Unpopular Truth

The creed is either true or false. Either God the Father is the creator of all things visible and invisible, or He isn’t. Either Jesus is the only-begotten Son of God crucified under Pontius Pilate yet sitting at the right hand of the Father waiting to come again in glory, or He isn’t. Either the Holy Spirit does work through means like one Baptism for the remission of sins, are it is just simple water.

The truth or falsehood of something has little direct effect on its popularity or unpopularity. In fact, some things that are true can be repugnant. Some things that are false can be very sweet. For example, it is true, even if unpopular, that the typical woman would not stand a chance in a fight against a typical man. Now if she had a gun that changes things, but that is not what Hollywood shows. Hollywood shows us a 100 lbs starlet throwing around a 250 lbs man without messing up her hair. Sorry, not happening. I don’t care how much Kung-Fu she knows. An example of a falsehood that can be sweet would be the idea that one can be a Christian without a church. There are lots of people who really like that idea. You might see them at Christmas, but they will tell those who ask they believe in Jesus. Which is how you get 20% of people in church on any given Sunday, but 70% proclaiming belief. The problem is that Jesus said he was going to build his church. Me and my personal Jesus are nice, but not sufficient, because we are being built together into one body. The Holy Spirit works through means, the first of which is “The Holy Christian Church, the communion of saints.”

When Jesus asks the disciples “who do people say that I am?” They answer him, “The Baptist, Isaiah, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” Jeremiah is the real interesting one on that list. The Baptist is the most recent prophetic voice. Isaiah is the sweetest. Saying one of the other prophets is just saying “he’s speaking truths in a powerful way.” Calling Jesus Jeremiah is calling Jesus “the man of sorrows.” There is a long history of the iconography of this Son of Man. The two stained glass pictures nearby are a couple of examples. One has the crown of thorns. Many of the pictures will pick up either the reed that he was beaten with, or the crown, or some other element of the passion. Another popular picture is the Garden of Gethsemane. But, it doesn’t require any of those elements. Sometimes The Man of Sorrows is just portrayed with the melancholy downward look. Jesus is not fully stoic. His guts can be churned.

The Man of Sorrows sits in the unpopular truth square. We’d all like to be in the popular truth square. The devil is pretty effective at herding us into the popular falsehood one. I’m always surprised at the number of people who will stand in the unpopular falsehood square. If you doubt me in that why are there so many people who insist that “real communism has never been tried.” But we have an instinctive horror at unpopular truth. Jeremiah prophesied for 40 years that Jerusalem was going to fall. This was the truth, but nobody wanted to hear the message. We have little interest in being Jeremiah.

What God tells Jeremiah in our Old Testament Lesson (Jeremiah 15:15-21) is instructive. “If you utter what is precious, and not what is worthless, you shall be as my mouth. They shall turn to you, but you shall not turn to them. And I will make you to this people a fortified wall of bronze…for I am with you to save you and deliver you, declares the LORD.” The Truth is precious. Jesus calls himself the Way, The Truth and the Life. Nothing that is not true comes from the mouth of God. And I think we know that in the long run, truth outs. Of course we ourselves might not be there to see it. At Keynes quipped, “in the long run, we are all dead.” But standing in the truth is standing where God is, and where he will save, and from where he will deliver. The LORD has declared this.

The man of sorrows stood in that unpopular truthful corner. His own did not receive him. But the light still shines. Don’t mistake popularity or unpopularity for the truth. Tomorrow will rearrange all of our categories, but the truth stands like a fortified wall of bronze.

Office of the Keys

The Symbol to the left is one that you used to find in both Roman Catholic and what were called the Magisterial Protestant churches, which is everybody but the Baptists. But depending upon your Pastor, you might not have been taught this in catechism. It is the symbol of the office of the keys. It is the fifth part of the Small Catechism. Sometimes called confession. And the one most often skipped. Why skipped? It makes an audacious claim. It claims that ministers can forgive sins. But probably even more scandalous is the claim that the office has the authority to withhold forgiveness. Hence the two crossed keys. One of them to loose and one of them to bind.

How are sins forgiven? Why do we believe any of them are? The first biblical story to deal with such forgiveness is the crippled man lowered through the roof by his friends to Jesus (Matthew 9:1ff/Mark 2:1ff). When Jesus first sees the man, he tells him “your sins are forgiven.” Nice, but probably something of a letdown from expectation of the miracle worker. But Jesus has his point. He strikes up the question with the Pharisees watching who were saying he was blaspheming. “Only God can forgive sins.” He tells the man to pick up his mat and walk as proof that the Son of Man also has authority to forgive sins. And this is roughly where the Baptists like to stop the story. Forgiveness is between me and my personal Jesus. And they are not completely wrong. Jesus sinners doth receive. There is nothing that you can’t take to Jesus. But the story doesn’t stop there.

In three places (Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18: 18 and John 20:22) Jesus gives this authority to different groups. If you are Roman Catholic you love our Gospel text for today, the first one, because in that passage the words are said to Peter. Ta-da, the first pope is the owner of the keys. Hence the papal seal to the right. If you are most flavors of protestant you love the Matthew 18 version a couple chapters later in which the same words are given in general to “brothers and sisters”. The Eastern Orthodox and our Catechism like the John passage because the recipients of the saying appear to be the apostles as a group. The interpretive leap in each is the preferred sources of forgiving sins: The pope and those in communion, members of the church, and those called and ordained.

I can’t remember if I’ve referenced it before but this is where I love Luther in a largely forgotten part of the confessions, the Smalcald Articles Part 3, article 4 on The Gospel. “God is superabundant in his grace: first , through the spoken word, by which the forgiveness of sins is preached in the whole world…second through Baptism. Third through the Sacrament of the Altar. Forth through the power of the keys. Also through the mutual consolation of the brethren.” Luther’s answer is “Why not all?”

But that doesn’t address why these keys have a tendency to disappear. Which goes back to the catechism questions. What is confession? Confession has two parts, first that we confess our sins and second that we receive absolution. It is never the use of the loosing key that causes trouble. I’ve never run across a Christian who complains about forgiving a repentant sinner. Yes, I know the parable of the prodigal and the older brother. Yes, I do recognize that people can have trouble with forgiveness. But at least in my experience that eventually thaws. What all kinds of people do have problems with is the necessity of confession for absolution. The binding key is not really a power of the office but a duty – to call sinners to repentance. And sinners who don’t think they have can often respond, “just who do you think you are?”

It is much easier to say your sins are forgiven. But if you are only using one key, you might be like the prophets declaring “peace, peace.” We will see if what they say happens. But the called office has both keys for reason. So that we might be confident in the grace of God through all of his means of grace.

The Best Laid Plans

Do you ever start something not really sure where it is going to go?

That usually isn’t me. I want to have “the plan”. I want to work “the plan”. “The plan” might even have multiple paths and checkpoints. Now I’ve never been crazy about this. I’ve always known full well in the wise words of Iron Mike Tyson that “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” But when you get punched in the mouth is when you hope your plan is more like a Bach fugue. The melody is solid, you just have to shift to a different mouth.

Something like that might be the secret to a successful and happy existence on earth. Can you roll with the punches? Do you have enough grit such that you don’t have a glass jaw? Are you limber enough to play the rope-a-dope occasionally, or at least get your head out of the way of the haymaker? If you are good at it, or never come up against Mike Tyson at least, you might even think you can go the full 15 rounds and grab the belt. Define “the belt” however you want to.

You can file all of that under what Luther called civil righteousness. The world works a certain way. Some of those ways are not very Christian, using that word in the sense of nice or meeting a certain decorum. But that starts to point out the problems with Civil Righteousness. Everyone around you might think you are the best person on earth, a living saint. But, none of them get a vote that counts. And even if they absolve you of great crimes because you have donated enough money to get your name on a building, their absolution lasts until you leave the building. If you plan for civil righteousness you have received your reward. Enjoy the belt.

The other type of righteousness Luther calls the righteousness before God. And the brutal truth about this type is you can’t plan for it. In fact, the more you plan and scheme and try to earn it, the more it punches you in the mouth. Eventually, bloody and bruised and knocked out, you might conclude that it’s a funny game, the only way to win is not to play. Because you can’t win the righteousness of God. It only comes as a free gift. It only comes to broken sinners. It only comes to those who are flat on the mat admitting they are not going to beat the 10 count. That is the stink of desperation in the civil realm, but before God that is when He can start to do something. That is when we put down our plans and seek out God’s plans. When we are raised by the Spirit.

Part of the good news is that God has told us where this goes. This conforms us to his son, Jesus. He has also told us what to expect. The punches of the world will keep coming. But the plan of God is your eternal salvation. Your reward will be great in heaven.

Part of the good news also is that it is good, not nice. Nice is always defined socially. Nice is always changing. What is good? Conan the Barbarian’s answer isn’t it. What is good doesn’t really change. “Keep justice, do righteousness (Isa 56:1), and walk humbly with your God (Micah 6:8).” For soon my salvation will come, and my deliverance will be revealed. With our plans we never really know where they are going; with God’s plan we know.

3 AM

Just when you think the bible is giving you shallow travel directions it opens up a deep picture. The Gospel reading this week (Matthew 14:22-33) starts with those travel directions. The crowds have been fed, but as the disciples had remarked earlier, it is late in the day. Even later after 5000 have eaten. And Jesus knows what the crowds want to do – make him king. So, “Immediately Jesus made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side.” And, “after he dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself.” How exactly does Jesus dismiss the crowd that wants to make him King? We don’t know. Why does he force the disciples into the boat? Maybe because they would have been just as much caught up in making him king, but we don’t know. But if we stop to ponder the scene, it is quite a view of the Christian life.

First, Jesus has sent us out at night onto the chaos of the waters. And somehow this is for our good. Even though we might end up “a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, and the wind was against them, in the fourth watch of the night.” That fourth watch is the metaphorical 3 AM. If you are a horror fan, you know everything bad happens at 3 AM. If you are a worrier or an insomniac, and you are up at 3 AM, it has not been a good day or night and neither will the fast approaching day be good. We know what this feels like. It is dark and we are exhausted and all the creepies come out. Why did you send me to this place alone?

But the second part is the recognition that we are never really alone. Jesus on the mountain top – with apparently Moses’ 120 year old eagle eyes – has them on his disciples. Mark’s gospel is explicit, “he saw they were making headway painfully (Mark 6:48).” The eyes of God are always upon those he loves. And his compassion – his guts being churned – are not just for the crowds. “In the fourth watch of the night he came to them walking on the sea.” The chaos and darkness of the sea have no power over this one. He walks on them. What are our reactions when God acts?

The first one, “they were terrified and said ‘it is a ghost!’” We expect the bad. We expect the creepies that have come out to finish us off. This is what the world does; it finishes off the weak and exhausted. Of course lurking in the background there is that saying it is a ghost is easier than saying “our deliverance has come.” Because if what comes to us at 3 AM is God, that comes with demands, with strings attached. Not the least being that he has witnessed our state. Jesus answers all this with the affirmative, “Take heart; It is I.” And yes, our translators wimp out. “Take Heart, I AM.” The Almighty has been watching and has come for you.

The second one, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Ok God, I’m not sure about this, so tell me to get out of this perfectly good boat you placed me in, and walk by myself over the chaos to you. Yeah, we don’t think too good at 3 AM. But Jesus goes with it, maybe for the same reason he sent them in the first place. Of course we were not meant to be on the waters outside of the boat. And that is not because we can’t. Peter does manage it for a couple of steps. But then we always “see the wind” and the fear returns.

So what does Jesus do? Grabs Peter, puts him back in the boat, and joins the rest, who all then worship him. We are meant to be in the boat (please see the church). We are meant to be with each other. And yes the boat is sent out on rough seas, but God sees it. And Christ comes and is with us and the winds cease. When we see God at 3 AM, we know. He has not sent us out alone, and He Is.

Bread in the Wilderness

The Introit for this Sunday comes from Psalm 105. Specifically verses 39-43 with verse 1 as the antiphon. (What is an antiphon I hear someone ask? Think of it as the chorus. After every verse detailing the works of God you could sing: “Oh give thanks to the Lord; Call upon His name/make known his deeds among the peoples.”) The fullness of the Psalm is a remembrance of the history of the covenant, the promises of God, and those deeds starting with Abraham and culminating in the Exodus. The specific time the verses of the Introit are recalling is Israel’s days and years in the wilderness.

Why would we be recalling that? The wilderness, or the desert, is the place to do two things. In the worldly sense, rebels and renegades gathered in the wilderness. If you are gathering an army to overthrow the current ruler, you went into the wilderness. The other thing you went into the wilderness to do is draw near to God. In the absence of the delights of the World, the hope was connection to God. Why did God lead Israel into the wilderness after the Exodus? In the hopes that they would draw near to Him. Of course if we remember that physical Israel, they longed for the meat and fullness of Egypt, and they gathered in rebellion against the God who brought them out of Egypt. It would be Jesus who would go out into the wilderness and turn down the temptations of the devil and the world.

The Psalmist remembers the Works of God in the wilderness as three things. First, God draws near to his people – “a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light by night.” This is the fire-y cloudy pillar that would see Israel all their journey through. After drawing near, God provided abundant sustenance, bread from heaven and water from the Rock. And the last work is that God remembered his promises. While Israel would still be rebels in the wilderness, even while God drew near, He remembered his promises and provided in abundance.

So why would we remember this let alone sing about it or make these deeds known among the peoples? The first reason is that God again drew near, but this time not as fire and cloud, but as man, as Israel reduced to one. And when Jesus went to the desert, this Israel was faithful. When tempted to make bread from the stones, he pointed at the true bread – the Word of God (Matthew 4:4). And He came to give us this true bread, himself. God drew near to us with his abundance.

The second reason is how we might recognize this life. We are like Israel in the desert. We know where we have been. We vaguely know where we are going. And we know who leads us. We walk though this world to learn that God draws near to us, and to learn how God gives us bread in abundance and water in the desert. We walk through this world to learn that God remembers and keeps his promises.

The question to us is do we follow? Or do we go back to Egypt; do we prefer rebellion? Does the bread of heaven satisfy, or do we long for what the world would offer?

One Thing’s Needful

I probably have to issue an apology for the hymn chosen as the office hymn. It has a tricky rhythm change. And I can’t even really blame it on modernity. It is just my observation that modern hymns – and by modern I mean anything written after roughly 1960 – often fail not because they aren’t good in a doctrinal sense, but because you can’t sing them. They are set too high, they have large gaps in the melody or they use complex rhythms; all of which just mean they are meant for soloists or trained singers, not congregational singing which is supposed to include everyone. But “One Thing’s Needful” (LSB 536) is from a text in the 17^th century, translated in the 19^th century, paired with a tune from the 17^th. The Companion to the hymnal observes, “the unusual metrical structure of the text is representative of the more soloistic style of hymns found at the end of the 17^th century.” So these things go in and out of style. We are not alone.

So, why am I afflicting you with this hymn? I’d like you to ponder the juxtaposition of the first verse of the two rhythm parts. The flowing 4/4 time is serene and restful and presents a doctrinal truth. “One thing’s needful; Lord this treasure teach me highly to regard/All else though it first give pleasure is a yoke that presses hard.” The truth it communicates is something that most Christians would assent to mentally almost immediately. Christ is our only true need. We don’t acknowledge this enough. Instead our hearts chase other gods. All of them turn out to eat us alive, to place us under heavy yokes. And in our serene space of contemplation this is all very easy to accept.

But then the rhythm changes to 3/4 with its driving “bum-bum-bum, bum-bum-bum.” Gone is the serene time of contemplation. We are in the very midst of life. “Beneath it the heart is still fretting and striving/No true lasting happiness ever deriving/this one thing is needful all others are vain/I count all but loss that I Christ man obtain.” Whatever our head says in contemplation, the heart often desires other things. The heart, part of this flesh which Paul has been pondering in our Epistle lessons, has a problem with sin. It is constantly fretting and striving. Oh, I might lose this, including my life. No, I’m going to claim that and get it, I don’t care who I have to kill to do it. And we are driven along “bum-bum-bum” by things we do not know or even stop to ponder.

Our only help in that midst of life is often the “Jesus Take the Wheel” prayer. Jesus, I know there is no happiness in this way. I know that I need you. Save me. And then the hymn returns us to that moment of contemplation. Our frantic prayers are turned into communion with God or the consolation of the Spirit. And in those moments we start to learn the basics of wisdom. “Wisdom’s highest, noblest treasure, Jesus, is revealed in you/Let me find in you my pleasure, and my wayward will subdue.” I know this, teach me your way so that I might follow it all my days.

All our days we are thrown back and forth. Luther called the Christian life: “Prayer, Meditation and Trial.” (He of course used Latin – oratio, meditation, tentatio – snob.) And like Luther’s last recorded words, “We are all beggars”, we end in the trial of death. Our hope is completely outside of us. “Through all my life’s pilgrimage, guard and uphold me, in loving forgiveness O Jesus enfold me.” And we only find our rest in faith that “this one thing is needful, all others are vain, I count all but loss that I Christ may obtain.”

I’ve included it because I think it is a masterful work in both word and song of this current life and our one hope in the midst of it. (If you do not have a hymnal at home, this particular hymn can be seen online here: https://hymnary.org/hymn/LSB2006/536 )

Hype Man

Who is like me? Let him proclaim it! – Isaiah 44:6

I joke with a couple of buddies that I must be losing brain cells, that or just starting to see things I was too uptight to recognize before. I was never a Wrestling fan in my younger years. I was a “real” athlete and looked down on the show. One thing in particular always annoyed me. All my coaches were hard guys. You don’t find their type anymore. But they were all the type to quote Bear Bryant, “if you score a touchdown, act like you’ve been there before.” It was not that they were not emotional or stunted as the cliché would have it. The teaching was use that emotion to power something that helps, like running over the linebacker, not the cheap release of the touchdown dance or bat flip. The one particular thing that annoyed me about wrestling was “thy hype man.” That’s the guy who comes in with the guy holding up the belt. He’s the guy who is “talking smack” about what the champ is going to do to the poor guy in the ring with him. He’s the guy (kinda like me) who likes to hear his own voice and if that is in service of some semi-literate brute, that’s fine. It pays, and the brute can back it up. If he can’t, you find a new brute.

In the middle of Isaiah you find the passage where God is his own hype man. “Thus says THE LORD…The King of Israel…and his Redeemer…the LORD of hosts.” You can hear the cadence. The hype man reeling off the titles and the glory. Oh, you think you are getting into the ring? Do you know who you are getting into the ring with?

“I am the first…and the last…besides me…there is no God.” I pity you. You think that stone thing can compete with me? You think whatever idol you’ve made can stand in my presence. You better look again.

“Who is like me? Let him proclaim it!” This is so lopsided you can’t even find a hype man to join you. There is no one like me and there never will be one like me. And you know it. Everybody knows it.

“Since I appointed an ancient people. Let them declare what is to come and what will happen.” I was before you and will be after you. I was so before you I don’t just have a hype man, I have a hype nation. They have a long history with me. They know what is coming. Hype nation, let them know. I’m taking a break, you let them know for a bit.

“Fear not, nor be afraid, have I not told you from of old? You are my witnesses!” Oh I’m not giving up the mike. But can I get a witness. I need an Amen! My corner men need to tell you how nobody has ever touched me. Hype nation, sing my praises. Let me hear you!

“Is there a God besides me? There is no Rock; I know not any.” Not even The Rock is going to be your rock. There is only me. There is only one sure bet. And you are hearing The WORD!

I’m not sure how God as hype-man maps onto salvation history. It isn’t one of the metaphors or types that get emphasized in seminary. But maybe we need to hear hype nation occasionally. This guy has been in the ring since the dawn of history. The Jews can witness. And nobody has knocked him off yet. Satan thought he had his moment on a hill far away. And then – bam! – nothing could hold Him. The body wasn’t even cold when he reclaimed those belts.

Like the Rain

Our Old Testament Lesson this week comes from Isaiah 55 which happens to be one of the most fascinating chapters in the bible. Not because it is part of the grand-narrative (what we are studying on Wednesday). But because of what it reveals about God and the metaphors it uses.

The first metaphor is one of commerce, but it is unlike any commerce we are familiar with. I sometimes joke that God operates in the Star Trek economy. If you are a Trekkie you know what I am talking about. The replicators, magical devices that turn energy into any matter that you want, have eliminated cash, physical exchange and in general any physical lack. God declares in Isaiah 55:1, “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters; and he who has no money, come, buy and eat! Come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.” The Kingdom in its fullness runs like the Star Trek economy.

But it then moves from such physical goods as wine and milk to a deeper question. “Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy? (Isa. 55:2)” Now there is always the reply “ain’t no rest for the wicked…I’ve got bills to pay and I’ve got mouths to feed.” But even the man struggling with the necessities in the fallen world doesn’t do these things simply because they are bread. He does these out of love, duty, pity and number of much deeper things. What God is offering in the Kingdom is the solid reason. “Listen diligently to me, and eat what is good, and delight yourselves in rich food. Incline your ear, and come to me; hear, that your soul may live (Isa. 55:2-3)” The real bread is the bread of life. With this bread your soul – your self – lives. And this bread comes first through the ear.

And what is this bread? Like the cynical Samaritan woman at the well when Jesus starts to talk of the living water, “Sir, give me this water, so that I don’t have to return to this stinking well (John 4:15),” we might not have caught the change in the metaphor. This body is fed with water and bread. The soul has it’s water and bread, but that is something much different. The soul’s bread are the promises of God. “I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast, sure love for David. (Isa. 55:3).” And Isaiah traces that promise as not just to the people of Israel, but that covenant with David is a covenant with all the peoples (Isaiah 55:4-5). “A nation that did not know you shall run to you.”

Yet this promise, this day of Grace, is not something that lasts forever. “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call upon him while he is near (Isa. 55:6 ESV).” Today, as you read this, is a day of grace. “Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon (Isa. 55:7).” Why is it this way? We wouldn’t pardon enemies that had rebelled against us, why does God? And if we were to do it, we’d be indiscriminate, universal. If God works in the Start Trek economy, why is there a time limit? “My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the LORD (Isa. 55:8).” Not a completely satisfying answer, but consistent and true. “What is the pot to speak back to the potter? (Romans 9:20). Who is this who darkens my council without understanding (Job 38:2). The secret things of God remain his forever (Deuteronomy 29:29).” But this he has revealed to us. Today is the day of His Grace.

How does this bread come to our souls? Here the prophet switches metaphors from commerce to weather. “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isa. 55:10-11).” The word of God is like the rain shower.

Living in New York, it rained quite a bit. It was a wet climate. The next shower was never more than a day or two away. We took it for granted. Living in the desert, it’s been a month, maybe two. We don’t know when. We don’t know how. We don’t control it. We only know it when it happens. The entire place longs for that monsoon that drenches everything. And it is that rain that brings forth the ending promise. “For you shall go out in joy and be led forth in peace; the mountains and the hills before you shall break forth into singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands. Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress; instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle; and it shall make a name for the LORD, an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off (Isa. 55:12-13).”

Peace and joy and fruitfulness depend upon that rain. And you know it when you hear it. Seek the Lord while he may be found. Today is the day of grace.

Kingdom Priorities and Hard Realities

The LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.” – 1 Samuel. 16:1

In our Wednesday morning Bible Study (The 52 Necessary Bible Stories) we are up to David, just anointed King, but far from being the reigning King. A major theme emerging is one I wish to pick up here for a different purpose. In living the Christian life there are two types of problems encountered. There are the problems that I categorize as Kingdom Priorities. In that Bible study this type of problem was displayed in the verse quoted above. God has decided or ordained certain things and it is the disciple’s role to get with the program. This type of problem is often addressed by the most pungent sayings of Jesus, like “let the dead bury their dead, but you go proclaim the Kingdom of God (Luke 9:60, also Matthew 8:22).” Or like the gospel lesson last week, “do not think I have come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34).” The Christian Life always has its challenges over our priorities. And what Yahweh in the Old Testament or Jesus (same God) in the New Testament always says is get your priorities straight. The Kingdom of Heaven is of first priority. “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).”

Your mileage might vary. I certainly know people who have agonized over decisions and over the will of God. But my experience in general is that we know more about the will of God than we often let on. Like the old hymn, “Oh what peace we often forfeit, oh what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry, everything to God in prayer.” We often continue with forfeit peace and needless pain because we have that answer and we do not like it. The Rich Young Man in Mark 10/Matthew 19 goes away troubled because he did not like Jesus’ answer. Which answer was simply seek first the Kingdom. There are things that must be done for the Kingdom. And the choice is faithfulness, or not.

The second problem that comes up in the Christian life is what I’ll call “hard realities”. David may have been anointed King, but Saul still lived. Now we usually take these types of problems as much bigger problems. We see lack of resources or skills or knowledge or any of the list of things that constitute our excuses. We even have a favorite bible verse from Jesus we might quote, “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? (Luke 14:28ff).” But Jesus’ point with that story doesn’t end with a summary like, “don’t be stupid, count first, and if you don’t have enough don’t start.” That would be our human wisdom. And don’t take this as downplaying that wisdom completely. But Jesus’ summary of that is “any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple.” Things that are hard realities to us are laughably easy to God. And if we have our Kingdom priorities correct, God provides. Maybe not how we’d envision, but God provides. I’m sure David would have preferred an Army after being anointed, instead God arranged for him to play the lyre for Saul. When we depend upon ourselves, we always see lack. When we depend upon God, we have a surprising abundance. If we have our Kingdom priorities straight.

We have a congregational meeting scheduled for next week. In one sense, there is no emergency. Things are good. This should not be an anxiety producing note. (Sure Pastor, but just saying that raises my anxiety. Yeah, I hear you. But I’m being honest.) But the leadership of Mt. Zion is going to be putting forward something that prayerfully starts to align us with Kingdom priorities and seeks some help with those “hard realities.” We are seeking the Kingdom, and depending upon God and his people.

An American Reflection

By your blood you ransomed people for God from every tribe and language and people and nation, –
Revelation 5:9 (Similar line in 7:9)

A social media game I have seen is to ask what your most controversial post ever was. In terms of being the recipient of a two-minute hate, I’ve had three posts that might qualify. One regarding parenting, one regarding a basketball player and the third regarding AI. Honestly, all of those were predictable and easily relatable. But I had a fourth one that doesn’t qualify as a two-minute hate because not enough people dog-piled. I don’t think it was relatable enough. It was based on the above passage of scripture. But those who did react, did so with vehemence.

The division was this. There are those who I imagine have the U2 Song “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” playing in their head. One of the verses contains: “I believe in the Kingdom Come/Then all the colors will bleed into one.” Which is 100% true. And that one is the robe of Christ’s righteousness that the Apostle John sees the great multitude that no one could count wearing. But it is also true that the tribe, language, people and nation markers were still recognizable. It is when I made that comment, that some markers of who we are now continue and are recognizable even in the eschaton, that many people went nuts. But both things, unity and difference, are somehow true in the resurrection.

And I don’t think this should exactly surprise us if we know the Biblical Story. Genesis 10 is the Table of the Nations. It contains the 70 nations that derive from Noah after the flood. Which with a little translation you can still roughly trace those nations or peoples into the modern world. That table of the nations – another word for it would be the gentiles – segues into God choosing one specific new people, the Jews. The nations are handed over to the world, while God reserves for himself one nation, the least of them. Now, out of that one nation, we are given Jesus – Israel reduced to one. Jesus sends out 70 disciples in Luke 10. And God reclaims from the gentiles, from every tribe and language and people and nation, a ransomed people. Which John sees gathered in heaven. God never gave up on all His people.

It also shouldn’t surprise us because God consistently claims what Paul says in Acts 17:26, “having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling places, that they should seek God.” The nations of the world have always been of interest to God. Enough that when they live, and when they die and where they sojourn on this earth are determined by Him.

On weekends like July 4 th I sometimes ponder what a perfected or maybe a better word completed citizen of the United States looks like. What does it mean to be part of the American subsection of the heavenly host? To get to that you have to go to the last of those four qualifiers: nation. In that way the United States is a little bit like heaven before it is time. E pluribus unum, out of many, one. Maybe why so many people didn’t like my observation. They want the one and can’t image the mosaic God is making. Some of us share a language with the English, but there are Americans who don’t speak English. There are many peoples that reside in the United States. And there are many tribes. It doesn’t escape me that as long as the nation sought God – as Acts 17:26 talks about – the unity could be found. And the United States has long sought God in many ways. It was founded and populated by people seeking God from the Mayflower on. It has only been as that quest has subsided that our unity has become strained. It is almost as if the unity can only be sustained by divine means. Echoes of Trinity in Unity and Unity in Trinity.

I’ve used up my allotted space. So I’ll close with this. The primary trait of those saints is their unity in Christ. That is what covers all. But we have been placed where we are for the purpose of God’s formation. And somehow, that fulfilled American, is to the glory of God. May the American section of heaven be loud and large.