“Battle Hymn of the Kingdom”: a sermon for the FOURTH SUNDAY OF EASTER

 

·        Scripture Texts: Deuteronomy 7.7-11; Psalm 34.1-10, 15-18; Gospel of Luke 1.46-55

     Weird news.  What’s the strangest story you’ve ever heard?  What’s the most bizarre thing to ever happen to you?  Who did you tell?  Did they believe you?  Make no mistake about it.  The Gospel story – the story of Jesus as told by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John – is strange.  It’s a strange story about a strange God who calls unlikely people to participate in his bizarre plan to save the world.  When we reduce the good news about Jesus to, for example, “4 Spiritual Laws”, it sounds straightforward, logical – it becomes a kind of formula.  Just follow the steps of the recipe, and your cake will come out of the oven looking – and tasting – great.  If our reaction upon hearing the gospel is “oh, that makes sense”, we may have misunderstood its radical nature.  The apostle Paul goes so far as to say that the gospel message is – to most people – “scandalous”, “foolish” and nonsensical (cf. 1 Cor. 1.18-25).  Paul says that God, in his wisdom, chose NOT to save the world through wisdom – in a way that smart people would understand.  No, says Paul; God chose to save the world through the foolishness of the gospel, a message about a crucified-and-risen Lord.  The story of Luke’s Gospel begins with a young woman singing vigorously about her people’s expectations and the promise of their shocking fulfillment…

     Strange story.  The story of how the Creator God entered the world through Jesus – as Jesus – is a strange story.  We are often unaffected by the strangeness of the story because we’ve heard it so…many…times.  Another reason that the Gospel story does not strike us as being fundamentally weird is that we often don’t see the point of the story.  According to the first of the 4 Spiritual Laws, “God loves us and wants us to spend eternity with him”.  If that is indeed the point of the gospel, then why does the Bible spend so much time talking about the nation of Israel and its priests, prophets and kings?  What does the history of the people of God have to do with me spending eternity in heaven?  Why does Paul spend so much time, in his letters, talking about Abraham and the fact that believers in Jesus are “children” of Abraham (cf. Rom. 4; Gal. 3)?  These are good questions.  And the answer is: not much.  Heaven does NOT have much to do with Abraham or the history of Israel or how the Bible speaks about the people of God.  What’s going on?  Have we missed something?  I think we have.  We have missed just how grandiose God’s plan of salvation actually is.  We have boiled the divine plan down to the bare minimum – God wants to save certain people from the world and take them to a different place called “heaven”.  Often, we make the mistake of thinking that this world has nothing to do with God’s plan.  This is indeed a mistake.  The Bible tells the story of how the Creator has been fighting for millennia to recapture his rebellious world.  God’s goal really is to save the world, as the most popular verse in the entire Bible says:

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” (John 3.16)

     World in revolt.  According to the opening chapters of the book of Genesis, the problem with the world is that it is in rebellion against God and that humans pretend to be in charge of the world.  In their foolish arrogance, human beings act as if they can run the world the way they want.  The story of the Tower of Babel is an excellent example of this.  So, what does the Creator do about the fact that his creation is in rebellion against him?  God gets the attention of a pagan from Babylonia named Abraham, and makes a deal with him (i.e. he establishes a “covenant” with him).  These were the terms of the deal – do what I tell you and I will make you famous, give you a land of your own and make you the “father” of countless descendants (cf. Gn. 12.1-3).  The nation of Abraham’s descendants eventually calls itself by the name that God gave to Abraham’s grandson – Israel (Jacob).  The nation of Israel was the people of the Creator God, the nation that belonged to God in a special way, the people with whom God had made a deal (cf. Dt. 7.7-11; Ex. 19.5-6; Lk. 1.55).

     The kingdom of David.  All this serves as the background to Mary’s song, which was read to us earlier (Lk. 1.46-55).  This helps us understand why the pregnant Mary is singing about Abraham (Lk. 1.55).  Mary understands her unexpected pregnancy – as well as that of her elderly cousin, Elisabeth – as being the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham!  This is indeed a strange story.  Let’s back up a few verses.  When the angel Gabriel announced to Mary that she had been chosen to be the mother of the Messiah, the long-awaited king of Israel, he had told her something absolutely fascinating:

“…you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus. He…will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his ancestor David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end.” (Luke 1.31-33)

Interesting.  Gabriel tells Mary that her son will receive “the throne of David” and that “his kingdom will last forever”.  This is indeed what God had promised David – God had told him that one of his descendants would always sit on his throne (cf. 2 Sam. 7.13-14).  So, Jesus is the promised descendant of David – as well as Abraham – who will reign over Israel forever.  Jesus is a king who will rule over an eternal kingdom.  Interesting.  So, let’s summarize what we’ve learned so far about this strange story.  The Bible’s story of salvation is a story about the Creator God calling Abraham to be the ancestor of a nation – Israel – which will have a special destiny to be “the people of God” in the midst of all the other nations of the earth (cf. Gn. 12.1-3; Ex. 19.5-6; Dt. 7.7-11).

     God’s anointed king.  Once Israel established a monarchy, a new twist was introduced into the story.  To take one example among many, in Psalm 2, God tells the king of Israel that he has been chosen to rule, not only over the people of God, but also over all the nations of the world:

            “I have set my king on Zion, my holy hill.”

I will tell of the decree of the Lord:
He said to me,

“You are my son;
    today I have begotten you.
Ask of me, and I will make the nations your heritage
    and the ends of the earth your possession.” (Psalm 2.6-8)

 

Interesting.  So, according to the Hebrew Scriptures (the Old Testament), the king of the descendants of Abraham is destined to rule over the entire world.  The king of Israel is destined to reign over the kingdom of God, which will include all the nations of the earth.  Ultimately, according to many Psalms, God was king of both Israel and the world (e.g. Pss. 47, 90-96).  God’s “anointed one”, the king of Israel, was called to rule as God’s representative on earth (cf. Ps. 2.7-8).  Gabriel tells Mary that her son Jesus will be the long-awaited king who will rule over Israel and the nations.  This is the point of the story that Luke is telling in his two-volume work (Luke – Acts).  Luke is telling the story of how God’s promises to Abraham and David are fulfilled through Jesus and his apostles.  In his Gospel, Luke shows us how Jesus is the king of Israel (the Messiah, the Son of God); in the sequel, The Acts of the Apostles, Luke shows us how the kingdom of God spreads from Jersualem “to the ends of the earth” as the witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection proclaim him as Messiah and Lord (cf. Ac. 1.3, 8; 2.36).  Fascinating!

     The kingdom of God.  This is another interesting phrase, and once again, it has often been misunderstood.  It is common for Christians to read the Gospels, to read of Jesus proclaiming “the kingdom of God/heaven” (e.g. Lk. 4.43) and to think that he was talking about where Christians go after they die.  This is another mistake.  As we have seen in the passages from the Old Testament that we have considered, the “kingdom of God” was the Creator’s way of reclaiming authority over the world he had made.  In response to human rebellion, and against all the kingdoms of the world (which are expressions of human pride and autonomy), God decided to establish his rule, his kingdom.  Where?  In the midst of the world he had made!  As we often pray: “Let your kingdom come…on earth as in heaven…” (cf. Mt. 6.9-10).  This should be our deepest desire – that’s God’s authority should become a reality in the world.  This is the world’s only hope.  If you are in the habit of watching the news, you are well aware of how the world is presently being ruled – by violent and greedy people who are preoccupied with expanding their own power, their own “kingdoms”.  The answer to all this is for God to rule the world.  But how?  How has the Creator chosen to reign over his world, and thus save it?  What is his strategy?  Well, as we have seen, the kingdom-plan began with Abraham, it continued with David, and its fulfillment was promised to a teen-aged Galilean girl who was told that she would give birth to the Messiah, the king of Israel who would reign forever.  This is a strange story.  As they say, the truth is stranger than fiction.

     Agents of the kingdom.  Once Mary receives the news that she is to be the mother of the Messiah, she goes to visit her elderly cousin Elisabeth, who is six months pregnant (despite her old age), and then sings the song which we call the “Magnificat”.  As she sings, Mary is celebrating the goodness and the faithfulness, the reliability of God.  God had promised to save his people and his world, and now he is keeping all his promises.  So far, so good.  Of course, Mary is not merely a spectator of the saving action of God.  No, she has been called to be an active participant in the unfolding of God’s plan of salvation, of the establishment of God’s kingdom in the world.  That’s how the kingdom of God works – God’s rule becomes a reality as people accept to be agents of the kingdom.  There should be no spectators in the people of God.  Each and every member of God’s people (the Church) is called to play a role in making the kingdom of God a reality where they are.  Interesting (and maybe a little disturbing).  As far as I can see, this is what the New Testament is all about.  This is what the Gospels are all about.  This is what the gospel message is all about.  We have been saved…for what?  Why did God save us by sending his Son Jesus to pay the price for our sin?  Here’s what Paul said:

“For by grace you have been saved through faith…it is the gift of God— not the result of works…For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we may walk in them.” (Ephesians 2.8-10)

If we’ve been saved, it was so that we could do the job that God had already prepared for us to do!

     Playing our part.  The Bible does indeed tell a strange story.  And perhaps the strangest part of the biblical story is that we are invited to participate in the story the Bible is telling.  God’s project to establish his kingdom continues to go forward, and as the people of God, we are called to play our part in making God’s rule a reality, here and now.  OK, so what does that mean?  What does the kingdom of God look like?  What does Mary’s song tell us about the kingdom of God?

     An upside-down world.  Mary sings about a world that has been turned upside-down:

“He has brought down the powerful from their thrones
    and lifted up the lowly;
he has filled the hungry with good things
    and sent the rich away empty.” (Luke 1.52-53)

This is what happens when the kingdom of God displaces the kingdoms of the world.  Things get flipped!  Things get messy!  Some people get angry, even violent!  Other people start to sing and dance!  Isn’t this what we find when we read the Gospels (cf. Lk. 7.29-30)?  One of the immediate effects of God’s reign being established is God’s justice being enforced.  One of obvious – and uncomfortable – things that we notice as we read Luke’s Gospel is that Jesus seems to make the poor and the rejected members of society his priority (cf. Lk. 5.31-32).  Not everyone was happy about this.  Indeed, it was those people who considered themselves to be “just” and “righteous” who resisted what Jesus was doing and who were often rebuked by Jesus.  Jesus began his ministry – and described his objective – by reading a passage from the prophet Isaiah in his local synagogue:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
    because he has anointed me
        to bring good news to the poor...” (Luke 4.18; cf. 7.22)

     Good news to the poor.  What is good news for a poor person?  For a homeless person?  For someone who is alone in the world?  For someone who can’t find a job because they have a criminal record?  Good news for these people would be food, shelter, mercy, compassion, and a community where they could belong.  If you read the opening chapters of the book of Acts, that seems to be what the church in Jerusalem was like (cf. Ac. 2.43-47).  So, what about us?  We are called to be part of God’s kingdom-project.  Jesus has shown us that the gospel of the kingdom of God is good news for the poor.  What are we doing to help the poor in our neighbourhood?  …in the neighbourhood of our church?  We don’t need to look far to find poor people.  We walk past them every week.  Will we continue to just walk past these people, or will we do something to show them – in a practical, tangible way – that God cares about them?  This is the challenge of the gospel.  The gospel cannot be limited to a formula about the afterlife.  The gospel is the good news that the Creator is establishing his kingdom in his world through his people – that’s me and you.  We have been saved, and we have a job to do.  Mary sang that the time had come for the world to be turned upside-down (Lk. 1.52-53; cf. Ac. 17.6).  The world has begun to turn, but it hasn’t completely flipped yet.  We are called to “push” until the world is finally the right way up.  Jesus has given us his Spirit to strengthen us and give us the courage we need for this task.  When will we begin?  It’s always a good time to start (again).  Amen.