A Strange Coronation

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Biblical Text: Luke 23:27-43

This was the Last Sunday of the Church Year, often called Christ the King Sunday. The sermon elaborates a little more on that source. But the three year cycle of reading in the year of Luke throws an oddity. The Gospel reading is the Via Dolorosa and Crucifixion. Why on Christ the King would we get this? The answer is that this is the coronation walk of the Universal King. The cross is the throne of the King in this world. The posting above the cross – “This is the King of the Jews” – INRI (iesus nazarenus rex iudaeorum in Latin, Pilate’s judgement, Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews) – is the divine irony. It is the sentence that the world gave; it is also the truth.

And on this walk and enthronement the King grants alms and blessings and benedictions. We also see the division, the judgement as it is actually carried out. For it is at the foot of the cross that the judgement takes place. Are we mockers? Or are we beggars?

That’s a bit of the sermon. Give it a listen for the elaboration.

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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

Hiding Behind Big Words

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Biblical Text: Luke 21:5-28

The text is Jesus answering the disciple’s questions on the end of the world. The sermon is an attempt to hear it. Because like the disciples we are often in so much shock and horror about the end of something we think is eternal that we can’t hear. Jesus put them into that shock with his answer about the temple – “not a stone will be left.” But then he tries to talk about what such an end actually means. The short answer is: 1) This is this world. These things have always been. Nothing here is eternal. 2) The end of a world is not the end of the world. 3) Don’t worry about the end because your life is safe with Christ regardless of what this old world does. 4) You won’t miss it. You don’t need to look for signs or guess the time. The Son of Man comes with power and great glory. Nobody will miss it.

Now the problem is that isn’t a good a story as “The Omen” or “Left Behind” or even “The Terminator.” And for a variety of reasons theologians and pastors try and hide behind big words. And in doing so, we tend to cede the ground to those horror stories. And instead of an apocalypse being a revealing it becomes a terror. Instead of the eschatological last things causing us to lift up our heads because our redemption draws near we run from one panic to another. But Jesus point is that we already know how it ends. Christ wins. Which frees us to live now.

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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 19th 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.

Power in the Name

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Biblical Text: Exodus 3:1-15

It was a fun service to plan. All the hymns of the day contained verse about the name of God (Holy God We Praise Thy Name, At the Name of Jesus, All Hail the Power of Jesus Name, Jesus! Name of Wondrous Love, Savior Again to Thy Dear Name We Raise.) That is quite the powerhouse Sunday of beloved hymns. And all of them are pretty solid on the theology. But the Text is when Moses receives the name of God. The first solid point is that god is not a name. God is a generic word for a category. And the ideas behind that category can be quite different. What Moses receives is the name. We usually say “I AM.” And that has all kinds of philosophical points. But it is first a name. And there is power in names. Not the least that you can drop them.

This Sermon is a reflection on the 2nd commandment (Do not take the name of the LORD in vain) and Luther’s explanation. It finds it’s practical points in our language, namely the causal use of things like OMG. And how OMG might not be that big a deal in itself. It doesn’t seem to trespass any of Luther’s explanation. But that is only because of how flippantly we use it. A deeper meditation would be how such flippant use of language – not just a generic category god – influences everything else we speak or hear. That is what this sermon wants to ponder.

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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.

Walls of the Heart

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Biblical Texts: Luke 19:1-10, Isaiah 1:10-18

The liturgical calendar gets more than a nod here, this is All Saints (Observed). The hymns carry the heavy load, maybe more so this year as I chose the lessons for the regular Sunday instead of the All Saints texts. The same texts tend to get skipped year after year. In this case the story of Zaccheaus and a rather harsh sounding Isaiah text. But I picked them for what I thought is an important, but often ignored aspect of All Saints. The day is usually given over to the Saints at Rest. Let me explain three terms. You have the Church Militant or the Saints Militant which is you and me if you are reading this. You have the Church/Saints at rest who are those who have died in the faith. Eventually you will have the church/saints triumphant who are all the saints in the resurrection. For a protestant All Saints is typically the day to remember those now with Christ. But these lessons were perfect I thought to meditate on the Church militant, and maybe even more specifically from a Protestant perspective what makes a saint.

Zaccheaus is an interesting view. The sermon connects it to an Old Testament story that I put forward in typological fashion. How different walls need to come down to enter the promised land. The walls that make a saint are the walls of the heart. It is the call of Jesus, when we are up a tree, that tells us to come down and invites himself in. And Zaccheaus complies and receives him joyfully. The sermon picks up from there.

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On the Soul at Halloween

Hallow’een – with the original apostrophe – signals where it came from, All Hallows Eve. Of course you have to have an understanding of what the slightly archaic word Hallow means. We still use it in the Lord’s Prayer, Hallowed be thy name. If a saint is a noun – a person, place, thing or idea – to hallow is the verb that makes a saint. Yes, 3rd grade grammar, which is also something that isn’t taught anymore, can be useful. To hallow, is to make Holy. Hallow is a good old Anglo-Saxon word. The words that have replaced it – saint and sanctify – come from the Latin. Hemingway liked short sentences and Anglo-Saxon words. He thought those old words were closer to the living core than the more intellectual Latin.  You take off your shoes when your gut senses the hallowed; the sanctified is something you ponder with your head. Which cuts to the quick?

And that distinction is something I want to think about here.  All Hallows Eve was of course followed by All Saints Day and All Saints was followed by All Souls. The distinction is the medieval one – between those in heaven and those in purgatory. And hence it was something in need of Reform as medieval purgatory is not part of the true teachings of the church. Christ actually did save us. The Holy Spirit actually does hallow us. We do not owe the Pope penance or need to buy indulgences. A Reformed understanding of All Souls might simply be that the judgement as to our final hallowing is not up to us. We can grasp with surety the promise of souls with Christ, which is better by far (Philippians 1:23), for those who evidenced belief. But there are many who might have been baptized but did not evidence belief. Or had not in a long time. We do not know.  And judgement is not ours to make. We commend their souls to the grace of Almighty God. All Souls Reformed is the shadow of All Saints.  If we hold up the Saints as examples of faith to follow. We should also remember that everyone we meet has a soul with all that implies.

And that brings up the question, what is a soul anyway? Modern philosophers would dismiss the word. Tom Wolfe – the guy who wrote The Right Stuff – also wrote a famous article “Sorry, Your Soul Just Died.” What might be shared between ancient philosophers and modern would be that your Soul is what makes you, you. Plato and most of the ancient world asserted that your soul was eternal. It was a little spark off of the eternal one.  And you – your soul – would eternally separate from the one and eventually return to the one. Eastern religion would call it the Wheel of Samsara. Modern philosophers, contrary to the ancient, would say Tom Wolfe’s title. Your soul dies with your body, sorry but nothing of you is immortal.

The Philosophers might bounce between eternal and mortal, but the Psalm writers are the greatest biblical students of the soul. Your soul is not eternal.  You are not Christ, begotten of the Father before all world, God from God, Light from Light.  You are not a spark off the eternal one. You are a creature. You were created. “You knitted me together in my mother’s womb (Psalm 139:13).”  But neither are you reducible to just atoms.  The Psalmist knows that he can’t boldly state the immortality of the soul. Lions might tear the soul (Psalm 7:2, 57:4). The soul might melt away (Psalm 119:28). One pleads that the soul might live (Psalm 119:175). Your soul depends upon the grace of God.  But it is that gracious God who sustains you. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…He restores my soul (Psalm 23).” It is God who redeems your soul/life from the pit/sheol (psalm 103:4). It is the LORD who is the consolation of the soul (Psalm 94:19) and makes you the apple of his eye (Psalm 17:8). All this is why the Psalmist says many times, “Praise the LORD, O my soul (Psalm 146:1).”

We might think, and when we think we worry, about our souls – what makes us who we are. But our worry is unnecessary and often unhelpful.  It leads us to false hopes like an eternal soul. It leads us to despair like a dead soul. Instead we put our trust in the LORD, our strength and tower. For He knows our worth.  And he will hallow and keep you – keep your life – in Christ. Know it in your gut.  You are being hallowed.   

Standing Before God

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Biblical Text: Romans 3: 19-28

I don’t often preach from the epistle texts. A part of that is that the Epistles typically lack a hard narrative. I think we as humans understand narrative – the story of a life. And we understand how God works in our lives through the narrative. The narratives that the apostles had were ancient Isreal’s, Jesus and their own. The Epistles end up being authoritative examples of how one does theology – how you proclaim doctrine from the narrative. In that way they are great at teaching, but at least to me less for preaching.

But today was Reformation Day (Observed). And there is a narrative – the story of Martin Luther and the Reformation – that ties directly into the doctrinal teachings of the Epistle lesson. This Romans passage on the Righteousness of God is what Luther was reading when he had his “tower experience.” That experience was when the gospel was cemented in his brain.

This sermon attempts to weave that narrative, and Paul’s doctrine together with how we might live our lives – how we might tell our own stories. How the righteousness of God comes to us. How it is the sure foundation. And How we might build on that.

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