The Forever Kingdom

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 2:1-5 and Matthew 24:36-44.

In his Great Courses lecture series Religions of the Axial Age, Dr. Mark Muesse explains that between the years 800 and 200 BC, many of the major religions began or developed independently around the world. In China we find Confucius and his followers creating the foundations of that culture's religious, philosophical and political thought. In South Asia, Hinduism and Buddhism were being born. In Iran, Zoroastrianism was becoming the state religion. In Greece, philosophers like Socrates, Plato and Aristotle were teaching. And in Judah, prophets like Jeremiah and Isaiah were shaping Judaism. Dr. Muesse gives several reasons for these separate explosions of spiritual creativity, including more people moving to cities and the rapid social and political changes that go with that. But the Axial Age was also a time of wars and upheavals. China was coming off the Period of Warring States. In the West we have Alexander the Great conquering an empire that reached from Greece to Egypt to India. Rome and Carthage were fighting the Punic Wars. And the northern kingdom of Israel fell to the Assyrians in 722 BC and their top people were taken into exile. Later the southern kingdom of Judah was conquered by the Babylonians in 586 BC and while in exile they collected the writings which became the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, which we call the Old Testament. So everywhere there was turmoil and change and people were looking for peace and stability.

While Isaiah's time as prophet fell between the exiles of Israel and Judah, it was nevertheless an anxious time. Various empires rose and fell to the north and to the east and Egypt was a constant threat from the southwest. The value of the land of Israel was that it was a crossroads between Africa, Europe, Arabia and Asia. That's why the surrounding empires wanted to conquer and control it. The two Hebrew kingdoms prospered when those empires were in decline. Whenever an empire expanded, however, they started looking at the area where God's people resided and made plans to invade.

So the prophesy in our passage from Isaiah was comforting. There will come a day when people from all over will flock to Jerusalem, not to conquer it but to learn God's ways. The word of the Lord will go forth. But more than that, God will be active in bringing peace to a troubled world. “He will judge between the nations, and shall arbitrate for many peoples; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.”

War always starts with injustice. While St. Augustine may have laid out the Just War Ethic, participating in a war can only be just for one side, ie, the one defending itself. If no one attacks, there is no war. But usually one nation wants what another has—land, resources, a market for its goods, a strategic position—and it just takes what it wants. Or a nation retaliates for some incident it regards as an injustice—a raid, a terrorist attack, a diplomatic insult, etc. Sometimes a country just comes up with a flimsy pretext or an outright lie in order to start a war that it wants for other reasons.

And war generates further injustices. In his book Atrocities: The 100 Deadliest Episodes in Human History, Matthew White found that, not only are 4 out of 5 of these mass killing events wars, but that wars kill more civilians than soldiers. Think about it. A soldier is armed and surrounded by fellow armed soldiers. He can call up planes and tanks to help. A civilian is not usually armed. And even if he is, all the guns in the world are useless against a bomb dropped on your house. Thus in World War 2, the biggest mass killing event in recorded history, 20 million soldiers died but more than twice as many civilians—46 million—were killed as well.

God cares about justice. Isaiah starts off with a speech in which God says he doesn't respond to empty worship that does not result in acting justly towards others. He says, “When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood.” He goes on to say, “Stop doing wrong, learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the cause of the widow.” (Isaiah 1: 15-17) Violating the second greatest commandment—to love one's neighbor—invalidates efforts to obey the greatest commandment—to love God. Because God loves your neighbor.

And lest you think this is only about domestic problems and not war, consider this: war makes children fatherless and women into widows. And it leads to oppression. The winning side oppresses those they vanquished. There is a specific instance of this stemming from the Second World War. When the Nazis conquered Norway, Himmler, head of the S.S., extended the Lebensborn program to that country. The purpose was to increase the number of pure Aryans. German soldiers were encouraged to impregnate Norwegian women without the need to marry them. Maternity homes were set up. The children and their mothers received the best care. If the women didn't want the children, they were sent to orphanages or to be adopted by families back in Germany. Between 8000 and 12,000 children were born in this program. After the war, however, these women and their children were ostracized, persecuted, bullied and even raped by angry Norwegians. The government of Norway tried to deport the children. In 2008 a group of aged Lebensborn children brought their case for compensation for their treatment to the European Court of Human Rights, only to have it dismissed as having happened too long ago. The Norwegian government did offer each of them $20,000 for their terrible experiences. Apparently Norwegians didn't see the irony in the fact that they persecuted these people simply because of their ancestry, the same way the Nazis did to the Jews.

So you can see why the idea of God judging between nations and peoples is attractive. We need someone objective who can weigh all the factors and deal with all the injustices. And as we've seen, we humans are not very consistent in meting out justice.

Of course, this will not be done perfectly till Jesus comes again to set up his kingdom and we don't know precisely when that will be. So should we just wait for him to do it?

No. As we pointed out a few weeks ago, Jesus said, just after today's gospel reading, “Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom his master has put in charge of the servants in his household to give them their food at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whose master finds him doing so when he returns.” (Matthew 24:45-46) We are not to slack off but put into practice what Jesus commanded us to do.

That's true even if things aren't perfect. Jesus tells 2 parables which reveal that in this life we will not see a pure manifestation of the kingdom. In one he compares the kingdom of God to a field in which a man sows seeds for wheat. But at night an enemy sows weeds in the same field. Rather than let his servants try to pull up the weeds and probably pull up some wheat as well, the owner says to let both grow together until harvest. That will be the time to separate the good from the bad. (Matthew 13:24-30) A few verses later, Jesus compares the kingdom of God to a fishing net. It scoops up all kinds of fish. Only when it's full do the fishermen pull in to shore and sort the good fish from the bad. (Matthew 13:47-50) In neither case are we supposed to stop because everything, including the people involved, isn't perfect at present. We are to keep tending the wheat and catching the fish. At the proper time God will sort them out.

Of the 40 recorded parables we have from Jesus, at least 17 are about the kingdom of God. So, in view of the fact that last week we looked at the king, Jesus, let's see what else we can learn about his kingdom.

Besides it being a kingdom of justice and peace as Isaiah describes, the kingdom of God also expects its citizens to forgive one another, as illustrated in the parable of the unmerciful servant. Though forgiven a huge amount of debt by his master, the servant is merciless towards a fellow servant who owes him a little bit. So the master reimposes the original debt on the unforgiving servant. As Jesus says, “So also my heavenly Father will do to you, if each of you does not forgive your brother from your heart.” (Matthew 18:35) If we want forgiveness, we must give forgiveness. Because God wants forgiving and merciful people in his kingdom.

It is also a kingdom of grace. In one parable, a landowner must get his harvest in. Every hour or so he goes to the marketplace and hires more day laborers. The last batch is hired just an hour before quitting time. When it comes time to pay the laborers, he starts with the last hired. They get the same pay he promised the first ones hired. So those who worked all day hope to get more. But he pays them the perfectly fair wage they originally agreed on. They get angry but the landowner explains that he has not given them less; he just gave the latecomers the same amount. He has a right to be generous. (Matthew 20:1-16) Justice is getting what you deserve. Grace is getting what you couldn't possibly deserve. God is gracious and generous. He offers salvation to all. It is not earned.

What should our response be to God's gracious and generous nature? In the parable of the great feast, a man sends his servants out to let those invited know the banquet is ready. But everyone is too busy with their own matters to come. So the man sends his servants out to bring in “the poor, the crippled, the blind, and the lame” to dine with him instead. And when that doesn't fill all the seats, he has them grab anyone on the streets and bring them in. (Luke 14:15-24) The point is when God invites us into his kingdom, we need to accept his invitation, drop everything and go.

And we are expected to invite others. Martin Luther said that spreading the gospel is simply one beggar telling another when to go to get bread. In his explanation of the parable of the sower, Jesus says the seed is the word of God. When it is cast about, it will come in contact with various people. Some of them will not be receptive, forgetting it immediately. Some will receive it gladly at first, but the minute things get hard, they lose faith. Some will let “life's worries, riches and pleasures” choke the life out of their faith. “But the seed on good soil stands for those with a noble and good heart, who hear the word, retain it, and by persevering produce a crop.” (Luke 8:5-15) We don't know who will be receptive so just spread the “message of the kingdom.” (Matthew 13:19)

And Jesus assures us that the kingdom, though it starts out small, will grow. He compares the kingdom to a tiny mustard seed, which grows into an enormous plant, and to yeast, a pinch of which causes dough to rise. (Matthew 13:31-33) And, like a plant, the kingdom's growth may be so gradual that we don't notice it at first. (Mark 4:30-34) That's not our problem. As Paul said to the church in Corinth, “I planted, Apollos watered but God caused it to grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) Paul's job was to plant the seed of the gospel, his colleague Apollos' job was to nurture it, but the results are up to God. Which takes the pressure off of us to try to make every convert a Francis of Assisi or every church a megachurch. And not everyone spreading the gospel needs to be a Billy Graham. We just need to plant and water the seeds.

God will supply what we need to do this. In the parable of the talents, a man is leaving town and gives each of his 3 servants different amounts of talents, which were a type of coin. When their master returns, the servants tell him how well they did investing the talents. Whatever return they get is fine with their master. The only servant who is scolded and fired is the one who buries his one talent in the ground and does nothing with it. (Matthew 25:14-30) The point of the parable is not that each servant has to make the same amount as the others. They are to use what they have and do as well they can. Today the word talent means a gift or ability one has. God gives us all certain talents. Don't compare yours to those of others or your results with theirs. God is pleased simply with our willingness to use the gifts he's given us to do the best we can.

Of course, this all depends on our actually doing what God wants us to do. Jesus talks about 2 sons whom their father asks to go to work in the vineyard. One says, “No” and the other says, “Yes.” But it is the son who said “No” who changes his mind and goes into the vineyard, not the one who told his father what he wanted to hear. (Matthew 21:28-32) God doesn't want “yes-men;” he wants followers who do his will. It is not sufficient to pay lip service to God; we are expected to follow through.

Isaiah envisioned a time in the future when everyone will go to Jerusalem to learn from God. But we don't have to wait for that time, nor buy airline tickets to experience that. Jesus said, “Look, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:21) If Jesus is ruling in our lives, the kingdom is wherever he leads us, just as God was with the Israelites leading them through the wilderness.

Jesus also said, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there in the midst of them.” (Matthew 18:20) Just as there are ex-pat communities of Brits or Venezuelans here in South Florida, wherever a group of people come together to follow Jesus, the kingdom of God is there. Which leads to another way we spread the kingdom: by showing the love of God in our lives. Again, as Jesus said, “Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another.” (John 13:35)

I think this is another axial age, an era when the history of humanity is making some big turns. We are living in a time of war and chaos and rapid changes in society. People want stability and justice and peace. And the only place to find that is the kingdom of God. In his domain there is also forgiveness and grace. In his realm God is invested in growing our talents so that we may be wise stewards of his gifts, making sure all are fed and cared for. And unlike the kingdoms of this world, the kingdom of God doesn't have borders or boundaries. God reigns wherever we go and this is most clearly seen when we show love for one another.

So any place we meet is an embassy for God's kingdom and we are all ambassadors sent by Jesus to establish outposts in every area of human life. Wherever he puts us, we are to invite others to enter his kingdom, whatever their ancestry, race, language, or past. And that's how God's kingdom grows, person by person, till, as it says in Habakkuk, “the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters fill the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14)

For Granted or With Gratitude

In her song Big Yellow Taxi Joni Mitchell sang, “You don't know what you've got till it's gone.” Since she is mostly singing about taking away trees and paving paradise, the song seems to be about the environment. But then she talks about her man leaving in a big yellow taxi, and you realize she is talking about how we take things and people for granted. We don't appreciate what we have until we lose it.

I have seen this as a nurse. When I was at a Shriner's hospital for children, I noticed that children who, say, lost a foot due to an accident had a much harder time dealing with it than children born without limbs. To the latter, their situation was normal; they learned to walk or get around with what they had. They zipped around in their wheelchairs and were cheerful. They had no sense of loss. Kids who lost a leg or a hand to accident or disease felt that loss profoundly.

People who are healthy often don't think about it and rarely express gratitude for their condition. Others who had a major injury or fought a serious illness in the past are usually very grateful for their current good health.

When it comes to wealth the situation seems even worse. Those who are rich seldom look at what they already have, realize it is much more than most people will ever have and express gratitude. They feel it is still not enough and want more.

The rise in gas and other prices does pinch but they are actually higher in other countries. But we, in the richest nation on earth, grumble. We don't know how much better we have it than some.

Thanksgiving is about gratitude. It is about not taking things and especially people for granted. During the last 3 years most of us have lost someone we know to Covid or some other disease. One day every one of us will no longer be on this earth. So it is imperative that we take the time to be grateful for what and whom we have in our lives now: family, friends, artists like Joni, inspirational figures, even your favorite hairdresser. We will not have them forever; we have them now. Be grateful.

And tell them. When my dad was dying, he asked what my brother and I were going to say about him at his funeral. So we wrote up our eulogies and gave them to him to read. I wish I had done the same for my mom. But I didn't know she was going to die until she got Covid. She was in a nursing home and neither my brother nor I was allowed in. And because she was profoundly hard of hearing, we couldn't call.

Why do we wait? Why do we not tell people how grateful we are for them now when they can hear it from our own lips?

So here's your assignment: find everyone who makes your life better, richer, more worthwhile and tell them. Call them; write them; put it on Facebook. But let them know.

And as for those who are gone, whom we did not tell how much they meant to us when they were alive: we can tell God. We can express our gratitude to him for putting them in our lives. And since he is the God whose very essence is love, and who is not limited by time and space, I'm sure he will somehow pass it on. Until the day we can tell them ourselves face to face.

The Forever King

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 23:1-6 and Luke 23:33-43.

In 1947 Winston Churchill said in speech to the House of Commons, “It has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried...” He then went on to defend democracy, of course. But you can see why some have given democracy this kind of backhanded compliment. Democracy is not the most efficient form of government because of the time and effort that must be put in to come up with a consensus on the issues. If you are thinking of efficiency alone, a dictatorship should work better. I say “should” because incompetent or lazy dictators or monarchs can also display a very inefficient style of governing. And if an absolute ruler is evil, you don't want him to be efficient in carrying out his policies. Which is why authoritarian rulers get rid of their opposition, by disbanding other political parties, locking up or executing rivals, muzzling the press and bringing the courts to heel. Our founding fathers tried to come up with a system of checks and balances to keep any one branch of government from having too much power. In addition they gave us 2 houses in Congress trying to ensure that to get anything passed you need 2 majorities to agree to it. The side effect of this is a certain built-in inefficiency in getting things done.

In our passage from Jeremiah God is denouncing the evil shepherds of his people. It was common in the ancient Near East to compare the king to a shepherd. A king is supposed to lead, protect and care for his people in much the same way as a shepherd does for his sheep. But kings were not elected and there was no legal way to remove them. So you were stuck with whoever inherited or seized the throne. And even in the line of Davidic kings, there were more who “did evil in the eyes of the Lord” than those who did right. All told, 11 out of the 19 kings of the southern kingdom of Judah did evil. And all the kings of Israel, the northern kingdom, did evil. So what is important in a person who has power is his character. Because he can do a lot of good or a lot of evil.

This Sunday we honor Christ the King. Unlike other kings, you can choose to be part of his kingdom or not. You are not automatically a citizen by mere birth somewhere or because your parents were. But in an age where we justifiably dismiss the very idea of giving anyone absolute power, why should we choose to trust Jesus and give him power over our lives?

The Bible has a lot to say about kings. The Hebrew word for king (melek) appears almost 2700 times in the Old Testament and the Greek word (basileus) occurs more than 125 times in the New Testament. The first reference to kings is in Genesis 14 and the last is in Revelation 21. For most of recorded history people were ruled by kings, who could be good, bad or indifferent.

The Bible also has a lot to say about what makes a good king. In Deuteronomy 17, the idea that there will one day be a king over Israel is foreseen and his qualifications are laid out. He must not accumulate too much military power or have many wives or acquire a lot of wealth. He must have a copy of God's law and he must study and obey it. And he must not think of himself as above his fellow citizens. (Deuteronomy 17:16-20)

So how does Jesus do in regards to these qualifications? He did not have any military power, doesn't appear to have married at all, let alone have multiple wives, and was not rich. (John 18:36; Matthew 19:12; 8:20) He knew God's law thoroughly and quoted it often. And he was a man who worked with his hands. (Mark 6:3) In fact it is remarkable that Jesus has been remembered at all because he did not win battles, build monuments to himself, gain political power or do any of the things that usually get someone a place in history. But his words have had a longer lasting influence on more people than the deeds of any king.

In Psalm 72, which is a prayer for God to give Solomon the ability to make fair decisions, it says, “For he will rescue the needy when they cry out for help, and the oppressed who have no defender. He will take pity on the poor and needy; the lives of the needy he will save. From harm and violence he will deliver them; he will value their lives.” (Psalm 72:12-14) In Proverbs 29 we are told that a king brings stability to the land by justice. He must not take bribes or listen to lies. If he wants his kingdom to last, he will judge the poor in truth. (Proverbs 29:4,12,14) He embodies God's principle that the powerful should protect the powerless.

And Jesus? He famously started his ministry by reading this passage from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and the regaining of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) And he proceeds to do so, preaching the good news of God's forgiveness and his love for all, releasing those who were captive to disease and sin, freeing those oppressed by the requirements that their religious leaders piled on them, and both metaphorically and literally giving sight to the blind. (John 8:34-36; Luke 13:16; Matthew 23:2-4; John 9:5-7) Furthermore, he tied our duty to him to our duty to the disadvantaged, saying whatever we do for them we do for him. (Matthew 25: 31-46)

Proverbs says a good king must ensure justice in his kingdom. (Proverbs 8:15) Proverbs 21:3 says, “To do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice.” But that doesn't mean strict justice is always desirable. Proverbs 20:28 says, “Mercy and truth preserve the king and his throne is upheld by mercy.” The Hebrew word for “mercy” here can also be translated “kindness” or “love.” The harsh infliction of justice is not the mark of a good king.

Jesus shows his mercy to sinners throughout his ministry but nowhere more so than in today's gospel reading. Jesus forgives a violent criminal (Mark 15:27) who somehow recognizes in Jesus something regal. He says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus replies, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in paradise.” That is not only mercy but grace. The man admits he deserves his horrible death for what he's done. Pinioned on a cross, the man can do nothing to undo his crimes and deserve forgiveness. But Jesus sees his repentance and his humility towards him and graciously tells him he will be admitted to God's kingdom. In fact, this unnamed criminal is the only person in the Bible Jesus explicitly says will be with him in paradise.

Of course the real surprise is that Jesus asked God to forgive his executioners. Killing an innocent man is bad enough but you'd think that killing God's Son would be unforgivable. But Jesus said there is only 1 unforgivable sin and this is not it. Still—could you forgive those who were deliberately causing your death? God can. And therein lies hope for all of us.

Jesus is called “King of the Jews” here but ironically. The religious leaders do not believe that he is. In fact, when they saw that Pilate had a sign made that said “Jesus of Nazareth, the king of the Jews,” they went to Pilate to ask him that it read instead, “This man said, I am the king of the Jews.” Pilate refuses. Inadvertently he is right.

And throughout his ministry, people knew that Jesus was a king. People called him “son of David.” (Mark 10:47; Matthew 15:22) They knew he was a descendant of the great king who united the nation 1000 years before Jesus. Even the title “Son of God” was considered a royal title, because of the special relationship of the king to God. (Matthew 26:63; 2 Samuel 7:14) The biggest giveaway is the title Jesus used for himself: the Son of Man. It could simply be a way of referring to someone as a human being but Jesus uses it too deliberately for it to mean simply that. His audience would instantly think of the passage in Daniel where it says, “I was watching in the night visions, and with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man was approaching. He went up to the Ancient of Days and was escorted before him. To him was given ruling authority, honor and sovereignty. All peoples, nations, and language groups were serving him. His authority is eternal and will not pass away. His kingdom will not be destroyed.” (Daniel 7:13-14) This is no mere human king. This is God's forever king.

And of course the title Christ, or in Hebrew Messiah, was usually seen as a royal title. It means “the Anointed” and God's people anointed their prophets, priests and kings. Jewish scholars debated which of these roles the Messiah would fulfill but the popular choice was that of king. Those who called Jesus Christ were usually thinking of him as God's anointed king.

When Jesus asked the Twelve who they thought he was, Peter says, “You are the Christ.” Jesus says Peter is right and then immediately starts telling them that “the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, chief priests, and experts in the law, and be killed, and after three days rise again.” I think Peter stops listening after the words “be killed” and starts to rebuke Jesus. Jesus in turn rebukes Peter, telling him, “You are not setting your mind on God's interests, but on man's.” (Mark 8:27-33)

One can totally understand Peter's concerns, though. What good is a dead king? I think Peter forgot that kings often went into battle at the head of their men, exposing themselves to the possibility of being killed. Except in this case the enemy was death itself and Jesus was going in first. Essentially he was on a suicide mission.

Because the other enemy was sin, the rupture of our relationships with not only God but with each other and with ourselves. The result is death, separation from God, the source of life and all goodness. And as much people don't like thinking or talking about death, they really don't like people talking about sin. It has almost disappeared from modern discourse. We don't like to be reminded that the root of our problems is not confined to someone else we can scapegoat but is in ourselves as well. It comes in many varieties: greed, rage, envy, lust, laziness, selfishness. But they all spring from our arrogance, our trying to take the reins from God, and control everything and everyone for our own benefit. We think we know better than God. We may pay him lip service and make him our mascot. But we really don't want him telling us how we should live. It's not God's will we want done but our own. We want to be in charge. We know what we're doing. And yet we ignore the state of the world which has resulted from this attitude.

Jesus was going to have to tell people the unpalatable truth; he was going to give them the diagnosis they didn't want to hear. Their enemy wasn't the Romans; it was themselves. Everyone's worst enemy is themselves and the certainty that they are right and everybody else is wrong. And the people that would resist that the most were, then as now, those who did have a measure of control over others. The powerful, especially those who wielded the word of God and claimed power in his name, would not like it.

And what was worse is that they couldn't point out flaws in Jesus' arguments. Because, and this was really appalling, Jesus was right. What he said was true.

And he was good. They couldn't find fault in his life. They couldn't say, “Well, you're no better than us. You're flawed, too. Why should we listen to you?” Unlike them, he didn't misuse his power. He used it to heal the sick and to feed the hungry and to forgive sinners. Once when 4 men burrowed through the roof of the house he was in so they could lower their paralyzed friend to him, Jesus told the man, “Son, your sins are forgiven.” And the religious leaders were shocked. It was blasphemy. Only God can forgive sins. So Jesus called them on this line of thought. Sure, it's easy to say someone's sins are forgiven. What's harder is to tell a paralyzed man to walk again. And so to show them that he does have the authority to forgive sins, Jesus says, “I tell you, take up your mat and go home.” And the man does. How can you argue with that?

Jesus was not only right but he showed it in everything he said and did. And it drove those in power mad. And when you can't disprove what a man says, you try to silence him. If you can't deny the truth, you bury it. And the person telling the truth as well.

But you can't kill the truth. It always comes back. In the 1960s the sugar industry tried to bury the fact that obesity was increasing because of all the sugar in our modern foods. They got tame scientists to say it was fat that made us fat. And so we turned to low fat diets. And still we got fatter. Finally the truth emerged. They knew it all along. The same thing happened with the tobacco industry in regards to their product causing cancer and with the oil industry in regards to their product causing global warming. The truth just won't stay buried.

Nor did Jesus. Nor has the truth he proclaimed. We are all sinners. That's the bad news. But by trusting in Jesus Christ, the God who is love incarnate, and letting him rule in our lives we are saved from our sins, the destructive and self-destructive ways we think, speak and act. That's the good news.

The book of Judges chronicles a time of chaos, of cycles of suffering from oppression and salvation from conflict, only to end with a war between the tribes of Israel. The book concludes with this verse: “In those days there was no king in Israel: every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” (Judges 21:25) Yet they had a king all along: God. They just didn't listen to him or do as he said. And, as we saw, switching to a human king did not solve their problem. But people still think giving someone fallible total power is an attractive solution.

Our allegiance is to Jesus the Christ, the Lord's Anointed, Son of God, Son of Man, who is both human and divine, who is both just and merciful, who is not tempted by temporal power or wealth or personal pleasure. He is our shepherd, caring for us, protecting us, and leading us through the chaos of everyone acting on their own, doing what is right in their own eyes, until we get to his kingdom, the kingdom of the God who is love.

Disasters and Distractions

The scriptures referred to are Luke 21:5-19.

Hollywood loves disaster films: earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, asteroids, ice storms, avalanches, cruise ships capsizing, and let's not forget sharknados! And I get why they make them because they can often attract big name stars who can take home a large paycheck for displaying incredible bravery in the face of terrifying special effects. And Christian movie makers have, since at least 1972's A Thief in the Night, churned out films about the apocalypse, including various versions of the Left Behind series of books, at least one starring Nicholas Cage. But these films like to dwell on all of the terrible disasters from Revelation chapters 6-19 while hardly touching on anything very spiritual. They also tend to take liberties in interpreting the events of that book, depending on what suits their purpose. For instance the locust/scorpion/horse creatures in chapter 9 who wear crowns, have lion's teeth and wings are not shown that way but usually as warplanes or helicopters instead. In addition the beast from the sea, commonly identified with the Antichrist by fundamentalists, is not shown with 7 heads, 10 horns and 10 crowns. It's almost as if they perceive on some level that John was not being literal but symbolic. And maybe that was because he didn't want the Roman Empire to know what he was doing—criticizing them scathingly—so they wouldn't destroy a book that was meant to comfort and encourage Christians who were being persecuted. Because the point is God wins in the end and those who endure are comforted, those who have died are raised and God ushers in his new creation.

In Jesus' day, with a ruthless military empire oppressing the Jews, there was a popular expectation that the end of the world must be near. In fact, a common idea was that the Messiah would be a holy warrior who would throw out the Romans, end the current evil age and set up a Jewish kingdom on earth. Which is why the disciples were anxious to learn from Jesus what would happen at the end of the age. And just as Jesus doesn't fit the then popular idea of the Messiah, he contradicts a lot of the ideas about the end times that are widespread even now.

Right off the bat Jesus says, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.” And sure enough we have had numerous false Messiahs over the centuries. There is an entire Wikipedia page of Christians, Jews, Muslims and other persons who claimed to be the Messiah. And people still fall for these charlatans. Jesus tells us in no uncertain terms not to believe or follow anyone who claims to be God's Anointed One, which is what the Hebrew word Messiah and the Greek word Christ mean.

Jesus also says not to follow after people who say “The time is near!” In Matthew's gospel Jesus says, “No one knows about that day and hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” (Matthew 24:36, emphasis mine) At least during his time on earth, not even Jesus knew when it would come. So it is supremely arrogant for any preacher or scholar to say they know more about this than Jesus. But again people fall for this and there have been countless sermons preached and books published that go against what Jesus explicitly said, announcing, “The time is near and I know the date!”

Instead Jesus says, “When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” He also includes earthquakes, famines and plagues. In Matthew he says, “All these are the beginning of birth pains.” (Matthew 24:8) Which as any parent knows means, “Don't run around in a panic like the father in a 1960s sitcom when his wife starts having contractions. This is going to take a while.”

By the way, not only do disasters not necessarily mean that the world is ending, they also don't mean people are being punished. Jesus asked rhetorically if the 18 people crushed when a tower fell on them were worse sinners than all the others living in Jerusalem—and then said “No.” (Luke 13:4-5) But some televangelists try to blame things like hurricanes on what they see as very bad sinners being in the area of the disaster. And again when asked whether a man was born blind because either he or his parents had sinned, Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but he was born blind so that the acts of God may be revealed through what happens to him.” (John 9:3) And then Jesus heals him. He saw this man's personal disaster not as an excuse to blame someone but as an opportunity to show God's love and grace.

What Jesus is more interested in telling his disciples is how they should behave when they face actual persecution. And by persecution I don't mean being told you must bake wedding cakes for people you disagree with. As we see in Acts, persecution meant being imprisoned (Acts 4:3), having people stone you to death (Acts 7:57-60), being beaten and whipped (Acts 16:22-23), or being the focus of an assassination plot as Paul was (Acts 23:12). It's being punished, not for wrongdoing, but for preaching the gospel. Ultimately the emperor Nero, needing scapegoats for the great fire of Rome that burned for 9 days and destroyed 2/3 of the city, began the first imperial persecution of Christians. According to the contemporary Roman historian Tacitus, Christians were executed by “being thrown to the beasts, crucified, and being burned alive.”

By the way, Tacitus makes one of the earliest references to Jesus by a non-Christian, writing “Christus, from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus, and a most mischievous superstition, thus checked for the moment, again broke out not only in Judea, the first source of the evil, but even in Rome, where all things hideous and shameful from every part of the world find their centre and become popular.” (from Tacitus' Annals 15:44) Notice he thinks Christianity is evil, hideous and shameful. So, of course, he thinks Christians should be prosecuted and executed.

In some parts of the world people are still arrested, imprisoned and even executed for being Christians. So let's not mock the sufferings which our brothers and sisters in Christ are enduring for the faith by magnifying any inconveniences we encounter as if they were actual persecution. Jesus is talking about real martyrs, not people playing the martyr.

So what should we do, besides supporting the human rights of people everywhere to worship as they choose, the same as we do?

In Mark Jesus compares himself to a man going on a journey. “He left his house and put his servants in charge, assigned to each his work, and commanded the doorkeeper to keep alert.” (Mark 13:34) And in Luke's gospel, Jesus tells a parable about how servants should behave when awaiting their master's return. He says, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his household servants, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master finds at work when he returns.” (Luke 12:42-43; cf. Matthew 24:45-46) Jesus wants to find us, not calculating when he will return, but doing the work he has given each of us to do. And what is this work?

Jesus says in John, “This is the work God requires—to believe in the one whom he sent.” (John 6:29) In Greek the word “to believe” also means “to trust”. If you really believe and trust your doctor, and he says “Eat less and exercise more,” you do it. And if you believe and trust in Jesus as God's Son, our Savior and Lord, then you do what he says. What does he tell us to do?

The main thing is to obey the two greatest commandments: to love God with all you are and all you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus said, “There is no commandment greater than these.” (Mark 12:29-31) In addition, Jesus said, “...I say to you, love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be like your Father in heaven...” (Matthew 5:44-45) This leaves us with no one to hate, and thus no one to build a bunker against and build up ammo to dispatch. Indeed, not only did Jesus tell Peter to put down his weapon when Christ was arrested (Matthew 26:52) but he told Pilate that one sign that his kingdom did not come from this world was that his disciples did not resort to violence to free him. (John 18:36) God fights his own battles. He does not need our help nor does he command us to fight. We are to be witnesses and, if need be, martyrs. And in Greek those two words are the same.

Which brings us to one of the chief things we are told to do while waiting for Jesus to return, and that is to proclaim the good news of what God in Christ has done and is doing. If we are filled with his Spirit, he will give us the right words. By the way, speaking of swords, Paul, in describing the armor of God, mentions only one thing that is not protective but is a weapon: “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) As Jesus in the wilderness defended himself from the tempter by using only his knowledge of scripture, we need to know what the Bible does and doesn't say as well as the main thrust of its message, which is God's love for all people, including the lost. So just because Paul compares God's word to a sword it doesn't mean we should try to use it to harm people. The author of Hebrews says, “For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) This makes it sound more like a surgical knife or scalpel, and the use of the word “judge,” which also means “discern,” makes it more of a tool for diagnosis. It shows that we are spiritually unhealthy and describes in what ways. It also gives us the cure: trust in Jesus, the Great Physician, who can heal us and bring us back from spiritual death.

If the Bible gets a bit graphic about the nature of sin and evil and how bad the world will get by the end, it is to puncture our complacency towards our spiritual health. I remember Jerry Lewis on the Tonight show in the 1960s telling Johnny Carson that he would not stop smoking until the then-new warnings on cigarette packs got rid of the weasel words saying “Smoking may be hazardous to your health.” And eventually it was changed to say “Smoking is dangerous and may cause death from cancer and other diseases.” And finally it became “Smoking causes Lung Cancer, Heart Disease, Emphysema and May Complicate Pregnancy.” And smoking rates dropped from nearly 42% of adults in the mid-1960s to 12.5% today. Sometimes you have to spell out the consequences, no matter how ugly they are. Even Jerry Lewis stopped his 4 pack a day habit by 1982—after having double-bypass heart surgery.

So what we can take away from what Jesus says about the End Times?

1) Don't be terrified by disasters. Keep calm. They aren't necessarily the end.

2) Don't fall down the rabbit-hole of trying to predict when things will end. That's God's business.

3) Don't follow false prophets or false messiahs. Follow Jesus only.

4) Trust Jesus and do what he says.

5) Love God above all else.

6) Love other people, even our enemies and those who seem unlovable, not just with our words but in our actions as well. (Matthew 25:35-40)

7) Spread the good news of God's love and grace we see in Jesus, who lived, died and rose again—for us. Get familiar with God's word, so that the Spirit can remind you of it when needed. (John 14:26)

Once when I was traveling home after a long week of working in northern Florida I hit a major traffic jam on the Turnpike as I approached Miami. It took us an hour to go 6 miles. I thought there must be a big accident ahead. There was—on the northbound lanes, which were separated from our southbound traffic by a barrier! What was hindering us was people rubbernecking, trying to get a good look at the wreckage. And one of the things impeding the spread of the good news is people spending way too much time gawking at the disasters in apocalyptic passages of the Bible and missing the point—if we endure, as Jesus says in today's gospel, and follow him, we will arrive safely at our destination: the kingdom of God.

This week has been hard for us to endure. This church has seen two people whom we loved depart this world: Chuck McCormick and Arnie Steinmetz. I heard about Chuck's death after the fact but I was notified of Arnie's deteriorating condition beforehand and was able to go and see him before they removed the ventilator. And I read the service from the Lutheran Pastoral Care book for when life-sustaining care is ended. And one of the passages suggested really struck me as a good one to remember whenever we face some disaster, whether large or small, whether it involves our community or our nation or the whole world, or whether it just touches us personally. Someday it will be the end of the world for each of us. And as we keep in mind and follow what Jesus said about facing the end, we can also take comfort in this passage from Isaiah 43: “But now thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through the fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.”

Resurrection

The scriptures referred to are Luke 20:27-38.

Sometimes a comedy can bring up a serious question better than a drama can. And I can think of two comedies that deal with a subject central to this Sunday. One is old: The Princess Bride. One of its most compelling characters is Inigo Montoya, a marvelous swordsman who has been seeking the man who killed his father. When he does find his father's murderer, there is a emotionally charged scene where they duel. Inigo, though seriously wounded, disarms the killer, a rich nobleman. Inigo tells him to make him an offer to stop him from taking his revenge. The nobleman offers him wealth and power; in fact, anything he wants. Inigo says, “I want my father back, you S.O.B!” and runs him through with his sword. As he dies, the killer realizes that he could not have avoided his fate for he could never offer him that.

The other film is newer and I have referred to it before. In Thor: Love and Thunder the antagonist is killing various pagan gods after his daughter dies and he finds that his god is indifferent. He seeks a powerful entity called Eternity. If he can reach this being, it will grant him his wish. In the end he manages to meet Eternity, despite Thor's efforts to stop him. But Thor says that rather than asking for the death of the gods, as he intended, he should ask for what he really wants: the return of his daughter from death. And he does.

I often use pop culture references because they are the mythologies of our times and they reflect what we are thinking about. And both of these movies recognize that the chief problem of death is its finality. When our loved ones die, we try to reconcile ourselves to never seeing or enjoying their company again. We work through our grief, but ultimately there is nothing to do but accept that death is the end. It comes for all of us and from an earthly perspective, there is nothing beyond it to look forward to. We try to be mature about it. But what we really want is to have our loved ones back.

The old religions did not believe in resurrection, at least not for the average mortal. They usually pictured the afterlife as a ghostly existence underground, a pale shadow of this life. Even in the earlier parts of the Old Testament, the place where all the souls of the dead go is gloomy Sheol.

The exception to this grim afterlife is the Norse idea of the great feasting hall Valhalla. But even that is not the final fate of the dead. First, it is only for the warriors who died in combat. And secondly, Valhala only exists until they leave it and follow Odin to fight in Ragnarok. Then all the major gods die fighting monsters and the world is destroyed and submerged in water. So it is only a temporary reprieve for the chosen dead.

In Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism and Sikhism, the ultimate fate for those who escape the long painful cycle of death and reincarnation is Nirvana, literally the “blowing out” or extinguishing of the flame of existence. It is a state of total emptiness of anything causing suffering or desire, ie, the self. In some schools of thought, the person is absorbed into Brahman, the principle of oneness with everything, in much the same way as a drop of water becomes part of the sea. But everyone ceases to exist as an individual.

In Jesus' day, some Jews believed in the resurrection of the dead. But not the Sadducees, the priestly class. They were literalists who refused to accept anything not mentioned in the Torah, even if it was written in the prophets. The Pharisees generally did believe in the resurrection of the dead, based mainly on two verses. Isaiah 26:19 says, “Your dead shall live; my dead bodies shall arise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust. For your dew is as the dew of dawn, and the earth will bring forth its dead.” Daniel 12:2 says, “Many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.” Resurrection is also referred to in some books of the apocrypha.

Obviously resurrection, specifically Christ's, is at the center of our faith, or we wouldn't be talking about an itinerant preacher who died a criminal's death 2000 years ago. Much of Jesus' teaching does not make sense if this life is the only one. As C.S. Lewis points out, if you are only going to live for 70 or 80 years, you don't need to think much about the long-term consequences of how you live. So Hitler never had to face the consequences of all the other lives he was responsible for ending when he put the gun in his mouth. Not in this life, at least. As Paul said, “If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink, for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32)

But if, as Lewis points out, you will have to live with the person you have become for eternity, the stakes are raised infinitely higher. You are either becoming a larger, more loving, more heavenly person or a more closed in, more hateful and resentful and more hellish creature. And you will have to live with that forever. It's not the decay of the body you need to worry about; it's the decay of your soul and spirit.

We are not talking about the redeemed sitting around on clouds, playing harps, either. That is not how the Bible pictures the afterlife. Ultimately it is about God restoring his creation to what it was intended to be. God created each of us as a unity of body and spirit. (Genesis 2:7) As Lewis put it, we are amphibians, capable of operating in both the physical and the spiritual realms. And just as God will recreate and in a sense resurrect the heavens and the earth, he will also resurrect us to live in his new creation. The main difference in us will be that, like the resurrected Jesus, our bodies will not be subject to our present limitations, such as those of time and space. (Luke 24:13-15, 30-31; John 20:19) Or death.

Which makes our reunification with our loved ones possible. As God said, it is not good for a human being to be alone. (Genesis 2:18) After all, we were created in the image of the God who is love. (Genesis 1:27; 1 John 4:8) It would not be paradise if we were all confined to our own private heavens, unable to interact and share love with others.

But those of us who are happily married might be alarmed by Jesus saying there will not be marriage in heaven. The problem is thinking that there should somehow be no change in the nature of our relationship, unlike what we find in every other stage of life. There are always changes. When we are born, we are helpless. A parent has to become our complete caretaker. As we grow and can do more for ourselves, ideally a parent gradually becomes less of a caretaker and more of a mentor. When you are an adult, a parent can become an adviser, a counselor and even something of a friend. Then, as your parents grow older, you may become their caretaker. The love remains; the form it takes and the roles you play in the relationship change.

We long-time married people see glimpses of these kinds of changes already. We are no longer giddy newlyweds who see our spouse as the epitome of their sex. If we are fortunate, we have seen that white-hot infatuation that sparked and fueled our pursuit cool to a more livable temperature. We see the person we are married to as they really are, and not as what we projected onto them. Hopefully we are not merely lovers but comforters, encouragers, friends. The wrinkles, the changing body, the grey hair, or lack of hair don't mean that much because it is the person and not the appearance that we have come to love.

Some of that comes from learning to put up with imperfection. And I don't just mean physical imperfection. None of us are perfect in the moral or spiritual spheres. We are not paragons of wisdom, or faultless in our speech or given only to noble deeds. We make stupid choices and sometimes deliberately bad ones. We fail to be even the person we could be. And so in this life we should be in the process of learning to be more forgiving, more merciful and more understanding of others as well as ourselves.

Although those qualities will remain, having to live with imperfection will not be a feature of God's new creation. While dying and becoming immortal will change our relationships with those we love, there will be no more codependence, no more relationships based on need or weakness or seeing one person as merely an extension of the other. Nor will any person merely be there to stroke the ego of the other. (That latter part explains why putting Hitler in heaven is impossible. Nobody would be worshiping him. Heaven would be hell for him and all narcissists.)

Instead Paul envisioned a radical equality where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female because we are all one in Christ. (Galatians 3:28) And that ideal will become real at last. In 1 John it says, “Dear friends, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is.” (1 John 3:2) We were created in the image of God but that image has been marred by our sins. Right now it may be hard to see the family resemblance to God our Father in most of us. But when Jesus, the image of the invisible God, comes, we will be transformed into who we were created to be: perfect reflections of the God who is love. Right now we are like the funny-looking kid who will grow up into a gorgeous adult.

And that's at the heart of resurrection: hope. Things will not stay as they are. They will get infinitely better. At present we live in a world that does not resemble the paradise God originally gave us. The imperfections we live with are not simply small quirks or inconveniences. Some are painful and some are harmful and some are lethal. Some are horrible parodies of who we should be, hellish distortions of our heavenly Father. They are why, while some fear the world is ending, others welcome the end in nihilistic despair. They are without hope.

So were the disciples after Jesus was crucified and buried. They had seen him heal the sick, and raise the dead, and feed the hungry. They had seen him transfigured into a being of light. They had given up everything to follow him. And when he died, so did their hope. If God's Anointed could be killed, what hope was there for them—or for the rest of the world? Was there even a God or was this some cruel joke? I bet none of them ate much or slept much that Friday and Saturday. And when they finally dropped off from exhaustion, they were visited by nightmares. They were haunted by the fact it was all over.

And then on that Sunday morning, the women who had gone to perform one last sad duty for their teacher came back in a fright, babbling about something that was impossible: Jesus being alive and solid and speaking words of encouragement. The men thought they were hysterical but 2 of them ran to the tomb and found it open and empty. And then, as the disciples huddled together in a locked room, afraid and confused, Jesus was suddenly there. He had the scars of his crucifixion but he was whole and healthy, able to be touched, able to eat, able to be with them unhindered by doors, distances or death. He breathed on them and began to teach them. Not only was Jesus resurrected, so was their hope. It was not over. It had only begun.

And the torch has been passed on to us. We are to continue bringing the good news of the risen Jesus to a world for whom death is the last word, which extinguishes all existence and all hope.

And so as we remember those who are no longer with us, we grieve but not like those who have no hope. (1 Thessalonians 4:13) For us, being absent from the body means being present with the Lord. (2 Corinthians 5:6) And as Paul said, “For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, so also we believe that God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus.” (1 Thessalonians 4:14) For now they rest. In the future so shall we. Until that day when we all awaken to the dawn of a new creation and see our redeemer face to face as he wipes away every tear from our eyes and banishes all mourning, crying, and pain. And on that day death will be no more. (Revelation 21:4) It will be swallowed up in the victory that began when Jesus rose from the dead. Because he is not the God of the dead but of the living. In fact, he is the resurrection and the life. (John 11:25) We say that where there is life, there is hope. And where there is eternal life, hope never dies.