (Isaiah 49:6)” which gets quoted both in Acts and reflected in Simeon’s song, The Nunc Dimittis. Our Old Testament Lesson today is the first of these songs and is clear about the purpose and method of the messiah.

The purpose of the messiah is “to bring forth justice to the nations.” Now I don’t think what we think about when we hear the word justice is all that different than what those ancient Israelites would have thought. ‘No Justice, No Peace” as the saying goes. And there is always clamor in the streets. And if not in the streets themselves, in the warfare – both the kind with bullets and the kind with ballots. Justice is a word that depends upon whether we want it for ourselves or for others. Justice for ourselves is give us something. Justice for others is take it from them or hurt them for me. And that is not to dismiss the hurts perpetrated that are injustice. Ancient Israel wanted vengeance against the nations. They wanted the restoration of the Kingdom and tribute to flow to them. So when God promises a servant who will bring forth justice to the nations, sweet catnip to the ears.

But the methods of this servant do not look anything like our justice. Unlike the clamor in the streets, “He will not cry aloud or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the streets.” We live in what is often called the attention economy. There are literally millions of people who are shouting into the void for your attention. I saw I believe a Pew survey of high schoolers asking what they wanted to be when they grew up. The number one answer was “youtube-er.” The servant sung about by Isaiah is literally the opposite of our influencers. The Spirit that rests upon him empowers the work. It starts as small as a mustard seed. It starts with calling 12 to follow. When you hear it, know that is your invitation. “The coastlands wait for his law (Isaiah 42:4).” Everything the servant does, he does in his own time. And you cannot rush it.

Unlike our justice which is usually lightly veneered revenge or about re-dividing a fixed amount of goods, this servant promises two things. “The bruised reed he will not break” and “he who created the heavens and stretched them out…will take you by the hand and keep you.” Our justice is so often about scarcity and fear. We parcel out death. But the Justice of the servant is bottomless. He brings life. “He gives breath to the people on it, and spirit to those who walk in it.” The Spirit that was upon him is given to us. The eyes that are blind see, the prisoners in the dungeon are brought out. Those who sit in darkness a light shines. And there is no limit to this uncreated light.

Matthew points out that this is exactly how Jesus worked (Matthew 12 which ends with a quote of this servant song). Our experience of justice in a fallen world is so distorted that this sounds fantastical. We’d never believe it if it came out of nowhere. When Jesus came it still felt like coming out of nowhere. But that too is part of the method. “The former things have come to pass and new things I declare; before they spring forth I tell you of them (Isaiah 42:9).” In the life of Israel we can see the workings of God. And God has told us in advance – “Behold – look – this is my servant.” God has told us what he intends to do which is save us. Bring his justice to the world. And he has told us what it will look like. It will look like peace and restoration and life. Not in the way of the world, but in the way of the Spirit.

New Year Reflection

New Year as a holiday is something that I struggle to place. It is something of an extra day off in the middle of the 12 days of Christmas. One celebrated by the traditional football games: Rose, Sugar, Cotton, Orange and Fiesta. (Slipping into the book of American Leviticus 23, “And you shall celebrate this New Year with parades and the blowing of the marching band Trumpet…:.

Somewhat famously the pilgrims, Puritans by religious sect, did not celebrate Christmas. Compared to the Lutheran Reformation which kept everything that could be kept, which included the liturgical church year, the Reformed tradition went by a strict principle. If it could not be justified by biblical practice, then it was not allowed. The Lord’s Day – Sunday – was justified. The disciples gathered on the Lord’s Day after the resurrection. Christmas somehow was not. It was a deemed a pagan intrusion into the well regulated calendar of Lord’s Days. The Lutheran understanding in these regards is more anything not forbidden is allowed. And God did not say “you shall not celebrate Christmas with a 12 day festival.” But New Year is one of those odd days. There is a command or biblical warrant about it. In actual Leviticus 23 it is the Feast of Trumpets. You get a bit more in Numbers 29. It is known today as Rosh Hoshana or the Jewish New Year. So the Puritans down to the Presbyterians often held New Years. It is amusing to me how very early in my life many American Lutherans adopted New Year services to blend in with the general American Reformed religious environment, but the secular commercial juggernaut of America has forced everyone into Christmas, which ends the morning of the 26th of December. All the sharp distinctives of yesteryear become dull.

Maybe my confusion isn’t all that new. Those ancient Israelites had at least two New Years. The festival of trumpets, Rosh Hoshana, was the first of the civil calendar, but it was in the seventh month of the religious calendar which started in the month of Nisan which held Passover. Every religious year passed through Passover, Pentecost and Sukkot – the travel festivals. Jewish mysticism holds that the Civil New Year is the day the world was created and once a year the Trumpet of God – the Festival of Trumpets – is blown to wake it up again. It is the day that God decides this old earth gets another year. Which the Apostle Paul picks up in 1 Corinthians 15:52, “and the Trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.” The Resurrection as the New Year of the New Creation. A different Trumpet bringing in a New Life and a New Creation.

Until we all hear that much different Trumpet, the words of a Christmas Hymn that I love reflect for me more a Spirit of New Year. The secular celebration seems to be about new births – the New Year’s baby, the resolutions, the re-upping of the gym memberships. New births that never really live up to the hoped for new Trumpet when we shall all be changed. The hymn Stars of Glory has a different reflection.

Stars of glory, shine more brightly/Purer be the moonlight’s beam;

Glide ye hours and moments lightly/Swiftly down time’s deepening stream.

Bring the hour that banished sadness/Brought redemption down to earth,

When the shepherds heard with gladness/Tidings of a Savior’s birth.

Mary gathered up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The hours of this old earth glide lightly by, but each adds to a deepening stream. Each brings us closer to that final hour that banishes sadness. Happy New Year.

Companions of Christ

This year we have two Sundays in the 12 days of the Christmas season proper, but the first falls on a festival day that demands notice. And it calls us to look around the Christmas season as well. There are a series of saint days just after Christmas that go back to the ancient church. They’ve been on the church calendar forever. Sometimes they are called the “Comites Christi” or Companions of Christ” – St. Stephen (26^th), St John (27^th) and The Holy Innocents (28^th). If you stop to think about those names it’s an interesting list for Christmastime.

St. Stephen is the first martyr. His story is found in Acts 6 and 7. He was first chosen as one of the seven deacons who were to administer the church’s community chest that took care of the widows and orphans. But somehow those seven deacons got involved in a lot more than that. The deacon Philip found himself preaching in Samaria and bi-locating by the power of the Spirit next to the Ethiopian Eunuch and then back in Galilee. But Stephen’s story precedes Philip’s. Acts says Stephen was “full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. (Acts 6:8 ESV).” And just like the story of Jesus, when one is full of grace and truth and performing signs and wonders, the world does not like it. Stephen is arrested and eventually stoned after he gives one of the great Jeremiad speeches of all time. If they treated Christ this way, the disciple can expect no less. At that stoning is where Saul, eventually Paul, enters the story. He heard the speech and held the cloaks of those doing the stoning. And was raised to a fever pitch of zealousness that he would get permission to hunt down the rest.

St. John is the counterbalance to the first martyr being the only one of the Apostles not to be a martyr. If Stephen’s service lasted but a couple of days from ordination to stoning, John was the youngest of the disciples and lived supposedly until over 100 years old after suffering exile on Patmos, the place of his Revelation. John cared for Mary during that time as the appointed son. And his care for Mary was also his care for the Church that his LORD had founded. As the Apostolic age came to a close, John was the final witness who often sorted out the solid word of God from the fake messages that seemed constant. If you read his three letters you will catch his concern over the many antichrists that have already entered the world (1 John 2:18). But even more importantly his reminders to “love one another (1 john 3:11)” which was the commandment given at the last supper. John is the companion of Christ in a full life of service.

The last of the companions are the Holy Innocents. We do not know the number. These are the children killed by Herod when he remembers a couple of years later that the Wise Men did not come back. So he kills all the male children in the Bethlehem region two and younger. It is a reminder of the fury of Satan and World. They know their time is short, and they will kill anything that reminds them of the hour. Anyone who reminds them of how they have failed in their callings. In our modern language we might call the Holy Innocents collateral damage. As we go about our lives – lives lived by the dictates of the World and Sin – we cause death. That is what sin and the world are about.

But this is exactly what Christ has come to rescue us from – from sin and death and the power of Satan. The children killed by the raving of a world are made holy by their association with Christ. And this is so for all of us. Whether we find ourselves called short like Stephen, called long like John or call unawares like the innocents, the Companions of Christ are all made Holy by Him. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not overcome it.

Prophecy and Fulfillment

The Old Testament lesson for today (Isaiah 7:10-17) is the greatest example of how predictive prophecy often works. And in this case, it is not without its irony. Among the generally impious Kings of Israel and Judah, Ahaz stands out as maybe the most impious. The book of Kings records that “he even burned his son as an offering according to the despicable practices of the nations (2 Kings 16:3).” He personally offered sacrifices to various gods at the high places. And on a trip to Syria to meet the King of Assyria, Ahaz witnessed an altar in Damascus that he so fell in love with he sent his priest to get all the measurements. He then had the priests in Jerusalem built a replica, rip out the Altar of the temple and install his. He invited the King of Damascus down to preside with him over the inaugural offerings on the new altar. And he instructed his priests to do all their offerings on the new altar.

But for some reason God is not completely concerned about that blasphemous altar at this time. What he is demonstrating to Ahaz – the worst of them – is His faithfulness to his covenant with David, Ahaz’s lineage. The Northern Kingdom of Israel has aligned itself with Syria and is attacking Judah, the remains of the Davidic Kingdom. God sends Isaiah and promises Ahaz “don’t worry, have faith, they will not win, and within 65 years they won’t even be a nation.” And the prophet tells Ahaz to ask for anything he wants as a sign. “Let it be deep as sheol or as high as heaven (Isaiah 7:10).” What an opportunity! I can only imagine what I might ask for. But sticking with Ahaz’s unbelief, when the prophet of God tells him ask anything…Ahaz responds that “I will not put God to the test! (Isaiah 7:12).” Only Ahaz could multiply his impiety by being pious at exactly the wrong time. He’s quoting Deuteronomy 6:16 and Moses’ instructions to not be like Israel immediately after the Red Sea complaining that they had no water (Exodus 17) and that Egypt was better. But God is telling him to ask!

So even though Ahaz doesn’t believe, and won’t listen to the Word of the prophet and “wearies God” quoting scripture back to him, God is faithful. And through the prophet Isaiah delivers unto Ahaz a sign of that faithfulness. There will always be a Davidic King. In this immediate timeframe it is you – absolutely worthless Ahaz. “And the virgin shall conceive and bear a son…and before the child is a boy, the land of the two kings you dread will be deserted (Isaiah 7:14-16).” Imagine the impassioned prophet, and I always imagined Isaiah as someone who didn’t suffer fools gladly, of which Ahaz was a fool, imagine Isaiah pointing at some young lady at the royal court. And to them a child was born and a son was given (Isaiah 9).

That nearer fulfillment is like staring at mountains. You see the shorter mountains in front, but there are often greater mountains in the back. From a distance you can really tell how far off. There might be valleys between the peaks. As the nearer fulfillment was God’s sign about keeping his covenant with David, that there would always be a Davidic King, so also the greater fulfillment. And likewise the miracle of the greater fulfillment is much greater. In that still living Kingdom, one is lead to believe that the young lady conceived in the normal way. Crossing the valley of the years, Mary would conceive and bear a son, not in the normal way, but by the Holy Spirit. Not just a young woman, but the virgin. And the Virgin Mary’s son would be the eternal Davidic King. The child born and given to all of us. After long years, where even the heirs of David – like Joseph – probably chuckled at the claims, God is faithful. And unlike Ahaz, Joseph, with some angelic help, believes.

All the great prophecies, the signs and wonders of God, find their tallest peak fulfillment in Christ. Now we might often wonder what is beyond those peaks. The first advent points to the final advent. And we’d love to know the valley on the other side. But the sign of God keeps us focused on the mount – on Christ himself. Unlike Ahaz, have faith. “If you are not firm in faith, you will not be firm at all (Isaiah 7:9).” If the promise was good for Ahaz, it will be even more so for the man of faith.

The Way Home

Our Old Testament lesson assigned for Advent three is Isaiah 35:1-10. It is a poem about the return from exile. The Story of Israel, of the Old Testament, is always one of residing in the promised land, being removed from it, and then returning. Think of it as three nested stories. Adam and Eve are in the garden. They sin and are removed from it. God tells the serpent who had deceived them and lead them astray that the disordered state would not always be the case. “her offspring shall crush your head (Genesis 3:15).” Within that story of Adam, there is the story of the Patriarchs. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob all sojourn in the promised land of Canaan, but it is not theirs. They have to buy bits of land to bury their dead. God promises it will be their descendants, but they will be slaves in Egypt first. And eventually they journey into Egypt where there comes a time when “Pharoah knew not Joseph (Exodus 1:8)” and they become slaves for over 400 years. God rescues them with a signs and wonders, makes covenant with Israel at Sinai, delivers them to the promised land and fulfills his promises to the Patriarchs. But like Adam and Eve in the garden, Israel breaks the covenant. And so a third time people are spit out of the promised land. Israel is taken captive in Babylon. But again through the same prophets that warn of the coming judgement, God promises restoration. And eventually, 70 years later, Israel returns to the promised land after the exile.

If you are following the nesting, you have the outer universal story of Adam and Eve and the promise to Satan that this isn’t the end. You have the covenant story of Patriarchs to Exodus which is a story of pure grace. And you have the story of Conquest to Exile which is a story of the law, but also of the return which is another act of grace. In the inner stories, God is always true to his promises and covenants. God’s grace is always sufficient. The heirs of the Patriarchs received the promised land. Even more so, when Israel is faithless and breaks the covenant, God remains faithful. He keeps them while in exile and affects their return. But the outer story – the universal story of Adam and Eve – has not been completed. But we do know the promise. Satan’s head is going to be crushed. God is going to do this. And if the inner stories are the example, even when we don’t deserve it, we will walk back into paradise. “Remember me when you come into your Kingdom,” said the thief. And Jesus promised, “today your will be with me in paradise.”

Isaiah’s poem is an image of Israel’s return from exile. The way between the far country of exile and the home country of the promised land is depicted as “wilderness and dry land (Isaiah 35:1).” The way is initially a “burning sand…haunt of jackals (Isaiah 35:7).” Those who are in exile are depicted as “weak of hand and feeble of knee and anxious of heart (Isaiah 35:3-4).” They are “blind and deaf and lame (Isaiah 35:5-6)” and “sorrowing and sighing (Isaiah 35:10).” Surely these are not able to make the journey under their own power. But God shall make “the desert blossom like the crocus (Isaiah 35:1).” He shall make “the water break forth in the wilderness and pools appear (Isaiah 35:6-7).” All of which will provide for them on their journey. God will make the wild animals to lie down. And He will make the way back a highway. And He will strengthen all those who walk it. “Be strong, fear not (Isaiah 35:4).”

We are those returning in that outer universal story of Adam and Eve. Jesus came to open the highway by his cross. By death he defeated death that wild animal. By the cross he crushed Satan’s head. Now “No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast come upon it. They shall not be found there, but the redeemed shall walk there. And the ransomed of the LORD shall return (Isaiah 35:9-10).” Now that doesn’t mean that lion isn’t searching for those he might devour. We might wander off the road. The “Way of Holiness” might feel too steep as we feel our sins. ‘The unclean shall not pass over it (Isaiah 35:8).” But our life is safe in Christ. He has made strong our hands and knees and hearts. He has cast out our sorrow. “Everlasting joy shall be upon their heads, and they shall obtain gladness and joy (Isaiah 35:9-10).” Jesus has secured this. We just need to walk it. Put one foot in front of the other daily. Walk it the way home. Walk it to the promised land. God’s always kept his promises before. He will also now. He has made our way through the wilderness beautiful.

A Thrilling Voice is Sounding

You can tell me if it is just that I’m strange, but I always thought most of us have this junk drawer of various topics that just keep returning. Nothing in that junk drawer is absolutely necessary, except in that exact moment when you need a potato masher or small flashlight or battery tester or the letter opener. The big potato masher of my mental junk drawer has always been the doctrine of election. The first thing that you see when you open that junk drawer. The thing that might be big enough to prevent the drawer from opening. And you have to fiddle with it a bit – shaking the drawer to get some things to move – to get into it. Not today election, I don’t have the time. And if you demand my attention, I’m just going to force this drawer open. I’m going to become a gross Calvinist so I don’t have to think about you anymore. Sure, forcing that drawer open breaks the countertop. Like Calvinism breaks the incarnation. Who needs an incarnation with its revelation if the eternal decrees which remain His forever are all that matters? Who needs time? But somedays you just need the potato masher firmly in hand.

Some days you don’t need the potato masher. Somedays there are other things in that junk drawer. Right next to that potato masher of the doctrine of election is the kitchen timer – time itself. Somehow the eternal decrees and “I AM” and speculations about the eternal now, morph their way into this one moment. Running through Dr. Who’s timey-whimy tardis adventures and AI dreams of titanium terminators coming back in time for John Carter – another JC. Advent is a season in some ways about time. A season of waiting, of longing, of fulfillment. All things that depend upon time. And then you find yourself thinking that you live your life week to week – Sunday to Sunday rhythms. And how many of those weeks you might have (50 x 80 = 4000 plus 160 for the other 2×80). And how many of those weeks did you make matter?

We live in time. And we can become so used to its rhythms. 60 beats a minute, 60 minutes an hour, your heart beats them out. If you’ve got a pacemaker, you know how disturbing it can be when the heart isn’t keeping time. Or if your heart in your 53rd year starts throwing in extra beats that occasionally wake you in your 8 hours of slumber. Maybe trying to make up for weeks that didn’t mean anything? We live in time. We like our ruts.

And in the middle of our ruts, we hear a voice in the distance. Is that the TV? Does one of the kids have their earphones out? “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

“You brood of Vipers, who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”

“Even now the axe is laid to the root of the tree!”

And we are no longer in time. This is not the week by week. The heart is running a little faster. We’ve been called out into the wilderness. Maybe we’ve gone there willingly. Maybe we’ve been drug there. Maybe we are there because we want to turn it off and get back to our time, to our rut. “Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region around the Jordan were going out to him.” Right now, we are not in time exactly. Today we have been called to a moment. Today we have been called to the desert where time doesn’t move the same.

Today you have been baptized with water and fire for repentance. Today the voice calls, “make straight the way.” And don’t think you can call on ancestors – “we have Abraham as our father.” This is about you. This moment is yours. Tomorrow the threshing floor clears and the chaff is burned. Today, this moment, is yours. “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near.”

And then you are back. In time. What are you going to do with it

The King’s Order

I don’t know if it has passed Gunsmoke yet for the longest running TV show, but Law and Order has been on forever. And I’ve always had a bit of a bone to pick with that name. In that show the first half is supposed to be “law” which is taken up with the police while the second half is the “order” which is the lawyers in the courtroom. Lawyers may think their operations are the working of order, but already that is at order’s breakdown. True order springs from the place where the law is just and the people desire to live in peace. In a perfectly ordered society the law becomes an afterthought because it is written on hearts and hearts are attuned to follow, and the law is no longer necessary as even a curb. Isaiah’s picture of the Messianic society in our Old Testament lesson is a picture of perfect order.

The nations’ and peoples’ statement is “let us go up to the mountain of the LORD…that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths (Isaiah 2:3).” It is on the mountaintop that the law is given, but what the nations’ desire is the ways of God. The desire to walk in his paths. The law at best defines the boundaries of those things. The law states what is off the path or what is outside of the way of God. But the desire is the fullness of divine order. To live in harmony with the will of God.

The start of that order can be the law. “Out of Zion shall go the law (Isaiah 2:3).” But the law is not the end. For by the law we only know where we have trespassed. The law multiplies the sin. As Paul would say, those under that law are being tutored. They are under the pedagogue. But Isaiah says parallel to the law “the word of the LORD (goes our) from Jerusalem (Isaiah 2:3).” It is that Word – the order of God that we seek. Because it is only within that order that we find true peace.

As long as we are testing the boundaries of the law – sinning – we find ourselves at war. We find ourselves at war with the King and his law. We find ourselves at war with our neighbor as we attempt to advantage ourselves at their expense. We find ourselves at war with ourselves. For in our hearts we know the law, and the Spirit in us longs for the Order of God, but we continue the war in our members. It is only when we submit ourselves to the King that we shall find peace. “He shall judge between the nations, and shall decide disputes for many peoples (Isaiah 2:4).” As the song says “I fought the law and the law won.” God is sovereign. His law is the only true law. And it ultimately decides between nations and peoples. The only question is if we are brought before it as outlaws or as those who desire true justice.

Those whose hearts are submitted to Christ there will find peace. “They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning hooks (Isaiah 2:4).” We can put down our war against God and our neighbor and ourselves. We can do that in repentance and seeking God’s order for our lives. Isaiah’s ultimate vision is that “nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4).” The peace of the Kingdom of Heaven is what stands as the promise. God’s order will be established. Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess. And that is not some Star Trek Borg like forced compliance – “Resistance is futile.” No, that is the desire of nations. Peoples and Nations tired of war, tired of the disorder, tired of testing laws and finding them wanting at exactly the point they are needed. Tired of sin and its degradation. “Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord (Isaiah 2:3).” We are tired of war. May the LORD grant us his peace, his order. And then the King shall come.

Christ the King

“For God in all his fullness was pleased to live in Christ and through him God reconciled everything to himself. He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20 NLT)

The Epistle lesson for the Last Sunday of the Church Year, sometimes known as Christ the King Sunday, focuses first on the cosmic and majestic nature of Christ: image of the invisible God, firstborn of all creation, by him all things were created, for him all things, head of the body the church, firstborn from the dead. Paul has a long list of sobriquets he applies to Jesus like any king with all his titles and honors spelled out. We had our share of funerals recently. Thinking about this passage and those funerals brought to mind the funeral of Otto von Habsburg, that last of the Archdukes. The Habsburg family used to rule almost all of Europe, everything except England and France. The family crypt is in Vienna, Austria, but Otto would be the last interred. The reason it was brought to mind is that the procession arrives at the crypt and announces who it is with all his titles and honorifics. And the monks deny him entry. They scale it down and he is still denied entry. Eventually they just say “Otto, a child of God” and the monks open the door. Death is no respecter of person. Paul eventually stops with all the honorifics and just scales it down. He scales it all down to three things.

First, “the fullness of God was pleased to live.” That is the mystery of the incarnation. The God whom all those titles apply to became a man. He became a specific man – Jesus of Nazareth. He did not disperse himself as a divine drop living in every man which is roughly the start of every other religion. The eternal God became one man, born of the virgin Mary. And that man was not by human standards a King, although he was descended from King David. And that man was not mired in sin, although he was a descendant of Adam. Neither was he just an avatar of God soon to be discarded, but Jesus is “the assumption of the humanity into God (Athanasian Creed).” He became the second Adam, the second universal man.

And what was the immediate purpose of this incarnation? Why did God go to such great lengths? Paul’s second summary, “God reconciled everything to himself.” The dictionaries will tie the word for reconciliation together with the third summary of word peace. Reconciliation is the process, peace is the state. Reconciliation is how things were put right. And God didn’t just reconcile man. He didn’t just reconcile a part of his creation. God reconciled in Christ everything. By God the King of creation entering into the creation he made a way for all creation to enter eternity. That way – the process – was by means of the blood of the cross. Satan, the King of this old world, attempted to claim that which was not his. And he lost his Kingdom. He lost his claim on all humanity. Because we are reconciled to God by the blood. We can appeal in faith to the blood and all is made right.

Which brings us to the ultimate purpose. Through the incarnation and the reconciliation what it brought about? Peace. The English word peace has basically come to mean “not war.” Which is too limited a view of peace. The old line about the Roman army is that they conquered and salted the land and called it peace. You can call something devoid of life peace, but it is not the peace of God. It is not the peace that passes understanding. The peace talked about here might be better thought of as cosmic wholeness. Everything is at harmony with everything else. The medieval concept of the music of the spheres is a notion of peace. Everything is singing as the appointed rounds are done. Such moments of peace are few and far between in this world. We rarely know what we are to do. We often grumble while doing it. And what gets done is often not in harmony with our neighbor but at odds. Cold Wars abound. But the reconciliation of Jesus – the blood of the cross – was done to bring peace.

It’s my favorite Christmas verse. All idols then shall perish/and Satan’s lying cease/And Christ shall raise his scepter/decreeing endless peace. A worthy work of a King

The Good in Front of Us

I rarely appreciate the last three Sundays of the church year. I understand why their texts are full of the eschatological end of the world. The non-festival half of the church year is laid out from beginning to culmination, from Pentecost to Judgement. So, spending 3 out of 25 Sundays on last things doesn’t seem terribly out of proportion. The problem is honestly two-fold which I think the Apostle Paul gets around to addressing as he closes our Epistle lesson this week (2 Thessalonians 3:1-13). First, the “last things” – death, judgement, heaven and hell – are just too interesting. We know little about them, only what has been revealed by the prophets and Jesus. And even then most of that is in apocalyptic language which is always tough to decipher. But people repeatedly lose sight of what is before them while pondering those last things. And that is the two-fold problem: losing sight of what is before us because of things outside of our control or even understanding.

In both letters to the Thessalonians – letters which are assumed to be the first written parts of the New Testament – Paul has to address concerns about death, judgement, heaven and hell. People who accepted the faith have died. Did they miss something? Why did Christ not come back and take us? Where are they? Will we see them or did they miss out? Lots of tough important questions that had not been answered. And honestly the inherited Jewish tradition just didn’t have elaborate answers. Jesus himself gives an “eschatological sermon.” Our gospel lesson is the start of that from Luke. But unlike our popular fiction – say the Late Great Planet Earth or Left Behind or even Pope Francis’ favorite 19^th century Lord of the World – what Jesus says just doesn’t slake our desire to know. So we tend to collect the equivalent of the National Enquirer. What Paul says at the start of today’s epistle is the foundation of all Biblical apocalypse. “The LORD is faithful. He will establish you and guard you against the evil one (2 Thessalonians 3:3).” The promises of God are good. Whatever comes, your life, your eternal life, is safe with Christ. The various tyrants will rage at that, but they can do nothing but speed you on your way to God.

That truth should allow us to turn our attention away from those fascinating and foreboding end things. We know how it ends. Christ wins. We win with Christ. Knowing the end, should allow us to pay attention to what is before us. But we so often don’t. Paul addresses a problem among the Thessalonians. The Christians were the first to create a “community chest”, a food bank to support those down on their luck. But as in all these things people figure out ways to abuse it. In this case some of the Thessalonians, so fascinated by the last things, had given up work to prepare for them. They were relying on the food bank to support their fascination. “For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, nor bust at work, but busybodies (2 Thessalonians 3:11).” And the people of God are remarkably generous. It feels wrong to deny charity to someone in need regardless of the reason. We get this all the time in our political fights. “If you were a real Christian, you’d support this.”

The Apostle doesn’t have much time for such arguments. “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat…now such persons we command and encourage in the LORD Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living (2 Thessalonians 3:10,12).” Don’t lose sight of what is in front of you because of things outside of our control. You can’t control the end, although you know who does – Jesus. And he’s got you. The Christian has no religious debt to support those who won’t work.

At the same time though things are placed before us. “As for you, brothers, do no grow weary in doing good (2 Thessalonian 3:13).” Not everything can be dismissed as idleness. And even if you are supporting the idle, their fault does not steal the intent, the goodness, of the charity. We all have enough to do in one day without worrying about the next. Have faith in Jesus for the next. Do the good placed before you today.

Antichrists?

You may or may not recognize the name Peter Thiel. His short bio is Stanford law, founder of PayPal, first investor in Facebook, founder of Palantir, destroyer of Gawker, high contrarian, disciple of Girard, heterodox Christian and homosexual dabbler in rightwing politics. I don’t know if he’d accept the term, but I’d call Mr. Thiel “the philosopher of the age (1 Corinthians 1:20).” That’s leaning on Paul’s contrast between the wisdom of the world and cross, but it is also leaning on an older definition of a Philosopher. When we think of that term, we jump to academics and eggheads. Socrates would aghast at that. Philosophy used to be a way of life. Socrates did not flee Athens when condemned to death. That is what those in control of Athens wished he would do. For Socrates, his philosophy of the City, the Polis, required that he stay and accept its judgement, as terrible as it might be. Call it Socrates the Christ figure who prefigured Jesus crucified under Pontius Pilate and judged by his own people. Peter Thiel is the Philosopher of the Age in that he has very specific ideas and he lives by them. He always has skin in the game.

Now, Philosopher Peter Thiel has latched onto a very Christian term which Paul discusses in our Epistle lesson today (2 Thessalonians 2:1-17) – the antichrist. He’s got a very specific definition. Per Paul in his first letter to the Thessalonians the watchwords at the end of all things will be “peace and security (1 Thessalonians 5:3).” Peter Thiel is an investor is technology. In his original book Zero to One, one of the concepts he discusses is the dichotomy of technology and globalization. Globalization takes already existing technology and as the name implies spreads it across the globe. The ultimate purpose of globalization is to make all things equal. Now that might be an equality of a miserable fight of all against all, but it is an equality. Contrary to globalization, technology makes something new, it goes from zero to one. And everybody gets richer going from zero to one. We’d all like the one of a cure for cancer. But the person or group that makes the one gets outsized gains. Hence why Peter Thiel is a Billionaire. His story of the antichrist is the story of a one world government that kills all new technology – all zero to one – in the name of peace and security. Because technology is disruptive. Of course Philosopher Peter Theil could also just be talking his balance sheet. He has billions riding on technology, not globalization, especially not a global government.

Now Peter Thiel’s concern is not without some very old biblical passages and interpreters. Daniel 7:8 talks about a “little horn” that arises and rules all the others. And Origen and other church fathers would all conclude that the little horn, the final tyrant, was The Antichrist. But Mr. Thiel’s concern also departs from how John would talk of the Antichrist. From 1 John 3:18, “Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is come, so now many antichrists have come.” Far from a single embodied one world ruler, in John the antichrist is everyone who “denies that Jesus is the Christ, who denies the Father and the Son (1 John 3:22).” Paul in our lesson talks about the antichrist as “the man of lawlessness…the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of god, proclaiming himself to be god (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4).” And it is here where Mr. Thiel’s conception runs into trouble. Because it is often those who march under the banner of technology – “move fast and break things” – that would most resemble lawlessness. It is the technologists – from Bacon onward – that often claimed the power of god and the worship of god with signs and wonders. And in Paul’s writing there is something right now that restrains the lawless one so that he might be revealed in his time (2 Thessalonians 2:6). And most interpreters have said that restrainer was the Ur One World Government – the Roman Empire and any of its descendants.

So you have both technologists pointing the finger at globalists, and you could have globalists pointing the finger at technologists as the Antichrist. But neither John’s nor Paul’s point of bringing up the Antichrist is to frighten the Christian or spur them to some heroic stand. In fact something of the opposite. These things have to happen. You are not going to stop them. And if it were possible, they might even lead astray the elect (Matthew 24:24). But it is not possible. Because you are Christ’s. You have been baptized into his name. You have taken his body and his blood. “To this he called you through our gospel, so that you may obtain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ (2 Thessalonians 2:14).” So stand firm. You know God – Father and Son. You know the temple of God – your heart where the Holy Spirit dwells. “Stand firm and hold to the traditions that you were taught.” Technologists and Globalists will both rage. Antichrists have gone out into all the world. But your life is with Christ.