SUNDAY OF CHRIST THE KING
Prayer of the Day: O God, our true life, to serve you is freedom, and to know you is unending joy. We worship you, we glorify you, we give thanks to you for your great glory. Abide with us, reign in us, and make this world into a fit habitation for your divine majesty, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
“…in [Christ Jesus] all things hold together.” Colossians 1:17.
This is a bold statement to make in these days when everything seems to be falling apart. Legal, political and religious norms for civil behavior have all but disintegrated in our own nation. A fierce climate of polarization has rendered our government unable to perform basic leadership tasks. The alliances, agreements and treaties that grew out of the post World War II generation are coming unraveled fast as the United States gravitates away from its historic role of world leadership. As our climate continues to turn once habitable areas inhospitable to human and non-human creatures, we might reasonably ask ourselves whether there is anyone holding things together.
There is a bumper sticker I have noticed from time to time that reads simply, “God is in Control.” The first time I saw that sticker was on the back of a pickup that was weaving precariously in front of me. My guess is that the driver was inebriated. I had to chuckle to myself as I finally managed to get out in front of that truck. “Glad someone is in control, because its obvious the driver isn’t,” I thought to myself. Yet on further reflection, I realize that this occurrence was not so funny. Over twelve thousand people were killed last year in alcohol related crashes. It seems that if God or anyone else is really in control, then they are either asleep at the switch or deeply sadistic. Objectively speaking, there seems to be no rhyme or reason for deaths and injuries to people caught in the crossfire of somebody else’s feud, injured or killed in devastating accidents or rendered homeless by natural disasters. It is simply luck of the draw.
People I have known who maintain that, despite appearances, God is in control tell me I must accept that God’s sovereignty is absolute. God’s goodness is a matter of faith. Though it may appear to our finite and limited minds that tragic events are random and meaningless, God has a higher purpose in bringing about or allowing them to occur. It is not for us to question the higher wisdom of God. We are to trust in God’s goodness notwithstanding evidence that much of what happens in this world is not consistent with what we understand to be the will of a loving and merciful God. But I find it hard to imagine what higher purpose could possibly be served by allowing a child to starve to death in Gaza or permitting a young mother with small children to be taken by cancer. If God objects to my asking such questions, God should not have made me so curious. Moreover, I wonder how far proponents of the “control” theory push their insistence on divine management. Does it extend into my personal life? Did I really decide to propose to my now wife? Or were we “destined to be”? Did I respond to God’s call to ministry? Or was I preordained? Does God determine which tie I wear on Sunday? Are all our choices illusory? Perhaps I am carrying this argument to ridiculous extremes, but if we are not to reduce ourselves to cogs in a relentlessly mechanized and deterministic universe, we need to acknowledge that, at some point, God’s control ends and our freedom begins. Where is the line drawn?
There is, however, a greater issue involved here. I have encountered enough controlling spouses, controlling parents and controlling pastors to know that “control” is not something you should be doing to people you love. If we believe, as the Bible asserts in numerous places, that “God is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love,” then I do not see how we can assert that God controls the world God made or the people living in it. It seems to me that control is the last thing God desires to do to us. In the opening line of Scripture, the first words God speaks are “Let there be…” Genesis 1:2. God makes space for something that is not God, something that exists which, though not independent of God, is nonetheless separate from God. The human creatures that inhabit God’s world have freedom and agency within their created limits. God gives them commandments and direction, but that only further illustrates their freedom. Human beings can break the commandments and resist God’s good and gracious desire for their wellbeing.
So in what sense do “all things hold together” in Christ Jesus? How does Christ exercise his reign over creation? The key, I believe, is in our gospel lesson in which Jesus prays for his tormenters, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34. Jesus’ prayer reflects God’s expressed sentiments throughout Scripture. Though death was the consequence of Adam and Eve’s transgression, God did not inflict that upon them as a penalty. Instead, God clothed Adam and Eve in sending them out into the world. God would not take vengeance on Cain for Able’s murder, but instead put a protective mark on him to ensure no one else did. By contrast, human society became increasingly vengeful and violent. The first love song in biblical history celebrates the singer’s murderous vengeance upon one who assaulted him. Genesis 4:23-24. The world became so consumed with violence that God resolved to make an end of it. Genesis 6:5-7. Yet in the midst of dismantling creation, God reversed course. Genesis 8:1-5. After the waters receded and life on earth began anew, God solemnly promised, “I will never again curse the ground because of humans, for the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth; nor will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night
shall not cease.” Genesis 8:21-22.
However much evil the human race might do, God will not respond in kind. As the centuries pass, God’s patience is repeatedly tried by a violent world and God’s people Israel who are all too prone to adopt the ways of that world rather than to “choose life” by living faithfully under their covenant with God. Yet God’s mercy always prevails in the end. The ultimate test comes with the world’s response to the best God had to give-the only begotten Son, God’s very self. Rather than avenge the murder of Jesus-God raised him up and offered him back to the people who rejected him, the world that killed him and the disciples who abandoned him. God’s power is God’s patience, God’s mercy, God’s love. God’s compassion cannot be extinguished by the worst of human conduct. Regardless of what we do, God will be God and God is love.
Is love enough to hold our planet together against all the forces of human greed, violence and exploitation? Yes, it is according to Saint Paul who tells us that love is eternal. I Corinthians 13:13. To be clear, this love is not emotional affection. It is an undying commitment to the wellbeing of another. Love is the glue that holds the Trinity in unity. Love is what molds the church, however imperfectly, into the Body of Christ. Because I believe all this, I believe that, yes, the love of God in Christ Jesus is strong enough heal the wounds inflicted upon this planet and its inhabitants by God’s human creatures. I believe that the patience of God is persistent enough to continue working toward redeeming, restoring and perfecting creation for as long as that might take. I believe that hatred, greed and violence, as destructive as these surely are, cannot outlast God’s love.
Control seems like a simple solution to the chaos of evil. I think that is why we are so susceptible to the promises of “strong men” who insist that they are “the one,” the person capable of imposing law and order, increasing wealth and prosperity, returning the world to a “golden age.” We are tempted to believe it takes a powerful, “take charge” individual who isn’t afraid to take severe measures to make things right. But we have learned, or should have learned by now, that leaders who exercise their leadership by asserting control always end up inflicting more grief than they remedy. The world does not need more leaders like that. It does not need a god like that. Thankfully, the God we worship does not rule the world by controlling it. We worship a God that loves the hell out of it.
Here is a very simple poem by Mechtild of Magdeburg expressing the nature of God’s love in Christ that holds all things together.
How God Answers the Soul
It is my nature that makes me love you often,
For I am love itself.
It is my longing that makes me love you intensely,
For I yearn to be loved from the heart.
It is my eternity that makes me love you long,
For I have no end.
Source: Beguine Spirituality, (c 1989 by The Crossroad Publishing Company, Inc.) Mechtild of Magdeburg was a Christian medieval mystic, whose book Das fließende Licht der Gottheit (The Flowing Light of Divinity) is a compendium of visions, prayers, dialogues and mystical accounts. She was the first mystic to write in Low German. Biographical information about Mechthild is scarce. We know that she was born into a noble Saxon family. She had her first vision of the Holy Spirit at the age of twelve. In 1230 she left her home to become a Beguine at Magdeburg. There she became acquainted with the Dominicans. Her criticism of church dignitaries and her claims to theological insight aroused so much opposition that some called for the burning of her writings. With advancing age she became blind. Sometime around 1272 she joined the Cistercian nunnery at Helfta which offered her protection and support in the final years of her life. You can read more about Mechtild of Magdeburg and sample more of her poetry at the Poetry Foundation website.
Peter's Outer Cape Portico 