Spoiled Goodness

The scriptures referred to are Genesis 2:15-17; 3-17, Psalm 32, and Matthew 4:1-11.

Some people think that the concept of evil is itself evil. That is, they think that morality is something we made up to control people. They think that everything that humans do is natural. Yeah, but not everything natural is good. Jane Goodall was horrified when she discovered that the chimpanzees she had studied for decades would sometimes practice cannibalism. And archaeologists have dug up human bones that show signs that people have been butchered and eaten. Cannibalism does occur in nature. It's not good.

In fact one of the things that separates humans from other animals is our large frontal lobe. Our judgment and restraint reside in the part of the brain behind our forehead. As a neurosurgical nurse I have seen what happens when people have damage to the frontal lobe. They act like 2 year olds, albeit with human intelligence and strength. One family was at first worried that their son, who received a head injury in an accident, would die. When he didn't, they then worried that he would never wake from his coma. When he did, they were happy. But then they began to realize he was not the same person. He cursed profusely unlike before. He threw tantrums (and as someone well over 6 feet tall, these were frightening and possibly dangerous). And he did things in public that most people do in private. He had lost all his inhibitions. We also see this in frontotemporal dementia, where those lobes of the brain shrink and the person becomes inappropriate, impulsive, loses empathy for others and has language problems or aphasia.

Like any part of the body, the frontal lobe must be exercised and trained to get better at what it does. And so we teach our children rules. Don't hit your friends when you get mad. Don't take things that belong to others. Don't break things when you get frustrated. Basically, we teach children to refrain from harming themselves and others and to refrain from doing things that will harm their relationships with others. Because if they are violent, mean and untrustworthy, it will hurt them throughout their life.

There is a day when a kid learns that not everyone lives by these rules. They see others, and especially adults, break the rules about not doing harm. We call that moment the loss of innocence. They realize the world is not as safe as they thought. They realize they are vulnerable. They lose a bit of the trust they had in others to always do the right thing.

That's what we see at the end of today's reading from Genesis. But first we see a paradigm of how temptation works. And in our gospel passage we see how Jesus handled temptation.

We are told that humans are put on earth to tend it and care for it. We were to be the gardeners of the Garden of Eden. And God gives his one and only rule for the first humans to observe. “You may eat freely of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat it you shall die.” It's like telling a kid they may play with anything in the toy room but do not mess with the electrical sockets. There is only one thing prohibited and it's for their own good.

By the way, the Hebrew word translated “evil” basically means “spoiled” or “ruined by being broken into pieces.” If God created everything good as it says in Genesis chapter 1, where does evil come from? It comes from spoiling or ruining God's gifts by misusing them to harm rather than to help. One of the first tools humans invented was the knife. It helped us hunt and prepare food; it also became the basic weapon to kill other humans. We always seem to take the gifts God gives us, like intelligence and knowledge and skills, and use them to spoil, ruin and break God's gifts, including other people.

So why would God not want the first humans to learn about good and evil? I think it is for the same reason we tell kids not to go off with strangers but do not tell them that the reason is that they could be kidnapped, sexually abused and killed. They are not ready for that knowledge. We want them to be careful around strangers, not traumatized by the mere presence of strangers. Later, when they are ready, they will learn, hopefully only by hearing stories, of how bad such things can get. In the meantime, the rule suffices.

It seems that babies are born with just two inbuilt fears: fear of falling and fear of snakes. And Genesis uses this second natural fear to show us how temptation works.

First the tempter suggests that God is unreasonable. He says, “Did God say, 'You shall not eat from any tree in the garden'?” God never said that but the implication is that God's laws are not always rational. I had an aunt who would not let us kids sit on any of the sofas and chairs in her living room, despite the fact that they were all covered in clear plastic! God is not like that. But the doubt of his trustworthiness has been planted.

And though the woman corrects the serpent, she does expand the commandment a bit. She says that they are not merely to refrain from eating it but from touching it. This might seem like a sensible precaution. If you don't touch it, you can't eat it. But people sometimes expand God's commandments to a point where they can hinder doing good things, such as when the Pharisees expanded the rule against working on the Sabbath to include not healing suffering people on it. Jesus points out that it is OK to heal and help people (and animals) on the Sabbath. (Luke 13:10-17) And indeed a lot of young people leave churches because they were taught that a bunch of unnecessary rules were given by God and not actually by men. Joshua Harris admits that his popular evangelical book, I Kissed Dating Goodbye, which substituted marriage-minded courtship for dating and was seminal in the development of the so-called “purity culture,” has done more harm to young people than good and he has requested it no longer be printed.

Next the tempter flatly contradicts God. “You will not die...” How often do we tell ourselves that breaking a moral rule is not that serious? “Just this once,” we tell ourselves. But some decisions have life-altering consequences that we didn't foresee. We teach our kids not to play with fire. One girl I grew up with played with matches, caught fire, and while she did not die, she was disfigured for life. As someone once said, before you tear down a fence, find out why it was put up in the first place.

The tempter continues, “...for God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened...” Secret or forbidden knowledge is tempting. Knowing what others don't makes you feel superior. That's the lure of many occult practices and almost every cult that ever drew unsuspecting people in. They offer false knowledge containing just enough truth to get past some people's B.S. detector.

Even when the unknown knowledge is true, it can be a two-edged sword. When we unlocked the secret of nuclear power, what was the first thing humans did with that knowledge? We created the most destructive bomb in history, one capable of destroying an entire city and vaporizing people, leaving only their shadows burnt into the remaining stones. And since then we went on to create ever more devastating nuclear weapons. As for using that power to help people, that has not been nearly as successful.

And now the tempter delivers the coup de grace: “...and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” That's the real temptation. We humans can do a lot but there are things outside our control. We wish we had the power to control everything and everyone. We daydream about being superheroes who can fly, have super strength and be invulnerable. We wish to be gods. And there are things beyond our understanding (and some always will be, for our brains are finite). Yet we know that knowledge is power. And we want that knowledge so we can control the powers of the universe. It would be wonderful if we used that knowledge and power only to do good for everyone but you just know someone will figure out a way to use those things for their own advantage and to harm and dominate others. In some labs we create cures and in others biological weapons.

The woman is hooked. She “saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise...” It tasted good, it looked good and it made you smarter. As someone who used to be a copywriter, I can tell you that modern advertising still emphasizes those 3 characteristics. We even market junk food so it will have the right balance of sweetness, saltiness, attractive appearance and “8 essential vitamins” so you can scarf down your Lucky Charms and think you had a healthy meal. And notice how the word “good” is being used in a different way here. The text parallels the words “good,” “delight” and “desired.” This is “good” in the sense of “making you feel good.” Absent is the sense of actually “being good for you.”

And lest you want to blame this all on the woman, notice that she doesn't have to hunt the man down to give him the fruit. No, “she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate.” (Emphasis mine) He was standing right there, listening to all this and not trying to intervene or correct what was being said. Evil isn't always active; evil can be complicity, letting others do the wrong thing and not saying or doing anything. How did the fascists take over Italy and Germany prior to World War 2? How did the Nazis deport and kill the Jews in the countries they conquered? Because most people kept quiet and went about their own business, ignoring the evil others perpetrated.

The first humans' eyes are opened, yet they don't see themselves as more powerful but as vulnerable. They now know how every good gift of God can be used to harm them. They know how to harm each other. They are like children who have seen what matches can do. They wish for armor but all they can do is sew leaves together to cover their naked and vulnerable bodies. The bright world they were given is now covered in sinister shadows. It is no longer paradise for them. The pure goodness in them has died.

Jesus' temptations are different. He has the power of God and so in this case the temptation is to misuse it. He could use his divine powers to benefit himself by making stones into bread. But he counters his temptations with his knowledge of scripture. Quoting Deuteronomy, he asserts that without the spiritual nourishment which comes from God's word, life is meaningless. If all we are here for is to eat, sleep and make sure we don't die, our lives are emptier than our stomachs.

Then he is tempted to test just how much God will protect him, even if he does something as stupid as throwing himself from the top of the temple. The tempter even misuses scripture to that purpose, something we do when we want to justify reckless behavior. But God did not send Jesus to be invulnerable. On the contrary, as the book of Hebrews reminds us, “For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin.” (Hebrews 4:15) Jesus doesn't avoid sin by being impervious to it but by choosing to do what is right no matter how tempting the alternative is. And he is not going to test God by doing something rash and expecting God to protect him from the consequences.

Finally the tempter offers him all earthly power. He could be emperor of the world. All he has to do is bend the knee to the one Jesus later calls “the ruler of this world.” (John 14:30; 16:11) Jesus just has to switch allegiance from God and his goodness to his adversary, and the world is his. He will not have to try to convince others to choose to be part of the kingdom of God. He will not have to go to the cross. This is the easy way that people gain power. They suck up to those who will give them power in return for their loyalty. But what else are they giving? The question, as Jesus puts it, is “For what does it benefit a person to gain the whole world, yet forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36) Jesus dismisses the tempter, saying that God is the only one we are to worship and serve. Jesus will follow God's will and serve him, even when it leads to the cross.

We are all tempted to do what is easy or desirable, even if it spoils and ruins what God has created for us and in us. And we will at some point succumb. Are we lost? No, not if we do as it says in our psalm and confess to God what we have done wrong. We must acknowledge that we are not God, we are not perfect, and we have done harm or let it be done. We cannot always undo what we have done to others or the world, but we can let God undo the damage we have done to ourselves. And then, as his Holy Spirit repairs us, we can go about as the body of Christ repairing the world we have spoiled and ruined. And we can trust in his goodness, his wisdom and his promise that he will make us and all things new. (Revelation 21:1-5)

True Glory

The scriptures referred to are Exodus 24:12-18, Psalm 2, 2 Peter 1:16-21, and Matthew 17:1-9.

On the YouTube channel Religion For Breakfast, Dr. Andrew Mark Henry does deep dives on various aspects of religion from an academic perspective but in a way that the average person can understand and appreciate the findings and opinions of scholars of religion. Recently he discussed a controversial idea some were debating, namely, do animals have religion? And while we obviously do not know what is going on in their minds, one phenomenon struck me. It seems that chimpanzees go nuts when they encounter waterfalls. They shriek and jump around, sometimes waving sticks. Other times they just sit quietly and watch. Some researchers think that what affects them is that the water is moving and yet is not alive. The safest conclusion to draw, however, is that they are experiencing awe.

We all experience awe at times. Going out on a boat and finding yourself surrounded by the vastness of the ocean. Watching a glorious sunset. Looking up on a moonless night and seeing the incredible number of stars in the sky. My grandson recently experienced awe when we when to Colorado. The area around Denver is rather flat but when you drive west, you see the Rocky Mountains, rising up from the plains, some reddish and craggy, some purple with shadows, some green with trees, some capped with snow, and some with their summits hidden in the clouds. Growing up in Florida he had never seen mountains, much less gone up one. From the top of Pike's Peak he saw and touched snow for the first time and was able to gaze down upon the surrounding area, including lesser mountains, from a height of 14,115 feet. It was, to properly use the word for once, awesome.

In today's lectionary texts, we read of two mountain top experiences. The first is Moses' 40 days on the mountain receiving God's law. The second is Jesus taking Peter, James and John up a mountain to see him transfigured. Both were awe-inspiring. Each had a reason for happening.

Moses was called by God to lead his people out of slavery and into the promised land. But that change of venue and status was not the only reason God had for doing it. Long ago, he had promised their ancestor Abraham that the whole world would be blessed through the great nation his descendants would become. (Genesis 12:2-3) But Israel would not become great in the way the world sees greatness. They would not become an empire. Their greatness would be the law God would give them, one characterized by justice and mercy, as exemplified in its preamble: the Ten Commandments. (Exodus 20:1-17) Later God's Son would summarize them in two great commandments: to love God with all we are and all we have and to love our neighbors as we do ourselves. (Matthew 22:36-40) He said that no commandment was greater than these. (Mark 12:31)

Why didn't God just whisper these laws to Moses in his sleep? I think it's because we humans are both physical and spiritual. What is spiritual can be ethereal and amorphous. The physical gives the spiritual a form while the spiritual gives the physical a meaning. We see this in communion. The Passover meal commemorated God sparing the children of Israel when death struck the firstborn of the Egyptians on the eve of their release from slavery. Jesus took that and transformed it into the meal in which we remember how the Son of God's self-sacrifice frees us from death and our slavery to sin.

So God takes Moses up on top of a mountain where he enters a cloud and sees God in the form of a devouring fire. Moses is awestruck and will always remember what God tells him. And in our passage from Matthew Jesus takes his inner circle of disciples up to the top of a mountain to show them that he is in fact the glorious Son of Man that Daniel prophesied about. (Daniel 7:13-14)

Why was it necessary for Jesus to do this? Because just 6 days earlier, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” His disciples rattled off the usual suspects: John the Baptist, Elijah, Jeremiah or some other prophet. Then Jesus asks, “But what about you? Who do you say I am?” And Peter says, “You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.” And Jesus blesses Peter and says that this was revealed to him not by man but by God. He goes on to say that his church will be built on this rock and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. They are at Caesarea Philippi, a site built by Herod's son Philip as a tribute to Tiberius Caesar. There was a large cave there that was sacred to pagans who thought it was the entrance to Hades, the underworld of the dead. Jesus may have been referring to that in saying his church could withstand spiritual assaults because it was based on the solid rock of Peter's declaration. (Matthew 16:13-20)

But then the mood changes. Having confirmation that his disciples knew him to be the Anointed One, God's Son, he then tells them something shocking: that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer at the hands of the religious authorities and be killed. He also says that he will be raised to life on the third day but they can't get past the shock that he will be killed. What good is a dead Messiah? So Peter takes him aside and tells Jesus that he is wrong. That's right: he tells the guy he just identified as God's Son that he doesn't know what he's talking about.

Jesus rebukes Peter, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; for you are not thinking about things as God does but about them as men do.” Satan is literally the Hebrew word for “adversary.” Peter is trying to tempt Jesus to do what any human being would—avoid suffering and death at all costs. But Jesus knows that God has a greater purpose behind this. Still, imagine how this rebuke stung Peter.

Then Jesus turns to all his disciples and says, “If anyone wants to follow me, let them thoroughly deny themselves, take up their cross and follow me.” In other words, they must give up all rights to do as they want and follow Jesus as if they were condemned men carrying their cross to the place of execution. What a bummer! (Matthew 16:12-28)

So the mood for the next week would have been somber. Peter was trying to forget that Jesus compared him to God's adversary for telling Jesus he should not die. The others were dealing with Jesus telling them that those who try to save their lives will lose them and that those who lose their life for Jesus' sake will find it. Nobody is happy.

Jesus knows that they need to see that this is what God wants for the person Peter identified him as. So he takes the main three disciples up a mountain, probably Mount Hermon, which is not far from Caesarea Philippi. At 9,232 feet above sea level it's the highest point in the area. It is snow covered for most of the year and snow melt feeds the springs at its base. These are the source of the river Jordan. Its name might come from the Semitic root word for “consecrated.”

So this is an awe-inspiring place to be by itself. But while they were up there, Jesus becomes the most awesome sight they've ever seen. His face shines like the sun. Think of how hard it it to look directly at the sun. His clothes also become as bright as the light. The disciples must be shading their eyes when looking in Jesus' direction. The effect is unsettling. They are seeing Jesus as he is: God Incarnate.

Suddenly there are two other figures there: Moses, the lawgiver, and Elijah, the premiere prophet. We are not told how the disciples identify them, but they represent two main parts of the Old Testament scriptures, the Law and the Prophets. Both men also have remarkable endings to their earthly lives. Moses is buried by God in some place unknown (Deuteronomy 34:5-6) and Elijah is taken to heaven by a whirlwind. (2 Kings 2:11) Luke says they were talking to Jesus about his own upcoming death. (Luke 9:31)

Peter starts babbling about building some shelters for the three glorious figures when a bright cloud overshadows them. A voice says, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased.” This echoes a line in today's psalm (Psalm 2:7) as well as what God said at Jesus' baptism. (Matthew 3:16-17) But there is an added sentence: “Listen to him.” In other words, Jesus knows what he's talking about. If he says he has to die, he is telling the truth and you need to accept it, no matter how you feel about it.

The reaction of the disciples is just what you'd think: they fall to the ground and are overcome by fear. All of this is uncanny. Then Jesus comes and touches them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they raise their heads, everything looks normal. It's just Jesus, looking as he does on any other day.

All three synoptic gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, report this event. John, as usual, is different. Just as John's gospel doesn't actually describe Jesus being baptized or saying the words “This is my body” and “This is my blood” at the last supper, he doesn't mention this glimpse of Jesus' glory. But he does record Jesus talking of his being glorified. However, the event that Jesus says will glorify him is his death on the cross. (John 12:23; 13:31; 17:1) Just how is that glorious?

Paul says, “For rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person perhaps someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:7-8) That is extraordinary. God who is holy becomes a human and dies to save unholy humanity. The good guy dies to save the villains. The embodiment of God's law of love dies to save those who break the law. And Paul was also in awe of this because he writes, “This saying is trustworthy and deserves full acceptance: 'Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners'—and I am the worst of them.” (1 Timothy 1:15) Paul started out persecuting the church. He was at the stoning of Stephen and approved of it. He arrested Christians and had them thrown into prison. (Acts 7:58; 8:1-3; 9:1-2) After becoming a follower of Jesus, Paul was acutely aware that it was God's grace that saved him and not anything he had done. (1 Corinthians 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:12-14) He said that ironically when people heard that “...the one who once persecuted us is now proclaiming the good news of the faith he once tried to destroy.' So they glorified God because of me.” (Galatians 1:23-24)

Jesus Christ, God's Son, dying for a world of sinners in order that they might be saved and become sons and daughters of God is truly awesome. It is the greatest act of mercy ever. But of course, what really makes people listen to him is his resurrection. Other people have died for causes and not all of those causes were good. People died for the crusades or for the European conquest of the Americas or to keep slavery or for the Nazi conquest of Europe and Russia. A smaller number have died for good causes. What makes Jesus different from those who died for a good cause, like Socrates or Jan Huss or Martin Luther King Jr., is that God raised him to life again. Jesus' resurrection validates what he said. It changes him from just another martyr to the Redeemer of our lives.

When Jesus revealed his fate to the disciples, it demoralized them. He needed to keep them together till he rose again. So he gave them a glimpse of who he was, unfiltered. Perhaps this is what he meant when he said, “I tell you the truth, some who are standing here will not taste death before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.” (Matthew 16:28) It left a lasting impression, as we see in our passage from 2 Peter. Even so his crucifixion and death caused them to doubt. They would not be able to see how glorious what happened was until they saw him and touched him and ate with him. Often the clearest way to see God's hand at work in our worst experiences is to look back and see things from the other side of the trauma. Things not experienced as good at the time may in retrospect be seen at the vital turning point, the hinge upon which our story turned into something so much better. It's good to remember this when we are going through a time of trial. In Jesus we see God turn a tragedy into a triumph.

What Jesus did on that mountain and what he did on the cross he did not for himself but for others. The disciples needed a vision of hope so he lifted the veil on his heavenly glory. He showed them that what he was going to do was in line with what God revealed in the law and the prophets. He knew there was going to be a time when he would not look like the Christ, the Son of the living God, but a bloody corpse. They needed an awesome glimpse of his glory on a mountain top so that when they saw the awful sight of him on a cross they would later be able to see in it the true glory of his self-sacrificial love. 

The Right Balance

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 58:1-12, Psalm 112:1-9, 1 Corinthians 2:1-16, and Matthew 5:13-20.

I used to work for US-1 Radio as production director and copywriter. I was responsible for writing and recording the commercials, which paid everyone's salary. I won awards for my ads. But the station was most proud of a national award it got for its coverage during Hurricane Georges. They let me, my wife and our kids evacuate because they stopped running commercials and our news director Bill Becker and the on-air staff covered the hurricane 24 hours a day, even as water leaked into the studio. During Hurricane Irma, one of the staff stood outside in the storm holding the satellite dish in place, so the signal would get beamed to the tower and from there to people throughout the Florida Keys. If that dish had failed, what they were saying in the studio would not have mattered. The physical setup made spreading of the message possible.

Which would you miss first should they disappear from this place: Pastor Art and I bringing you communion or the trustees bringing you food? Access to Bibles or access to blankets? The chaplains or the nurses? I'm not saying that our spiritual needs are not important, but if a person doesn't have their physical needs met first, it is hard for them to focus on spiritual matters, however important.

Jesus knew that. Just before the Sermon on the Mount begins we read in Matthew, “Jesus went throughout Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people. So his fame spread throughout all Syria, and they brought to him all the sick, those who were afflicted with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, and paralytics, and he cured them. And great crowds followed him from Galilee, the Decapolis, Jerusalem, Judea, and from beyond the Jordan.” (Matthew 4:21-25) Which do you think was more likely—that the crowds came to Jesus mainly to hear him preach and then maybe to stay and be healed? Or that they came first to be healed and then stayed to hear what the person who healed them had to say about God's love and forgiveness?

Very early a philosophy tried to infiltrate the church: Gnosticism. The name came from the Greek word for knowledge and that knowledge was that everything physical was evil and only what was spiritual was good. It attracted a lot of people. The most famous Gnostic work was the so-called Gospel of Thomas. The problem is that, according to the Gnostics, Christ did not really become one of us. He couldn't have a physical and therefore evil body, so the incarnation was an illusion. Which also meant he wasn't crucified and thus didn't die or rise again. They were illusions. Salvation came through learning the secret knowledge the Gnostics taught. There were levels of secret knowledge their followers had to ascend through, rather like Scientology. Lots of cults follow this plan.

Gnosticism was condemned as a heresy. But even in the mainstream church you find people who wish to separate the spiritual from the physical. They think the church should focus almost exclusively on spiritual matters. They say that the church shouldn't get involved in things like social justice. They even say that empathy can be a sin!

I wonder what they make of today's passage from Isaiah, the prophet Jesus quoted the most. Here God is saying that his people's religious fasts do not count with him and their prayers do not reach him if at the same time they are inflicting or even tolerating injustice. He wants them to first free the oppressed and share their food with the hungry and “bring the homeless poor into your house.” They are to clothe the naked and “satisfy the needs of the afflicted.” Only after that are we told “Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer; you shall cry for help, and he will say, 'Here I am'”

And in today's passage from the Psalms, the book of the Bible that Jesus quoted the most, we read that “the righteous are merciful and full of compassion. It is good for them to be generous in lending and to manage their affairs with justice...They have given freely to the poor.” The righteous, then, are not just concerned with spiritual matters but with physical matters as well, like helping the poor. 

(By the way, empathy is a synonym for compassion. If the righteous are to be “full of compassion,” if God is described as compassionate (Exodus 34:6; Deuteronomy 4:31; Psalms 78:38; 86:15; 103:8), if Jesus is described as being moved by compassion (Matthew 9:36; 14:14; 15:32; 20:34), then empathy, another word for compassion, cannot be a sin.)

In our passage from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compares his followers to salt and light. What did he mean by that?

Today we think of salt primarily as adding flavor to foods. One of the problems heart patients and people with high blood pressure face when avoiding too much salt is that they find their diets have become bland. Look at any food packaging and you will generally find sodium (ie, salt) as one of the ingredients. Yet sodium is an important electrolyte that helps us regulate our fluid balance, blood pressure, nerve function and muscle contractions. So the trick is to maintain the proper balance between too much and too little. Balance, called homeostasis in biology, is vital to a healthy life.

Jesus however is probably thinking of the use of salt as a preservative. There was no such thing as refrigeration back then. Yes, rich people had ice cellars in which they kept snow and ice from the previous winter but usually this was used to cool beverages. The average person preserved perishable foods, like fish, by using salt. So Jesus is thinking of his followers as people who preserve the earth. How? Just previously he had described citizens of God's kingdom as being merciful and peacemakers among other things. People who are merciless and troublemakers do not preserve communities but fracture them. They destroy the trust which underlies all relationships. It's ironic that we talk about a “dog eat dog” society because dogs are intensely loyal to their packs and families and do not like conflict. My kids found to their amusement that if they pretended to fight our dog went nuts trying to stop them. It distressed her. She knew what some humans don't: peace and mercy are necessary to keeping a family and a community together. By showing mercy and making peace Jesus' followers keep the world from descending into conflict and chaos.

Then Jesus calls his followers “the light of the world.” Ever experience total darkness? I remember being on a commercial tour of a cave when the tour guide showed us what the cave looked like before they installed lighting. He turned all the lights off. We were plunged into absolute darkness. Even on nights when the moon is not visible, you can usually see a little. And in the modern world we typically have access to light. But when that cave went dark, it was as if everything ceased to exist. You could not see your hand or the person next to you or the cave floor or the guardrails that kept you on the path. Most people have never experienced total darkness. It is scary.

Light lets us navigate this world. It enables us to see things as they are. We can see the things that we need. We can see dangers ahead and we can see the path that is safe. We can see the faces of those we love and their expressions and their gestures. Jesus is saying that we are to act like light in those ways. We are to help others navigate this life. We are to reveal how things actually are. We are to point out dangers and the safe path that leads away from them. We are to express our love for others in all we say and do.

And doing loving things is a vital part of being the light of the world. Jesus says, “In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Our good works reveal God's love. We are not saved by our works, but we are saved in order that we can do good works. As Paul writes in Ephesians, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ Jesus for good works that God prepared beforehand so we might do them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, emphasis mine) We are not Gnostics, just drinking in knowledge and no more involved in the physical world than necessary. We are to roll up our sleeves and reach out and help one another. How else will people see that the good news of God's love is more than mere words?

But didn't Jesus say of himself, “I am the light of the world”? So how is it that he tells us “You are the light of the world”? Indeed, he is the light of the world. And he continued, “The one who follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) The light we show the world does not come from us but from Jesus. We mirror and reflect his light. Or think of us as lamps lit by his flame. A candle lit from another candle does not diminish the first candle and burns as brightly.

And when his critics did not believe him, Jesus said, “If I do not perform the deeds of my Father, do not believe me. But if I do them, even if you do not believe me, believe the deeds, so that you may come to know and understand that I am in the Father and the Father is in me.” (John 10:37-38) “If you do not believe me, believe the deeds.” Jesus wasn't asking for blind faith; the evidence that God was acting in him was in the deeds he did. He fed people and healed them and raised the dead. His works validated his words. Many a false prophet is betrayed by the fact that his evil works contradict whatever good words he says, not to mention the Word of God.

Paul seems to be playing with the idea of secret wisdom in our passage from 1^st Corinthians. He talks of “God's wisdom, the hidden mystery...which none of the rulers of this age understood, for if they had they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.” In this case, he seems to be speaking not of those who neglect the physical for the spiritual but the opposite error: those who disregard the spiritual and so concentrate on physical power, which they use to harm and kill those they oppose. Jesus was executed because he was not only a threat to the religious leaders' authority but to the political leaders' control. Despite Jesus saying his kingdom did not come from this world Pilate charged him with being the King of the Jews, a rival to Caesar, who took the title king of kings. (John 18:36; 19:12, 19)

Worldly wisdom is about looking out for number 1: yourself. But God's wisdom is about looking out for others. It is centered in Christ crucified. This act of self-sacrificial love was not an illusion but is at the very heart of reality. Just as he fed people physical food and healed their physical bodies, he shed his physical blood and died a physical death. And when he talked of his disciples taking up their crosses and following him, he was not being metaphorical. Most were martyred and Peter was literally crucified. Though few of us today face that kind of sacrifice, the crosses we carry should be made evident in physical acts of love, like those spelled out in Isaiah: sharing what we have with the hungry and the homeless, not oppressing workers but freeing them from the bonds of injustice, not quarreling and fighting but satisfying the needs of the afflicted. Jesus did not come to abolish the message of the Law or the prophets but to fulfill them. And as the body of Christ, we must also fulfill them. Teaching people to disregard these commandments to show compassion and act justly may make you look strong and great in the eyes of the world but not in God's kingdom. As Paul says, all the commandments “are summed up in this, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does no wrong to a neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law.” (Romans 13:9-10)

C.S. Lewis pointed out that we are amphibians, at home in both the physical and the spiritual realms. In Jesus, God Incarnate, both heaven and earth, the spiritual and the physical, meet. It is foolish to neglect either one. As the radio station could not get its message out without maintaining the physical setup needed to broadcast, we cannot expect the good news to reach people if we only use words and not actions of justice and compassion. And if, as some say, ours is a Christian nation, it cannot go about oppressing people, committing injustices, ignoring the needs of the poor, harming and abusing children (Matthew 18:5-6), not treating the alien as a native born (Leviticus 19:33-34), being merciless and creating trouble rather than making peace. That doesn't sound like the kingdom where the God who is love reigns. It sounds like hell. As Jesus said of his critics who condemned his deeds of compassion because he put people over man-made rules, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” 

Qualities of the Kingdom

The scriptures referred to are Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and Matthew 5:1-12.

Last week I spoke of the explosion of superheroes in the 1930s and 40s as a reaction to the Great Depression and with the rise of Fascism on the eve of the Second World War. While Superman was not the first costumed hero, his appearance in 1938 opened the floodgates to others. They were either non-humans like Clark Kent, enhanced humans like Captain America, or humans who used technology and well-developed athletic abilities like Batman. They fought criminals, slum lords, abusive husbands and increasingly the Nazis. People loved them because they had the power to do things ordinary people couldn't. In a world where might makes right, we love to see people use might to make things right. It is a fantasy that goes back to figures like Hercules, King Arthur and Robin Hood.

The problem is that people with actual human powers like wealth, influence, charisma, military and political power rarely do use their strengths to help the less powerful. They use them to enrich themselves, often at the expense of the powerless. They are more likely to oppress the downtrodden than to liberate them. And thank God that people with superpowers don't exist. There is a horror film called Brightburn, which is a disturbing but more realistic picture of what an adolescent boy with Superman's powers would do.

Unfortunately some who call themselves Christians don't actually worship the God who is love revealed in Jesus Christ. They worship power. And not God's moral power but his power to control the world. They would be just as happy to worship Zeus or even Kali, the goddess of death and destruction. Because that is the godlike power they crave.

Last week we talked about ways in which the kingdom of God is different than the kingdoms of this world. And as we get into Jesus' Sermon on the Mount, we see that Jesus is not praising power but highlighting things that we associate with not having power. He pronounces as blessings stuff we see as the opposite of being blessed.

The Greek word translated as “blessed,” makarios, means “happy or fortunate.” So it is ironic that Jesus uses it to describe states of being that we would see as unfortunate and that would make us unhappy. So why does he say that? Let's look at these statements and see if we can discern his reason.

First he says, “Blessed are the poor in spirit...” The Greek doesn't just mean poor but destitute. It refers to someone who is a beggar, who is absolutely dependent on the charity of others. These are people who are under no illusion that they are self-sufficient. J.B. Phillips translates this phrase as “Happy are those who know their need for God...” The rich and powerful may think they don't need anyone else, not even God. When disaster, injury or illness takes away their control over their own circumstances, it comes as a rude awakening. It turns out they are not masters of their own fate. But folks who acknowledge their spiritual poverty know that the only person they can turn to is God. And the reason this is good news is that “theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” God will give them his kingdom. It is made up of people who are not arrogant and who don't think they can do anything they want. God's kingdom is made up of people who know that all that they have are gifts from God. We cannot take credit for our brains or bodies or talents or the position in society into which we are born. The powerful are fooling themselves if they think they achieved everything on their own or that they had no help. The people who realize that God is the source of all goodness and all gifts, and that these are on loan from him to use for the benefit of all, are the fortunate ones.

Next Jesus says that those who mourn are fortunate. Again the Greek is more specific. It means those who are grieving, especially over a death. It could be the death of a person or the death of a hope or dream. When a person dies, the plans that their loved ones had with them also die. When a person becomes disabled, the dreams they had for achieving certain things may die. The same is true when a disaster radically changes your life. And the reason that is good news is that “they will be comforted.” The Greek means not only emotional comfort and encouragement but also actually receiving help. God's kingdom is made up of empathetic, supportive people who embody Jesus' compassionate Spirit. When a member of my congregation became disabled after a series of small strokes, we took turns helping her husband care for her. I used my nursing skills. Others sat with the woman as her husband went shopping or just took a break from being her full-time caretaker. When he got her a place in an out-of-state nursing care facility that also had homes for the spouses of the patients, we helped load her into their RV so he could take her there. This had not been the couple's plan for their lives but it would have been worse had not their friends from church given them comfort in the form of concrete acts of help and support.

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek...” The Greek means not weakness but strength expressed in gentleness and humility. This world idolizes those who just burst into a situation and disrupt everything to get what they desire. The world mistakes arrogance for confidence. It says, “Yes, he is rude and crude and a real S.O.B., but he gets things done.” And thus those who get pushed out of the way and trampled in the process are seen as just collateral damage. Recently a government offical dismissed “international niceties” to say “...we live in a world, in the real world...that is governed by strength, that is governed by force, that is governed by power.” And that has been used as an excuse for others to do whatever they want to do using force: invading countries, breaking laws, separating families, and killing people. They not only assert that this is the world we live in but this is the way they think the world should be. The powerful do whatever they want and that is fine with folks like that official and his ilk. But as our reading from Micah says, “...what does the Lord require of you but to do justice and to love kindness and to walk humbly with your God?”

Jesus says that the humble and gentle “will inherit the earth.” How is that possible? The powerful are volatile and surprisingly fragile. Those who are strong but not gentle often break things that they later need to continue to function. And the ambitions of the powerful cause friction between them. Eventually they go after each other. Emperors and kings are assassinated or overthrown by other ambitious men. Powerful empires overextend themselves and collapse or fight one too many wars of conquest and are themselves conquered. The humble and overlooked often survive. The Jewish people have survived the empires of the Egyptians, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and even the Nazis. Similarly, the church grew from a tiny persecuted group of believers in Judea to a faith that knows no borders.

Next Jesus says “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness...” Again the Greek is more intense. The word for “hunger” doesn't refer to those who have eaten a few hours before and are ready for their next meal. It means those who are famished. Likewise, the Greek word for “thirst” doesn't refer to those who would like to take a sip of something. It means those who are parched, who are suffering from thirst. And the word for “righteousness” also means “justice.” So Jesus is talking about those who are starving and desperately thirsty for God's justice. They want to be like those described in our psalm: “Those who lead a blameless life and do what is right, who speak the truth from their heart; they do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends; they do not cast discredit upon their neighbor...They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes against the innocent.” They long to see everything and everybody put right with God.

And the reason this is good news? “...they will be filled.” They will be fully satisfied. God will make them righteous and bring justice to the earth. The kingdom of God is made up of people who want to get right with God and with other people. They are fair and gracious in all their dealings.

Jesus now switches from talking about attitudes found in those who populate God's kingdom to the actions they take. He starts with “Blessed are the merciful for they will receive mercy.” Some people only point out what others do wrong and do not acknowledge it when they themselves do something wrong. But we all screw up. If you are unforgiving of other people, they will also be unlikely to forgive you. However if you forgive others they tend to be forgiving in return. The kingdom of God is made up of people who are merciful to each other because they have received God's mercy.

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.” In the Bible the “heart” doesn't refer to the organ in the center of your chest that pumps blood but to the center of your being: your mind, will and emotions. The problem is that no human being has a pure mind or heart. But the Greek word for “pure” basically means “clean.” Dirty things can be cleaned. And only God can clean our hearts. The kingdom of God is made up of people who have let God clean up their hearts and minds. The good news is that those who seek and serve God without mixed motives will see him in themselves and others and one day will see him face to face. (1 John 3:2)

Next Jesus says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” There are those who thrive on chaos because it creates opportunities for them. They exploit those who are caught up in the mess and who are fearful and stressed out by it all. But God desires peace. In Genesis 6:11 we read, “The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” When God reboots creation after the flood, our part of his covenant is to not shed each other's blood because God made humankind in his own image. (Genesis 9:6) He doesn't want us murdering each other. He wants all those made in his image to be at peace. There are lots of people who like to fight and harm and even kill others. The kingdom of God is made up of people who make peace between people. After all, Jesus, in whom we most clearly see the image of God, made peace between God and humanity and made peace between different peoples. (Romans 5:1; Ephesians 2:14-17) The good news is that there is peace and wholeness for those who live in God's kingdom. It is made up of people who are peacemakers.

The most ironic thing Jesus says is “Blessed are those who are persecuted for the sake of righteousness...Blessed are you when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake.” How is it fortunate to be persecuted for doing what's right in God's eyes? Because there are plenty of people in this world who will do the right thing if there is no cost to them. But few people will put themselves at risk to do the right thing, like helping someone who is in trouble or who can't repay them. Just this week an ICU nurse at a VA hospital helped a woman who had been shoved to the ground and he was murdered for doing so. And now people are saying all kinds of evil and false things about him because they do not want to admit that a good man was murdered for doing a good thing. The good news is that God's kingdom is made up of people who are good even when it is inconvenient or dangerous.

And the ultimate example is that Jesus was executed for doing what's right: healing people and telling them that God loved them and was forgiving. In fact Jesus displayed all of the beatitudes. He was completely dependent on God, grieved over the coming destruction of Jerusalem, was strong but gentle, was fueled by his commitment to righteousness and justice, was merciful to sinners, was singleminded in serving God, was a peacemaker and was persecuted for doing all this. And this is good news because the kingdom of God is made up of people committed to becoming like Jesus, God's self-sacrificial love incarnate, through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The beatitudes turn the values of the world upside down. They make no sense to the powerful and worldly wise. Which is why Paul says in today's epistle that “...God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, things that are not, to abolish things that are...” A world ruled by strength, force and power is one of the things that are. A world governed by the values Jesus preached is not. Or not yet! The schemes of the violent will fall upon them. (Psalm 7:16) God's plans for us, though not yet complete, will triumph in the end, just as Jesus Christ who was killed by the state triumphed over death. And his kingdom of justice and mercy and peace will prevail.

Power Failure

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 9:1-4, 1 Corinthians 1:10-18, and Matthew 4:12-23.

In the distant past, when humans lived in small bands competing for food in various regions, one of the strategies for survival was fighting other groups in defense and to take over their territory. So having a strong man for a leader made sense. The problem was that a strong man was not necessarily a wise man. The ability to fight and conquer a territory was not always accompanied by the ability to rule it well. And so eventually humans came up with laws, rules for how everyone is to behave that ensured peace and cooperation within the group. But when those laws impinged on strong men's ability to do whatever they wanted to, they resisted. A great deal of history is made up of strong men usurping power, trying to consolidate it and fighting others who either attacked them or rebelled to become independent of them. Powerful men never seem to have enough power to satisfy them. Their ruthless drive to gain and retain power inevitably leads to cruelty, causing great suffering for many.

An example of that common scenario lies behind our reading from Isaiah. The Assyrian empire lasted from the 14^th to the 7^th century BC. One of the casualties of its merciless quest for control was the northern kingdom of Israel, which was conquered in 721 BC. Israel had broken away from the southern Davidic kingdom of Judah 200 years before. The Assyrians carried out mass deportations to lessen local resistance, resulting in what have been called “the ten lost tribes of Israel.” They weren't so much lost as dispersed to other Assyrian-controlled territories. Then people from those territories were deported to what used to be Israel. The peoples intermarried, eventually becoming the Samaritans.

Needless to say the poor former Israelites left behind were demoralized. And so Isaiah's prophecy promised hope. The darkness that enveloped them will be pierced by a great light. God promised to break “the yoke of their burden and the bar across their shoulders, the rod of their oppressor...” How? Unfortunately our passage ends before the answer given just a couple of verses later: “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government will be upon his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” (Isaiah 9:6) In other words, God is promising an ideal Davidic king, the Messiah.

The problem with this is that in a world where “might makes right” people always want another strong man, just one who is on their side, in this case, the Messiah. Bad times lead to such a longing. There's a reason why there was a huge surge of superhero comics during the late 1930s and 40s, when the average person was struggling with the effects of the Great Depression and the rise of Fascism, just preceding the outbreak of World War 2. The cover of the first issue of Captain America showed him punching Hitler. In his first appearance Superman stops a crooked lobbyist corrupting a politician. We love to imagine that a supremely strong person can solve all our problems.

But as Stan Lee, longtime editor of Marvel Comics, said, even superheroes can't solve “the deadliest social ills plaguing the world today.” He continued, “unlike a team of costumed super-villains, they can't be halted with a punch to the snoot, or a zap from a ray-gun.” Lee was talking specifically about bigotry and racism but his point is true of many other problems we face. They arise not from external problems but from internal ones: our attitudes and self-centered ways of thinking. Are we not able to solve problems like poverty, lack of access to healthcare, homelessness and food insecurity because they are physically impossible or because we don't want to make the necessary societal changes? It doesn't help when the people with the money and power to make those changes convince us that the problem is really other relatively powerless people.

There is a cartoon with 3 men sitting at a table. One man has a huge pile of cookies, one man has only one cookie and the third man has none. The guy with lots of cookies says to the man with only one that the third guy “wants to steal your cookie.” Of course the obvious solution is for the guy with tons of cookies to share with the other two. But he would never suggest that. And politicians who are themselves rich and powerful will never suggest that the 1%, who hold as much wealth as the bottom 90% of society, should be more generous. The powerful do not willingly surrender their power.

Which is why Paul says that “the message about the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing...” Because the cross was an instrument of shameful, torturous death inflicted on slaves and on those who rebelled against the Roman government. As historian Tom Holland pointed out, the idea of a crucified God was revolutionary. It completely went against the values of the Roman empire, with its emphasis on power and conquest. It made no sense to Greek intellectuals and was seen as blasphemous by Jews. The cross said that God identified with the suffering, the poor and the powerless to the extent of becoming one of them. And by his rising again Jesus, God Incarnate, removed the fear of death which is the primary tool of the powerful. It turned the accepted way of looking at the world upside down. (Acts 17:6)

In today's reading from Matthew we see the beginning of Jesus' ministry. His basic message was “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” So Jesus is setting up a kingdom that rivals the kingdoms of earth but this is one where God reigns “on earth as it is in heaven.” And the way you become a citizen of the kingdom of God is not by simply being born into it or having your country conquered by it. Instead you must repent, that is, change your heart and mind and as a logical result of that, change how you live. For instance, after having a heart attack at age 69 and getting a quintuple bypass, my father-in-law changed his mind about his lifestyle and lived till he was 91. If we really trust what Jesus says, we will change how we live our lives. In the next few weeks we will look at what this entails as we go into the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus' more detailed description of what being a citizen of the kingdom of God is like. But right now we will look at some obvious differences between his kingdom and the kingdoms of earthly origins.

Earthly rulers gather armies. They somehow convince men to fight and possibly die so that the rulers can have power over more people. The term “emperor” comes from the Latin word for military commander. Until the modern era, rulers led their armies into battle. Today's rulers do not expose themselves to such danger. But like the kings of old, they secure their kingdoms and expand them by shedding the blood of others.

Jesus did not gather an army. In fact, Matthew tells us that “Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” Healing is the opposite of killing. And the scandal of the cross is that in order to secure his kingdom, no one's blood is shed but his. Nor does he die in battle, taking down others with him. He lets himself be led by his enemies, carries his own cross, and lets them nail him to it.

So how does Jesus spread his kingdom? By proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. Everyone knows what happens when humans reign. They, their friends and their top supporters get the all best stuff. If the common folk are lucky, they get peace and security. But the situation for most people rarely gets better.

God's kingdom is different. The 5 books of Moses say that in Israel provisions are to be made for everyone to receive justice. The poorest and least powerful—widows, the fatherless and immigrants—are singled out for fair treatment. (Exodus 22:22-24; Deuteronomy 10:18; 14:28-29; 27:19; Leviticus 19:33-34) Women are protected from incest. (Leviticus 18:6-18) In one chapter of Leviticus alone we are told that the poor must be fed, deception and lying are forbidden, nobody is to defraud anyone or cheat the people working for them, the disabled are not to be mistreated, justice is to be unbiased, nothing can be done that endangers the lives of others, and both neighbors and resident aliens are to be loved as one loves oneself. (Leviticus 19:9-18, 33-34) We know from the prophets that the people of Israel frequently failed to live up to these principles. Yet these standards are accepted by many today though still not practiced as they should be.

Jesus knew that merely having laws does not change people. The problem is that harmful behavior comes from the heart and mind. (Mark 7:20-23) Again we must change those attitudes and ways of thinking, becoming as open and trusting as a small child, if we are to enter God's kingdom. (Matthew 18:3) And that's another way in which earthly kingdoms differ. You read any history of an empire or kingdom and you see where George R.R. Martin got his inspiration for Game of Thrones. Rulers are rarely trusting. Coups, betrayals, and intrigue arise again and again. Rulers have killed brothers, fathers, cousins, spouses and even children to secure or keep their thrones. Herod killed his wife, her mother, her grandfather, and 3 of his sons. He had plans to have a large number of prominent Jews killed upon his death so that even people who hated him would mourn. This is why I have no trouble believing he wiped out all the toddlers in a small town like Bethlehem. It was totally in character.

The problem is that trust underlies all healthy relationships. And it's not restricted to close relationships. You trust your mechanic to fix your car and he trusts you to pay him. Without trust, not only personal and commercial relationships but societies and civilizations fall apart. When rulers do not trust their people and subjects do not trust their rulers, it spells doom for a nation or empire.

It can do the same for a church. This is one reason Paul is distressed by the divisions he sees in the Corinthian church. They shouldn't break up into cliques centered around their favorite preachers and teachers. They need to realize that their unity is found in Christ. It is he who died for them and he who gives them new life. A preacher or teacher is valuable only in so far as he or she points us to Christ and helps us follow him. That's why it always bothers me when a ministry is named after a preacher or evangelist. When he retires or dies, their main attraction is gone. If he falls into grave sin, he damages the faith of others and the good he had once done for the church. Many times when people leave the faith it is not because of God but because of people who represented God.

Jesus is the only person in the Bible, the church and in the whole history of the world who never sinned. And he is the only person who can help us live up to the high standards of his kingdom. He sends us his Spirit to live in us and produce in us spiritual fruit like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control. (Galatians 5:22-23) On the cross Jesus saved us from the penalty of sin. The Spirit at work in us saves us from the power of sin in our lives. But we have to let him. He will not coerce us because real love does not coerce the beloved.

And that's another distinctive feature of God's kingdom. No one is forced into it. Jesus is not like the conqueror who shows up one day and says, “From now on you are my subjects.” Citizenship in God's kingdom is strictly voluntary. That's why even in churches that baptize babies we have confirmation classes for those old enough to decide if they want to make the faith they were brought up in their own.

The rulers of this world do not like giving people choices. They refuse to give up any of their power. They are scared to look powerless. Instead they are always seeking to expand their power by taking it from others or taking over other territories. They are the antithesis of Jesus Christ. He gave people a choice to accept him or not. He did not cling to his divine prerogatives but gave them up to take on our humanity. (Philippians 2:5-7) He let himself be powerless before his enemies. They killed him. And then he showed that even death did not have any real power over him.

His power reveals the weakness of mortal kingdoms: they all will die. The Assyrian empire ceased to exist, as did the Babylonian empire, the Persian empire, the empire of Alexander the Great, the Roman empire, and the British empire. Nations and empires that exist today will one day cease. But not the kingdom of God. Jesus lives, no longer to die, and he shall reign forever and ever. (Romans 6:9; Revelation 11:15) Nor will we ever have to worry that he will rule unjustly or mercilessly. Because his strength is not based on bullying or violence but on his eternal love. And if we accept his love and join his kingdom, we will reign with him for we too shall live forever and ever.

All Our Needs and Desires

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 40:1-11 and 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.

For more than 20 years at 5 radio stations, I was the production director and copywriter. I wrote and recorded the ads and promos heard on the station. As such I found that there are many reasons to advertise: to simply let people know your business exists, to let them know what you have to offer, and to tell them how to visit or contact your business. But mainly you want to encourage the listener to buy your goods and services. If what you supply fills a basic need, that helps. Everyone needs food, clothes, transportation, and a good doctor. Then you just have to show that what you offer is more attractive than that of your competition. You might offer more convenience or friendlier service or other extras. In Key West just having free parking is a big plus.

But what if your product or service is not something anyone actually needs? Then instead you want to create a desire for what you offer. You can do this by making it seem cool or fun. For example, nobody really needs to drink soda or beer. In fact we all would be healthier if we didn't. Since ads can't talk about the actual effects of the drinks, they show people having fun and doing things with friends while holding a can or bottle of the beverage. Of course, you can have fun without drinking but they don't want you to think about that. They want you to associate their product with good things.

Sometimes advertisers go farther and try to make a desire feel like a need. They make it seem as if you must have the latest cool gadget or you will feel left out by all your friends who do have it. If you don't use this product you will be seen as less attractive, less sexy, less informed, less competent, less cool and less a part of the group you wish to belong to. The idea is to make something that you actually can do without feel like a necessity. They want you to feel that you lack something that will make you happy.

This works on kids. They see a new toy and whine that they need it. But it also works on adults. Look at how people will line up for the latest smartphone which has new features that they have never needed before or even knew existed. Part of it is that we desire novelty. So much so that one guy took rocks, put them in cardboard boxes with care and training booklets, called them Pet Rocks and became a millionaire. Right now someone is doing that with Labubu dolls, as they did with Cabbage Patch dolls and Beanie Babies. And we think that Orcas wearing dead fish on their heads are silly.

“I have something you need” is the subtext of every sales pitch, whether it is from a company, a politician or a cult leader. You need to ask yourself if what they are offering really is a need or just a desire. Not all desires are bad. But you should be suspicious of those who deliberately try to confuse the two. For instance, in today's world having a cellphone is practically a necessity. But do you really need one that will allow you to make studio quality videos or that folds or that has A.I.?

In the same way, politicians always say we need to increase our military budget though we spend more on our military than the next 9 countries combined do on theirs. They don't need to spend more; they just want to. CEOs will always say their company needs to make more money, no matter how many millions or billions in profits they already make. Folks running pyramid schemes always want more people to join and invest. Although, actually, a pyramid scheme does need that or the whole thing collapses.

Lots of cults are pyramid schemes. So cult leaders create and exploit an insatiable spiritual hunger in their followers. They convince them that they need more and deeper spiritual knowledge, which only the leader or his system can provide. They create tiers or levels that they encourage their followers to ascend if they really want to be enlightened. And leveling up costs the followers in money, time and labor.

Which makes for an interesting contrast with what Paul says in our passage from 1st Corinthians. He writes to the church that he gives thanks to God “because of the grace that has been given to you in Christ Jesus, for in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you so that you are not lacking in any gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Paul is not saying “You need to purchase my special course on spiritual gifts for just $29.99.” No, he is saying in Christ you have all the gifts you need to live until he comes again. No add-ons or upgrades required.

And this is “because of the grace that has been given to you in Christ Jesus.” Roman gods did not really care for humans. They were like mafia dons who offered protection and favors in return for loyalty and sacrifices. But the God revealed in Jesus Christ is gracious. He is not transactional. He gives what we do not deserve and cannot earn: his grace. When he created us he gave us gifts of greater intelligence and language and dexterity and persistence. We have used them to harm and dominate and exploit our fellow human beings. And so he gives us his Son, who in turn gives his life to save us from a situation that is our own doing. And all he asks is that we respond to his love by loving him back and by loving all other people, because he loves them too.

Knowing that good news enriches our lives in every way. The world can be scary. Knowing that God loves you lets you trust him and not shrink from life and its challenges. It reframes the way you look at your life and at the people you encounter. They are all people created in the image of God. They are all people for whom Christ died, whether they know it or not. Letting them know about God's love through what you say and what you do gives your life purpose. Knowing that God intends to restore the world to the paradise he intended it to be gives our lives meaning. It also gives us something to do with the talents and gifts he has given us. John Cleese said he did not go into comedy with any greater sense of purpose but when he met soldiers who had fought for their homeland in Kosovo, he found out that every night, after the shooting and bombing stopped, they would hang up a sheet and project Monty Python shows and movies. These comedians gave them the much needed gift of laughter in hard times.

When Paul says that “you are not lacking in any gift” he is not talking to individuals. The word “you” is plural in the Greek. He is talking to the church as a whole. No one is good at everything. Nobody has every gift necessary for the body of Christ on earth to function. (1 Corinthians 12:29-30) Later in this letter, Paul says, “Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are different ministries but the same Lord. And there are different results, but the same God produces all of them in everyone. To each person the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the benefit of all.” (1 Corinthians 12:4-7) In this letter and in Romans 12 and in Ephesians 4 Paul gives lists of some of the spiritual gifts. But nobody is left out and nobody should be envious of the gifts of others. Paul reminds us that “Now it is one and the same Spirit who is active in all these things, individually distributing them to each person as he wills.” (1 Corinthians 12:11)

The ultimate purpose of God's grace and his giving us these gifts is to strengthen the body of Christ, and cause us to stand firm until the very end. By each of us employing our gifts to help and serve our community of faith we can stand up to and meet the challenges we face as Christians.

And we are assured we can do this because “God is faithful...” We can trust him. As it says in 2 Timothy, “This saying is trustworthy: If we died with him, we will also live with him. If we endure, we will also reign with him. If we deny him, he will also deny us. If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, since he cannot deny himself.” (2 Timothy 2:11-13) God cannot go against his very nature. So we can stand on his promises, especially that he will never leave us or forsake us. (Hebrews 13:5; Deuteronomy 31:6) That promise alone is a gift that gives us strength.

Another reason to trust God is that by him “you were called into the partnership of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.” Unlike a Bond villain, God does not abandon or betray those he called to be his partners. He upholds and equips us. He wants us to be good partners.

And how mind-blowing is it that we are called into partnership with Jesus! He does not need us but chooses to have us work with him. It's like that day when your parent trusts you to help work with them on building their pet project or making their special dish. Jesus calls and equips us to continue his mission to spread the kingdom of God. He doesn't tell us to force others to convert but to plant and nurture the seeds of the good news of God's love revealed in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. As Paul says to the church in Corinth, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) We have our work to do but it is God who brings the results.

When I was a copywriter, one thing I could not guarantee was results. We could present the offer in the most attractive way possible but we could not make people buy. The best way to run a successful business is to offer people what they want at a price they're willing to pay. But even reasonable offers can be turned down by some people.

Sadly, not everyone wants to be saved. I saw that as a nurse. Some patients did not want to be healed. Maybe they thought they were just fine, despite evidence to the contrary. Maybe they liked having people pity them and cut them slack for their pain. Or maybe they thought the price—changing their diet or lifestyle or having to undergo the pain and inconvenience of surgery and recovery—was too high. I saw people with new hips or new knees who did not want to do the physical therapy that would permit them to walk again.

God has done his part. He has taken on the infinitely greater pain of redeeming us from the consequences of our sins. Jesus has offered us new life at the cost of his own. All he asks is that we put our trust in him. And, like learning to walk again after having your broken legs fixed, as I can tell you from personal experience, there will be some pain. So, yes, we must take up our cross daily and follow him. But it is nothing like the pain of the actual cross he endured.

And the benefits of walking with him are immeasurable. We receive forgiveness of our sins, a new start, help in facing the challenges of life and a loving community to support us and help us withstand the storms we all must face. Plus we find peace in having a faithful God as our constant companion. We find purpose and meaning serving him through serving others. We find assurance that this life, no matter how hard or painful, is not the only life we live. We find hope in the risen Jesus who will come to set things right, fill the world with true justice and real mercy and amazing grace, make all things new and wipe away every tear as he abolishes pain and death and mourning. (Revelation 21:4)

The greatest satisfaction comes when you find something that not only meets a need but also fulfills a desire. We all need the love of someone trustworthy to help us survive. But we also desire that love and faithfulness so that we can thrive. In the loving and faithful God revealed in Jesus, we find both. And so we can join our psalm in saying, “May your steadfast love and your truth continually keep me safe.”

Word

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 42:1-9, Psalm 29 and Acts 10:34-43.

When I was a kid, I was taught that what separated humans from other animals was (1) our opposable thumbs, (2) our tool making, and (3) our use of language. Since then those supposedly unique traits have been diminished. Other primates and mammals also have opposable digits, though our thumbs are larger and allow for more dexterity. Other animals use sticks and rocks as tools, though none of them have ever created anything like a Swiss Army knife or a computer. And other animals do communicate vocally, though nowhere in the world is a non-human delivering a sermon. It seems to me that the difference between humans and other animals is not found in exclusive categories but in the much greater degree of complexity with which we have or can do these things.

I want to focus on one aspect in particular: words. While researchers have taught apes to use sign language and other animals to press buttons with symbols to indicate what they want, these things do not arise spontaneously in nonhumans. And there is the question of whether these animals actually understand what they are communicating, or do they just know that to get a treat or a toy from a human they have to perform this trick in this way. Perhaps these things were a more elaborate version of the Clever Hans effect. This is named for a horse in Germany a century ago who seemed to be able to do math problems by stamping his hoof the proper number of times. When investigated, it was found that the horse simply kept stamping until his trainer unwittingly indicated he had gotten to the correct number by relaxing. Then the horse would stop. A more sophisticated version of this might account for the apparent intelligence of AI. They are simply doing what they are programmed to do. They will not spontaneously wax poetic or philosophical. They just respond to prompts by scanning their database and stringing together words by using rules of grammar and normal usage. Google's AI is forever trying to correct my quotes from the Bible when they don't match its programmed style.

Our ability to use words is amazing. We can give precise descriptions, issue specific instructions, make logical arguments, tell jokes, create metaphors and create things that don't exist, like a plaid elephant. And now that you've read those two words, I have created a picture in your mind. More than that, I have caused synapses in your brain to make physical connections that didn't exist before. That is an astounding power for mere sounds or symbols on a page to have.

Last week in John's gospel we read about how Jesus is the living Word of God. We saw how in Genesis God created everything simply by speaking it into existence. In the second to last book of Narnia, The Magician's Nephew, C.S. Lewis describes how the Christ-figure of his books, Aslan, calls things into creation by singing. He recreates the magic of the first chapter of Genesis by using a different form of vocal expression.

Human attempts at magic also use words. The problem is that, unlike God, we cannot create reality just by speaking. But what we can do is reframe reality in people's minds using words. We can persuade people to help us in altering aspects of reality. We can tell people how to do things. We can explain problems and suggest solutions. We can start a movement using words. As we've seen, a person skillfully using words can get people to do things and change the world. That can seem like magic.

But like all powerful things, words can do great good and great harm. A person can disseminate truth or lies. Cult leaders, internet influencers and politicians can use the power of words to deceive. If they are charismatic enough, they can even get people to believe things that go against logic, common sense and even the evidence before their own eyes. George Orwell in his novel 1984 called this doublespeak. In the book the government's Ministry of Peace conducts wars, its Ministry of Love performs torture, its Ministry of Plenty obscures famine and its Ministry of Truth puts out propaganda. It uses slogans like “War is Peace,” “Freedom is Slavery,” and “Ignorance is Strength.” He nailed how authoritarian leaders misuse the power of words to deceive people.

Words can do great good as well. I think that's what Psalm 29 is about. The power of the voice of the Lord is the power of his words, the ideas he has expressed. We see them in our passage from Isaiah. Using images of verbal expression, God says, “I have called you in righteousness...new things I declare; before they spring forth, I tell you of them.”

Of course, what is important is the content of what is said. In our passage in Isaiah, God is talking about his servant who will “bring forth justice to the nations.” When we think of justice, we mainly think of bringing punishment to the bad guys. But the picture we get here is not of someone who swaggers around, dishing out God's wrath. Rather he “will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.” This is someone who is gentle. The imagery of a bruised reed and a barely burning wick represent people who are almost broken and whose lives are on the verge of being snuffed out. In other words, these are the poor and the weak, those who are oppressed. The justice he will bring is restorative justice. It is about making things right.

Addressing the servant of the Lord, God says, “I have given you as a covenant to the people...” This is odd. The Hebrew for “you” in the singular. It is an individual. How is a person a covenant? A covenant is an agreement. In what way can a person be an agreement? It could if the person is Jesus Christ, who is both fully God and fully human, and who sealed his new covenant with his blood. When you make an agreement, you give your word and in this new covenant God gives us his Word, his Son, as the promise that he will do what he says: bring about his kingdom where his will is done on earth as it is in heaven. God expresses who he is in his Word. He is both just and merciful. As such Jesus is “a light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out prisoners from the dungeon, from prison those who sit in darkness.”

This Word from God is good news. And in our passage from Acts, Peter gives us a great summary of that good news. He is speaking to Cornelius, a centurion, and his household. This is the first group of Gentiles he has been called to preach the gospel to and baptize. First, Peter says that God shows no partiality when it comes to people. He accepts all people, whatever their nationality, provided they respect him and do what is right.

Then he gets right to the heart of the good news. “You know the message he sent to the people of Israel, preaching peace by Jesus Christ—he is Lord of all.” The Greek word for peace apparently comes from the word “to join or tie together into a whole.” So the message is preaching wholeness through Jesus Christ, who is the Lord of all. Last week in Ephesians and in John's gospel, we looked at how God's plan is to bring together everything in Christ, through whom all things were made and who is the ultimate pattern and design of all creation. Jesus Christ is the God who is love Incarnate. The creation is to reflect this love, which is the glory of God.

Peter goes on to say, “That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee after the baptism that John announced: how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power; how he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him.” Peter shows the power of the message in 2 ways. First, it is a good enough message to spread beyond Galilee, which was, in the eyes of Judeans, a somewhat suspect region where there are too many Gentiles and which held no great centers of Jewish learning. On the other hand Jerusalem, the city of David, where God's temple, the center of the Jewish faith, stood, was in Judea. Yet this message, about a handyman from an obscure town never mentioned in the Hebrew scriptures, spread all the way to the city of God.

Secondly, the content of this message was powerful. Jesus was anointed (the meaning of the word Messiah and its Greek version, Christ) with the Holy Spirit and with power. And how did he use this power? To make himself king? To make himself rich? No, instead, he went about doing good and healing people. He did not use his power to conquer others but to liberate those oppressed by the devil, the essence of evil. Jesus made people better, both physically and spiritually. Because God was with him. This last phrase seems to hint at the prophecy from Isaiah that predicts a child who is named Immanuel, which means “God is with us.”

The message is powerful because Jesus is powerful. In fact, Jesus is the message. As we saw in John's gospel, Jesus is the living Word of God. You can't have the gospel, the good news, without Jesus. He is the expression of the God who is love. And that expression is not simply in what he says but what he does: doing good and healing people.

After establishing that Peter and the apostles are not repeating hearsay but are eyewitnesses to Jesus and his ministry, Peter then says, “They put him to death by hanging him on a tree...” As we've discussed a few weeks ago, the Romans frequently saved themselves the trouble of making a whole cross by simply stripping a tree of its branches and then attaching a crossbar, and the condemned criminal, to it. But Peter may also be referring to Deuteronomy 21:23, which says that a person executed and hung on a tree is cursed by God. So this man who was anointed by God's Spirit because God was with him becomes cursed by God? Yes, and paradoxically Jesus turns this curse into a blessing by redeeming us from our slavery to sin, to the things that harm us, others and our relationship to God.

That is not the end of the story, however. Peter says, “But God raised him on the third day.” Many people have died for their faith in God. What makes Jesus special is that God raised him from the dead. This marks him out as more than a mere prophet. When prophets die, they stay dead like any human being. Jesus' resurrection vindicates his message. It shows that God is indeed with him and that the Spirit and power with which God anointed him are still active in him.

Peter says that this was no illusion or metaphorical resurrection but that the apostles “ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.” They were chosen by God to be witnesses to not only Jesus' teachings but his life, death and resurrection. “He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.” That is quite an exalted position. How could a mere man be able to judge accurately the fate of every individual? He couldn't. He couldn't know everything everybody did or know what the intentions of their hearts were. But God could. In other words, Jesus is not merely a man but God as well. He knows every human's secrets but he also knows what it is like to be human. He will judge us with justice and mercy.

Finally Peter says, “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Jesus is the anointed prophet, priest and king the prophets of the Hebrew scriptures predicted. As God, only he has the authority to forgive sins. And you can't earn forgiveness. What you have done cannot be undone. Forgiveness is more than mercy; it is an act of grace. You don't deserve it. When it is offered, you can only accept it humbly.

Notice that Jesus did not send out his followers to fight for him or to establish any kingdoms in his name or to shed the blood of others. That is the way sinful humans spread their power. No, Jesus commanded us to testify about him. We are to use words, not fists, not swords, not guns. He calls us to be witnesses, not warriors. Which is why the Greek word for “witness”—martus—eventually came to mean “one who dies for a cause,”: a martyr. The greatest testimony is to trust Jesus with your life even when it can cost you your life.

When Paul lists the equipment of the armor of God, all of it defensive—except for one thing. He tells us to take up “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) Words are powerful. They can change hearts and minds. They can rally people to a cause. They can also do great damage if we let them. Let us only use words that do good and that heal and that liberate people who are oppressed by evil. And the only words that can do that are the words of God, coming from the living Word of God. As Jesus said, “The words I have spoken to you are spirit and are life.” (John 6:63)