When the World Collapses

When the World Collapses

Christ Church, New Zealand, Cliff Falling into Sea

Second after Epiphany

Collect: Almighty and everlasting God, who dost govern all things in heaven and earth; Mercifully hear the supplications of thy people, and grant us thy peace all the days of our life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Psalter 46 (BCP)

1 God is our hope and strength, a very present help in trouble.

2 Therefore will we not fear, though the earth be moved, and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea;

3 Though the waters thereof rage and swell, and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same.

4 There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of God; the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most Highest.

5 God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be removed; God shall help her, and that right early.

6 The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are moved; but God hath showed his voice, and the earth shall melt away.

7 The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

8 O come hither, and behold the works of the LORD, what destruction he hath brought upon the earth.

9 He maketh wars to cease in all the world; he breaketh the bow, and knappeth the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.

10 Be still then, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the nations, and I will be exalted in the earth.

11 The LORD o hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge.

When Martin Luther was condemned as a heretic and sentenced to death for his Protestant teaching, a sympathetic prince arranged to “kidnap” Luther and take him to the prince’s castle. In that mountaintop fortress for a year Luther was safe to write and to translate the New Testament into German.

Several years later back in Wittenberg the plague was approaching. Luther felt his duty was to stay and minister to the people. As he reflected on Psalm 46, and perhaps thought about his time in the castle fortress, he wrote: “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing; our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.”

Psalm 46 was written for a time when the world seems to be collapsing.

1. Crisis

The Psalmist describes two kinds of crises, natural and political.

1.1. Natural

In verses 2 and 3 he describes a natural disaster:

...though the earth be moved, and though the hills be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof rage and swell, and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same.

Unless we live along a geologic fault line, we take the stability of the earth for granted. Planting your feet firmly on the ground is a symbol of stability. When we look at mountains we think of permanence, even eternity. But the Psalmist had experienced something that changed that for him. It was an earthquake. He felt the earth beneath his feet moving. He watched a mountain collapse into the sea. He saw the churning  ocean swirling around the collapsing mountain. These symbols of permanence and stability moved.

The earthquake became for him a metaphor of crisis and chaos. There are times in our lives that feel earthquakes that shake the foundations of our lives. You may remember 9/11 as a day like that as you watched those towers collapse, and the President took to the air Air Force One. Or you might think of family or personal circumstances when you got fired, your marriage collapsed, you got a diagnosis from the doctor, death took a parent or child or spouse - anything that pulls the rug out from under your feet.

1.2. Political

In verse 6 the Psalmist speaks of a political crisis:

The nations make much ado, and the kingdoms are

moved...

Or as another translation puts it:

The nations rage, the kingdoms totter…

You may have heard stories of Edward R. Murrow, the American newsman, who reported from London in the early days of World War II. Sometimes he broadcast from building tops during air raids, and his listeners could hear the bombs exploding from the city.

The Psalmist has a similar perspective. He is in Jerusalem, the city God had chosen as Israel’s capital. It was the center of Israel’s political and religious life, the home of both palace and temple, the city in which God chose to live. And the city was under attack from enemies, very likely surrounded by an army. What would happen?

Some Europeans saw the beginning of World I like that. British Foreign Secretary Edward Grey said to a friend as they looked out on London at dusk on August 3, 1914: “The lamps are going out all over Europe, we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” The war devastated Europe, robbed her of a generation of young men, and set her up for another war in 20 years.

We have been through a tumultuous election in the United States, and many are unsettled as we approach the inauguration next Friday. What kind of President will we have? Will there be constant conflict in Congress? Will the country be even more disunited?

What about the church, the Jerusalem of today? The persecution of Christians is growing. Not just radical Islam but also ethnic nationalism threaten the church. About 215 millions Christians experience high, very high, or extreme persecution. What about the “Christian” the West? In England in 2015 4.7% of population attended church. In the United States the church is threatened by the health and wealth Gospel, by a therapeutic Gospel, by denial of essential truths, by promotion of immoral lifestyles, and many other ills.

There is more than enough crisis to make us feel threatened.

2. Safety

It times of crisis and chaos, where can a believer turn for safety?

When I was a youngster my sense of safety was directly related to the presence of my father. I never felt afraid when we had hurricanes, because he was there, and I knew he would take care of us.

2.1. The theme that our security and safety are in God runs throughout the Psalm.

God is our refuge (“hope” is wrong) and strength.

Martin Luther found refuge in the Prince’s fortress castle. As long as he was inside, he was defended against attempts to capture him. So believers find their protection in God. He is our fortress who protects us against the things that threaten. God also is our strength. God not only defends us, he also empowers us so that we have the courage to face the dangers. This is true even when when it seems we have been overwhelmed. “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” was sung by displaced Protestants as they lost their homes and went into exile and or lost their lives as martyrs for the faith. In the last verse of Luther’s hymn we sing, “Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also,” because God is our refuge and strength. The Psalmist wrote, since God is our refuge and strength, we will not fear. So Luther teaches us to sing, “And, though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us, we will not fear.” The Bible constantly encourages us, “Fear not; do not be afraid.” Yes, we often feel fear, but with faith in God’s protection, we can can overcome it.

2.2. Not only is God our fortress, but God himself is with us.

There is a river, the streams whereof make glad the city of

      God; the holy place of the tabernacle of the Most Highest.

      God is in the midst of her, therefore shall she not be

     removed; God shall help her, and that right early.

The Psalmist is thinking about Jerusalem, the city God had chosen as the place where he would live among his people, in Tabernacle first and later in the Temple. The people took confidence from the reality of God’s presence with them. They pictured the presence of God as the gently flowing streams flowing from a river. In the Bible frequently the sea is symbol of chaos and danger. The sea could rage and destroy. Streams were different. They represented peace and refreshment. So it is with God’s presence. And, because God is present in Jerusalem, the city is secure. God will provide timely help when there is danger. Jesus promised his church, “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

So twice the Psalmist assures us, first in verse 7, then the last verse:

The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our

      refuge.

3.1. Triumph

God will defend us and live among us. But there is more. God will triumph and because he will, we will, too.

O come hither, and behold the works of the LORD, what destruction he hath brought upon the earth. He maketh wars to cease in all the world; he breaketh the bow, and knappeth (snaps) the spear in sunder, and burneth the chariots in the fire.

The nations are stirred up, armed, and ready for war. They attack God’s kingdom. But the Psalm foresees a time when there will be tranquility and peace. “He maketh wars to cease in all the world.” But peace will come not because the nations voluntarily lay down their arms but because God subdues and disarms them. “Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth...He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. Judgment on rebellion against God will precede peace.

So God speaks to the nations, and to his people. To the nations God says: “Be quiet and listen. I am God. My will is to be exalted among the nations. Because i am King over all the earth, my will will not be thwarted I will be exalted.” He says to his people: “Settle down. Don’t let your heart to be troubled. I am God, and I will triumph over the nations. I will bring all thing into submission. I will be be exalted over the whole world. I will triumph, and you will share in my triumph.

We come to the Table of the Lord, and we remember that we will not always meet him here, for we do this only till he comes. When he comes he will judge his enemies and place them all under his feet. He will vindicate his people and they will live in peace forever. Here we have communion with the One who is not only our Savior but also our King and look forward to the day when we will sit down with him at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus.”

You on the Altar

You on the Altar

First Sunday after Epiphany

Collect: O Lord, we beseech thee mercifully to receive the prayers of thy people who call upon thee; and grant that they may both perceive and know what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to fulfil the same; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Epistle: Romans 12:1- 5

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For as we have many members in one body, and all members have not the same office: so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.

Homily Text: Romans 12:1

From the Prayer of Oblation: And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee.

Imagine you’re Isaac. Your father Abraham says that you and he are going on a trip to make a sacrifice to the Lord. When you arrive at a place called Mt. Moriah, and the two of you begin to ascend, you say to your father, “Behold, the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” You father replies enigmatically, “God will provide for himself the lamb.” When  you reach the top of the mountain, your father builds the altar, lays on wood, and then...he ties you up and puts you on the altar. You’re the sacrifice.

The Apostle Paul calls on all Christians to make ourselves voluntary Isaacs by offering ourselves to God as sacrifices.

1. Paul’s Approach

There are different ways you can approach someone you want to do something. If you’re an Army sergeant, you might say, “Private, shine those shoes now!” If you’re a husband, you’re more likely to say, “Honey, you know how I love your chicken and dumplings. I wonder if you might make them tonight.”

St. Paul shows great pastoral wisdom in the way he approaches the Roman Christian to ask them to do something that is very hard and must be done not once but for a lifetime.

1.1. He calls them “brethren.” Paul was an Apostle. Apostles were appointed directly by Christ to represent him and to speak and act with unique authority. Ultimately the writings of the Apostles were included among the Holy Scriptures as the “rule” of what Christians must believe and how they must live. While Paul sometimes reminded churches that he was an Apostle appointed by Christ, here he does not do that. He puts his arm around these Christians and calls them brothers and sisters.

1.2. He does not command them but beseeches or urges them. Paul did use his Apostolic authority to issue commands to churches. But more often he encouraged people. St. Peter told those of us who are Presbyters to “shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight...not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock” (1 Pet. 5:2,3). Paul does not issue orders to his inferiors, but entreats them as one brother to another.

1.3. He appeals to them on the basis of “the mercies of God.” Notice he does not use the singular “mercy” but the plural “mercies” because God has many and all kinds of mercies. On Christmas Susan and I went to the grand buffet at the Hotel Roanoke. They did not offer an appetizer, meat, vegetable, or dessert, for they had many and many kinds of  appetizers, meats, vegetables, and desserts. The abundance was overwhelming, and that’s the way it is with God’s mercies.

• For 11 chapters Paul demonstrates and describes God’s mercies. He begins by showing us how much we need God’s mercy, because no matter who we are, however good or bad we may be, we are sinners who deserve God’s condemnation and wrath. Paul tells how God without obligation acted to deliver us by sending Christ to be the sacrifice for our sins so that we can be forgiven and accepted by God as righteous. We forgiven and accepted as righteous not by any good we do we do but by faith alone- resting on Christ entirely.
• The work of Christ saves us not only from condemnation but from sin’s controlling power. Because of Christ’s death we can die to sin, and because of his resurrection we can rise to lead new lives.
• God also gives us his Holy Spirit who lives in us to guide us, to testify to us that we are God’s adopted children of God, to assure us that God will make all things work for our good and that nothing can separate us from God’s love.

Before Paul asks anything of us he reminds us what God

has done for us. We are all like the prodigal son. We

have lost and forfeited everything. But the Father has

shown us mercy after mercy - a robe, a ring, sandals, a

feast with a fatted calf, but most of all the love, welcome,

acceptance, restoration, and embrace of the Father.

St. Paul beseeches us as brothers and sisters based on the multitude of God’s mercies.

2. Paul’s Appeal

What is Paul’s purpose in approaching us in this way? He wants to persuade us to offer ourselves to God as living sacrifices.

2.1 Paul urges us to go to God and say, “Here I offer my body to you as a sacrifice.” Why our bodies?

• What would you have seen had you gone to an altar at the tabernacle or temple? The body of a sacrificed animal. What do you see when you look at the cross? The body of Christ offered as a sacrifice for sin. It is too common among Christians to think think of their bodies as shells in which their real selves live, bodies which they will shed at death so that their spirits are free. But humans are a union of body and soul. At death our souls and bodies are temporarily separated. But from conception to death we are are a union of body and soul and at the resurrection our sinless souls and immortal bodies will be reunited forever. When we offer our bodies to God as sacrifices, we offer our whole selves. You can’t put your body on an altar without putting your soul there, too; and you can’t place your soul on an altar unless you put your body there.
• When we offer ourselves as sacrifices that surely includes our bodily lives. Paul brought this up already in the 6th chapter:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, to make you obey its passions.  Do not present your members to sin as instruments for unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life, and your members to God as instruments for righteousness...For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification (Rom. 6:12,13,19).

We offer our whole bodies and every individual member or part to God as sacrifices.

2.2. Three things should characterize the sacrifice of our bodies.

• Our bodies are living sacrifices. In the Old Testament, sacrifices were bloody and gruesome. The animal was put on the altar; the priest killed it with a knife; and then the body was consumed by fire. Isaac turned out to be a living sacrifice. He was offered to God, but his life was spared because God provided a ram to be killed in his place. Christ made the ultimate sacrifice for us, offering himself on the cross to atone for our sins. But now we are called on to offer ourselves as living sacrifices. We do not die, unless we are called to be martyrs. We go on living, but we are called to offer ourselves daily, continually to God. And this is one of the problems. As someone (D.L. Moody) commented, living sacrifices have a tendency to crawl off the altar. The challenge is to remember that God does not call us to make one big sacrifice, and then we’re done with it, but calls us to offer the rest of our lives as a living sacrifice.
• Sacrifices must be holy.The animal must be a perfect unblemished animal. Only the best could be offered. For us this means we offer God not some of ourselves, or the leftovers of our lives, but our all and our best.

The hymn “Take My Life and Let It Be Consecrated”

gives us some ways this can be fleshed out. Take my life and let it be consecrated, Lord to thee. Take my moments and my days, my hands and feet, my voice and lips, my silver and gold, my intellect, my will, my heart, my love, myself.

• Sacrifices must be offered in the right way, so that they were acceptable - or pleasing to God. The picture was that as the smoke from the sacrifice went up, God smelled it and found it pleasing. For us to make pleasing sacrifices our ourselves means we offer ourselves willingly and joyfully. St. Paul told us about giving that it should be done willingly, not under compulsion, for God loves the cheerful giver. What is true of our money is true of all that we offer to the Lord.

2.3. St. Paul completes his urging by telling us that offering ourselves to God as living sacrifices is our “reasonable service.” Sometimes people take the attitude about serving the Lord in the church and in the world that we need to be “reasonable” - not to go to excess, not to get carried away. But St. Paul says, in light of the incredible mercies of God, in light of the immeasurable sacrifice Christ made of himself on the cross to pay for your sins, what is your reasonable response - your reasonable worship of God, your reasonable service to him? It just makes sense that you would offer yourself to God as a living sacrifice.

I hope these things will be on your heart when we offer the Prayer of Oblation this morning: “And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee.”

God and the Goodness of Life

     God and Goodness of Life

Holy Innocents Day (Transferred)

Collect: O Almighty God, who out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast ordained strength, and madest infants to glorify thee by their deaths; Mortify and kill all vices in us, and so strengthen us by thy grace, that by the innocency of our lives, and constancy of our faith even unto death, we may glorify thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

First Sunday after Christmas Day

Collect: Almighty God, who hast given us thine only-begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with thee and the same Spirit ever, one God, world without end. Amen.

The Circumcision of Christ

Collect: Almighty God, who madest thy blessed Son to be circumcised, and obedient to the law for man; Grant us the true circumcision of the Spirit; that, our hearts, and all our members, being mortified from all worldly and carnal lusts, we may in all things obey thy blessed will; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Last Wednesday was Holy Innocents Day which commemorates the horrendous event that took place in connection with the visit of the Magi to worship Jesus. King Herod hoped the Magi would find the baby and lead Herod to him so he could kill him. When Herod realized the Magi weren’t coming back, he ordered all the male children in the Bethlehem region, two years old and younger, be killed. Herod’s cruelty caused inconsolable sorrow.

Our Bishop asked that our parishes transfer the observance of Holy Innocents to today. He also asked our ministers to use this occasion to take notice of the practice of abortion in our country. He asked that we not so much preach negatively about abortion but positively about life.

This I am happy to do by directing our attention to four Biblical truths about God and the goodness of human life.

1. God and the Creation of Human Life

What is a human being? How, if in any way, is human life different from other forms of life? Atheists do not believe there is anything distinctive about human life. Human beings are the most highly developed animals - a step or two ahead of chimpanzees, gorillas, and apes.

Most human beings sense that there is something unique about human life that sets us apart from even the highest forms of animal life. The first chapter of the Bible teaches us that God is the creator of all things and testifies in several ways that human life is different from other animal life.

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness...

So God created man in his own image,

   in the image of God he created him;

    male and female he created them.

And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”... And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

• First, God consulted with himself before he made humans. Up to the creation of humans, God just spoke his will: “Let there be” and what God willed came into existence. But when God created humans he said to himself, “Let us make man.” We do some things automatically - turn on the coffee pot, put the key in the ignition, turn on the faucet. But the more important a thing we are doing to do the more likely we are to talk about it - whether to someone else or to ourselves. Before God makes humans he takes counsel with himself - or, we can say, “he talked over with himself the creation of human beings.’

• Second God determined to “make man in our image, after our likeness...So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Man is not God, not even a little god, but of all the things God created, nothing is more like him than man. We should not make the mistake of thinking that the image of God applies only to our souls or spirits. The whole person - body and soul - reflects the image of God. While there are some God-ordained differences such as God’s giving leadership in home and church to man, men and women are equally in the image of God. We are like God in ways that nothing else in creation can be. We are capable of a conscious relationship with God - of  fellowship with him. We reflect the nature of God - we can think, reason, love, will, act. We know right from wrong; we can reflect God’s holiness in nature and righteousness in action. In our whole being we reflect that glory of God who made us.

• Third, it was only after God created humans that he was that his creation was very good. As God looked at various aspects of the creation he made, God saw it was good. It was what God wanted it to be; it was pleasing to him. You have probably had experiences like that with something you made. You’re pleased with what you did. Six times God saw what he made, and it was good. But only after God created human beings did God his creation was very good. When God made man, the crown of his creation, God said “My creation is very good - it is everything I want it to be. I am entirely pleased with it.”  

Human life is good because God created it in his own image. Genesis chapter three tells us about how humans rebelled against God. But sin did not destroy that the image of God. If we think of the image of God as a beautiful portrait, we can say that sin defaced or marred the image, but did not destroy it. The image of God in us is not what it was meant to be, but we are still creatures made in the image of God.

2. God and the Protection of Human Life

We see the  goodness of human life also in the special protection God gave human life.

Once Adam and Eve sinned against God the world changed rapidly and drastically. Their son Cain murdered his brother Abel. The world became an increasingly violent place. Eventually things became so bad that  “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen. 6:11).

Eventually God sent the flood as judgment. But the flood did not change human nature. Left to themselves, people would continue to take innocent life and to respond with vigilante vengeance. Soon the the world would again be filled with violence, and the survival of the human race would be in jeopardy.

So after the flood God gave human life special protection. God said:

And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man,

     by man shall his blood be shed,

for God made man in his own image” (Gen. 9:5,6)

Despite the degradation of sin, human life has a special status because “God made man in his own image.” That’s why God put  the  fence of capital punishment around human to protect it.

3. God and the Dignity of Human Life

The image of God in humans has been sadly marred. But does human life still have dignity?

We read Psalm 8 this morning. The Psalmist exalts the Lord: “O Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! You have set  your glory above the heavens.” The Lord’s majesty is so great the  Psalmist wonders how God can even take notice of man:

When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,

what is man that you are mindful of him,

and the son of man that you care for him?

Even if there were no sin, God is so great and man so small that it is profoundly amazing God values human life. But he does!

Yet you have made him a little lower than the heavenly beings

and crowned him with glory and honor.

You have given him dominion over the works of your hands;

you have put all things under his feet...

There is nothing in creation greater than human life. Humans are just a little lower than the heavenly beings. Despite human sin God still crowns man with glory and honor. Just as God gave man dominion over all the rest of creation at the beginning, so man still rules over creation for God.

Human life is good because God still gives dignity to human life.

4. God and the Redemption of Human Life

The ultimate evidence that God considers life good is that God chose to redeem human life.

• God sent his Son to take to himself our human nature. Jesus became like us in every way but sin, sharing in our weaknesses and mortality. The purpose of his sharing our human nature was so that he could redeem human life from bondage and restore it to what God intended. It is beyond belief that that the eternal Son of God would so value human life that he would become one with us in our human weakness.

• In his life Jesus offered to God the perfect obedience Adam  did not because he chose to disobey God. Jesus obeyed at every point that Adam failed. He then offered up that perfect life on the cross to pay for our sins. This is how Jesus gave his life a ransom for many - how he bought us out from bondage to Satan, to sin, to death and to judgment. Christ so valued human life that he gave his life in the place of ours so that we would would be forgiven, counted righteous, and restored to fellowship with God.

• God’s plan is not just to redeem us from the guilt and condemnation of sin, but to restore us to what he intended us to be when he created us. Already he is making us like Jesus in his risen and perfected humanity. He is renewing us within so that we can love God and do his will. But ultimately he will conform us to his perfect humanity. At death our souls will be freed from sin and sin will have no power over us any longer. At the resurrection our bodies will be raised, our bodies and souls reunited, and we will exist fully in the image of God forever - beyond the touch of sin and death forever. We will be sinless and immortal beings. We will be like Christ in his resurrection glory.

God values human life because in Christ he redeems and restores it.

God values human life for he made us in his image. Do we value life as God does? Then we will say no to abortion on demand, no to devaluing the lives of those who are have birth defects or have suffered devastating illness or accident, those who have lived to old age with it physical and mental decline. We will say no to those things that degrade other human beings such as racism and sex trafficking. We will not write off the lives of prisoners or those who are suffering the effects of sinful patterns life they have chosen.

We come to this Table, knowing that God values us - he made us in his image and, when we had fallen into sin, he sent his Son to redeem and restore us. When the bread is put in your hands and the cup put to you lips, take them as God’s affirmation that, that he has redeemed you in Christ and will not be done till he has restored you to his image.