The Heart of the Problem

The scriptures referred to are Psalm 51:1-10 and 1 Timothy 1:12-17.

In the internet comedy Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog, the title character, an aspiring and not very successful supervillain, says, “The world is a mess and I just need to rule it.” And in that short statement we have a diagnosis of the world and a proposed solution. Unfortunately the solution is one people have been trying since the beginning of history: dictatorship. Give one human being absolute power and our problems are solved. And we've seen that solution fail time and again. And those who seek such power tend to have as their primary qualifications not wisdom or a sense of justice but strength and aggressiveness. History is littered with the results of the damage done by emperors, kings and conquerors.

But the diagnosis in Dr. Horrible's statement is rather vague. Yes, the world is a mess but why? In what way? Pinpoint the specific disease and its cause and you can start to look for a way to treat or even cure it. Which people have been trying to do for most of history as well. And various diagnoses and cures have been suggested and tried.

For many the problem is chaos and the solution is a strong highly organized country, with a strong leader and a strong military and strong laws and a strong enforcement of the laws. One problem is, as we've seen over and over, giving a person too much power tends to corrupt them. If you can do just about anything, what's to stop you? No one is completely immune to that temptation. Even the philosopher/emperor Marcus Aurelius, considered the last of the Five Good Emperors, was accused of putting friends and relatives into positions of power. And he is memorialized by a 130 foot marble column in Rome celebrating his wars against the barbarians. It depicts the destruction of their villages, the killing of unarmed civilians and the cruel punishment of his enemies. His stoic philosophy did not make him any less susceptible to committing atrocities. He was succeeded by his son, the dictatorial Commodus, whose reign marks the end of the Pax Romana or era of Roman Peace.

But another problem with that solution is the lack of content of those laws. If the main idea is simply that the laws must be strong and zealously enforced, then the Nazis or North Korea would qualify as a viable solution to chaos. But if they are not just laws and if the enforcement is harsh, that's not so much an improvement over chaos as it is the opposite extreme. The trains may run on time but you might notice your fellow passengers are gradually disappearing into concentration camps or mental asylums or prisons or killing fields. I'm not sure suffering and death at the hands of a police state is better than suffering and death at the hands of random marauders.

But even if the laws are just and their enforcement done with understanding and mercy, that will not magically eliminate crime and violence. Those problems come from people.

The sociological diagnosis is that poverty is the root cause of all the world's problems. And I don't wish to minimize poverty's real and terrible effect on people and their physical and mental health. A lot of problems would be solved if we made sure everyone had enough to eat and a place to live and the necessary healthcare to live a full and healthy life. There's a reason you don't see unrest or riots in the suburbs or in wealthy gated communities. The majority of people in those places are happy with the status quo. You don't usually see a lot of crime there. Well, not violent crime. Well, not outside homes where it can be seen. They are not immune from domestic violence or neglect. And those people are more likely to be the victims of pyramid schemes or other forms of financial fraud than the poor are, for obvious reasons. Not being poor does not bestow moral superiority, though people often think it does. It just means that problems don't come from folks just trying to survive. The problems such people cause are different.

Some see the root of our problems as ignorance. Education is the answer. But again while education is definitely a good thing and preferable to ignorance, it is not a panacea. Mere knowledge does not make people better. There have been a number of serial killers who were medical doctors. The Unabomber had a PhD in mathematics. The BTK killer had degrees in electronics and in Administration of Justice. Being smarter doesn't necessarily make you good; it just makes you more clever at doing bad things.

Some, however, think the real knowledge that people need is esoteric. The Gnostics, the Theosophists and plenty of conspiracy theorists on You Tube have lured people in with the idea that learning the truth about the the hidden and mystical laws governing the universe will somehow save them. So do cults, giving people the feeling that they know the real score and are therefore part of the elite, as opposed to the ignorant people, some of whom, they feel, are perversely and willfully ignorant of the truth.

Which leads us to the thing that conspiracy theories and cults and everyday bigotry have in common: the idea that what's wrong with the world is “those people.” Each group fills in the definition of “those people” with some other group they didn't like in the first place: the Jews, the Catholic church, Muslims, religious people in general, atheists, the Freemasons, the Illuminati, corporations, the rich, the poor, this race or country or that.

The problem with all these diagnoses and solutions, even the ones that have some truth to them, is that they leave out one key factor: our own moral failures. All humans are incapable of doing the right thing all the time and in every area of of their life. This problem is not confined to “those people”; it's in all of us. Good laws and the elimination of poverty and good education can help. But ask yourself this: what stands in the way of those good things being more widespread? Why do some laws favor certain people and groups over others? Why do some neighborhoods have better schools and resources? Why have even middle class wages, adjusted for inflation, stayed basically stagnant since the 1970s? The answer is greed and shortsightedness based in selfishness. These are moral problems. We know how to fix these things. We don't want to.

As our psalm and epistle this week show, the beginning of the solution is recognizing your own moral failures. Psalm 51 is traditionally attributed to David when his adultery with Bathsheba was exposed by the prophet Nathan. But let's not forget his engineering of the perfect crime: having her husband Uriah sent to the front in a war and then having the other troops withdraw so he is killed. (2 Samuel 11) Even David, a man after God's heart (Acts 13:22), could not resist abusing his power. But when it comes out, rather than pass the buck and blame others, he admits his sin and the evil he has done. He acknowledges that his impulse to do what he wants, regardless of the consequences, goes all the way back to his start in life. He asks God not just to forgive his sins but to cleanse him through and through. He pleads, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.”

Jesus diagnosed what is wrong with the world. He said, “For from within, out of the human heart, come evil ideas, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, evil, deceit, debauchery, envy, slander, arrogance and folly.” (Mark 7:21-22) The heart was considered the seat of the mind and will and emotions. The heart of the world's problems is the human heart. The world is a mess because our hearts are. What they pump out into the world is not healthy.

Medically if you are in heart failure, you are beyond cutting out salt and junk food and exercising more. You need a new heart. And you need faith in your cardiac surgeon who is going to cut you open and cut out the heart you were born with and put in the new heart which will restore you to life. And, by the way, for you to receive that new heart someone has to die.

In a spiritual sense David realizes that what's wrong with him is his heart. He knows this is fundamentally a moral and spiritual problem. He needs to change internally and he needs to do so in a deep and profound way. And he knows he can't do it by himself. He needs God to come in and fix him by giving a new heart and a new spirit.

In our epistle Paul admits something similar to his young colleague Timothy. He says, “...I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence.” Before he was converted, Paul, then called Saul, was a zealous persecutor of the first Christians, trying to wipe out this heresy by wiping out “those people” who spread their belief in Jesus. As he admits to King Agrippa in the book of Acts, “I too was convinced that I ought to do all that was possible to oppose the name of Jesus of Nazareth. And that is just what I did in Jerusalem. On the authority of the chief priests I put many of the saints in prison and I cast my vote against them when they were sentenced to death.” (Acts 26:9-10) So this future hero of the faith was responsible for the death of Christians!

But then the risen Jesus appeared to him while he was on the way to arrest more of them in Damascus. Saul is left physically blinded, and later healed through the prayer of a believer, while Jesus healed him of his spiritual blindness. As Paul later puts it, “...the grace of our Lord overflowed for me in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the foremost.” Paul calls himself that because, when he was attacking those who were part of the body of Christ on earth, he was in essence attacking Jesus. After all, Jesus did say to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” (Acts 9:4) What we do to others we do to Jesus. (Matthew 25:40)

And this is why sin is at the heart of the problems the people of the world have. God created everyone in his image. He created us to love him and to love one another. Because God is love. God is the Father loving the Son and the Son loving the Father in the unity of the Holy Spirit. And so we, his creatures made in his image, are to be united in love. The night before he went to the cross Jesus prayed for the church, “that they may be one, just as you, Father, are in me and I am in you. I pray that they will be in us...” (John 17:21) But when we harm and deceive and rob and neglect one another, we break the unity God intended for his creation. Jesus continues his thought about Christians being part of the oneness found in the Triune God “...so that the world will believe that you sent me.” Jesus prays that the world will see in his followers, the body of Christ, the unity it lacks and so desperately needs.

And it must break Jesus' heart that the world doesn't consistently see the unity and love of God in us. He said the world would know we are his disciples by our love for one another. (John 13:35) When the world doesn't see it, it's because we have put something other than Jesus, the God who is Love Incarnate, at the heart of our faith. We put various details of theology or ritual or unbiblical qualifications for belonging at the center of our faith. A person once told me that my denomination having a headquarters was bad! I told them that my salvation did not rely on that or anything other than Jesus: who he is, what he has done for me and is doing in me, and my response to him. And, thank God, that person, a Christian from another denomination, recognized that as true.

What we need is Jesus. Because, like David, we all need a change of heart. And only Jesus can do that. Only he can give us his Spirit, as he promised. (John 14:16-17) As Paul says, “...God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us.” (Romans 5:5) Or as Jesus put it, “If anyone loves me, he will obey my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.” (John 14:23) Again Paul tells the church at Ephesus that he prays “that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith.” (Ephesians 3:17) Jesus changes our hearts by entering into them.

But he will not force his way in. That's the way of the world: “I know what's you should do and I'm going to force you to comply.” Instead Jesus says, “I am standing at the door and knocking. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will enter and dine with him and he with me.” (Revelation 3:20) It's up to us to open our hearts to Jesus and invite him into our lives.

But he will not be content to sit in the corner and just watch us as we go about business as usual. If we invite him in, we can expect him to make changes. C.S. Lewis put it this way: “Imagine yourself a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps you can understand what he is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing so you are not surprised. But presently he starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is he up to? The explanation is that he is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were going to be made into a decent little cottage: but he is building a palace.” Of course he is; he's going to live there and rule as King.

Dr. Horrible was right in that the world is a mess but wrong in that he or any mere human being should rule it. That arrogance is why the world is broken, shattered by our competing desires to be in control of everything, when we can't even control ourselves. The only one fit to rule us is both fully man and fully God, Jesus Christ. He knows what it is like to be one of us but he also knows what we can become.

And he will not reign from some distant capital but somewhere much closer: the heart. Jesus said, “The kingdom is within you.” (Luke 17:21) The kingdom of God exists wherever people have surrendered their lives to Jesus and let him rule their hearts. The seat of their minds and wills and emotions become his throne. The body of the Christian becomes a temple of the Holy Spirit. (1 Corinthians 6:19) We become his ambassadors. (2 Corinthians 5:20) And we spread the kingdom not by forcing others, nor by shunning sinners and the lost as “those people,” because all of us were “those people,” the ones responsible for making the world the mess it is. Instead, we spread the kingdom of God by sharing the the royal proclamation, the good news of Jesus, wherever we go, so like seed it scatters far and wide and takes root in the hearts of those who hear it. (Luke 8:11, 15)

We also need to show the love for one another that Jesus said would be the mark of his followers. But as it says in 1 John, “Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue but in deed and in truth.” (1 John 3:18) So let us also make good laws and educate people and see to it that those who are not as fortunate as we are have their needs met. Because giving good laws, teaching, feeding and healing people were all things Jesus did and things he told us to do.

Jesus said, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you; I do not give it as the world does.” (John 14:27) And the Greek word for peace comes from a root word meaning “to join together into a whole.” The peace Jesus gives is wholeness. The opposite of a world that is broken is one that is whole. And the world can only become whole when we all love one another as Jesus loves us. Real love is wanting the best for the beloved and then acting in order to achieve that. It requires patience and forgiveness and self-sacrifice but when everyone is working together for what is best for every person, not just themselves or a few, the world will know peace. And all will be one in Christ, the Prince of Peace. 

On Purpose

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 18:1-11, Psalm 139: 1-5, 12-17, Philemon 1-21, and Luke 14:25-33.

Science fiction writer Isaac Asimov hated the Frankenstein trope: the creature that turns on and destroys its creator. He really didn't like it in stories about artificially intelligent robots. Because, he said, we would program the robots not to do such things. His ideas eventually became codified in the 1940s as “Asimov's 3 Laws of Robotics.” The first is that a robot may not injure a human being, nor through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. The second law is that a robot must obey orders given it by human beings, except when those orders would conflict with the first law. So you can't order a robot to harm someone. And the third law was that a robot must protect its existence, except when doing so would conflict with the first or second laws. This last one exists because an artificially intelligent robot would be expensive to replace. All in all, it is a pretty neat moral code—for robots. And unlike human laws, these couldn't be violated because they were part of the robot's basic programming. There would be a limit on their free will. (The word “robot,” by the way, comes from the Czech word for “forced labor” which comes from the Slavic root word for “slave.”)

Asimov's laws would not work for humans, because they essentially force the person to obey the orders given by another human being. Dictatorships would love that. But not free societies. So while the Uniform Code of Military Justice says it is a duty for a member of the military to obey “the lawful orders of his/her superior,” that implies there are also unlawful orders. And, indeed, a soldier can refuse to carry out orders to, say, murder civilians, or willfully cause great suffering or serious bodily injury to a prisoner or war, or conduct medical experiments on them. This is to prevent atrocities such as those committed by the Nazis or the Soviet Union or or by Americans at My Lai or those which are being perpetrated in certain countries today. Even police officers have some discretion as to whether to arrest someone or not depending on the seriousness of the crime. That's why sometimes you get a warning.

Unlike preprogrammed robots we have free will. God did not engrave the laws he wants us to obey in our brains. He tells us what they are and we are free to obey them or not...and to suffer the consequences. When it comes to human laws, sometimes the consequences are natural, such as when you don't obey laws intended to protect you. If you don't wear seat belts, the consequences could be injury or even death. Sometimes the consequences are not natural but legal, such as being arrested for speeding. Even so, such an law is based on protecting both you and others. Speeding can also result in injury or death. Admittedly some consequences are arbitrary, like the exact amounts of the different fines for speeding. This is not to say it's unfair, just that there is no deeply rooted reason why the fine should be, say, $286 as opposed to $285 or $287.

While people often think God's laws are like legal ones, and the consequences arbitrary, most are actually akin to natural laws. They are built into the universe he created and are similar to the ones that govern our physical health. By now we all know that if you want to be healthy, you should cut out smoking, drinking alcohol, abusing drugs and overeating. If you don't, you may not suffer serious injury or death immediately but the consequences will add up over time. But if you stop soon enough, your body should recover.

For instance, when you quit smoking your heart rate and blood pressure begin to drop after 20 minutes. After 12 hours, your body cleanses itself of the excess carbon monoxide. After just 1 day, your risk of heart attack starts to go down. After 2 days, the nerve damage that dulls your sense of taste and smell begins to heal. After a month, lung function improves. After a year, the risk of heart disease is cut in half. After 5 years, the risk of stroke from blood clots decreases. After 10 years, the risk of lung cancer is cut in half and the risks of developing mouth, throat and pancreatic cancer go down significantly. After 20 years, your risk of death from these things is the same as someone who never smoked.

When you quit drinking, the first 72 hours can be the worst in terms of withdrawal. But after a week, your sleep should start improving. After 2 weeks, if your liver has become fatty but is not too damaged, it will start recovering. In addition, you start losing the weight alcohol packs on. After 3 to 4 weeks, your blood pressure should start lowering. After 3 months you should have more energy and feel healthier. After a year, you are almost back to normal. And of course, not drinking dramatically reduces your chances of accidental death from falls, burns, drownings, and traffic accidents. It also reduces your risk of dying by either homicide or suicide. And because alcohol dulls your immune system and your body's ability to repair itself, quitting means you'll get sick less often.

My point is that while the consequences of ignoring or following the rules of good health are not always immediate, they are real. And the rules of spiritual health work much the same way. Changing your behavior will change your life.

In today's passage from Jeremiah the prophet is instructed to go to the house of a potter and learn a lesson. The potter is working with clay and you would think that he could make it into anything he pleased. But in fact he has trouble making it into the vessel he had intended and so he reworks it into another. God turns this into a parable. Israel is compared to the clay. But just as the potter could not make what he initially wanted to out of the clay, God cannot always make his people into what he wishes. Unlike clay, we have free will. The nation God is trying to shape can do “evil in my sight, not listening to my voice....” And the consequences? “...then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.” It works the other way too. If a nation “turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.”

Some people are bothered by the idea that God changes his mind. But you will notice he doesn't change it about his goals and purposes. He wants people to be good, to love him and to love their neighbors as themselves, to practice justice and mercy. That never changes. But, depending on whether we are working with him or against him, God does change how he will achieve that. If we persist in doing evil, he will let us suffer the consequences. But if we change our minds and turn from evil to him, he will change his mind about letting us suffer the full consequences, or as our passage reads, the disaster.

Because God will not suspend the laws of the physical universe if what the person has done is already well underway. A bullet fired at someone in a flash of anger will not mysteriously change its trajectory. Money stolen and spent will not magically reappear when the thief repents. An abusive word hurled at a child will not be suddenly unheard when the parent sobers up. But if we truly change our ways, the healing will begin. Our past need not determine our future. If we change our response to God, he will change his response to us.

But some wonder that if God is in control, if he will accomplish his purposes no matter what we do, do we really have the power to do anything for ourselves? I think the problem is we overstate the amount of control, not that God has, but that he chooses to exercise. God can do anything. But when he created us and gave us the freedom to choose, he limited what he would do, the way a parent does when she lets her child learn how to feed himself. Were she to jump in and spoonfeed him forever, the kid would not learn how to scoop up things with a spoon and not drop them or how to stab them with a fork and get them into his mouth. Every parent knows the hardest thing to do is, after learning to take total responsibility for a helpless baby, to then gradually relinquish your control and let your child learn how to do things for themselves. So while nothing can limit God, he can and does limit himself in order to let us grow and learn.

But doesn't the fact that he knows the future, as it implies in our Psalm, mean it is fixed and cannot be changed? It might if God existed in time, like us. But God dwells in eternity. (Isaiah 57:15) He is outside the flow of time the way a videographer in a helicopter is outside a marathon run. He can visit and revisit any segment of a marathon. He can hover over one part and know what is going on without changing it. Now let's say he sees a water main has busted and is flooding the road the marathon was supposed to take. He can use a megaphone to warn the people to turn at a different street and detour around it. It is then up to each person in the marathon whether to change course or not. Those who listen and follow his directions will be able to get to the finish line by a different route. Those who don't will face the consequences. The man in the helicopter can see ahead but that does not determine who will listen to him and who will plunge ahead into the flood of troubles.

Or have you ever seen a chess grandmaster play a large number of players lined up at their own chessboards. He goes from board to board, assessing the situation and making his next move. No matter what move his challengers come up with, he has a counter-move. They have the freedom to play however they want but he will win every match.

Proverbs says, “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will prevail.” (Proverbs 19:21) God's purpose is to re-create the earth and transform its people into new creations in Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:17) That will not change. And he will accomplish his purpose in the end, but we can choose to be a part of it or not. If we choose him, we are told “in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

We see this at work in today's epistle. Paul had a problem. Onesimus, a slave of a church leader named Philemon, had run away and apparently stolen some money too. Onesimus encounters Paul and becomes a Christian. He helps Paul in his ministry. But unlike the law of Moses (Deuteronomy 23:15-16), Roman law required that any runaway slave must be returned. And his master can punish him by branding him on the face or he can even have him executed—by crucifixion! What is Paul to do?

He writes this letter and sends it along with Onesimus. We have 88% of the letter in our lectionary reading today. It is short but powerful. He begins by thanking God for what Philemon and his house-church have done for the faith and for him, Paul. Then he mentions Onesimus and how Paul sees him as his spiritual child. He says Onesimus is now Philemon's brother in Christ. He asks Philemon to treat the slave as he would Paul. Paul says he will repay Philemon for anything he is owed, and then mentions that Philemon owes Paul his life. Without asking him in so many words, Paul is obviously saying he wants Philemon to free Onesimus and send him back to Paul to serve in his ministry. And Philemon must have done it because why else would he have let this letter be copied and sent to all the churches? And we do have evidence of an Onesimus who was consecrated bishop of Ephesus, where Paul once stayed for 2 years. If it is the same person, then God took a runaway slave and not only saved him from execution but raised him to be a bishop, showing how in all things God works for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose.

Of course, that doesn't mean everything will look great from a human perspective. Onesimus, according to Ignatius of Antioch, was martyred in 95 AD, 40 years after being made bishop. But as Jesus says in today's gospel, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Just as a soldier upon taking his oath is essentially signing over his life to his country, we as Christians are giving our lives to Jesus, who first gave his life for us. And because he doesn't want any half-hearted followers, Jesus says “count the cost.” While he doesn't want us to literally hate our “father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters” because that would go against the second greatest commandment, he knows that it will look that way to others. And indeed the second century Roman historian Tacitus called Christians “haters of humanity” (Tacitus, Annals 15:44) because they worshiped Jesus and not the Roman gods, supposedly provoking their displeasure on the empire and endangering the welfare of their fellow man. Even the religious leaders of his own people saw Jesus' claim to be the son of God and to forgive sins as blasphemous (John 10:36; Matthew 9:2-3) and they would expel anyone who followed him. (John 9:22) To non-Christians choosing to follow Jesus seemed like a slap in the face to those who didn't, especially loved ones. But Jesus said we have to make the choice, despite the consequences.

Jesus said, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Jesus has a mission for us and that means, like a soldier, we must be willing to give up everything for the sake of Jesus and the gospel. (Mark 8:35) He knows that's a lot to ask which is why he tells us to count the cost before committing.

Of course, at the present time, and where we live, we may not have to literally die for our faith. But there are other things which can impair our following Jesus wholeheartedly. We have accumulated a lot of possessions that make our lives easier and more comfortable. Would we be willing to give them up? Do we possess them or do they possess us? If aliens came to earth, they might think that we are slaves to the little devices we carry with us everywhere, looking at them in a trance-like state, listening to and believing everything they tell us and making our decisions accordingly. They set our values: wealth and power and entertainment and looking sexy and always being happy. Those priorities are not healthy. Small wonder that studies have found a link between overuse of social media and depression. Or that children have been driven to suicide not by physical bullying but cyberbullying. The idols of the past were often little statues of gods. Ours apparently are little screens. Could you give them up? I know I would have trouble doing so. And not just because I have several good Bible apps on them.

Which brings us back to the fact that God did not make us robots. He has given us his laws, to love him and to love other people as we love ourselves, but he did not program us to follow them involuntarily. We can choose to obey him or not. And, really, it only makes sense that we follow the instructions of the one who created us and knows what is best for us and loves us. But we don't always do what makes good sense for us, do we?

We can choose to do evil, to harm others or ourselves. Or we can choose to love God and love those he created in his image. Love is why God gave us free will. A robot can be programmed to simulate love but since it can't choose otherwise, it isn't really love. God chose to give us the freedom to choose to love. He took a big risk doing that. We could and often do choose not to. And he took the consequences of his decision, letting those who chose harm rather than love crucify him.

But he wasn't defeated. He rose again. He will not fail to achieve his purpose, to make the world a paradise again, populated by those who voluntarily choose to be citizens of the kingdom of the God who is love. Does that sound good to you? Then stop fighting him. Start trusting him. Disown all that holds you back, take up your cross and follow Jesus. Nobody's forcing you. It's your choice.

Just

The scriptures referred to are Sirach 10:12-18, Psalm 112, Hebrews 13:1-8, 15-16, and Luke 14:1, 7-14.

It's pretty obvious that I like superheroes. And I often use them as illustrations in my sermons because they are the mythology of our times, in the same way the Greek or Norse heroes were in the past: powerful, larger than life and deeply flawed. That said, I prefer the heroes without superpowers. The reason the Batman films can be a bit more realistic (but only a bit) is that the hero has no superpowers and thus can go up against somewhat more plausible human villains. When you are as powerful as Superman or Captain Marvel, you need a villain who is just as powerful to make things challenging.

That said, Bruce Wayne does have a superpower of sorts: he is a billionaire. And in the real world, it would make much more sense if, instead of prowling the streets and personally punching muggers and thieves, he used his money to make Gotham a better place. Rather than building Batmobiles, which have got to cost more than a yacht, he could do something about the poverty and despair and rampant mental illness that blights his hometown. For one thing, he could improve the conditions and security at Arkham Asylum, where so many of his adversaries are sent to and continually escape from. Batman is a bandaid on a seriously sick city.

However, in the latest Batman film, he realizes that he needs to be more than an object of fear. He needs to be a symbol of hope. Batman is so focused on the criminals that he ignores their victims. Which is the whole point of the recent film. The villain is, in a twisted way, seeking justice, but his emphasis, like Batman's, is exclusively on punishing the bad guys. Justice is about more than punishing people who take advantage of others; it is also about helping the those who are taken advantage of. The reason justice is symbolized by an old fashioned set of scales is that it involves restoring balance in a community.

In Psalm 112 we do see both sides of justice, though the mention of enemies and the wicked are restricted to only 2 of the 10 verses. Most of it is about those who are righteous. But the interesting thing is that in Hebrew the word for “righteous” and the word for “just” are both derived from the same word: tsadaq, the word for “justice.” It means “to make (something) right morally.” And in Greek “righteous” and “just” are the same word, dikaios, which basically means equitable or fair. So it is impossible to be personally righteous and not try to make things right for others. That's why in our psalm those who are blessed with wealth and riches (v.3) give freely to the poor (v.9). They have more than they need and know that God expects them to share with those who have less than they need. To truly be upright, you need to maintain balance.

Which is why I really wish our scripture insert printed out the alternate passage from the Book of Sirach. It was written about 200 to 175 BC. While, unlike Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, Lutherans and Episcopalians don't accept it as part of the Biblical canon, it is considered good to read for its instructions on living, though not for establishing doctrine. The passage starts by saying, “The beginning of human pride is to forsake the Lord; the heart has withdrawn from its Maker. For the beginning of pride is sin, and the one who clings to it pours out abominations.” It goes on to say, “The Lord overthrows the thrones of rulers, and enthrones the lowly in their place. The Lord plucks up the roots of the nations, and plants the humble in their place.” That sounds a lot like the song of Mary, which we call the Magnificat. (cf. Luke 1:51-52) And the passage from Sirach concludes by saying, “Pride was not created for human beings, or violent anger for those born of women.” The word translated “pride” is better rendered “arrogance.” It's not about taking pride in one's achievements; it's about believing you are superior to others and have no need of them, or, for that matter, of God. It is the opposite of humility and so C.S. Lewis called it “the complete anti-God state of mind.”

So the passage from Sirach makes a great contrast with Psalm 112. It balances things out by painting a picture of the unjust while the psalm delineates the just. But why does arrogance lead to unjust behavior? Because the arrogant don't think that they got where they are by God's grace or mercy; they think they deserve all they get and have. And since they deserve the best, then those who don't have the best must not deserve it. So they don't see ignoring or exploiting the poor as unjust. For example, while involuntary labor was universal throughout history, racism was invented to justify enslaving non-Europeans. Those who needed super-cheap labor for their plantations said that Africans and the natives of the Americas were not smart enough or moral enough to be anything but slaves. And so those enslaving them thought they were doing them a service!

The arrogant believe the world, not should be, but is a meritocracy. Those at the top are smarter, stronger, and better than those below them. The best rise to the top and are in charge. But we all know that's not true. You only have to look to the news to see that the unworthy often get into positions of power. And not a few of us have had bosses who were not very good at their jobs. Some evidently got there through nepotism, or deception, or flattery and self-promotion. When the film 9 to 5 came out, it was called a feminist fantasy. But I think a lot of people, male and female, have at times thought that at least one of their coworkers could do a better job running things than their boss.

The righteous or just, our psalm says, are merciful and full of compassion. Why? Firstly, because only the just recognize injustice. The unjust do not, the way a conman or a swindler or someone in the Mafia would not recognize unethical behavior. That's just the way you do business, they would say. Never give a sucker an even break. If a business owner can't pay the outrageous interest on a loan from a loan shark, break his fingers. But the just see when people are being cheated or intimidated or harmed and try to fix it.

Secondly, knowing that the world is not always fair, the righteous realize that their good fortune is not entirely of their own doing. They may have been born into wealth or with loving and helpful parents or sent to a good school or just have hit the jackpot in terms of intelligence or natural talent or good looks. These things are beyond their control and even if they then took these gifts and did a good job developing them, the wise ones realize that not everyone had their advantages. The compassionate ones help those who are disadvantaged.

If you were in a grocery aisle and saw a little person staring at something on the top shelf, you'd ask what they wanted and reach up and bring it down to them. You'd have the empathy to put yourself in their place and act on that. And our New Testament and Gospel readings today are basically applying that principle to other situations.

Hebrews 13 says, “Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers...” The Greek word for “hospitality” literally means “friendliness to foreigners.” Foreigners are at a disadvantage when away from home. They don't know the area or the customs and may not know the language. They could use help, the same way you would if you were in a foreign country. It's only fair to do the same when they are in what is to them a foreign country. Indeed God says, “The foreigner who resides with you must be to you like a native citizen among you; so you must love him as yourself, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. I am the Lord your God.” (Leviticus 19:34) That last sentence is essentially saying, “I, the Lord your God, mean it.” And indeed the foreigner is often grouped with the widow and the fatherless as commonly disadvantaged people for whom God has a special concern. (Deuteronomy 10:18; Psalm 146:9; Jeremiah 22:3; Zechariah 7:10; etc.)

Next in Hebrews we are told, “Remember those who are in prison, as though you were in prison with them; those who are being tortured, as though you yourselves were being tortured.” Because of this and the previous two chapters on martyrs and seeing hardship as discipline, this plea may refer to Christians persecuted and imprisoned under Nero. The author, who never identifies himself, mentions that “our brother Timothy has been released” (Hebrews 13:23) but he never mentions Paul, who was beheaded about 64 AD. Nero committed suicide in 68 AD and Timothy might have been released after that. But some Christians may still have been in prison and needed things beyond the basic rations provided, like additional food or clothing. So this was probably an appeal for practical support for them. But the author also urges the reader to identify with those suffering imprisonment and torture as if it was happening to them. After all Jesus became one of us and was actually imprisoned and tortured as well as executed. We are not to treat the suffering of others as “someone else's problem.” And a just person wouldn't be able to. They would feel these injustices acutely.

Our passage from Hebrews concludes with “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” Considering how much of the letter to the Hebrews is about how Jesus' self-sacrifice eliminates the need for the prescribed sacrifices in the temple, the sacrifices mentioned here must mean sacrificial giving. Indeed the Greek word for “sacrifice” means offering. As Jesus offered up his life for our benefit, it is only fair that we offer up what we have in our lives to help others. A just and fair person wants everyone to have their needs met.

In our Gospel Jesus offers up a radical solution to those in need. Jesus is guest at a banquet given by a leading Pharisee and he says to his host, “When you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, in case they invite you in return, and you would be repaid. But when you give a banquet, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, and the blind. And you will be blessed, because they cannot repay you, for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous.”

Just as a fair and just person would know that if they are in a better position in life, it is at least in part due to advantages they have, they would know that the destitute and the disabled are in a worse position due to their disadvantages. And today we have neurological evidence that poverty and adverse childhood experiences have an impact on children both physically and mentally. Bathed in stress hormones, their developing brains are affected, making it harder for them to learn. The stress of not knowing where their next meal is coming from, or constantly moving in and out of homelessness, or being raised in a dysfunctional home, or dealing with abuse or neglect keeps them in a state of fight, flight or freeze. They develop strategies that may work for them as kids but hamper them as adults.

A friend of mine adopted the 3 year old child of an addict. My friend kept finding the remains of meals hidden in the child's room. One day the girl thanked my friend for feeding her regularly, saying that her biological mom just gave her “triangles.” This confused my friend until she realized the girl meant Doritos. Subsisting on junk food provided as an afterthought by a mother who spent most of their money on drugs, the child learned to stash away what she didn't finish eating for the inevitable times when she was hungry and no more food was forthcoming. That deeply affected the formative years of the child and her ability to trust adults and to think beyond short term survival.

Jesus is asking us to trust God and think very long-term. Share what we have with those in need now and God will repay us at the resurrection of the righteous. Or you could equally translate it “the resurrection of the just.” We are to trust God in the interim, ie, our life.

But does that mean we can earn our salvation through works? No, we are justified by God's free gift of grace accessed through trusting in Jesus. (Romans 3:2-26) But God is not just doing some legal trick in justifying us. He intends to make us righteous and just persons in reality. As Paul says, “For it is by grace that you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, emphasis mine) We are not saved by good works but we are saved by God in Christ for good works. When we are saved by Jesus, we receive his Spirit and give control over to him and live according to him. (Romans 8:1-17) As Paul says, “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.” (Galatians 2:20) And Paul said, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” (1 Corinthians 11:1) If Christ, who is righteous and just, lives in us, we will also be righteous and just, not just in our thoughts and in our words but in the works he does through us.

God created a world he pronounced good. He created us in his image, the image of the God who is love. (Genesis 1:27; 1 John 4:8) He did not want us to ruin this world and fill it with sin and violence (Genesis 6:11-12) That is the opposite of love. Nor does he does want us to be merely declared righteous and just; he wants us to really act that way.

When I had my accident I didn't want someone to simply change my diagnosis on paper; I wanted to be made right again. I had to trust doctors to open me up and put me back together. And then I had to follow doctor's orders and work with the physical therapists in order to walk again. God wants us to once again be proper reflections of his image, which means being just and merciful and compassionate like he is. He wants us to walk with him in his Spirit. (Galatians 5:25) The more of us who become just and loving and merciful, the more the world becomes just and loving and merciful.

I have a theory of why Batman generally doesn't generally kill his enemies. Because if they are dead, they can't feel pain. They don't have consciences so he wants them to feel physical pain. He may think this is justice but really it is vengeance. He is taking out his childhood trauma, the murder of his parents, on them. And for a lot of people vengeance is more satisfying and simpler than doing the hard work of real justice. Real justice means not forgetting to help the poor and the oppressed. It means making lives better for their children, which in turn will make it easier for them to grow into healthy and trusting and loving and helpful adults.

As we saw in Psalm 82 a few weeks ago, God calls us to “defend the poor and fatherless; do justice to the afflicted and needy.” (Psalm 82:3) Jesus calls us to feed the hungry and thirsty and clothe the naked and greet the foreigner and take care of the sick and visit the imprisoned as if they were Jesus. (Matthew 25:34-40) We don't do it to be saved; we do it because we have been saved by the grace of the God who is love whom we see in Jesus, and because this is how people who have his Spirit living in them act.

Jesus began his ministry by reading these words from Isaiah: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom to the prisoners and recovery of sight to the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.” (Luke 4:18-19) That is his mission statement. And as the body of Christ on earth, it is our mission too. And if we actually did those things, it really would be good news to those who suffer. And just as people did then, they would flock to hear and to trust and to follow Jesus.

Rules

The scriptures referred to are Luke 13:10-17.

It's become a cliché. The protagonist is an uptight guy who always follows the rules. Then he encounters someone who encourages him to break them. When he does so, hijinks ensue and in the end he is a better person for it. It's the plot of just about every comedy from Bringing up Baby to Ferris Bueller's Day Off, as well as every romantic comedy—even, to an extent, The Sound of Music. After all, Maria gets Captain von Trapp to loosen up, doesn't she? And the nuns sing about the problem with Maria being such a free spirit. The only comedy I can remember where there are real consequences to breaking the rules was Risky Business.

Breaking rules is now something almost every hero does, because it's the only way to do the right thing. As a former paralegal and a nurse my wife and I have had to stop getting upset when TV detectives break into places without a warrant, rendering everything they find inadmissible in court, or when the hero doesn't go to the hospital when shot or knocked unconscious or just yanks out his IV and leaves to go after the bad guy, somehow not leaving a trail of blood or passing out from blood loss, because they never put pressure and a bandage on the IV insertion site. Apparently rules, whether legal or medical, are made to be broken.

The idea behind this trope is that nobody likes the rules because they either stop people from having fun or they stop people from doing what's right. But that's a pretty sweeping criticism of what keeps our civilization, or any organized group, running. The most common car accident on US-1 is a head-on collision. Does anyone really think things would go better if there were no traffic laws? Would you really want your morning commute to look like the Mad Max movie The Road Warrior?

On a more serious note, the HBO documentary series The Anarchists shows what happened when a group of people who don't believe in governments gathered for a convention in Acapulco and found themselves dealing with a murder in their community. Do they call in the police, an arm of the government? If personal freedom and free enterprise are paramount, how do you handle drug dealing, which was at the heart of the murder? If reason and self control are the only acceptable restraints on personal behavior, how do you take care of those whose untreated mental illness makes them a danger to themselves and others? The original organizer of the conference loses his family's money in a scam involving bitcoin, favored by anarchists because there's no government regulation. He later dies, refusing to go to the hospital to spare his family losing what little money they have left. One anarchist admits that their movement attracts extremely broken people, people who don't want to or can't follow rules. So can you have a community, much less a caring and healing community, if the basic attitude is “Every man for himself?” After the murder, attendance at the next conference drops by 70%. At the end of the series many of the key figures are questioning whether their ideology is actually naive and incapable of dealing with messy reality.

We need rules. Some rules are necessary for the most basic forms of organization, like having people line up to get their tickets for an event, a problem the anarchists encounter. Some rules are moral. They are there to prevent people from harming one another and even themselves. There is a saying that “You can't legislate morality.” But even secular folks would agree that some governmental laws are essentially ethical, penalizing murder, theft, and deception. What you can't do is make people moral merely by passing a law. Laws are not magical. Otherwise US-1 would be one of the safest roads in the world.

The reason why even law-abiding people sometimes question the rules is when they see them used to harm rather than protect people, or when the rules protect those who harm others. The Fugitive Slave Acts of 1793 and 1850 let slave hunters go after runaways even in free states and prevented anyone from aiding the slaves or obstructing their capture. Those involved in the Underground Railroad, which helped escaped slaves make it to freedom in the North or even Canada, were breaking the law. The law harmed rather than helped.

So let's look at today's gospel. The rules of the Sabbath are laid out in Exodus 31:12-17. Basically it says that no one is to work on the Sabbath, which Jews observe from sunset Friday till sunset Saturday. Anything that can be done beforehand, like preparing meals, is to be done then rather than on the Sabbath. Rabbis eventually delineated 39 categories that were considered work, or deliberate activity. They then extended these categories to anything similar. Thus the prohibition of winnowing wheat from chaff was expanded to separating anything to render it edible, like picking bones out of a fish.

Now healing is not one of the categories of prohibited work but Pharisees back then debated whether even praying for healing on the Sabbath was allowed. Obviously the synagogue leader in today's story holds to the more strict interpretation. Or he may have been thinking of the principle of preserving a life called pikuach nefesh, Hebrew for “watching over a soul.” Judaism is not so callous as to let someone die rather than break a rule in the Torah. An Orthodox Jew is allowed to break any Biblical law, except idolatry, murder or a forbidden sexual act, if it is necessary to save a life. So, for instance, Jews who were being hidden from the Nazis by Gentiles were allowed to eat non-Kosher food if that was all that was available. Observant Jews may give first aid or drive a woman in labor to the hospital on the Sabbath. Saving a life is a higher priority than most of the 613 laws in the Torah.

However this rule is specific. The person whose life is being saved has to be an identifiable individual, not just “people in general or in the abstract.” And the situation has to be life threatening and require action to prevent possible death. And this is probably why Jesus was criticized. The woman he healed was crippled but not dying. She could after waited until after sunset Saturday.

But Jesus wasn't having it. He points out that his critics wouldn't think twice of untying their ox or donkey on the Sabbath so they can lead them to water for a drink. And untying a knot is a specifically prohibited category of work. But if they will release an animal on the Sabbath so it won't suffer thirst, how it is wrong for Jesus to free this woman from her suffering? Everyone sees the common sense in this.

This isn't the first or last time Jesus gets criticized for healing on the Sabbath. In Mark 3, Jesus sees a man with a shriveled hand in a synagogue. Before healing him, he asks, “Which is lawful on the Sabbath: to do good or to do evil, to save life or to kill?” (Mark 3:4) Then he has the man stretch out his hand which is restored to normal. Jesus is essentially extending the principle of preserving life to restoring anyone who is sick or disabled to good health. In Matthew's version, Jesus elaborates: “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a man than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.” (Matthew 12:11-12) This is a typically rabbinic form of argument, comparing something minor to something important to make a point. If it is good to help an animal in distress on the Sabbath, how much better is it to help a human being.

One Sabbath Jesus and his disciples were walking through a field of grain. His disciples picked some heads of grain, rubbed them in their hands to get and eat the kernels. This would definitely be considered winnowing and was forbidden on the Sabbath. When confronted by some Pharisees, Jesus recalls the time David and his men were fleeing from the murderous King Saul and took and ate the showbread from the tabernacle, which was reserved for priests. This was a violation of the Torah but the Pharisees didn't have a problem with David's action. Jesus concludes “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath. So the Son of Man is Lord even of the Sabbath.” (Mark 3:27-28)

There are 2 important principles here. First, God's laws, even the ceremonial ones, were made for our good. God's laws are not arbitrary but are expressions of his nature. He is loving, just and merciful. And that is how his laws are to be observed. Thus Jesus not only healed on the Sabbath but he healed lepers and menstruating woman and resurrected corpses, even when touching them would make him ritually unclean. (Matthew 8:2-3; Mark 5:25-34; Luke 7:11-15) He should have immediately afterwards bathed, changed clothes and kept away from people till sunset, or in the case of a dead body, he would be unclean for 7 days. (Leviticus 15:19-21; Numbers 19:11) Imagine how many fewer people Jesus would have been able to heal if he followed those rules.

Which leads us to the second principle here: As the Son of Man, Jesus is Lord of the Sabbath, and of all the laws in the Torah. When Jesus called himself the Son of Man, he was, ironically, not emphasizing his humanity. He was referring to the passage in Daniel where it says, “I was watching in the night visions, 'And 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) While the phrase “son of man” could simply mean a human being, when Jesus used it as a title for himself, people would have understood that he was identifying himself with the figure in Daniel's vision who is given sweeping authority and an eternal kingdom by God.

And a king can alter any treaty or covenant he made with a lesser power. Jesus, as God's son and the Christ or Messiah, God's Anointed king, also had the authority to make a new covenant that changed the terms of the old one.

Jesus had seen people using the letter of the law to violate the spirit of God's law. They used it to avoid helping out their aged parents by saying they were leaving their estate as a gift to God (Mark 7:10-13) They made their ritual handwashing and food laws more important than moral laws. (Mark 7:5, 18-23) Their elaborate traditional interpretations of the laws weighed down people who were trying to obey God. (Matthew 23:1-4) Nobody could follow all these laws perfectly.

Jesus emphasized the moral laws over the ritual ones and then tightened them up because mere outward observation of the law wasn't really doing God's will. Jesus said it was not enough to simply not murder someone; you were also not to let yourself get angry or insult them. (Matthew 5:21-22) It was not enough to not commit adultery with someone else; you were not to indulge in leering at them nor daydream about having sex with them. (Matthew 5:27-28) You are not to take revenge or even hate your enemies but love them and pray for them. (Matthew 5:43-44) With Jesus, technicalities don't count; the point is to become like our Father in heaven, who is just and merciful towards all. (Matthew 5:48)

And yet it didn't take long for Christians to get legalistic about what Jesus said. In the Didache, an early Christian manual, it says, “...let not your fasts be with the hypocrites, for they fast on the second and fifth day of the week. Rather fast on the fourth day and the Preparation (Friday).” When Jesus said not to fast like hypocrites, he said you were not to make yourself look awful so everyone will know you are fasting and think you are really pious. (Matthew 6:16-18) For Jesus what's going on in your spirit is essential, not external expressions, which can be faked or exaggerated.

This doesn't mean Christians are to be lawless. Paul tells us to obey the authorities. (Romans 13:1-7) Of course that was before they required everyone in the Roman Empire to acknowledge the Emperor as a living god and make a sacrifice to him. This was before the persecutions under the emperors Nero, Domitian, Decius, and Diocletian. In such cases we are to follow Peter who, when the authorities forbid the disciples to teach about Jesus, said, “We must obey God rather than people.” (Acts 5:29) But even so, Christians never attacked or tried to overthrow the government. Instead they stood up to those in power as witnesses to the gospel of Jesus and even as martyrs. Today we have rights the early Christians didn't: the right to petition the government and to vote and to worship and to speak freely. As do our fellow citizens.

Rules are important. We should not blithely ignore them. But when it comes to the rules in the Bible, we should always remember what Jesus said are the two greatest commandments: to love God and to love other people. He said all of the other commandments are dependent on them (Matthew 22:40) and no other commandment is greater than them. (Mark 12:31) There is a hierarchy of moral principles and the 2 greatest commandments top all the others. God did not intend us to use his words as weapons or as an excuse to abuse or neglect others. When we use them to harm people rather than to help or to heal them, we are guilty of misusing the name of the God who is love.

Navigating this corrupt world is difficult. Rules help but they are not perfect. We are going to be faced with real moral dilemmas, situations where 2 moral values seem to clash with one another. Which is why Jesus gave his disciples the Holy Spirit with the ability to make things binding or to loosen things up as necessary. (Matthew 18:18; John 20:22-23) Rigidity in following rules and not making allowances for people when encountering extraordinary or unanticipated circumstances, is neither useful or merciful. Even cops can break the traffic laws if they are trying to save someone. And we pull over and let them pass.

So a good rule of thumb is: You should usually follow the rules. But when in doubt, do the most loving thing. Jesus did.

Judgment

The scriptures referred to are Jeremiah 23:23-29, Psalm 82 and Luke 12:49-56.

One of the most unnerving villains in the movies was Heather Ledger's version of the Joker in The Dark Knight. I used to think that films or TV shows that were otherwise great were spoiled just a bit by having a cartoonish villain, who apparently just plain likes being evil. I thought it was just laziness on the writer's part that the villains didn't have a better motivation, something we might see the point of even though we disagree with his actions. But that doesn't apply to this movie. Actually we are given a number of explanations by the Joker himself for why he is like he is, but they all contradict each other. Which drives us crazy because we want a reason, like a past trauma or a some twisted ideology.

Sadly, as we have seen in the real world, there are some people who will do things that are definitely evil, that is, that deliberately cause harm to others, but have no well thought-out reason nor any deeply-rooted motivation. And I've noticed in interviews with people who are serial killers or psychopaths or narcissists, that they are not really very interesting or complicated persons. They simply do what they want and are not halted for a minute by fear or regret or the consequences for others. In the final analysis I think we have to accept what Bruce Wayne's butler Alfred says: “Some men just want to watch the world burn.”

So has Jesus become a supervillain in today's gospel reading? He says he came to bring fire to the earth and can't wait until it starts. And he says he came to bring not peace but division, with even family members set against each other. Why is he saying these things? Surely he has a reason.

It always helps to look at the context of a passage of scripture, especially one that is hard to understand. The writers did not just paste sayings of Jesus in random places of the gospels. There are themes that run through chapters and even large sections of the books, like John chapters 13 through 17. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus is mostly offering warnings—about the Pharisees, about resisting the Holy Spirit, about thinking only of material wellbeing, about Christians getting complacent and abusive when Jesus doesn't return right away. So Jesus is talking about the final judgment. In verses 42-48, he says the judgment will go well for the servant who is doing the work his master gave him to do and taking care of others. However it will be severe for the “servant who knows his master's will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants,” in other words, whose evil acts or neglect of others are deliberate. Jesus contrasts that with “the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment,” in other words, the person who acts out of ignorance. He doesn't know better, so his penalty is less severe.

But in the information age, when you can access practically all the knowledge in the world with the phone in your pocket, ignorance is a rapidly diminishing excuse. For instance, you can download various Bible apps and go to websites with numerous translations and commentaries and Bible dictionaries, etc. Maybe this is what the prophet Habakkuk meant when he said, “For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.” (Habakkuk 2:14) One day there will be no excuse for anyone not to know what God requires of us and how we should behave.

In the meantime, do we think God just sighs at all the evil in the world? Does he say, “Oh, well, that's just how things are”? Is he resigned to the state of the world? Not according to today's Psalm. God stands in the middle of the divine assembly and says, “How long will you judge unjustly, and show favor to the wicked? Save the weak and the orphan; defend the humble and needy; rescue the weak and the poor; deliver them from the power of the wicked.” Now it is not clear if this is really a council of gods, or human judges and rulers who often said they were acting on behalf of the gods, but the Lord is clearly unhappy with the injustice in the world. Those in charge, whoever they claim to be, are letting the powerful prey on the powerless. And the reason may be that they are powerful, too. You tend to stick up for those who are like you or who are in your class. But that means that those who have the power to oppose oppressors rarely do. Even in the wild, predators tend not to attack the most powerful members of the herd but the weak and the sick and the isolated. It is not a just world and God knows that.

As does Jesus. Which is why he talks about casting fire on the earth. Fire is frequently used as a symbol of divine judgment. (Matthew 3:12; 25:41; John 15:6) Fire is used to burn dead branches and stubble and chaff. (Isaiah 5:24) Even today you see professional groundskeepers use gardening flamethrowers to burn away weeds and brush, because cutting them down doesn't get rid of them. They grow back. But not if you burn them.

Jesus, like God, would like to weed out the evil from the world. In fact, when Jesus is talking about the baptism he must still undergo, he is speaking of precisely the injustice God condemns in Psalm 82. He knew that opposing the powers-that-be would get him crucified. Just 4 miles from his hometown of Nazareth lay the original capitol of Galilee, Sepphoris. When King Herod died, when Jesus was just a boy, the city revolted and the Romans put it down brutally, crucifying every man in the city, thousands of them. Herod's son rebuilt the town and it is likely that Joseph and Jesus found work there. But the uprights of those crosses flanking the road to Sepphoris probably still stood as a warning to those who challenge Rome. Jesus knew all too well what the penalty was for defying the authorities. No wonder he wished the judgment was already underway. It would mean there would be no one left to execute him.

But the judgment couldn't begin until the powerful judged Jesus. As the day of his death drew near, Jesus said, “Now is the time for judgment on this world...” (John 12:31) But, wait! It is Jesus who will soon be judged and sentenced to death by crucifixion. How is that the judgment of this world?

If a Nazi soldier on the Russian front went to forage for food in a barn and he found a family of Jews hiding there, what he did next would certainly reveal what kind of person he was. If he let them go, that would say one thing about him. If he shot them or turned them in, which was a death sentence for them, he would be passing judgment on himself as a person. And in a human rights court after the war this would be used to judge him.

The 3 synoptic gospels all have a passage in which Jesus asks “Who do you say I am?” (Matthew 16:15; Mark 8:29; Luke 9:20) The equivalent in John's gospel is when Pilate asks Jesus whether he is a king. (John 18:33-37) In his excellent Great Courses lectures on the “History of Christian Theology,” professor Phillip Carey makes the case that the gospels are asking this question of the reader. Having read about Jesus, who do you think he is? Is he the Messiah, the Son of God, or merely a false prophet as his critics said? Whose side are you on—Jesus' or Pilate's? It is the trilemma C.S. Lewis pointed out: in claiming to be the Son of God, Jesus is either deceiving others or is delusional or he is who he says he is. He is either a liar, a lunatic or the Lord. You judge.

So the God who is Love Incarnate, who has harmed no one nor told anyone not to worship God, is about to be judged, and not at all impartially. He will be judged by his enemies and condemned for the sake of political convenience and religious business as usual. Is this action not a judgment on, not only those who actually did the deed but all who see this injustice and either don't care or—and this is hard to believe but I've read it online—think “Good riddance, Jesus!” A world that not only has people who dream up, construct and use such horrible methods as the cross to kill others, but which also has a large number who shrug because it is not their problem, is a world under judgment.

But fire is also a symbol of purification. In fact our English word “purify” comes from the Greek word for “to burn.” Fire is used to burn up dross and refine metals like silver and gold. (Malachi 3:3) In Zechariah God says, “I will refine them like silver is refined and will test them as gold is tested. They will call on my name and I will answer; I will say, 'These are my people,' and they will say, 'The Lord is my God.'” (Zechariah 13:9) Jesus may be thinking “How I wish this world was purified of the evils that afflict it!” God gave us a paradise. We made it into a hell on earth. And Jesus entered into that hell and lived in it and died from it for our sakes.

But if Jesus wanted the world purified why did he say he did not bring peace but division? I don't think he was saying that was his or God's purpose. I think he was just saying that it would be the natural result of telling people the truth about their condition. You may have read or heard that during the pandemic there were people in the hospital who were on oxygen and dying but who were denying that they had Covid. Some would get violent towards doctors and nurses who told them that. One can see how someone might resist being diagnosed with alcoholism or addiction, because of our history of seeing them as moral failings rather than diseases. But why would anyone object to being told a virus caused their condition? Sadly it shows us how resistant people can be to the truth even when it is a matter of life and death.

Jesus knew that the gospel, though intended as good news, would nevertheless be greeted with anger and opposition. Because the gospel starts out by diagnosing the people of the world as being spiritually sick. And not just those people that you didn't like in the first place but you, too. And people don't like that, anymore than Jesus' critics like being told they were spiritually blind. (John 9:40-41)

But the good news is there is a cure: giving your life to Jesus. And some people don't like that anymore than other people liked the vaccine. Because you have to admit you are don't have the power to do this on your own. In the case of the vaccine, you have to admit that you aren't in complete control of your own body and you can't stave off a virus through healthy eating or exercise or vitamins or supplements. In the case of the gospel, you have to admit you are not infallible: you are not always wise or always moral or always right. You have to be humble. You have to admit you need outside help. And some people just can't do that. And so they attack those who assert that we must.

In Jesus' day, there were Pharisees, those who thought the right thing to do was to uphold an elaborately strict practice of the rules even if people suffered. They hated Jesus for not only saying that was wrong but showing that was wrong by healing on the Sabbath, and touching menstruating women who were unclean and corpses who were more so. In Jesus' day there were Zealots, people who thought the right thing to do was to throw off the oppressive government. They hated Jesus for not leading a violent revolt, as Barabbas tried to, but telling his followers to turn the other cheek and love their enemies and be peacemakers. In Jesus' day there were Essenes, those who thought the right thing to do was to withdraw from society and pursue pure lives by living in the wilderness and waiting for an apocalypse. They hated Jesus (or would have if they heard of him way out in Qumran by the Dead Sea) for saying the proper place to be was among the sinners and tax collectors and prostitutes, like a doctor making house calls, eating with them and telling them that they could enter the kingdom of God. (Mark 2:17)

So, yes, even having the cure to what is wrong with people will divide families and set them against each other. It wasn't what Jesus wanted but what he knew would happen.

But Jesus didn't inflict fiery judgment on the world, as much as he wanted to. Unlike a supervillain or a psychopath or a narcissist he didn't just do what he wanted, regardless of the consequences to others. Instead, he let the world do its worst to him. And after 3 days, he rose again. And he didn't subject the world to judgment even then. He finished teaching his disciples the full extent of the gospel, including the promise of resurrection, and then he left them to spread the word. And the word spread like wildfire.

Despite the fact that Jesus said about his return, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father,” (Matthew 24:36) certain people ignore this and keep predicting the end of the world. They really want the day of judgment to come soon. So why hasn't it? In 2 Peter we are told, “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) The judgment, the purification of this corrupt world, has been held off by God's mercy. He wants not just some but all to repent—to change their minds, to accept his diagnosis and to turn to the Great Physician to be cured of their spiritual and moral sickness. When he knows that all who will respond to his love and grace have done so, then he will clear away the ruins of this burnt out world and build his new creation.

But what Jesus said about the end of the world in general is true of the end of the world for us as individuals. No one knows the hour when their end will come. But it will come. And just as it is foolish to make preparations for the hurricane when it is already upon you, it is foolish not to prepare for the inevitable beforehand. As Paul said, “Look, now is the acceptable time; now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2) Every second of our life is a second chance to turn to Jesus. And that is good news.

One last thing about fire. In the Old Testament, God is often pictured as fire (Exodus 3:2; 13:21; Ezekiel 1:27) and in the New Testament we are told God is love. (1 John 4:8) Both of which make sense since fire is also a symbol of love. You hear it in pop songs and even in the Song of Songs in the Bible. (Song of Solomon 8:6) Fire can destroy and it can purify, but fire can also give warmth and light. And in our reading from Jeremiah, God says his word is fire. Psalm 119 says, “Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.” (Psalm 119:105) In Acts 2 when God pours out his Spirit upon all the believers, it is manifested as tongues of fire and they start to proclaim the gospel to all within earshot. (Acts 2:3-4) Jesus said we are the light of the world and we are not to hide it but let it shine for others. (Matthew 5:14-16) So let us light up this world with the purifying and illuminating Word of God, the good news about Jesus, who went through hell to save us, and did it all out of his unquenchable burning love. 

Kingdom

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 1:1, 10-20, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16 and Luke 12:32-40.

If the Bible came out today, any good publishing company would probably split it into 2 books, as they split the Bible-length Lord of the Rings into 3 books. And the marketing department would never name them the Old Testament and the New Testament. Those titles wouldn't move them off the shelves. They'd probably name them “God” and the sequel “Son of God.” Fair enough. But there is an alternate way to title them: “The Rise and Fall of the Kingdoms of Men” and the sequel “The Rise of the Kingdom of God.” Because if you look at the Old Testament it really is about how the tribes of Israel come together as one people, eventually become a kingdom under David, then split into 2 kingdoms after his son and successor Solomon dies and the decline and fall of, first, the kingdom of Israel and then the kingdom of Judah. Even when they return from exile and rebuild Jerusalem, the Jews never attain the splendor they once had. The Old Testament also records the rise and fall of surrounding empires like the Assyrians and the Babylonians as well as smaller kingdoms. When the New Testament begins the Jewish lands are occupied by the Roman Empire and the people are chaffing under its oppression. And then Jesus comes preaching the kingdom of God. Some rally to him expecting he will throw off the yoke of the Romans and once again establish a Jewish political kingdom. But it becomes apparent that that is not what Jesus has in mind.

Why not? Wasn't the kingdom of Israel the fulfillment of God's plan? Not exactly. Yes, it is prophesied in the Torah that the people will one day have a king (Genesis 49:10; Numbers 24:17) but even then it is seen as coming from the people and fraught with temptations (Deuteronomy 17:14-20) So the elders come to Samuel, the last of the charismatic leaders or judges whom God called to lead the people when needed, and ask for a king like other nations. Samuel is angry but God tells him, “Do everything the people request of you. For it is not you that they have rejected, but it is me that they have rejected as their king. Just as they have done from the day that I brought them up from Egypt until this very day, they have rejected me and served other gods. This is what they are doing to you. So now do as they say. But seriously warn them and make them aware of the policies of the king who will rule over them.” (1 Samuel 8:7-9)

So Samuel tells them, “Here are the policies of the king who will rule over you: He will conscript your sons and put them in his chariot forces and in his cavalry; they will run in front of his chariot. He will appoint for himself leaders of thousands and leaders of fifties, as well as those who plow his ground, reap his harvest, and make his weapons of war and his chariot equipment. He will take your daughters to be ointment makers, cooks, and bakers. He will take your best fields and vineyards and give them to his own servants. He will demand a tenth of your seed and of the produce of your vineyards and give it to his administrators and his servants. He will take your male and female servants, as well as your best cattle and donkeys, and assign them for his own use. He will demand a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will be his servants. In that day you will cry out because of your king whom you have chosen for yourselves, but the Lord won't answer you in that day.” (1 Samuel 8:11-18)

Now some of this is just the normal and necessary infrastructure of any nation: a standing army, administrators and the taxes that support it all. But some, like taking the best of everything regardless of whose it is, are the expected abuses that come with giving someone that much power. Back in Deuteronomy God says of the future king, “...he must not accumulate horses for himself...Furthermore he must not marry many wives lest his affections turn aside, and he must not accumulate much silver and gold.” (Deuteronomy 17:16-17) He is to read God's law daily and keep it with him. “Then he will not exalt himself above his fellow citizens or turn from the commandments to the right or to the left, and he and his descendants will enjoy many years ruling over his kingdom in Israel.” (Deuteronomy 17:20) And sure enough Solomon, despite his wisdom, succumbs to all these things and after his death, 10 of the tribes secede and form their own kingdom in the north.

The problem is that any external government, while it might keep order, cannot change human nature. Yet people, including many Christians, keep thinking that a strong leader and certain laws will bring about the kingdom of God on earth. And the Old Testament shows over and over that it doesn't. A physical, political kingdom isn't God's Plan A.

Jesus knows that. He knows the scriptures. The book Jesus quotes most often, after Psalms and Deuteronomy, is Isaiah. And in our reading from it we see why any earthly kingdom fails when it tries to be the kingdom of God. Isaiah's ministry as a prophet spanned the reign of 4 kings, 3 of which we are told “did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.” (2 Kings 15:34; 18:3; cf. 16:2) So you would think that would make the kingdom of Judah, ruled by descendants of David, a righteous nation. But, as we see in today's passage, despite their outward observances of religion, God says, “...even though you make many prayers, I will not listen; your hands are full of blood. Wash yourselves; make yourselves clean; remove the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil, learn to do good; seek justice, rescue the oppressed, defend the orphan, plead for the widow.” As we said last week, the people were violating both of the 2 great commandments: they weren't really loving God and they certainly weren't loving their neighbors as themselves. It didn't matter who was ruling over their kingdom, good or bad. The people's hearts were ruled by their own plans and passions.

Jesus refers to the kingdom of God more than 100 times. At least 16 of the 40 parables recorded in the gospels are explicitly about the kingdom. A key difference between kingdoms ruled by men and the kingdom of God preached by Jesus is that the latter wasn't physical. It can't be seen with the eyes. Jesus said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or 'There!' For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20-21) Jesus is echoing Ezekiel, where God says that what we really need is a new heart and a new spirit to move us to follow God. (Ezekiel 36:26-27) And Jeremiah, where God says his new covenant will be written in the hearts of his people. (Jeremiah 31:31-34) God must reign in our hearts.

Paul, in dealing with a dispute about external matters, specifically what Christians could or could not eat, said, “...the kingdom of God does not consist of food and drink, but righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.” (Romans 14:17) He had come out of strict Pharisaic Judaism, which emphasized specific practices that served mainly as signs of their distinctive religion. But Paul knew, as Isaiah did, that people could do those rituals and observe those rules without any real devotion to God or love for other people. What is essential is what is going on internally. In Ephesians Paul wrote, “I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God.” (Ephesians 4:16-19) The kingdom of God is not a political entity or a geographical region. The kingdom of God is the Spirit of the God who is love, revealed in Jesus Christ, living in and ruling in our hearts.

It starts in our hearts but it is not to stay there. If God is ruling our lives, it will affect how we think, speak and act. The internet comic strip Coffee with Jesus features people chatting with Christ over a cup of coffee. In one a man says, “Should I add a little fish symbol to the corner of my landscaping company logo, Jesus?” Jesus says, “To what end, Carl?” Carl says, “Obviously so people will know they're dealing with a Christian company.” Jesus replies, “Let's leave it off and see if they can figure that out by your workmanship, work ethic and honesty instead.” Precisely. We have enough people who say they are Christians while acting like they are not. It's a better witness to Jesus to act out of his love towards others and let them ask why you behave that way. As it says in 1 Peter, “But set Christ apart as Lord in your hearts and always be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks about the hope you possess. Yet do it with courtesy and respect, keeping a good conscience, so that those who slander your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame when they accuse you.” (1 Peter 3:15-16)

In the Lord's Prayer we ask that God's kingdom comes and that his will would be done on earth as it is in heaven. It's an example of the parallelism we see in Hebrew poetry. Those two sentences mean the same thing. Where God rules his will is done. And since we are citizens of his kingdom and we are on earth, we are the ones doing his will here.

I think the biggest problem that some have with the kingdom of God is that they think it is supposed to be like an earthly kingdom or nation. But it isn't. For instance, it doesn't have borders, nor border guards. Because Jesus isn't interested in keeping people out but inviting them in.

It doesn't have an army either. Jesus explicitly said that those who live by the sword will die by the sword. (Matthew 26:52) And I'm sure he meant to prohibit any other way of inflicting harm, since he told us to love our enemies and turn the other cheek, which he demonstrated when he was arrested. (Matthew 5:39, 44) Even when Paul uses the metaphor of the armor of God, the only weapon is the “sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” (Ephesians 6:17) We are to use God's words, not man's weapons. And in all of the passages about the end of the world, Christians are never depicted as or called to be warriors but witnesses, and if need be, martyrs. (Matthew 24:9-14; Mark 13:9-12; Luke 21:12-15; Revelation 20:4)

Nor does the kingdom of God have the apparatus of an earthly nation, like a senate or parliament or departments of state or justice or anything like that. Because the word for kingdom in Greek means more than just a place or government over which a king rules. It also means the extent of his royal power and reign. So a citizen of a kingdom is still under the authority of their kingdom wherever they go. If you are outside the US, that doesn't mean you are free to betray your country. You are still subject to its laws.

But since the kingdom of God is not a physical country on earth, we are, as the author of Hebrews says, “foreigners on earth.” When abroad you are mindful of the laws of whatever country you are in and do not seek to create disorder or chaos there. But your ultimate loyalty is to your own country. Like Paul said, we are ambassadors for Christ. (2 Corinthians 5:20) We represent, as it says in Hebrews, “a better country, that is, a heavenly one.” Heaven is where God's will is done and we are to bring a bit of heaven to wherever we are. We are to sow seeds, the word of God and his kingdom, wherever we go. (Matthew 13:18-23) We are to cast a wide net to bring in everyone. We are to invite them in, not decide who's saved or not. That's not our job. (Matthew 13:47-49)

Jesus said, “Do not judge so that you will not be judged. For by the standard you judge you will be judged...” (Matthew 7:1-2) And we tend to be harsh in our judgments and the verdicts we pass on others. There are people today who are condemning Abraham Lincoln because he was not as enlightened about race as they are. We usually judge others on the results of what they do and ourselves on our intentions. “We didn't intend for that to happen,” we say, letting ourselves off the hook. But, weirdly, in the case of Lincoln people are judging him not for what he did, which is free the slaves, for which he was assassinated, but for what he thought. Lincoln wasn't perfect. Neither are we.

And it is precisely when people try to set up a physical kingdom of God and then pass judgment on others that they dishonor Jesus rather than honor him. How many officially “Christian” kingdoms and nations have persecuted others in the name of Jesus, including other Christians who believed a bit differently than those in power? We've seen the prosecution and execution of Jews and heretics under the Spanish Inquisition, of Catholics under Henry VIII and of Protestants under his daughter Mary and of Catholics once again under his other daughter Elizabeth, plus Christians on both sides killing each other in the Thirty Years War. All because some people thought they were the physical fulfillment of the kingdom of God, skipping the justice, mercy and grace part and going right to the part we think of as “playing God,” namely executing judgment on others.

Passing verdicts on others is not our job. Fortunately the one who will judge the world is Jesus. He is both God and man. He lived under a government that thought its rulers were gods and he was unjustly executed by it. Jesus is just which should give us pause lest we think we are morally blameless. As Jesus said, “For I tell you, unless your righteousness goes beyond that of the experts in the law and the Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of God.” (Matthew 5:20) But he is merciful, too, forgiving even one who was crucified beside him but who admitted he deserved his punishment. (Luke 23:39-43) That criminal is the only person we know for sure is with Jesus because Jesus says so.

Oddly enough, the way to enter the kingdom of God starts with confessing that you are not worthy of it, like the tax collector who could not even look up to heaven but prayed, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” (Luke 18:13) We are to be humble, to be honest and to trust not in our own righteousness but in God's mercy and grace. And then let the Spirit of the God who is love into your heart and let Jesus reign supreme in your life. The way to make a country reflect God's kingdom is not to let Christians rule it but for Christians to let Jesus rule in their lives. Because the kingdom of God is within you.