As you all know, or at least those of you who were here last week, I intended to preach this week on perseverance from the Letter to the Hebrews. We talked last week about how the author is trying to remind us of the only One who truly is faithful in our lives, namely God. Because He has promised, and because He is trustworthy and so powerful, we know that He can and will keep all His promises to us, even when the world might think He and we have failed. The letter this week continues the discussion of God’s faithfulness to His people. The author mentions corporate experiences like the Exodus and the walls of Jericho, as well as famous stories such as those of Rahab, Barak, Sampson, and Daniel. And the author mentions nameless stories, the lives of those early saints of the Church who suffered for their trust that Jesus was the Son of God who died, rose again, and Ascended to the right hand of the Father. The author shares the stories to remind us that the real challenge for us is perseverance. Will we trust in God even in those moments when such faith seems hard or challenging or fruitless?
Conversations and events in the world around us, though, have a way of
changing my plans, or, to put it more aptly I hope, I think God wanted us to
pay attention to something other than perseverance. In this case, it seems justice, and God’s
promise to judge according to His justness, were far more important to us. Some of the questions Sunday afternoon and
Monday were the result of a couple prior sermons or Bible studies, but then
came the raid on our former President’s compound. Then came reflection. Then came the need to find out where God is
in such messes. I, of course, revel in
such discussions. Some of us are
discovering that our politicians really do not care about us. Brian may tell us that over and over, but
we think he is bitter and cynical because of his involvement in the effort to
awaken us to slavery in our midst. The
people I vote for care about me.
Don’t look so surprised. I know. A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, I
sat in a pew. I did the same thing.
Thankfully,
this example has happened fast. Two
years ago, which party hated law enforcement and which party championed law
enforcement. Today, which party loves
law enforcement and which party wants to defund the FBI? It’s almost like both parties hate when they
are potentially held accountable for breaking the law, isn’t it? We have a couple members who can speak to
security issues with the authority of experience. Ask them how they would be treated were they
to be found with compartmentalized information in their residence. Never mind the top secret stuff. We all watch spy movies and read spy
novels. We think we understand that
stuff. Ask them about the reasons behind
the compartmentalized classification, and you may learn why the flouting of
such laws and protocols is so dangerous.
As you ponder those questions, though, remind yourself that the focus
seems to be on division . . . again . . . on the same issues. But the dividers have switched sides.
A little
closer to home, we have a debate playing out.
I am not being prophetic in the sense that God has given me a trustable
vision of the future to proclaim. We are
considering raising $2 Billion or so, through our taxes, to build a new NFL
stadium for the Titans. Now, you all
know I love football. I played for 14
years. I will remind you from time to
time that the Steelers are God’s favorite team, even in the heart of Titan
country. Good, everybody is laughing and
understands my next question comes from a place of God’s justice. Why are we building a $2 Billion stadium for
a billionaire family so that millionaires can play a game? Our local politicians, for their part, don’t
want us looking behind the curtain. It
will make us a destination city. It will
create jobs for the people of Nashville.
It will allow us to host future
mega events like the Super Bowl, the NCAA playoffs, the World Cup, and March
Madness. We can host more concerts. It’s an investment in us! I see the nods. But what is really happening? We are investing $2 Billion in a family that
pays millionaires to play a game. None
of us will get anything other than entertainment and frustration value out of
$2 Billion of our collective money being spent.
Now, it’s true we Steeler fans get more entertainment value because our
team wins more, but you understand the theory.
Now that
you have all laughed and prayed to God to turn His back on His favorite team
and grant the Titans a Superbowl victory this year, why those two
examples? What are we talking about
instead of perseverance that ties politics and corporate welfare together? I have already told you. We are speaking of justice today. We are speaking of God’s commitment to His
justice and our mental gymnastics to wriggle out of our commitment to Him and
His justice. Feeling indignant that I
claim we try to wriggle out of His obligations and teachings? I just spent 8 hours yesterday on the sin of
racism in the Church. The one place in
the world where racism should not have a hold, or any other ism for that
matter, is the Church. If I believe
human beings were created in the image of God, why should I think another
being, with whom I interact, is not?
Yet, the Church is sometimes a bastion of racism. How many of our brothers and sisters
sincerely think Scandinavian Jesus looks the most like Jesus? How many Mediterranean people have we met that
are blonde haired and blue-eyed? Y’all
have been vaccinated against that nonsense because you have a rector with
common sense and nearly 300 credit hours in Classical Studies. Mediterranean people tend to be darker
skinned. Ethiopians are often very
dark. And, yes, God does love white
people, but He came to earth as a Mediterranean Jew, not an Aryan or Celt or
Scotsman or Viking. Churches, or rather
their members, often justify their treatment of others based on how they think
God favors or look like them. Some in
the Church twisted the Scriptures to justify their support of slavery. Most of them, like us, paid so little
attention to the Bible that the letter to Philemon was seldom ever
discussed. If your slave is created in
the image of Jesus, and he/she is your brother/sister in Christ, can you really
treat them like chattel?
Our
psalmist today leads us in a quick discussion of justice and our enslavement to
our own idols, even as he or she reminds us that God will one day judge the
earth. And as I get really started,
consider this your commercial advertisement to join us on Monday mornings as we
navigate the Psalms. Now, for those who
join me on Monday mornings, here is your chance to show off. This is your chance to show how much you have
studied, what a great student you are, and maybe win a jewel for your crown. What literary device governs these 8
verses? I wish y’all could see your
faces. Those in the class are fervently
praying to God that I not call on them in church the way a teacher did in
class, and the rest of you are wondering what I will do if no one answers correctly!
Brian, to
no one’s surprised, got it right at the early service. It is called a chiasm. Anybody besides my wife remember what a chiasm
is or does? I tell people it is best
described like a sandwich. There are two
lines on the outside, like bread on a sandwich, that say basically the same
thing. In the middle, where the meat is
in a sandwich, is the point the poet really wants to draw our attention. This chiasm happens to have cheese and
veggies on either side of the meat, but you should get the idea. God sits in the counsel in the first verse,
holding judgment. In the last verse, He
is implored to rise up and judge the earth.
He judges who is wicked and who is righteous. Everyone is wicked when compared to God, and,
as the psalmist notes, God will have to deliver the weak.
The psalm
begins with a bit of a head scratcher.
If God is the only God, as we believe, who is in this divine
counsel? And why the promise that they
will die like mortals? Theologians
grapple with this a lot. The word our
translators rendered as gods can rightfully be translated as great ones. That means, it could be gods or the
powerful. When we add the “in the midst”
part though, it could rightfully be the image of the great assembly of His
people. Like Shrek the ogre, the psalm
has different layers. We forget the
layers, though, because we do not know the people impacted by its lesson. Did the Jews believe Yahweh was God? Yes, at least many of them. Did they know that other people and cultures worshipped
other gods? Of course. Did they understand that the cultures around
them perceived there was a cosmic battle playing out in the heavens that was
reflected on earth? They depended on
it. Could the psalmist have had in mind
that battle, where Yahweh eventually proves His might? You bet!
Could the psalmist have understood that God gave authority and power to
certain figures to exercise dominion?
Sure. The problem, of course, is
their failure. Only those who choose to
follow Satan, rather than God, truly fail.
How could a faithful divine being fail?
We often
forget, of course, God’s teachings about idols.
Throughout the entirety of Scripture, God reminds humanity, but
especially His people, that idols are deaf, blind, mute, and powerless. Worse, they exact from us the very things we
seek. The terrible irony is that we
create the idols that govern our lives and end up losing the thing we most
value. In Scripture, there is no idol
that enrages God like Molech. When He
gives the torah to Moses, God saves His most terrible pronouncements for those
who follow Molech, even though it will be centuries before Israel, and even a
couple of her kings, falls prey to that idol.
Molech seems to have been a god of fertility in Canaan and Assyrian
mythology. If you wanted a big family,
more crops, or a bigger herd, you worshipped Molech. The best sacrifice, the one that supposedly
guaranteed you would get more, was to sacrifice your first born. Imagine, were I a follower of Molech I would
have to sacrifice Sarah or Nathan to get a bigger family or more material
wealth.
We do this
in similar ways in modern society. Many
of us worshipped mammon or know those who did.
Ever hear the parable about the husband and father who worked incredibly
hard to climb the corporate ladder to give his family everything they
wanted. It’s a tragic story,
really. Sometimes the man died from the
stress of work and climbing. Often, even
when he made it, he found he had no relationship with his wife or
children. He spent so much time at work
that they really did not know him. Worse
to him, they did not seem to appreciate that he did it all for them. Know that story? What did the husband/father value? What did his worship of mammon cost him?
We have
other gods that we worship, political parties and the NFL are just two of
them. Whoa, you don’t think they are
idols? How many of us are more
passionate about our party platform than we are about God? How many of us would rather spend $2 Billion
of our dollars on a billionaire family paying millionaires to play a game
rather than supporting our schools, our roads, those food insecure in our
midst? Or better yet, how many of us
have skipped church because of a noonday kickoff? Ouch! See. Most of us are seduced by idols in our lives,
idols we create but that subvert us from God and His teachings.
How do we
know? Throughout the trajectory of
Scripture, when God reminds His people of His power and cosmic scale, He always
reminds His people that He loves the downcast and forgotten. I, the Lord, the maker of all that is,
seen and unseen, I love the widow and the orphan. Time and time again, God’s people are
reminded of His love for those on the margins of society and of His loving
desire that His people would treat them as He treats us. We visit the imprisoned and shut-in, we feed
the hungry, we care for the sick, we care for the widows and orphans, we
minister to those society forgets because we know God loves them as He loves
us, and we know that He is glorified when we demonstrate His love for them in
our lives. Period. We are His sons, His daughters, His ambassadors,
whatever favorite title that you like.
We understand that we are called to live as if we are in that kind of
relationship with Him. Heck, our Collect
today even reminded us of that truth—Jesus is a pattern of holy living!
We are
great at promoting fairness, but we cannot stand justice. We rebel at the very thought that God gets to
decide what is just. Don’t believe
me? We do a fairly good job of feeding
the food insecure in our midst. The
wider world thinks our work is rather stunning and, unfortunately, not like
most Christian behavior. But, check your
heart this morning. Are you concerned
about people scamming the ministry? Do you
think only those who make bad choices are poor and need the help we offer? Do you buy products and food to support the
ministry that you yourself would not use?
Did you think those we served did not deserve ribeyes or NY Strip
steaks? Do you give aged stuff from your
pantry or cheap quality items that, were Jesus Himself to show up at that door
and want to use or eat them, you’d be embarrassed? And that is a spiritual wedgie from just one
ministry. One of my jobs is to try and keep
us on the right track for the right reasons.
My job is to remind us of God’s teachings. When Adventers complain about imagined theft,
of what do I remind us? All things,
including food and other stuff like toilet paper really belong to God. If someone is stealing, they are stealing
from God! Not us! Not you!
Not me! It’s all His! And, lest we forget, He has proven His
willingness to bless His faithful time and time and time again through us. And our hearts, and the presence of the Holy
Spirit in our lives, reminds us of our need for God to rescue those we serve
and to rescue us!
When we
read God’s instructions in the torah and consider Jesus’ life, what do we learn
about God’s justice? He wants no one
oppressed. He wants no one to go hungry,
to go naked, to go homeless, to suffer mental illness or possession, to lack
education, to be enslaved, to be attacked in war, and any number of forms human
beings develop to oppress other human beings.
Our idols could care less because we, often, care less.
Thankfully
and mercifully, God understands and knows!
Better still, He cares! He knows
the injustices forced upon the weak and needy, He knows the hearts of those who
oppress. At the end of the psalm the psalmist
implores God to rise up and judge the earth.
All things belong to God and only He judges with justice.
You and I
are at an advantage compared to the psalmist and the original audience of the
psalmist. Often, we treat the psalm as a
cry for the Second Coming, the eschaton, when Jesus will return for
judgment. But we have the vantage of
understanding that God has already risen and judged the earth. His Son came down, as we remind ourselves
every single Eucharist, and became one of us.
He lived His life, our pattern of holy living to use the words of the
Collect this morning yet again, in accordance with all those teachings of
God. How did we reward Him for His
faithfulness? We put Him to death! And, yes, because we are
Episcopalian/Anglicans and seldom skip church on Palm Sunday and participate in
the liturgies of Holy Week, we understand that we participated in the need for
His death as much as those who came before us and those who come after us. We recognized this morning that our hearts,
for all our wisdom and perspective, are no different than others. And for what was He killed? Feeding hungry people? Curing diseases? Casting out demons? Living God’s torah.
Lest someone
gathered here among us thinks I forgot blaspheme, think on Pilate. Even Pilate, a Roman governor through and
through, who put to death a couple hundred other “messiahs,” realized that was
a charge full of skubala.
For His
part, Jesus was completely unsurprised by the outcome. Over and over He taught His disciples that He
would be rejected. Over and over He
taught His disciples that He would be betrayed by them. Over and over He taught His disciples that He
would be killed. And over and over He
taught His disciples that He would re raised from the dead by His Father in
Heaven. He reminded His disciples and us
that His death was necessary, that His death would put to death the powers and
principalities that govern our hearts, that try to subvert us from the truth
that our Father loves us dearly. He even
reminded us that He did not come that first time to judge us but to save us, to
rescue us. Some, to be sure, chose
Him. But too many in the world, as John
reminds us, choose darkness and oppression rather than rescue and true and
lasting freedom.
But you all
knew this. Every bit of this is soaked
into you because of the liturgies we pray and the Scripture readings we study,
week in and week out. All of us gathered
here have chosen to follow Him, to accept His offer of salvation, and to live
our lives as He calls us. We do not
claim to be the Savior or the one with THE PLAN for others, but we know the One
who does. Each time we gather, we
examine our hearts, we ask for forgiveness, and we plead for the grace and
perseverance to glorify Him in our lives.
As crazy as it might sound to our ears and the ears of those around us,
such is the way He reaches others. We
have seen it; we have experienced it. Such
is the way that He calls the people of the earth to remember that the nations
belong to Him and that He hears the cries of the oppressed. Each and every one of their tears is known by
Him, just as He knows each and every tear of ours! One glorious Day in the future, He will
return; He will rise up to finish what He started on that Cross, Death, and
Resurrection so long ago. One day He will
return finally to judge the earth, and put to eternal death those who rejected
Him and His faithful people.
But to
those who accepted Him, those who asked to become His children, His people, His
heirs, there is no real ending in sight.
To be sure, we may all well die before that return. We may well loose these bodies before that
day. But, as we remind ourselves over
and over again, that death is just a horizon, a limit of our sight. Those who have been baptized into His death
will share in His Resurrection! And so,
my brothers and sisters, we labor in whatever ways He calls us to serve the
oppressed in His Name, to speak Truth to those to whom He has entrusted power, to
live and serve others, confident that He can and will use us as He will, and
always to the accomplishment of His purposes!
In His peace,
Brian†
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