A WORD FOR TODAY, November 17, 2021
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, November 17, 2021
Scriptures for November 21, 2021, Christ the King: Isaiah 51:4-6, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:4b-8, Mark 13:24-37
“Yahweh reigns! He is clothed with majesty! Yahweh is armed with strength.” Psalm 93:1a, WEB
The Church year calendar follows the same pattern every year. We begin at Advent, a time of rising light in the darkness. The birth of Christ ushers in a new age. During Epiphany the light reaches out to the entire world. In Lent we look within ourselves to realize that we are sinners in need of a Savior. During Holy Week we journey with Jesus to the cross on which He died for our sake. At Easter we are resurrected with Him, experiencing the joy of God’s gracious mercy and love. During the Easter season we are reminded of why God sent His Son as He completes the teaching He began during His life. The Church is born at Pentecost, ten days after Jesus returned to the right hand of the Father. During the season of Pentecost, we learn what it means to be the Church. In the last weeks of the Church year, we look forward to the second coming of Christ, to His glorification and rule. On Christ the King Sunday we look forward to the Day of Judgment when Christ will rule over all things and when all things will be under His rule; we look at the majesty of the God who is our King.
The Psalms can be divided into different categories. There are at least two types that deal with authority: the royal psalms and the kingship psalms. The royal psalms deal with the spiritual role of kings in the worship of Yahweh. In ancient Israel the king was thought to have a special relationship to Yahweh and thus played an important role in Israelite worship. The royal psalms are all Messianic, and though they talk about the human kings, the ultimate King is Jesus. The kingship hymns focus on God as Sovereign, rather than on the human kings.
The psalm for today is one of the kingship hymns. It was possibly used as a hymn for an enthronement festival that reasserted annually God’s kingship. It could also be a foreshadowing of the Messiah. It might also refer to God’s victory over the chaos at the beginning of time. The psalmist praises God’s majesty and His power over the seas. The psalmists often made references to the foreign gods, comparing them to the true God, and in this psalm he points toward the ancient water gods. The point is that God is greater than all the others. God is stronger than anything He made. He controls the waters. He is King, the Sovereign over everything. He is holy. He is worthy of our awe.
There are moments in my life when I have been truly awestruck like watching the sun rise over a deserted beach, viewing a star filled sky from the top of a mountain, staring at the magnificence of the Giant Sequoias, trembling in the midst of a storm with pounding rain and thunder that rattled the walls, holding my babies for the first time, and experiencing the coincidences that were obviously “God-incidences” or miracles from the very hand of God.
We once attended an Evensong service at York Minster in York, England. It had been a cold and dreary day, drizzle falling during most of our visit. Though we’d enjoyed our sightseeing, we were cold and tired by the time we reached the church. We planned our day around the service as we often did when we spent a day as tourists. We were pretty tired by the time we sat down in the pew, but that soon passed. Though it was cold and dark outside, inside the cathedral there was an unearthly light that cast a warmth over us all. The choir sang with voices that sounded like heavenly angels singing praise to God, an image that was enhanced by the carvings of angels that seemed almost alive. That worship service was, to me, as close to heaven as I will ever get in this world. We were drawn into the presence of God, and we caught a glimpse of His glory that day.
Yet, no matter how awesome those experiences might have been, no matter how awestruck I was at seeing those stars or trees, or worshipping in a beautiful place, no matter how often I see God’s hand in my everyday living in this world, nothing will compare to that which I will see in that day when I come before the throne of God. The most beautiful things in the world will pale in comparison. The most furious storms will be calmed. The largest trees or stars or mountaintops will seem small compared to the majesty of our God. In that day we will be truly awestruck, beyond anything we can even imagine.
Queen Elizabeth has been the monarch of the British empire for nearly seventy years, one of the longest reigning monarchs of all time. She is ninety-five years old and has lived an incredible life. There have been concerns recently about her health and gossip about what will happen next. Who will rule after her? Will the monarchy even survive? There have even been stories about secret plans for her funeral.
Whatever happens to Queen Elizabeth, the next king will probably not be coronated immediately. The coronation of a monarch is filled with pomp and circumstance. The next monarch will begin the work of the office immediately, but in the past the coronation did not take place for a year or more. In England, the people are given a year of mourning and then the ceremony is planned for spring or summer when the weather is most suitable for the occasion. The year is not necessary just for the mourning, but also to prepare. Invitations must be sent to the world rulers or authorities, and lucky subjects who will be present. The festivities will include parties, gatherings, and other hospitality for the guests. Special clothes will be prepared and jewels created. This all takes time to plan.
Some of the preparations do not seem so grand. The “Stone of Scone” or the “Stone of Destiny” is a rock that is believed to have been the rock on which the earliest kings of Scotland were crowned. Legend takes it back even further, claiming it to be the very stone that Jacob used as a pillow when he dreamed of the heavenly ladder. Others claim it was the altar of St. Columba on his missionary travels. This stone was used at the coronation of Queen Elizabeth and is expected to be part of any future ceremony. A specially prepared throne has been created to hold the stone. It is not what you would expect; it is not beautiful but has such legendary meaning that the coronation would not be considered real if the stone and that throne was not present.
Advent is coming and the stores are filled with Christmas merchandise, but we are not quite ready for the countdown to Christmas. Sunday is Christ the King Sunday, the last Sunday of the Church year. It is on this day that we look forward to the Day of God’s Judgment and His full reign over all creation. On this day we look to the end, but an end that is actually the beginning of forever.
At Advent and at Lent we look forward to the coming of the King. We see the King-making in two very different ways during those times. At Christmas the King comes humbly, born in a manger in Bethlehem. At Lent, we wait for the fulfillment of all God’s promises, and yet it happens in an even humbler manner. On Good Friday, Jesus is crowned King in the most offensive way possible: at His death on the cross. He was raised on Easter Sunday, and He will rule forever at the right hand of God.
We celebrate Christ the King now in hope of the day when He will rule over all forever. That day is the end, but it is really only the beginning. The pages of our calendars continue to turn, and after Christ the King Sunday we will begin a new year and a new Advent. Yet, in the reality of God’s reign, we do not know if there will ever be another tomorrow. We do not know when the Day will come. Perhaps it will be tomorrow, and we will never experience another Advent or Christmas.
This might seem like a frightening or disappointing proposition, but it is the hope of our faith. The hope of our life in Christ is that the Day will come soon so that we can live fully in the grace of God in eternity. The Day will probably not be tomorrow, so until then we will live fully in the grace of God in this world. Living in grace we are called to praise God with our mouths, with our hearts and with our lives. We are called to live with Christ as our King in our daily and everyday experiences, sharing His love and mercy at every opportunity. In this way Christ will be King in the here and now even while we wait for Him to be King over all.
Come, Lord Jesus.
This is my battle cry, especially when I see something in the world that reminds me how upside down and topsy-turvy it has become. I want Jesus to return when I look around at the world in which we live today. Up is down and down is up; good is bad and bad is good. We fool ourselves if we think that our day is worse than any other time in history, but we have our own struggles and hope for a better day. We hope for the day when God is truly King.
As I look around this topsy-turvy world today, I see so many who do not believe. Human beings have rejected God as He is revealed in the scriptures, choosing instead to believe in false gods and self-centered ideology. There seems to be nothing that can convince them that salvation is found only in the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is the God they seek to worship. Instead, they look for other ways to fulfill their needs and desires, they stuff their bellies with good things and their hearts with warm fuzzies. They do not want to commit to the life that is expected of those who believe in the One true and living God. They want what they think is best, to have control over their own destiny, to grasp on to their own faith.
They have fallen for the lies of the enemy. They think that they will be able to stand on the works of their own hands on the Day of Judgment. They do not know their own sinfulness and inability to stand before the Creator’s wrath. They do not know they need Jesus to stand for them on that day, to be the advocate before the righteous judge. In that day, “one like a Son of man” will approach the Holy One on our behalf, and His righteousness will cover our unrighteousness. That one is our Lord Jesus Christ. Only through Him will we see the glory of God. He is worthy to be worshipped.
The Gospel text reminds us that we are waiting for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Though Christ has already come, died, and been raised, we still live in a topsy-turvy world. The work of salvation is complete, but it still needs to be completed. We are already there, but we still wait. We live in the already and the not yet. Our text today makes that clear.
We might be tempted by this text from Mark to look for the signs that are described. Many people have done so throughout time, pointing to stars, blood red moons, comets and other signs in the heavens. They point to natural disasters like hurricanes and earthquakes as signs that the time is near. They use the newspaper headlines to suggest that every event points to the time when Christ will come again. Throughout history there have been times when it seemed like the warnings were about to be fulfilled.
Jesus is quoting the Old Testament scriptures throughout this text. The people listening would have been very familiar with these words, particularly those from Isaiah. They knew what God promised and they knew how to respond. This isn’t a time for us to stop and watch for signs; it is a time to turn our focus on the One who would be King. “Stay awake,” Jesus says, not to be constantly interpreting the signs, but to be actively living the life God has called us to live.
The world is in chaos. People are worried and afraid of what tomorrow might hold. Many are crying out to God to shine His face so that they might be saved. We are His face. We have the message they need. We have the gifts that will bring peace and hope to those who are lost. Each year there seems to be more reason to cry out to God. We can see suffering all around us. People are jobless, homeless and hungry. Our prisons and hospitals are filled to the brink. Last week Jesus called us to meet the simple and ordinary needs of our neighbors. This holiday season will not be wonderful for everyone, but we can make the world a little brighter by sharing Christ in word and in deed with those who are in need.
In Mark’s “Little Apocalypse” we see how to respond to the darkness and chaos of our world. We wait, not only for the baby, but also for the King. Here in darkness we begin our journey to the manger. But while this is a time to wait and watch, it is also a time for us to live and shine the light of God. It isn’t a time to hide behind our safe walls, but to get out into the world to tell the truth: we are all sinners in need of a Savior. The baby we await and the King who will come is the One who will truly save us from ourselves.
So, who are we in the midst of all of this? One of my children came home from school one day a few years ago and asked me the question, “If you were a cereal, what would you be?” The question was part of an exercise they did which was meant to help them learn how to describe themselves.
They were supposed to figure out the characteristics they shared with different kinds of cereal. One student may have chosen something healthy because they are very fit and active. Another might have chosen Cocoa Puffs because they are loveable and deliciously fun. Yet another might have chosen Fruit Loops because they are a little fruity or loopy. My child chose Rice Crispies because he snaps, crackles and pops.
They played this game with other questions like “If you were an office supply what would you be?” “If you were a game, what would you be?” “If you were a great American city, which would you be?” “If you were an ice cream flavor, what would you be?” These questions and many more helped the children think about different aspects of their personalities, their interests, and their lives. No one question could possibly describe everything there is to know about the children; it takes too many words to describe even just one person. That is why it is so hard to answer when someone asks you to describe yourself in just one word.
If it is hard to describe us, imagine how hard it is to describe God. Even if we use the statement, “God is love,” we do not come close to fully describing the God whom we worship. In the beginning of today’s text from Revelation, John wrote, “Grace to you and peace, from him who is and who was and who is to come.” This might seem like a long-winded way of saying that God is eternal, and yet is eternal even the right word? We have eternal life in Christ, but we have not always been. God is, was and is to come. He is the past, the present, and the future but is not at all definable by time or space.
There are many words that are used to describe the LORD. The scriptures compare God to a shepherd, a vineyard owner, a father. The parables of Jesus compare the kingdom of God to real human experiences. We try to put forth analogies for concepts like the Trinity, all which are less than adequate to describe the indescribable. There are dozens of different names which are attributed to God such as Adonai-Jehovah which means The Lord or Sovereign. There is one Hebrew word that is meant to encompass the fullness of God, and even that is not truly a word. It is the Tetragrammaton, which is the ineffable name of God. Though some would add vowels to the four letters “Y,” “H,” “W,” and “H,” (Yahweh) we do not know what vowels really belong. The Tetragrammaton is unspeakable not only because it is not to be spoken, but because it is difficult for us to even know how it would be pronounced.
Yet, YHWH is about the only thing we could write that would come close to the indescribable and it may be what John was thinking when he wrote the book of Revelation. “Who was, is and is to come” may be John’s way of speaking the unspeakable. God is not limited as we are limited, but we try to limit Him by our words. He cannot fit into our idea of time and space, or even into our personalities, interests and lives. We look to the characteristics that most fit our needs. Perhaps that is why God has revealed Himself to us in so many ways. He knows that there will be something which draws us to Himself. No matter what it is we like about God, we should never forget that He is indescribable, He is more than we can ever imagine. It is in this that we truly have hope, because if God could be held within the limits we define, then He would not be God.
We know God best through the way He has revealed Himself to us, particularly through the stories in the scriptures. We learn about Him through His Word.
In today’s Old Testament passage from Isaiah, God was speaking to His people through the prophet. He said, ““Listen to me, my people; and hear me, my nation, for a law will go out from me, and I will establish my justice for a light to the peoples.” Although none of those to whom Isaiah was speaking would have known the people of the Old Testament personally, they would know the stories of that were passed down orally in the religious traditions. They didn’t know about their everyday life. Yet, the stories are irrevocably woven into their lives. The promise on which they live was given first to Abraham, a man alone with no hope for a future to whom God fulfilled His promise of becoming the father of many nations. The people listening were the fulfillment of that promise. They were the children of Abraham.
We now, listening to these stories, are also the fulfillment of that promise. We are of those many nations that came from the bosom of Abraham. The promise was fulfilled, so we can rest in all God’s promises, including those found in this passage. We will be comforted. God will look upon His children with compassion. He will restore His people and they will rejoice. We will become the light that shines to the world, manifesting God’s justice and peace. God will grant us His righteousness and His salvation. It is ours to live in hope waiting patiently for that which will last forever.
The Church year is ending, and we expect Advent to begin again next week. We follow a calendar, but God does not; when the Day of Judgment comes, there will be no tomorrow. Tomorrow may never come; Advent may never begin again. Are we ready to face the King? This question is not meant to bring fear into our hearts, but to cause us look today to the One who is our advocate. We can’t wait until tomorrow to get to know the Lord Jesus. We should not wait until He comes in glory because now is the day of salvation. Now is the time to praise the God who saves through faith in Jesus Christ.
Jesus is not the kind of king we expect. His coronation throne was the cross. There was no pomp and circumstance. There was a crown, but it was roughly made of thorns ripped from a bush. Royal robes were given to Jesus not to do him honor, but to make fun of Him in front of the crowds. He was covered in blood from the scourging He faced at the hands of the Roman soldiers. There were no willing attendants to carry His things; He was forced to carry His own cross up the long hill until He could not carry it no more. There were no royal or political visitors to witness the coronation except those who came to jeer at Him. There were no parties or fancy balls. Yet that coronation changed the world.
Jesus did not rule to set the Jewish people free from the oppression of the Romans, but rather to free them from the oppression of the sin that has kept humankind bound and separated from God since the beginning of time. Sin and death, oppression and injustice have been around for a long, long time. But God is, was and will be. He is greater than our sin and He had a plan from the very beginning of time. The King for whom we are waiting
We do not know if we will ever have a tomorrow. John wrote in Revelation, “To him who loves us, and washed us from our sins by his blood - and he made us to be a Kingdom, priests to his God and Father - to him be the glory and the dominion forever and ever.” Christ is King. This is a future promise, but it is also a present reality. We are called live in His reign now as we wait for that Day when He will reign forever. We are part of His kingdom, priests of His temple, made and freed to give Him glory from now until the end of days and then forever and ever.
Come, Lord Jesus our King forever and ever. Amen.
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