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

On the Ministry – Augsburg 5

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Biblical Text: Luke 10:1-20

The text is Jesus sending out the 72. It is a text unique to Luke. Other gospels have the sending of the 12; only Luke has the follow on larger sending. And I tend to think it is the perfect text to talk about what exactly the ordained ministry is. Within Lutheranism that is discussing Article 5 of the Augsburg Confession. And I think compared to all the other churches of the various schisms – discussed in the sermon – we get it right. Many fall in a ditch to the right ascribing something called ontological change to the one ordained. This puts sacramental magic on the ordination and relegates the call to nothing. Others fall in the ditch on the left. They reduce the ministry to the priesthood of all believers. Everything rests on the call, and we all have a call in that priesthood. And they ignore the entire biblical history of those set apart – like Jesus sets apart these 72 – sent to the towns and villages of Israel. The Augsburg Confession I believe presents is rightly. The ministry exists for one reason, to continue to proclaim the gospel – “Peace be to this house.” Because this is how faith is created, but the proclamation that comes from outside of us. Christ came from outside of our world to proclaim the nearer Kingdom of God. And he sent folks to proclaim that. And he continues to send folks into the fields to proclaim that. In one sense the tools are completely inappropriate for the task. The sermon elaborates. But the Word creates exactly what it intends – faith.

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Rivers of Glory

“Behold, I will extend peace to her like a river, and the glory of the nations like an overflowing stream…” – Isaiah 66:12

I grew up on the Mississippi River. Saw that big river daily. Never really understood this verse. Isaiah uses the same metaphor is Isaiah 48:18, “Oh that you had paid attention to my commandments! Then your peace would have been like a river, and your righteousness like the waves of the sea.” There it makes more sense to me. The idea is the never-ending nature of the river and likewise the waves of the sea. It’s a poetic way of saying what I often do about the law – “your life will go better if you live according to the 10 commandments.” There is some variance. Rivers rise and fall with the rain. Sometimes they jump their banks. Like the waves of the sea with the tides. The returns to observing the law in a fallen world are not guaranteed. The law does not save. But God’s original creation was good and even in its current brokenness that goodness can be seen. Seedtime and harvest do not stop. But in what way is peace like a river? We don’t declare wars anymore, but what was the last year that we didn’t bomb somebody? The last year July 4^th felt like a truly shared holiday of thanks for being Washington’s “distant posterity?”

Isaiah’s reuse of this phrase in chapter 66 is not linked to the covenant of the law as it was in chapter 48. It is not a lament over the peace that was forfeit. Here in chapter 66 it is promise. The Jerusalem that Isaish sees is not the earthly one. The last chapters of Isaiah are largely written to those who had returned from exile. They were in the earthly Jerusalem. And while they might be happy to be back, it wasn’t the promise. And that became evident to them quickly. The temple was never what it was, the monarchy never came back, the walls took generations to rebuild. They were always ruled by someone else. The Jerusalem that Isaiah speaks about is the New Jerusalem. It is the Jerusalem of the divine promise.

In that Jerusalem, “behold, I will extend peace to her like a river.” The eternal flowing nature of a river – at least rivers like the Mississippi if not the Agua Fria – is the promise. The wars and rumors of wars will be over. The game of thrones that never stops, will have ended, because the rightful monarch is on the throne and all pretenders have been cast down.

As much as we might like peace, the truth is that we can often think of peace as boring. We all know those who can’t go a few days without drama, although maybe as we age we come to appreciate boring better. But the thing that Isaiah puts in the poetic comparison is not righteousness as before but now glory. “The glory of the nations like an overflowing stream.” Glory isn’t boring. We endure the drama, we run the race, for the glory of a crown that fades. The New Jerusalem described is peace and glory. And this is a crown that does not fade but overflows.

In the promised Jerusalem peace and glory are not enemies. Peace denying the one desiring glory the opportunity for it. In the promised Jerusalem they are the bedrock of everything. The Peace extended and the glory overflowing allow for flourishing. They allow for mothering (nursing, carrying and comfort) and they allow for growth. “Your bones shall flourish like the grass.” Peace is anything but boring in the New Jerusalem. It’s more like that Big River that could take you wherever you want to go. Just waiting for the Resurrection Huck Finn to get on the raft.

Christmas Day

Biblical Texts: Isaiah 52:7-10, Deuteronomy 4:34

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There are two phrases that the bible uses that form this meditation: Signs and Wonders and Baring His Arm. The way they are used initially is seen in the Deuteronomy verse: judgement, war, plagues and straight ahead power. But what Isaiah announces and what Christmas Day reveals is a much different wonder. God has bared his arm in a completely new way. Instead of judgement, grace. Instead of war, peace. Instead of power, the meekness of a baby in the manger. The Chirst child is a sign and wonder of a new thing. Not God’s judgement, but His salvation.

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Christmas Eve 2024

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2024 feels like to me the year gambling took over everything. That’s something of the theme of this homily. It is possible to look at the biblical story through gambler’s eyes. It’s even on old tradition in Pascal’s wager. But that really isn’t the biblical story. It is not a gamble, it’s a gift. It’s the will of God that you are his child. The child in a manger is not God rolling the dice over your soul. He is the light in the midst of the darkness. He is the love of God for you. Evermore and Evermore.

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The King’s Peace

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Biblical Text: Luke 19:28-40

This is the first Sunday of Advent and the Gospel text is always Palm Sunday – the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem. The theme or motif of the day is the Advent or Coming of the King. What this sermon takes up is our distance from even the idea of a King. What does it mean to have a King? What are successful Kings? And how is the Kingdom of Heaven different from all those?

The core of being a king is to reign. But there are many ways that reign is established, justified and judged. The Reign of Jesus is specific in two ways called out by the crowds. It brings peace and it brings glory to the highest. This sermon develops how we live in that peace and how we can recognize and join in the glorification.

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Fathers, Sons, Reconciliation and Peace

There are so few stories of universal resonance. I’ll save my “what’s in a name” Romeo and Juliet soliloquy for bible study. Our Old Testament reading this week (Genesis 17:1-17,15-16) backs up last week’s Sacrifice of Isaac which we looked at in detail in Bible Study. God changes the names of Abram and Sarai to Abraham and Sarah. The meaning of the new names makes all the stranger the request of the sacrifice. When I say universal resonance I’m not downgrading any of our personal experiences. Those are all very meaningful to us, but most of us don’t live universal lives.

Shakespeare runs through my mind all the time because he had an uncanny gift for tapping into the emotion of those universal stories. Romeo and Juliet is of course about that impossibly deep teenage swooning, but also about terrible adult reactions. The vampire nostalgia of those like the nurse and the friar living off the emotion and enabling it, but also the hardened hearts of the family heads who demand the undemandable. Telling teens to choose more carefully, by last name, who they love. Rewatching HBO’s Rome, dodging the no longer softcore porn involved, for a story about Fathers and Sons, I was amazed at how much they missed it all. The real story wouldn’t have needed the porn to keep attention. Billy Shakes captures it all in “Et Tu, Brute?” Julius Caesar had a bunch of “sons”. His miliary son, Mark Antony. His foreign son by Cleopatra, Caesarion. His adopted relative Roman son, Octavian nee Augustus. But it was the illegitimate son, Brutus, from his real love, Servillia, who had been sacrificed to his ambition. “You also Son want me dead?” And all of those “sons” would tear the Republic apart after fighting for what the Father could never give them. It’s a reminder of how blessed Americans are to have a world unique man, George Washington, as the Father of our country.

But of all of those universal lives and their stories, even George Washington’s, there is nothing quite like Jesus Christ. “For while we were still weak, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6).” It is the story of a Father and a Son. But not one of a Father who only gave love through usefulness, which is not love at all. It is also the story of an impossibly deep love. “God showed his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8).” It is ultimately the story that contains all of them. As Pilate would say, “Behold, The Man (John 19:5).” Here is the true man. Not the man gone wrong like Adam and all us sons of Adam and daughters of Eve. But the true man who has come into the world to redeem the world. Who has reconciled us to Our Father by his blood. Who willingly put down his life out of love for the Father and His creation. We are included in that story as the recipients of such a love.

Which is the only explanation for why Paul can make such an audacious boast, “we rejoice in our sufferings (Romans 5:3).” Absolute foolishness, even to stoics. The stoic might endure, but they do not rejoice. We rejoice in our sufferings because they are an inclusion in the story. They are as Paul would say elsewhere a fulling up of the afflictions of Christ (1 Colossians 1:24). But the afflictions are not the thing itself. The sufferings produce endurance. But unlike the stoics, endurance is not the point. Endurance produces character. But unlike the virtue ethicists of every age, even character is not the point. Character produces hope. Hope that does not put us to shame. Hope that we are included in this greatest story ever told. Hope that the love of God has been poured into our hearts. Hope that all sad stories have once more verse. That we are reconciled to God and have peace.

Brother’s Return

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Biblical Text: Micah 5:2-5a

Our final midweek for 2022 Advent. The passage from Micah recalls two big OT themes that will be brought to fulfillment or fruition at the advent of the messiah. The First is God’s choosing the least. The second the return or the ingathering of those who have been let go. This homily attempts to place those before us so that we might have faith in the claims of the eternal peace also brought by the messiah.

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Spirit Power: Courage, Teaching, Peace

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Biblical Text: Acts 2: 1-21, 22-47, John 14:23-31

This Sunday continues a couple of series. It continues our study of the book of Acts even if we have been “jumping around” in that book. This sermon ends up following up on last week. If last week was about the Spirit’s work “inside” the church before the public work that begins on Pentecost, this week’s is about the “outside” work, what the Spirit empowers in the world. The summary is the three word subtitle. The Spirit continues to empower courage. The Christian life comes with its own power source. The Spirit empowers the teaching of the church. The sermon reflects on the first sermon of the church and how it models ever Spirit filled sermon since. And the Spirit empowers a peace that the world cannot give.

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