Tag: Security

The Christmas Promise of Security?

And they shall dwell secure, for now he shall be great to the ends of the earth.  And he shall be their peace. – Micah 5:4

Out of my finance background the primary question was always the balance of risk and return.  And the best answer for almost everybody is that you are not Warren Buffet.  You will not beat the market. Accept the market return and minimize your cost through some type of passive index fund.  You will not get rich quick.  Depending upon how much you save, you might never get rich.  But if you start putting away 10% of your income in the typical S&P 500 index when in your 20’s, you’ll be more than comfortable by retirement.  And if you aren’t, it is because everything went to hell and nobody is comfortable.  The psychological fact of finance is that it is all comparative. In fact if you stop saving after 10 years, you will have more than someone who did nothing during those 10 years but starts in their 30’s and does it every year all the way until retirement.  Compound interest is a massive force.  Of course the real question for the young and financial is: How do I get stinking rich?  And all the good advice – diversification, index, low cost, compound interest – all that goes out the window. If you want to get stinking rich, you have to find the one golden egg and put everything you have in that one basket.  Find the one tree that grows straight to heaven.

When I think about preaching the gospel and various biblical metaphors for it, I love the commercial ones: debt, redemption, forgiveness. Most Lutherans hang out in the legal ones: Justification, Adoption, Inheritance. I try and stretch myself to the deliverance ones – liberation, victory – because those are the way out of the pit.  Those are the ones that speak to the black dog. There are others.  God’s word is surprisingly robust in the various ways it speaks about what Jesus does for us. But one that I have trouble with is the core of Micah’s passage – security.

My trouble comes from a couple of items.  The security is in the promise and the one who promises.  It is on the far side of the victory. We can certainly know that security now, but it is less realized than redemption or forgiveness.  The cross has a historical reality that makes real redemption.  We have all given and received forgiveness. 

Sometimes for terrible deeds. But right now, We Walk in Danger All the Way. Security seems so far away. The other reason is the financial idea I started off with.  The security of God doesn’t come from diversifying.  The security of God comes from the dramatic act of faith. It comes from putting all the eggs into the manger. That this babe, born in Bethlehem Ephrathah, too little to be among the tribes of Judah, is the ruler of Israel.  And more than Israel, that Jesus is in fact God incarnate, who sits at the right hand of God Almighty and will judge the quick and the dead – to the ends of the earth. The request of God is faith.  All our eggs in the manger.

Security, it’s dangerous.  People want it almost as bad as young finance guys want to get rich quick. As Franklin warned, don’t trade liberty for security because you will get neither. Although fear always seems like the best motivator. But power and fear are not what God chose.  God put all his eggs for saving mankind in the manger. He chose the weakest form. He showed up as a baby.  And the security is a promise.  The Kingdom of Heaven is near and it is in your midst. Today it hides in grace and mercy.  Today the violent can take it by force.  But their time is short. For soon our sad divisions cease.  And the Christ shall raise his scepter, decreeing endless peace.  And we shall dwell securely.

Return of the King

“And this the name by which it will be called: The LORD is our righteousness.” – Jeremiah 33:16

The first Sunday of Advent always seems out of place to me and I’m not exactly sure why.  The primary gospel lesson assigned has always been Palm Sunday. It is the Advent of the King. I think it might be because the Pastor I had growing up always switched the lesson up.  If my memory is still working, I tend to remember a couple of Apocalypse Sundays. And there is an alternate text given.  It could also just be that as an American, speaking about Kings seems foreign, maybe traitorous. We are citizens, not subjects. But the Advent Palm Sunday is about all the legends of the Return of the King and a dwelling of peace.

In the Old Testament you can talk about three covenants. (Well, there is a 4th, but that one with Noah is something of a prefigurement of the three.  Noah receives the promise of no more floods which can only be received by faith.  And immediately after men have no faith and start building the Tower of Babel.  Noah also receives a bit of the law in regards to killing men and animals (Genesis 9). And according to the apocryphal book of Jubilees that Noahide law had six of the 10 commandments.)  The three primary covenants are the one of Faith through Abraham, the law of Sinai through Moses, and the promise of a King with an eternal throne through David.  The old testament reading for this Sunday (Jeremiah 33:14-16) reminds of all three covenants.  “At that time I will cause a righteous Branch to spring up for David, and he shall execute justice and righteousness in the land.”

We have a natural sense of justice. Those Noahide laws, the 10 commandments, are a revelation of the natural law. A major part of the purpose of a King is to execute justice. But a King is also called “Your Grace.” Not only executing justice, the King is to execute righteousness.  And it is that grace, that righteousness which is tougher.  We have no true innate sense of righteousness. We only know it when we see it. And even then in our fallen condition don’t always see it let alone desire it.  Because right now, to fulfill the law and justice, the cross is our righteousness. Our King took his own punishment.  The LORD is our righteousness that he might treat us by his grace.

On that first Advent the King came to execute righteousness. “In those days Judah will be saved (Jeremiah 33:16),”  But we await the return of the King.  “In those days….Jerusalem will dwell securely.” We know the law, but the devil the world and our flesh are still too much with us.  Our righteousness and salvation are sure in Christ, but what we will be has not yet appeared. We walk in danger all the way.  The stewards can be faithless.  Tragedies befall kingdoms of this world. We long for the righteous branch.  We wait for the King to approach Jerusalem once again.  And to enter that heavenly city, where the righteous might dwell securely under the eternal throne.

It’s Camelot and Gondor and Rome and Constantinople and Shang-Ri-La and Atlantis and Avalon and every legend, but made real. The LORD becomes incarnate. The LORD has raised up a righteous branch for David.  The LORD keeps his promises. His covenants are true.  The King shall come when morning dawns. And he shall execute justice and righteousness. And we shall dwell securely under his throne.