We are the People of God!
We follow Jesus, Son of David, born of Mary in Bethlehem, baptized in the Jordan by John.
How we got here is quite a mystery; it is not our own doing.
A mystery born of grace.
The Apostle Peter says it well:
You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people who are God’s own possession. You have become this people so that you may speak of the wonderful acts of the one who called you out of darkness into his amazing light. Once you weren’t a people, but now you are God’s people. Once you had’t received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
This is one of the first pieces of the Bible that impacted my life in seminary … I remember the classroom … not sure who the professor was, but Peter’s words penetrated deeply into my mind and heart.
This is who we are - powerful adjectives: chosen, royal, holy - this is our story.
The big story ...
In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.
The covenant with Abraham and Sarah … slavery in Egypt; Moses in the bullrushes, and then the Exodus … wanderings in the Wilderness; water from a rock; manna in the morning … and then the Promised Land.
Joshua fit the Battle of Jericho.
Samson slays Philistines with the jawbone of an ass.
Saul is anointed king, and consorts with witches.
David builds Jerusalem, and has an affair with Bathsheba.
Solomon begins with the highest of hopes … he builds a glorious temple in David’s City … at long last, a fitting place for the glory of God.
What begins in hope, is quickly tainted.
Solomon uses slave labor, tips his hat to foreign gods and marries too many women for political gain, including Pharaoh’s daughter.
In the 11th chapter of 1 Kings, it is said of Solomon: the LORD had commanded Solomon about this very things, that he should follow other gods. But Solomon didn’t do what the LORD commanded … and God said: Because you have done all of this … I will most certainly tear the kingdom from you.
The Bible writers tell us the truth … stories we cannot forget.
Which reminds me:
I heard about three sisters -- ages 92, 94, and 96 -- who lived together. One night, the 96-year-old drew a bath. She put one foot in, then paused. "Was I getting in the tub or out?" she yelled.
The 94-year-old hollered back, "I don't know, I'll come and see." She started up the stairs, but stopped on the first one. She shouted, "Was I going up or coming down?"
The 92-year-old was sitting in the kitchen having tea, listening to her sisters with a smirk on her face. She shook her head and said, "I sure hope I never get that forgetful," and knocked on wood for good measure. Then she yelled, "I'll come up and help both of you as soon as I see who's at the door."
Knock on wood … the wood of the cross, if you will … to remember, and never forget the stories.
Good and bad, sweet and sour, glorious and grim.
One might ask: Is there any hope here at all in these stories? Isn’t there a king who can truly lead us? Is there anyone who gets it right? At least enough of the time to push back the darkness? Is humankind forever stuck in a cycle of high hopes and dashed dreams?
On our own, we’re stuck, like a mouse running on a wheel - going no where fast.
We’re stuck in cycles of high hopes and dashed dreams … we crush the head of the serpent, but the serpent nips us in the heel nonetheless.
Cycles of hope and dashed dreams.
Is there hope?
In us?
No, never ... but in God.
In all of the stories, an overarching theme: a golden thread woven into the stained and tattered history of humanity: God, and God’s commitment: I shall be your God, and you shall be my people … a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation.
Not because you’re smart or powerful or big. Only because I love you.
That’s why, in these stories, there is no fear of losing God’s mercy … Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, thou art with me. We can sin mightily, but we cannot out sin the grace of God.
In these stories, of course, disgust, shame and sorrow … but no fear that God would ever desert us - I will never leave you for forsake you … we can hurt ourselves, we can hurt others, but we cannot tear apart the love of God for us.
No illusions … the Bible writers see clearly … we are what we are … Luther said it well: we are at the same time, righteous and sinner … as Paul said: the good I want to do, I don’t do; the evil I don’t want to do, I do.
That’s the way it is.
No illusions in these stories.
No pretending.
Just honesty.
And always the love of God!
So in these stories, there is always courage, too … courage to keep on keepin’ on … to try it again … to start all over - to give to others the same grace, the same mercy, the same compassion and kindness with which God has redeemed us from the pit of death.
These stories are anchored in the love of God … it’s the love of God that proves the saving strength …
Paul cries out: Who will save me, wretched man that I am? And then declares, Thanks be to God.
We don’t give up, because God never gives us!
In the center of the story, Jesus the Christ.
A small baby … a giant shift.
A cross, an empty tomb and Pentecost Fire.
Things changed.
No longer land and boundaries, as it was for Israel and Judah … it’s now the whole wide world.
No more a king with palaces and soldiers, but the Prince of Peace who instructs his disciples to put away their swords, and turn the other cheek.
No longer a temple in Jerusalem, because Christ is the Temple … Christ is the High Priest … Christ is the Sacrificial Lamb.
No longer dietary laws; all food is good.
No longer marked with physical circumcision, but a circumcision of the heart.
What Israel couldn’t do, Jesus did.
What we can’t do, Jesus does.
So that we can do what we must - love one another as he has loved us … God loves you; God loves me, but only we can love one another.
And only with love, are we the church of Jesus Christ … only with compassion are we instruments of his peace on earth … only with humility are we servants of the gospel … only with hearts open and generous can we feed the hungry, cloth the naked, visit the prisoner.
Through Christ - we’re chosen: to know the Father, receive the Holy Spirit … to love what he loves; and do what he does.
We have much to do, but we never lose sight of the big story … God’s love … at work in all things, for good … for the good of all humanity … for the good of creation … God will get us there, sometimes because of us, and often in spite of us … but God will get us there.
It’s been said: If we read the Bible consistently, sooner or later we’ll come out a Calvinist, and I believe that.
Because the God of the Bible holds the world together … we may have great powers, powers for good, and powers for evil, but there is yet a greater power guiding the world, the universe, bending history, moving us toward the omega point - the Great God Almighty, LORD of Hosts, Creator of heaven and earth, the God and Father of our LORD Jesus Christ.
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father,
There is no shadow of turning with Thee;
Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
It is God who chooses us before we can ever choose God …
It is God who fills our empty souls with the royal love of Christ.
It is God who lays it all out, from beginning to end, with a love that will not, cannot, let us go.
And when the end comes, we’ll not clasp the hand of Christ.
We’re not strong enough for that.
In the end, Christ will clasp our hand, and he’s strong enough to do that.
This is my story, this is my song,
Praising my Savior, all the day long.
Praising my Savior, all the day long.
High hopes, indeed! Amen and Amen!
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