Thanks be to God!

LAST FRIDAY OF THE KINGDOM

29 November 2013

Readings:

Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14

John 18:33-37

Key Verses:

Dan. 7:14b: “His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.”

John 18:36: “Jesus answered [Pilate], ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.  If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered… But now my Kingdom is not from here.”

Reflection

This is a remarkable weekend in the United States, as far as religion is concerned, for this year, Thanksgiving, Advent Sunday, and the Jewish festival of Hanukkah coincide.  This last happened in 1918, and will not happen until 2070.  Unless I live to 90, I probably won’t see this again in my lifetime.

“Giving thanks” is a major theme that runs through all three observances.  Hanukkah, you might recall, is the Jewish eight-day Festival of Lights, commemorating the Maccabean rededication of the Temple from Hellenistic control in the 2^nd century BCE.  The Temple menorah is said to have burned for eight days with oil that should’ve lasted for just one.  The story appears (minus the miracle of the oil) in the deuterocanonical books of 1 and 2 Maccabees.  And from that time period on, Hanukkah has been an occasion to give thanks for the restoration of Jewish worship and custom, and for God’s providence and goodness towards his people.  Even Jesus, 200 years after the event, is recorded to have observed this “Feast of Dedication”, a subtle testament to his deep-rooted Jewish piety and sincere gratitude.

Countless nations observe a civil festival of the harvest or thanksgiving, usually anywhere between September and November in the Northern Hemisphere.  Yesterday the United States observed our Thanksgiving.  American Thanksgiving doesn’t usually get the kind of controversy, which Columbus Day brings here.  But despite later historical events, for at least one night, Pilgrims and Native Americans put aside their differences and prejudices in order to partake of food and companionship.  The very word “companionship”, Latin for ‘bread fellow’, shows the essential connection between food and fellowship.  And as our secular culture heads right into the shopping season, may we continue in that spirit and set aside a day for thankfulness and generosity towards others.

The final week of our church year is for us one more source of thankfulness: celebrating the Reign of Christ, the Kingdom of God.  And what is that Kingdom?  Today we read that God’s Kingdom is eternal and indestructible, and that it does not belong to the world.  We can’t lose it because nothing can separate us from the love of God.  We can’t fight for it because aggression can never be a solid foundation for love, generosity, and community.  The world can’t claim or own it because it animates the world, dwelling in and among us, and therefore the world and we depend on it.

I had the privilege of attending an Interfaith Thanksgiving service this past Tuesday.  I sat in a Lutheran church with fellow Christians, Jews, and people of other faiths.  The liturgy was simple because our spirit and purpose were one.  For one hour, we lay aside religious differences and were thankful for the fact that we just are; that we desire, and are able, to partake of worship together; that, despite our failings, God’s light burns within each one of us, miraculously longer and brighter than we expect; that, whenever the world sidetracks us, we can always stop and rededicate ourselves to God, the Creator of all life; and that, because God’s eternal Kingdom is among us, there’s a part of us that can never be taken away.

Thanks be to God!

Prayer of the Day

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

you gave us your Son,

the beloved one who was rejected,

the Savior who appeared defeated.

Yet the mystery of his kingship illumines our lives.

Show us in his death

the victory that crowns the ages,

and in his broken body

the love that unites heaven and earth.

We ask this through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

—Collect 4 for “Christ the King (or Reign of Christ)” from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) p. 395.

Hymn: “Jesus, now your praises voicing”

(Words: “Herre Kristus, dig til ære”, C. J. Boye, 1840 in Den Danske Salmebog; translated and adapted from Danish by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Dig til ære’, by J.A. Freylinghausen, 1704)

Jesus, now your praises voicing,

We conclude the church’s year.

We part ways in hope rejoicing:

Advent comes, with Christmas near.

Harp and organ, hymn and psalter,

Made our hearts and spirits soar.

Flames of faith burn at your altar

Till the earth shall be no more.

Thank you for yourself revealing,

Christ, the Church’s Guest and Priest.

For the Christmas spirit healing,

For baptism and holy feast.

Thank you for Good Friday’s sadness;

Easter cheers the soul anew,

Pentecost brings us the gladness

Of the Spirit breathed by you.

Thanks for prayers received in heaven,

For forgiveness, rest, and calm,

For the church’s journey given,

Heartfelt hymn and soothing psalm.

Thank you, for you ever call us,

Op’ning wide each yearning heart;

For our tears and for your solace,

Which the world cannot impart.

Jesus, hear our voices singing:

Shepherd forth in every place

Those whom you in love are bringing

To your table by your grace.

Through the coming year, assure us

As our peaceful, present guide.

Let each day and hour before us

Be forever by your side!

Good guys and bad

LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE KINGDOM

27 November 2013

Readings:

Revelation 20:11-21:6

Luke 19:11-27

Key Verses:

Rev. 20:13b, 15: “They were judged, each one according to his works… If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.”

Luke 19:27: “[The nobleman said,] Bring those enemies of mine who didn’t want me to reign over them here, and kill them before me.”

Reflection

My nephew is an energetic six-year-old who loves pretty much what most six-year-old boys today love: super heroes—in whatever form he can get his hands on them: action figures, video games, movies, you name it.  On Mondays when I visit, he wants me to play super hero games with him—in all those forms.  I really have to dig deep into my imagination when we play because super heroes never really appealed to me much as a kid.  What I know of Superman or Batman is superficial at best; of the Hulk, Thor, Wolverine, and all that crowd, next to nothing.  And please don’t ask about my fighting skills.  I usually end up playing the “bad guy” because it’s just easier.  I don’t have to think too much about my swordsmanship when I know I’m bound to lose.

While we were playing this past Monday, one of my favorite movies, the 2004 film Troy, came on.  Besides the obvious (and probably wise) omission of the Greek gods, Troy freely adapts the famous Greek epic to focus exclusively on the human drama, something I identify more with than fighting and gore.  Here, a womanizing King Menelaus implicitly abuses his wife, Helen, and we sympathize with her running away with the sensitive and idealistic Paris.  As Menelaus is about to exact fatal revenge on Paris, we rejoice when Hector, Paris’ brother, dispatches him instead.  So too with King Agamemnon, Menelaus’ brother.  He kidnaps Achilles’ love interest Briseis, displaying a perverse sexual interest in her, but when she finally stabs him in the neck, Troy burning all around them, we’re satisfied.  Justice is served.

None of this is how it happened in the Iliad or the Odyssey.  Hector did not kill Menelaus; he went on to reconcile with his estranged wife.  Similarly, Briseis did not kill Agamemnon at the siege of Troy; he died years later, at the hands of his wife, Clytemnestra (not shown in this film).  But conventions of on-screen drama require that the film make these changes to better tell the story it’s trying to tell.  And that story is about the endless struggle between good and evil.  My nephew didn’t care much for the drama and dialogue of the film, but when the fighting started, he wanted to know who was the bad guy, and who was the good guy.  And why?  He wanted to see the good guy win, and the bad guy get what he deserved.  And so did I.  It turns out a 6-year-old kid, and his 32-year-old uncle aren’t too different after all.

People have described the Bible in many ways—a historical record, the infallible word of God, a “love letter” from God to his people—but, to me, stories like the ones in today’s readings often put it more in line with epic drama.  We have here, too, the classic struggle between good and evil.  We know who will win, who will lose; how good will be rewarded and how evil will be punished.  And much more than that, from the way the story is written, from the message it’s trying to tell, we want evil to be sorely punished, to get its “just desserts”.  We want the devil and his minions to be cast into the lake of fire.  We want the nobleman’s rivals to pay the price for refusing his rightful rule—and in ancient times, that price was often execution, viewed as a justified recompense.  In short, we want the story to end with a rebalancing of the wrongs committed, and the scales tipped back in favor of the good.

We all know this isn’t how life works.  Life is rarely as simple as the good vs. the bad, the super hero vs. the villain.  And in the experience of history, villains often do a lot of irreparable damage before being stopped—if they are.  But that’s why we need these stories—stories like Troy, like Hulk, Superman, Spider-Man, or Satan’s doom and the lake of fire.  Through the complexities of real life, their simple language reminds us all, at any age, of what good and evil are—and which one needs to win.

Prayer of the Day

Eternal God,

you set Jesus Christ to rule over all things,

and made us servants in your kingdom.

By your Spirit, empower us to love the unloved,

and to minister to all in need.

Then, at the last, bring us to your eternal realm

where we may worship and adore you

and be welcomed into your everlasting joy;

through Jesus Christ our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you

in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

—Collect 3 for “Christ the King (or Reign of Christ)” from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA) p. 395.

Hymn: “Rejoice, the Lord is King!”

(Words: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Gopsal’, George Frederic Handel, 1685-1759, arranged by John Wilson, b. 1905)

Rejoice, the Lord is King!

Your Lord and King adore!

Mortals, give thanks and sing,

And triumph evermore.

Lift up your heart! lift up your voice!

Rejoice! again I say, rejoice!

The Savior Jesus reigns,

The God of truth and love,

Who purged away our stains,

And took his seat above.

Lift up your heart! lift up your voice!

Rejoice! again I say, rejoice!

His kingdom cannot fail,

He rules o’er earth and heav’n.

The keys of death and hell

To Christ the Lord are giv’n.

Lift up your heart! lift up your voice!

Rejoice! again I say, rejoice!

He sits at God’s right hand

Till all his foes submit,

And bow to his command,

And fall beneath his feet.

Lift up your heart! lift up your voice!

Rejoice! again I say, rejoice!

Rejoice in glorious hope!

For Christ the Judge shall come,

And take his servants up

To their eternal home.

We soon shall hear th’ archangel’s voice.

The trump of God shall sound: “Rejoice!”

A universal message

LAST SUNDAY OF THE KINGDOM: CHRIST THE KING

24 November 2013

Readings:

2 Peter 3:1-14

Matthew 25:31-46

Key Verses:

2 Pet. 3:13: “According to [the Lord’s] promise, we look for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells.”

Matt. 25:35-36: “I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat.  I was thirsty, and you gave me drink.  I was a stranger, and you took me in.  I was naked, and you clothed me.  I was sick, and you visited me.  I was in prison, and you came to me.”

Reflection

Today, many churches worldwide celebrate the Feast of Christ the King.  Originally a Catholic feast, it was instituted by Pope Pius XI in 1925 “in response to growing nationalism and secularism”, as the Wikipedia article puts it.  It was to be observed on the Sunday before All Saints’, but was later moved in 1969 to the last Sunday of the church year, and renamed: “the Feast of our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe”.  From then on, Protestant churches, seeking to enrich their liturgy, began to adopt the feast day, so that now it’s observed by millions of Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Methodists, even by Russian Orthodox outside of Russia.

Who would’ve thought a century ago that Protestant churches would embrace a new Catholic feast day?  But the reasons behind its institution reach far beyond the boundaries of confession and denomination, and little has changed since 1925.  When I think of this time period, I think of the 1997 film Titanic, where Cal, upon seeing the famous passenger liner, says: “God himself could not sink this ship!”  This kind of secular pride is still very much with us today, as is a similar type of national pride, where nations and cultures see themselves as superior to others.  And as we get closer to the holiday season, we might add consumerism and materialism to the list.  A season that once emphasized family, community, and a divine mystery now is a time for shopping and sales, where people trample over their neighbors just to get the best deals.

I’m not arguing that we should go around doubting ourselves, our capabilities and achievements; nor am I against holiday gift-giving because, when done from the heart, this can be a source of great joy and community.  But I am arguing for a kind of humility that appears to be absent in the modern world, the type of humility that accepts our limits, that there are certain boundaries we must not cross, and acknowledges a force at work greater than we are—whatever we may choose to call it, be it God, nature, spirit, qi, etc.  In Christianity, we call that force “God”, and the manifestation of God’s power, we call “God’s Kingdom”, of whom Jesus Christ, God’s Son, is the universal King.

Now isn’t this just another way of saying my religion is superior to yours?  I can’t answer that question for you, but I can tell you what it means to me.  To me, if Jesus Christ is King of the universe, then all of us together have one Father, one common origin, regardless of race, gender, national origin, sexual orientation—and yes—religion.  This places me, not above, but alongside my neighbor, whoever s/he is, because we’re equals in our common mission to bring about God’s Kingdom on earth, on whatever path God has called us to do this.

And what is God’s Kingdom?  Well, according to Jesus in today’s reading, God’s Kingdom is not a creed but an action, or rather a series of actions: feeding the hungry, giving to drink to the thirsty, sheltering the foreigner or homeless, clothing the naked, visiting the sick or the incarcerated.  Scripture in other places adds providing for the widow and the orphan.  None of these requires adherence to a particular faith or philosophy; they only require a heart, and the fruits of this giving are far better than anything you can find under a Christmas tree (or Hanukkah bush).  They also require the vision and the hope that, through communal effort and with God’s help, we really can have that new earth where righteousness—doing what’s right, what’s just—dwells, which all human beings universally can enjoy.

Prayer of the Day

Almighty and everlasting God,

it is your will to restore all things

in your well-beloved Son,

the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Mercifully grant that the peoples of the earth,

divided and enslaved by sin,

may be freed and brought together

under his most gracious and gentle rule

of him who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

—Collect for Proper 29 in The Book of Common Prayer, p. 236, adapted

Hymn: “Crown him with many crowns”

(Words: Matthew Bridges, 1800-1894; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Diademata’, by George Job Harvey, 1816-1893, descant by Richard Proulx, b. 1937)

Crown him with many crowns,

The Lamb upon his throne.

Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns

All music but its own.

Awake, my soul, and sing

Of him who died for you

And hail him as your matchless King

Who gave you life anew.

Crown him the Son of God

Before the worlds began,

And you who tread where he has trod,

Crown him the Son of Man,

Who every grief has known,

That wrings the human breast,

And takes and bears them for his own,

That all in him may rest.

Crown him the Lord of life,

Who triumphed o’er the grave,

And rose victorious in the strife

For those he came to save.

His glories now we sing,

Who died and rose on high,

Who died, eternal life to bring,

And lives that death may die.

Crown him of lords the Lord,

Who over all does reign,

Who dwelt on earth as God the Word

For ransomed sinners slain,

Now lives in realms of light,

Where saints with angels sing

Their songs before him day and night,

Their God, Redeemer, King.

Crown him the Lord of heav’n,

Enthroned in worlds above.

Crown him the King to whom is giv’n

The wondrous name of love.

Crown him with many crowns,

As thrones before him fall.

Crown him, you kings, with many crowns,

For he is King of all.

Paradise and doom

NEXT FROM LAST FRIDAY OF THE KINGDOM

22 November 2013

Readings:

Isaiah 65:17-25

Luke 17:20-33

Key Verses:

Isa. 65:17a, 19: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth… I will rejoice in Jerusalem… and the voice of weeping and the voice of crying will be heard in her no more.”

Luke 17:20, 21: Jesus said, “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation… God’s Kingdom is within you.”

Reflection

Today’s readings come at us from two ends of a spectrum.  From Isaiah, we get a beautiful vision of paradise, a place where no one weeps, and everyone gets a chance at a full life.  If, in the Season of Creation, we contrasted between the modern saying “You reap what you sow”, and the biblical saying “One sows, and another reaps” (John 4:37), that won’t matter here anymore.  For in Paradise, people get to harvest what they themselves have planted—apparently instantaneously.  They get to live in the houses they’ve built.  Furthermore, prayer will no longer be necessary.  God will answer his people before they even call.  And just when you thought it couldn’t get any better, predators will eat beside their former prey: the wolf with the lamb, and the lion with the ox.  (I wonder if that little child will be there with them too!)

Cut to Jesus who does the exact opposite and digs into two of the world’s worst catastrophes as recorded by ancient Israel: Noah’s flood, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  The people of Sodom and Gomorrah are eating, planting, and building just as the fortunate dwellers of Isaiah’s paradise do, but we know this is different.  We know that, according to the Bible, the flood of the then-known world, and the destruction of the two villages were due to people’s wickedness and injustice towards each other.  And that’s what Jesus wants his listeners to have in mind when he applies these stories to two pivotal moments of his own existence.  For he likens the day of his rejection—his Passion and crucifixion—to the days of Noah, and the day of his being revealed—his Second Coming—to the days of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Either way, there’s mass destruction and chaos, and we are cast far away from that idyllic Elysium of before.

I think the reason most of us hear the stories, and they go in one ear and out the other, is because they’re simply beyond our imagination.  None of us has ever experienced paradise.  And though tragedy and disaster occur even on the national scale, thankfully up to this point, we’ve never had to deal with the doom of worldwide mass destruction that cuts off absolutely all and any help and relief, no matter where you go.  Neither paradise nor doom, therefore, can adequately provide us with a target to aim for, or a peril to flee.

But it would be a mistake to skip over these stories simply because we can’t look to them as a practical guide for living—because Jesus tells us where to look: “God’s Kingdom doesn’t come with observation… God’s Kingdom is within you.”  If paradise and doom seem like two completely absurd ends of a spectrum, then maybe they’re calling us to explore more of what’s in the middle, what’s closer to our understanding, what’s in our power.

God doesn’t want his people to live in anxiety, in constant fear of tomorrow.  But neither does God want us to live as though “the strife is o’er, the battle done”, for we still have much to do in the Creation we’re a part of.  No, God wants us to be alert, to look within, hoping that when we do, we’ll realize that we already have the seeds of God’s Kingdom planted within us.  Of course, only God can fully usher his Kingdom in, but when we start to look inside ourselves, maybe we’ll understand our role in bringing a piece of that Kingdom to earth.  And we’ll finally move along on that spectrum towards what we’ve never had: paradise.

Prayer of the Day

O God of power and might,

your Son shows us the way of service,

and in him we inherit the riches of your grace.

Give us the wisdom to know what is right

and the strength to serve the world you have made,

through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

—Collect for the Last Sunday after Pentecost in Evangelical Lutheran Worship, p. 53

Hymn: “‘Your kingdom come!’ on bended knee”

(Words: Frederick L. Hosmer, 1891; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune:

‘Your kingdom come!’ on bended knee

The passing ages pray,

And faithful souls have yearned to see

On earth that kingdom’s day.

The slow-paced watches of the night

Not less to God belong.

And for the everlasting right,

The silent stars are strong.

Lo, on the hills in breaking skies,

The flags of dawn appear,

Stand up, you prophet souls, arise,

Proclaim the day is near.

The day in whose clear shining light

All wrong shall stand revealed,

When justice shall be throned in might,

And every hurt be healed.

When knowledge, hand in hand with peace,

Shall walk the earth abroad,

The day of perfect righteousness,

The promised day of God.

Hope in the End Times

NEXT FROM LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE KINGDOM

20 November 2013

Readings:

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Mark 13:14-27

Key Verses:

2 Thes. 2:3, 4: “[The day of Christ] will not be, unless… the man of sin is revealed… he who opposes and exalts himself against all that is called God or that is worshiped.”

Mark 13:21, 22: Jesus said, “If anyone tells you, ‘Look, here is the Christ!’… don’t believe it.  For there will arise false christs and false prophets.”

Reflection

Every generation thinks of itself as the pinnacle of history, living as though its times are much more important than those long gone, or those to come.  Obviously, though, no one time period can be the culmination of all recorded time, but I have to argue that our generation does have a measurable novelty that previous ones never had.  The last century saw the widespread rise of instant communication—telephones, radio, television—and this one has seen the addition of constant communication in the form of the Internet, with smartphones and tablets putting the world literally at our fingertips.

This really is something the world has never seen before, but it comes at a price.  For we are one of the first generations to be made instantly aware of everything that is happening in the world—especially the bad.  And in the religious world, this has the effect of fueling a doomsday worldview, where devastating storms like Typhoon Haiyan, the global economic crisis, earthquakes, terrorism, school shootings all become “signs of the end of the age”, and of Jesus’ return.

To be fair, this isn’t exactly coming out of nowhere.  Today’s readings are filled with the grim picture of the end of the world: a darkened sun and moon, stars falling out of the sky, false prophets, anarchy, etc.  But these last two are the ones that caught my eye this week.  At first I thought it’s because they’re easier to imagine, and closer to my experience (and I suspect yours as well).  I mean, the “false prophet” might be played by the doomsday preacher who uses natural disasters to predict Jesus’ return, and Satan can always fill in as the “man of lawlessness”.  That’s the easy answer.

The tough answer is that we don’t need to wait for doomsday preachers or demons to put on this show for us.  Whenever we turn to satisfy strictly our own self-serving needs, making ourselves the center of our own universe, we cast ourselves in the roles of false prophets and lawless people.  The parts are more subtle than a demon or a falling meteor, but the production is just as deadly—maybe even more so because these attack our spirit, our humanity, everything that God stands for.  If we as a society ever get to the point where we become the pinnacle of creation, acting just because we can and have the freedom to, regardless of the consequences; lording ourselves over nature; building temples in which to worship our own seemingly superhuman creations; loving lies, double-talk, and ways to cheat each other, then the End Times really may come.

But even here there’s still hope.  We can’t control the heavenly bodies, storms and earthquakes, and other natural disasters, but we can control our behavior.  We don’t have to be false.  We don’t have to be lawless.  In fact, we already know the core of God’s law: to love God, neighbor, and self—a trine that leads us nowhere except towards truth, goodness and honesty.  Maybe that’s why the end hasn’t come yet—because as long as there are still people who sincerely strive to do these, then God won’t be finished with us. 

Prayer of the Day

Almighty God,

no one can make void your sovereign purpose.

Give us faith to be steadfast

amid the tumults of this world,

knowing that your kingdom shall come,

and your will be done,

to your eternal glory;

through Jesus Christ, your Son our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

—adapted from the Collect for the 33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time from the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Hymn: “Lo! He comes with clouds descending”

(Words: John Cennick, 1752 from Rev. 1:7; altered by Charles Wesley, 1758, and by Martin Madan, 1760; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013, in part from The Presbyterian Hymnal, 1990)

Tune: ‘Helmsley’, Thomas Olivers, 1753; harmony by Ralph Vaughan Williams, 1906)

Lo! He comes with clouds descending,

Once for our salvation slain!

Thousand, thousand saints attending

Swell the triumph of his train:

Alleluia!  (x3)

Christ the Lord returns to reign!

Every eye shall now behold him

Robed in awe and majesty.

Those who jeered and mocked and sold him,

Pierced and nailed him to the tree,

Deeply wailing (x3)

Shall the true Messiah see.

Those dear tokens of his passion

Still his dazzling body bears,

Cause of endless exultation

To his ransomed worshippers.

With what rapture (x3)

We shall meet him o’er the spheres.

Yea, Amen! Let all adore you,

High on your eternal throne.

Crowns and empires fall before you,

Claim the kingdom for your own.

Alleluia! (x3)

You will reign, and you alone!

Judgment Sunday

NEXT FROM LAST SUNDAY OF THE KINGDOM

17 November 2013

Readings:

1 John 2:15-27

Matthew 24:1-14

Key Verses:

1 John 2:24b-25:  “If that which you heard from the beginning remains in you, you also will remain in the Son, and in the Father.  This is the promise which he promised us, the eternal life.”

Matt. 24:13-14: Jesus said, “He who endures to the end, the same will be saved.  This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

Reflection

So now we’re in the final stretch, the last two weeks of the church year.  And as its draws to an end, we reflect on the “End Times”, a.k.a., “doomsday”.  This latter name actually means “Judgment Day” (as it still does in Nordic languages, and cf. “to deem”), and many churches designate the Sunday falling between 20-26 November as “Judgment Sunday”.  I’ve chosen to move the theme up one week, and reserve “Christ the King” (or “The Reign of Christ”) for the final week.  The two Sundays share similar themes, but have different nuances that I want to observe and explore separately.

We’ve had a lot of “doom” in these past couple of years, haven’t we?  Everyone remembers the end of the Mayan calendar on December 2012, but I bet you already forgot about that other doomsday prediction a year and a half before that.  American Christian radio host Harold Camping declared that on May 21, 2011, Christ would at last return to judge the earth, and that the rapture would occur as St. Paul once foretold (1 Thes. 4:16).  I confess that I had fun with that one!  I googled paintings of the Last Judgment and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and tweeted them as: “BREAKING! Live photos from New Zealand #Doomsday!”.  It was all in good and innocent fun.

But Judgment Day is no laughing matter.  And before you think this is going to turn into another doomsday sermon, I ask you to stay with me for a moment.  It’s a grave mistake for anyone at any point in history to think that s/he has “cracked the code”, and reached a definitive time, date, and even location of Christ’s Second Coming.  To do so would be to know more than Christ himself, and it’s a part of our faith to profess that this is impossible.

Yet, the more I study Scripture, the more I find myself developing more respect for the idea of a “Judgment Day”.  Jesus speaks for entire chapters in the gospels about “signs of the end of the age”: what will happen, who will betray whom, the wars, worldwide earthquakes, famines, calamities, the destruction of the heavenly bodies.  This imagery figures so prominently in Jesus’ ministry, that we can be certain he actually preached this—especially because we know he wasn’t the only Roman-oppressed Jew doing so.  And if this is so, then he’d probably sound more like Harold Camping than we’d like—and would we then make fun of him, or mock him on Twitter?

Obviously 2,000 years later, things didn’t turn out as they were preached or written.  But apart from how this dissonance is usually resolved—namely that we should just live every day as our “Last Day”—I want to leave you with another thought.  Both of today’s “doomsday” readings also include promises of salvation and of eternal life.  We have the assurance from God-With-Us that God will indeed be with us—to save, redeem, and heal us.  And if we’ve let God’s Word remain and abide in our hearts, then we will remain in God, we will live in God, we will have eternal life.  Nothing can ever hold power over God’s infinite love and faithfulness towards us, and we will have these whatever “doom” may come.

Prayer of the Day

Lord God of all the ages,

the One who is, who was, and who is to come,

stir up within us a longing for your kingdom,

steady our hearts in time of trial,

and grant us patient endurance

until the sun of justice dawns.

We make our prayer through your Son, our Lord Jesus Christ,

who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,

one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

—Collect #3 for the 33^rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, p. 393 in the Book of Common Worship of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Hymn: “The King shall come when morning dawns”

(Words: Greek, anonymous; translated to English by John Brownlie in Hymns of the Russian Church, 1907; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero

Tune: ‘St. Stephen’, by William Jones, 1726-1800)

The King shall come when morning dawns,

And light triumphant breaks,

When beauty gilds the eastern hills,

And life to joy awakes.

Not as of old a little child,

To bear, and fight, and die,

But crowned with glory like the sun

That lights the morning sky.

O brighter than the rising morn,

When Christ, victorious, rose,

And left the lonesome place of death,

And conquered all his foes.

Still brighter than that glorious morn

Shall this fair morning be,

When Christ, our King, in beauty comes,

And we his face shall see.

The King shall come when morning dawns,

And earth’s dark night is past.

O haste the rising of that morn,

The day that e’er shall last.

And let the endless bliss begin,

By weary saints foretold,

When right shall triumph over wrong,

And truth shall be extolled.

The King shall come when morning dawns,

And light and beauty brings.

“Hail, Christ the Lord”, your people pray,

“Come quickly, King of kings!”

Amen.

A shrewd God

SECOND FROM LAST FRIDAY OF THE KINGDOM

15 November 2013

Readings:

2 Samuel 22:25-33

Matthew 7:7-14

Key Verses:

2 Sam. 22:26-27: “With the merciful you will show yourself merciful.  With the perfect… you will show yourself perfect.  With the pure you will show yourself pure.  With the crooked you will show yourself shrewd.”

Matt. 7:8: Jesus said, “Everyone who asks receives.  He who seeks finds.  To him who knocks it will be opened.”

Reflection

In the 1989 Canadian film Jésus de Montréal, Friar Leclerc (Gilles Pelletier) enlists a group of actors headed by Daniel (Lothaire Bluteau) to modernize his summer Passion Play.  The result is a fascinating audience-interactive portrayal of current biblical scholarship’s discoveries and conjectures about the historical Jesus, and the world in which he lived.  Obviously this does not sit well with the Catholic priest, nor with his superiors.  Exasperated, he lectures Daniel:

“Are you out of your mind?  Christ, the natural son of a Roman soldier?  The Virgin Mary, an unwed mother?  Are you crazy?”

Daniel attempts to defend his production: “In the Bible…” but Leclerc cuts him off:

“It can be made to say anything!  I know… from experience.”

The Bible is a complicated series of texts, written down over a millennium, some of whose stories go back to undatable oral tradition; whose books weren’t all intended to be sewn together into one continuous narrative.  For most of history, only scholars and priests—both Jewish and Christian—had access to the text.  They often guarded it from the general public, I think, less out of a selfish sense of superiority, or a desire to perpetuate ignorance, but more because of its complexity, because, in the wrong hands, “it can be made to say anything”.

Nowadays, first with the printing press and then the internet, just about anyone (including myself) can be a biblical commentator.  People read and see what they want in it—and we all know what sorts of things people can come up with.  Who agrees or disagrees with whom, then, dictates the next denominational split—leaving the faithful with a “we’re right, you’re wrong” kind of attitude.

And yet, “God is not the author of confusion, but of peace” (1 Cor. 14:33, KJV).  We can see this in today’s first reading from the Second Book of Samuel.  God meets us right where we are, as we are: mercy with mercy; perfection with perfection; purity with purity; and—get this—crookedness with shrewdness.  Yes, even to those whose intentions are less than honest, God will still show himself, shrewdly using their dishonesty, their crookedness and corruption against them, to bring them down, to humble them—and we know what Jesus said about those who humble themselves (Matt. 23:12).

God stops at nothing to reach us, to exalt us into his goodness and peace.  There are probably endless ways to read and understand the hundreds of voices in Scripture, but through all of these, God still has some tricks up his sleeve (so to speak) to show us—all of us.  And in like manner, God works through our countless confusions of culture, race, tradition, social views, politics, and religious denomination, giving all of us one calling: keep asking, keep searching, keep knocking.  The promise is likewise the same: we will receive, we will find, the door will be opened—right where we are.

Prayer of the Day

Almighty God,

your word is a lamp for our feet,

and a light upon our path.

Grant that by patient study of the Scriptures,

we may follow more closely

the way that you set before us;

through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God now and forever.

Amen.

—Collect for the Ninth Sunday after Pentecost in A New Zealand Prayer Book, pp. 634-5.

Hymn: “O you who hear all prayer”

(Words: John Burton, Jr. 1824; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Naphtali’, H.T. Leslie)

O you who hear all prayer;

Attend our humble cry,

And let your servants share

Your blessing from on high.

We plead the promise of your Word:

Grant us your Holy Spirit, Lord.

If earthly parents hear

Their children when they cry;

If they, with love sincere

Their children’s needs supply,

Much more will you your love display,

And answer when your children pray.

O send your Spirit down

On all the nations, Lord,

With great success to crown

The preaching of your Word.

That all may feel the heav’nly flame,

And all unite to praise your Name.

O may that sacred fire,

Descending from above,

Our quickened hearts inspire

With fervent zeal and love,

Enlighten our beclouded eyes,

And teach our earth-bound souls to rise.

Then shall your kingdom come

Among our fallen race,

And earth at last become

The temple of your grace,

Whence pure devotion shall ascend,

And songs of praise, till time shall end.

Filling Scripture full

SECOND FROM LAST WEDNESDAY OF THE KINGDOM

13 November 2013

Readings:

1 Timothy 4:7b-16

Matthew 5:17-20

Key Verses:

1 Tim. 4:13: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.” (New International Version)

Matt. 5:17: “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.  I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.” (World English Bible)

Reflection

The first Christians had a very complex relationship with Scripture, which in their day meant “Hebrew Scripture” or the “Old Testament”.  Those Jews, like the apostles, who came to faith in Christ retained their devotion to Scripture, studying it now through their experience of Christ, searching in it for more insight into the meaning of Jesus’ life.  However, those Greeks and Romans who converted to the new Christian movement had little to no knowledge of Hebrew Scripture, and probably even less interest in it.  For them, Jesus’ message was so radical, so new, and so universal, that there could be no more link with the past, especially the past of a singular people.

We can trace the development of this complex relationship back to Jesus’ own time.  Mark, the earliest Gospel, reports from the very first chapter that the synagogue-goers in Capernaum were “astonished at his teaching, for he taught them as having authority, and not as the scribes”, and they even call it a “new teaching” (Mark 1:22, 27).  What they heard Jesus say was definitely not what they got from the religious authorities, and Jesus knew this.  But he also knew that his “new teaching” could be taken in ways he didn’t intend.  In today’s Gospel reading, then, Jesus prefaces his discourse on Scripture—the “Sermon on the Mount”—with a kind of disclaimer, as if to say: “What you’re about to hear me say may sound controversial and even heretical, but… ‘Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.’”  

But it was controversial, it did lead to heresy, and it did destroy, not just in the Gospels, but also through history.  Jesus’ earthly life was destroyed over this.  Christianity severed its connection to Judaism.  The Church itself took about four centuries to agree on a “canon of Scripture”.  Along the way, some Christians would have completely jettisoned Hebrew Scripture because Christ “fulfilled” it.  Although the Church came to rule against this viewpoint, it’s still notable today when we talk of the “New” Testament as a ‘fulfillment’ of the “Old”.  “Let the old document yield to the new rite” says an ancient Latin hymn.  I don’t think this is what Jesus intended either.

It’s clear from the Gospels that Jesus had a profound love and respect for the Law and the Prophets.  He “didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill” them.  I’m starting to think of “fulfill”, not as “to complete”, but as “to fill full [of meaning]”.  Jesus didn’t just read or quote Scripture; he lived and breathed its words in such a fresh and extraordinary way that left onlookers amazed and speechless.  Every day of his life, Jesus approached Scripture, not as a rote obligation, but as a daily dialogue, one in which challenging the letter of the law ironically resulted in a stronger and deeper connection to the spirit behind it.  In all things, Jesus embodied Scripture so much that his followers could no longer tell where the Word ended and Jesus began.

Today’s words from the First Letter to Timothy might as well have been spoken by Jesus: “Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching” (New International Version).  For his most important lesson to us is that we can follow him, follow his life, his example, and this is the way.  May we live, breathe, and embody the spirit of Scripture in such a way that we no longer know where we end and Christ begins.

Prayer of the Day

O Lord, heavenly Father,

in whom is the fullness of light and wisdom:

Enlighten our minds by your Holy Spirit

and give us grace to receive your Word

with reverence and humility,

without which no one can understand your truth;

for the sake of Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord,

who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit,

one God, now and forever.

Amen.

—adapted from a Collect for “Bible Sunday” in The Book of Prayers, by Leon and Elfreida McCauley, 1954.

Hymn: “Book of books, our people’s strength”

(Words: Percy Dearmer, 1925; adapted by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Liebster Jesu’, by Johann R. Ahle, 1664)

Book of books, our people’s strength,

Statesman’s, teacher’s, hero’s treasure,

Bringing freedom, spreading truth,

Shedding light that none can measure;

Wisdom comes to those who know you.

All the best we have, we owe you.

Thanks to those who toiled in thought,

Many scrolls diverse completing:

Poets, prophets, scholars, saints,

Each a word from God repeating,

Till they came, who told the story

Of the Word, and showed his glory.

Praise to God, who has inspired

Those whose wisdom still directs us;

For the holy Word made flesh,

For the Spirit which protects us.

Light of knowledge, ever burning,

Shed on us your endless learning.

Bible Sunday

SECOND FROM LAST SUNDAY OF THE KINGDOM

10 November 2013

Readings:

2 Timothy 3:12-4:5

John 5:30-40

Key Verses (using the World English Bible):

2 Tim. 3:16-17a: “Every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete…”

John 5:39-40: “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and these are they which testify about me.  Yet you will not come to me, that you may have life.”

Reflection

In 1915, the American Bible Study inaugurated “Bible Sunday”, or a Sunday dedicated to reflection on Scripture and its significance in a Christian’s life.  This practice has spread worldwide now to many churches like to the Church of England, which reserves the “Last Sunday after Trinity” (or the Sunday before All Saints’) for this theme.  In the United States, however, “Bible Sunday” has usually been the Sunday before Thanksgiving Day (the fourth Thursday of November).  In my scheme of the Kingdom Season, I’ve moved it up one week, leaving the Next from Last Sunday for “The Final Judgment” (the original end of the Christian year), and the Last Sunday for “Christ the King” (the Common Lectionary’s end to the Christian year).

Scripture plays such an essential role in God’s Kingdom.  Jesus returns from his forty-day fast in the wilderness declaring that “God’s Kingdom is at hand!” (Mark 1:15), and, according to Luke, immediately thereafter announces in his hometown synagogue that “Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21).  The Gospels themselves are littered with Scripture (that is, Hebrew Scripture) sometimes almost like proof-texts, to back up a claim, remark, or even as “ammunition”, as when Satan tempts Jesus in the desert.  One of the risen Christ’s final acts on earth was that he “opened the Scriptures” to two unnamed disciples at Emmaus (Luke 24:27, 32).  Later, Jesus’ apostles—especially Paul—lean heavily on Scripture to continue their witness to their Messiah, to try and make sense of his death, and to discern God’s will for the emerging gathering of believers.

Whatever we may or may not believe about Scripture, I think most of us would agree that it represents one of the closest ways we can reach a knowledge of, and union with, God.  But I also think that approaching Scripture as did the prophets and apostles can be very judgmental, holier-than-thou, and even dangerous.  Just think of how many people have flung around scripture throughout history to support homophobia, misogyny, slavery, witch hunts, racism—always with the same attitude: “The Bible says it, I believe it, that settles it.”  Or, “you do what you want, but I know I’m right with God because the Bible tells me so!”  And often this attitude has resulted in violence and prejudice.  Shakespeare once wrote that “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.”  And the centuries have proven him right.

But what does Jesus tell us today about the Scriptures?  “You think that in them you have eternal life… yet you refuse to come to me, that you may have life.”  Oh yes, Jesus says, it is possible to come to the Bible and not to him.  Whenever we place the Bible upon the idolatrous pedestal of divine infallibility, we miss out on life, both present and eternal, for that is Christ’s alone to grant. The Bible’s job is to bring us to God, not the other way around.  Scripture certainly is “God-breathed”, but it is not God.

Scripture is sacred to me because whenever I read or study it, I enter into the historical conversation between humankind and God.  Our search for God, our hopes, dreams, and fears haven’t changed much in nearly four millennia, though each generation expresses these differently.  But equally different are the ways in which God has sought his creation, from his “strong arm” in Exodus, glorious manifestations to the prophets, the “still, small voice”, to death on a cross.  By tradition, the canon of Scripture is closed, but “God is still speaking”, as the United Church of Christ puts it.  How does God speak to you, both through and outside of Scripture?

Prayer of the Day

O Lord God, heavenly Father,

rule and guide us by your Holy Spirit,

so that we may hear your holy Word

and receive it with our whole heart.

Sanctify us through your Word,

and teach us to place all our trust and hope

in Jesus Christ your Son,

so that, as we follow him, 

your grace may lead us through all evil

and bring us to everlasting life;

through the same Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.

Amen.

—adapted from the Collect for “Bible Sunday” in The Book of Prayers, by Leon and Elfreida McCauley, 1954.

Hymn: “God’s eternal Word is spoken”

(Words: based on a hymn by Theodor V. Oldenburg, “Dybe, stille, stærke, milde”, 1840; adapted, with 3^rd verse by Joseph A. Soltero, 2013

Tune: ‘Herre, jeg har handlet ilde” by Ludwig M. Lindeman, 1871)

God’s eternal Word is spoken,

Piercing mists around, above;

Of eternal might the token,

Emblem of eternal love;

Out of darkness, world enthralling,

Into light to us is calling.

Word of God, O Word eternal,

May we hear your living voice,

Learn the power of love supernal,

Learn obedience and rejoice.

God’s commands forever heeding,

Follow where God’s love is leading.

Holy Word, still speaking, living

Mirror of our Maker’s face,

Through your Spirit, ever giving

Fruitful gifts, through faith, of grace:

Lead us through your sacred story

To behold your heav’nly glory.