Author: Pastorbrentmiller

Future Generations

‘One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts – Psalm 145:4’ (NIV)

David states a simple principle in this verse.  Each generation is responsible to pass to the next the evidence of God’s mighty works.  Typically, we think of this in terms of telling the stories of what God has done.  We find people doing this throughout scripture, recounting stories of God’s great acts in Israel’s history in their writings, festivals (Passover being one example), and songs.  In all of this we perceive the responsibility to preserve the stories of God’s great acts and to pass them along to the next generation. 

But the works of God are found in more than stories.  In another Psalm David wrote, ‘the heavens proclaim the glory of God, and the skies display the works of his hands’ (19:1).  This sentiment is expressed throughout the Bible, that the works of God are manifest in creation (see, e.g., Romans 1:20).  Indeed, you might say God tells the story of his existence and glory in the things he has made.  Consider the words of Augustine:

‘Some people, in order to discover God, read books.  But there is a great book, the very appearance of created things.  Look above you!  Look below you!  Read it.  God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink.  Instead, he set before your eyes the things he has made.  Can you ask for a louder voice than that?’

The Church Father Irenaeus agrees: ‘the initial step for a soul to come to knowledge of God is contemplation of nature.’  Who can doubt it?  A starry sky, the expanse of the ocean, the forest primeval, the mountains in their Autumn hues, the remarkable complexity and diversity of life – it all bears witness to the mighty works of God.  In all this, we perceive another facet of our responsibility: we must preserve God’s mighty works in nature and pass them along to future generations. 

But we aren’t.    

I have been reading David Wallace-Wells’ remarkably comprehensive and terrifying book, The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warming.  It is a scientifically informed exploration of climate change, both the evidence for it (which is overwhelming) and the consequences that we can expect to experience in both this century and the next.  I commend the book to your reading list.  But if I may bottom line things, we are in deep trouble.  No matter what we do from this point forward, the damage we have inflicted on God’s creation over the past 75 years or so is almost certain to raise global temperatures two degrees Celsius by 2100.  The Paris Climate Accords, which the United States recently rejoined after an insane hiatus, are designed to keep warming below that threshold.  A two-degree rise will invoke drastic consequences, most of which are at this point unavoidable.  But even worse is that if we do not do something equally drastic to curtail our rising carbon emissions, the rise will be even higher, anywhere from three to six degrees according to conservative estimates, perhaps as high as eight.  The consequences along that continuum are not just drastic, they are catastrophic.  And we are headed for them.  As of today, very few countries have met their goals under the Paris Climate Accords.  Most, including the worst offenders, are increasing their carbon emissions as we speak.  We are, by our actions, racing through a century during which the temperature will surely rise significantly more than two degrees. 

Which means that in the coming decades, and certainly by 2100, we can expect the following:

  • Rising temperatures that will make life near the equator impossible
  • Massive crop failure and farmland loss across multiple continents
  • Flooding of Biblical proportions along coastal areas throughout the world
  • A surge in wildfires and consequent property damage and loss of life
  • Massive hurricanes, typhoons, and tornadoes
  • Water shortages (this is already a problem.  Wallace-Wells notes that ‘as soon as 2030, global water demand is expected to outstrip demand by 40%’).
  • Dying Oceans (rising acidity, eco-system destruction, and species loss including the loss of oxygen producing diatoms that are responsible for much of the oxygen we breathe)
  • Widespread loss of animal habitats
  • Mass extinctions
  • Biodiversity loss
  • Toxic air
  • Plagues (viral and bacterial)
  • Economic collapse
  • Climate Refugees, as many as one billion
  • War (depleted resources will ignite them; it should be noted that the United States military takes climate change very seriously.  They are well aware of the instability it brings).

This is NOT hysteria or alarmism.  This is verifiable scientific fact.  There is more than mere consensus in the scientific community about this.  There is near unanimity of opinion (the outliers are the sort who put Galileo under house arrest for claiming the sun was the center of our solar system).  My God, if only ¼ of the items on that list come to pass, and I should note the list is far from exhaustive, we will be, by century’s end, in a world of hurt. 

This is the world we are passing on to our children and grandchildren.  This is the manner in which we are commending God’s wonderful works to future generations.  If we don’t pull our heads from the sand quickly, we will have failed to do what David – what the whole Bible – commands. 

It’s time to educate ourselves, change the way we live, and demand that our leaders take dramatic action to stave off the worst that climate change will bring. 

I end with a story.   

In the Babylonian Talmud, we read of the sage, Honi, who was walking along the road.  He saw a man planting a carob tree.  Honi asked him, ‘How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?’

‘Seventy years,’ the man replied.

‘Honi then asked, ‘Are you so healthy a man that you expect to live that length of time and eat its fruit?’

The man answered, ‘I found a fruitful world because my ancestors planted it for me.  Likewise, I am planting for my children.’

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

Carry the Fire

‘Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold’ – Jesus, Matthew 24:12 (NLT)

Cormac McCarty’s The Road is as darkly dystopian a novel as you will find.  It tells the story of a man and his son struggling to survive in a post-apocalyptic world that is literally cold and growing colder.  It is a world with few survivors attempting to escape cannibalistic bands of men.  If this sounds awful, it is, but the story is nonetheless touching and beautiful.  Hope abounds, as father and son hold on to one another, loving each other deeply from the heart, learning together what it means to live with faith.  Throughout the novel, the father encourages his son with a simple phrase: carry the fire.  The world around them is dark and hopeless, but they carry within them a spark of life they dare not, will not, allow the world to quench.  This is how to survive in a cold world that is growing colder: you ‘carry the fire.’ 

I’ve been meditating the past several weeks on a familiar passage from Paul’s second letter to his son in the faith Timothy.  It goes like this:

‘For a time is coming when people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their own desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear. They will reject the truth and chase after myths.  But you should keep a clear mind in every situation. Don’t be afraid of suffering for the Lord. Work at telling others the Good News, and fully carry out the ministry God has given you’ – 2 Timothy 4:3-5. 

I’ve known those words for as long as I can remember.  But they have never felt more apt than they do now.  We live in a time when facts do not matter.  People are following the darkest inclinations of their hearts and accepting as true any cockamamie theory that justifies their expression.  They are indeed rejecting truth and embracing strange myths (e.g., Q Anon, Pizza gate, The Steal).  Elected leaders – and religious leaders – who consciously know better go along with such insanity, believing that they can use said dark expressions to forge political coalitions to remain in, and expand upon, their positions of power.  Sin has been part of the world since the Fall, but ours is a time of descending shadow.  We face the sort of days Jesus warned about.  Sin is rampant everywhere, and the love of many is growing colder by the minute. 

How does one live in such a world? 

Carry the fire. 

That is Paul’s advice to Timothy, his son in the faith.  Not in so many words, but it’s what he means. 

He breaks his advice down into four main points.    

First, we must keep a clear head in every situation.  Rudyard Kipling’s famous poem, A Father’s Advice to his Son, begins, ‘if you can keep your head about you, when others are losing theirs and blaming it on you…’  That seems to sum things up well.   People around us have lost their heads.  But disciples of Jesus must not lose theirs.  We must, as the author of Hebrews puts it, keep our eyes fixed upon Jesus.  While others wander into myths, we must remain deeply rooted in the way, truth, and life of our Lord.  We must, as Rich Mullins sang years ago, continue as the children who love while the nations rage.

Second, we must not be afraid of suffering.  Too many believers have been silent in these times, fearful of the repercussions of speaking truth into the darkness.  Church leaders have feared losing their flocks, ministries, or positions.  Ordinary believers (as if there were such a thing!) fear losing friends and community standing.  Folks, if we’re fearful of such things now, what will we do when things get worse?  Paul wrote to Timothy from prison, awaiting his own death.  The very next verses in his letter tell of how he was being poured out as a drink offering for his faith.  Yet Paul was not afraid of suffering.  He knew it was part of what can happen when you live faithfully for Jesus.  Flannery O’Connor put her finger on the problem of people who don’t understand this basic truth when she wrote, ‘they think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is a cross.’  As believers living in a world that is cold and growing colder, we had better be prepared to pick up ours and follow Jesus.  We cannot be afraid. If the world is to find hope beyond the darkness of our times, we must do what we have been called to do. 

Third, we are to work at telling others the Good News.  Some translations put this, ‘do the work of an evangelist.’  An evangelist is one who proclaims Good News.  We who follow Jesus have the best news of all and have been empowered to share it far and wide.  The Kingdom has come.  There is another way to live.  We need not be captive to either strange myths or our darkest impulses.  People must know this. We must stand at the crossroads and live out the values of the Kingdom, pointing the world to Jesus and his way.  To paraphrase N.T. Wright, it is our call to preach hope wherever there is hopelessness, justice wherever there is injustice, peace wherever there is violence, and love wherever there is hatred.  We are to preach Jesus, incarnate, crucified, and resurrected to a world that is cold and growing colder, that it might find the warmth it needs to thrive again. 

And finally, we are to fully complete the ministry that God has given us.  This will be different for each of us.  But every Christian has a ministry.  Whatever it is, whether it is running a global ministry, pastoring a small church, caring for a handicapped child, preserving the beauty of God’s creation, loving the neighbor across the street, or any number of other wonderful things, we are to continue to bloom wherever God has planted us until we are directed to another mission field or else our race has run.  God will show us, each day, what he desires us to do.  Ours is to draw close to him, discern his will, and perform whatever task he gives.  In a world that is cold and growing colder, this may seem to not make much difference at times.  No matter.  We must be faithful to the end.  We must do what is right.  We must follow the lead of our Lord and Savior. And trust the rest to him. 

This is how we live in times such as ours.  We do not give up.  We fight the good fight.  We finish the course.  We keep the faith.  We pass on the torch of faith to those who come behind us.  Just as those who carried it faithfully in the past passed it along to us. 

The world is dark and cold my friends, and things may get darker and colder still in days to come.

Carry the fire.

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

It’s Time to Abandon the Empire

‘Whenever the Spirit of God blows like a hurricane through Christian history, it is through prophets and lovers who have surrendered unconditionally to the folly of the Cross’ – Brennan Manning

It was tough living in first century Palestine, at least if you were a faithful Jew.  Herod the Great, and his sons after him, collaborated with Rome to impose Greco-Roman politics and culture upon Israel with evangelistic fervor. The way of Herod, aka the way of empire, the way of wielding power from above to impose one’s will upon those below, was having its way throughout the land. This was the world of Jesus.

In his book, The Jesus Way, Eugene Peterson points out something rather remarkable about Jesus and his time: despite the virtual omnipresence of the Roman Empire and its puppet kings, Jesus pretty much went about his business as if they didn’t exist. Only once did he briefly mention the emperor (Mark 12:17), and it was the same with the house of Herod (Luke 13:32).  He called Herod Antipas a ‘fox,’ which was just enough of an insult to let everyone know what he thought of that family’s wily political ways. Not that he was unaffected by these miscreants. He certainly was. His birth in Bethlehem was brought about by imperial edict. As a toddler he fled with his refugee family to escape Herod’s mania.  As a craftsman in Nazareth he felt the financial pinch of the empire’s oppressive taxation. As an itinerant preacher he walked among centurions and soldiers who jealously eyed him with suspicion.   And at the end of his life he was deemed a political enemy of the state and crucified under orders of the Roman Governor Pilate.  Even his grave was guarded by Roman soldiers. From birth to death, Jesus life was ramed by the politics and policies of empire. 

But he never let the empire dictate the course of his life.  He simply swam in its waters (without ‘getting wet,’ i.e., being contaminated by them) as he heeded the voice of his Father.  Never once did he seek to use the empire’s power to further his message. He never petitioned it for a redress of grievances (though the Gospels show evidence of other religious leaders doing just that). He never asked Herod to implement just laws or further the Kingdom of God on earth. It is striking that during the greatest injustice ever perpetrated, his own arrest and trial, he never once asked either Herod or Pilate for mercy.  In fact, he was silent before Herod, and largely so before Pilate.  To the latter he would only say that his Kingdom didn’t operate along the lines of power politics and violence, as Pilate’s did, and that in any event his life was in his Father’s hands, not Rome’s. In other words, even when the regents of the world stood before him and asked for his input on the subject of his own death, he pretty much ignored them. 

This is not to say he never addressed the powers of his day.  On the contrary, he challenged them at every turn. His every move in life was, in a sense, a political act; a statement in word or action that decried the way of empire and violence. But he never employed the ways and means of the empire to make his case. He never sought political power or assistance. He never enmeshed himself, even to the slightest degree, in the empire’s methods. He simply went about his Father’s business, strolling about the dominion of the empire, showing everyone another way to change the world.

There are of course many reasons why he took this approach. But most crucial is that empire simply wasn’t his Father’s way. His Fathers way was (and is) the way of the Cross, which Paul described as the wisdom of God and the power of God (1 Corinthians 1:24). Jesus knew that using the ways and means of empire to make the world a better place would be useless. Might as well try to make the sun rise in the west. The empire was the empire was the empire, and always would be. There was nothing to gain by becoming entangled with it and everything to lose. Get involved in the empire, pursue its ways, and you’ll only end up talking, looking, and smelling like the empire. You might gain at least a part of the world, but in the process lose your own soul (Mark 8:36). Much better, and ultimately far more effective, to follow the way of the Cross.

Such thoughts race through my mind today in the wake of Donald Trump’s second acquittal in the Senate, supposedly the ‘greatest deliberative body on earth.’  We all knew how it would end. And we were right. If you were hoping for another outcome you were fooling yourself. You were counting on an empire to do the right thing. But an empire is an empire is an empire. It never does the right thing. Maybe once in a blue moon it makes a move in the right direction.  Even a blind pig will occasionally find a truffle.  But in the end, the forces of empire, the power players who long to impose their will on those below them, always manage to get their way. It was empire that created the system after all, and it works exactly the way empire intends. 

I’ve spent several years now lamenting and fighting the empire, or at least the version known as Trumpism.  But after everything that’s happened, Trumpism is still alive, still menacing the nation in the wake of insurrection. I will continue to stand against it, of course, but in coming days I’m going to do better at remembering the tactics of Jesus. I’m resolving to spend less time paying attention to what the empire is doing. Sure, I will vote. I will speak out about issues that matter. I will stand against racism, seek solidarity with the vulnerable, work to preserve the beauty of God’s creation, lots of things.  I may even show up at a protest or two. But I am not going to expend the best parts of myself watching and worrying about the minutiae of what the empire is doing, thinking that by doing so I can somehow will it to do the right thing. The vote today proves what I really knew all along.  It never will.   

So, instead, I’m going to follow the way of the cross. I’m going to stroll around the dominion of empire doing my best to show everyone another way to change the world. I’m going to try to be more like my Jesus (I am well aware of how far I fall short of that standard), the one who went about his business of challenging the empire and its ways without seeming to notice it. My life will still be lived in the shadow of the beast, as his was, and in some ways shaped by the beast’s designs and machinations. But I will not waste my time worrying about those designs and machinations. I will instead seek my Fathers will and place myself in his hands. I will live by the creed of another Kingdom, not the Pilatian, Herodian, or Trumpian kingdoms of the world.   

Will doing this make a difference? I have no idea.  It really isn’t any of my concern. In the inside cover of my Bible I have taped a quote from Brother Dominique, a friend and mentor of the late Brennan Manning. It reads:

‘All that is not the love of God has no meaning for me.  I can truthfully say that I have no interest in anything but the love of God which is in Christ Jesus.  If God wants it to, my life will be useful through my word and witness.  If he wants it to, it will bear fruit through my prayers and sacrifices.  But the usefulness of my life is His concern, not mine.  It would be indecent of me to worry about that.’[1]

It’s time to get out of the shallow end of the pool and live that statement to the full.

Let the chips fall where they may. I will trust God and follow Jesus.  I will follow the way of the Cross.

As Shane Claiborne and Chris Haw say, ‘enough with the donkeys and elephants. It’s time for the Lamb.’

It’s time to abandon the empire. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

[1] From All is Grace, by Brennan Manning.

Signposts

‘It’s all a muddle’ – Stephen Blackpool, in Charles Dickens Hard Times

How naïve we were. 

Many of us thought, or at least hoped, that after January 20th, things would return to ‘normal.’  The Q Anon conspiracy would vanish.  The Proud and Boogaloo Boys?  They’d put down their guns and take up needlepoint.  The tens of millions who drank the Trumpian Kool-Aid?  They’d all join hands with the other side and sing Kumbaya.    The 197 members of Congress who voted to overturn an election would apologize.  The ringleaders, in both Congress and the former Administration, who actively worked to incite an insurrection would be held accountable.  Trump would be convicted of impeachment charges in the Senate.  White Evangelical ‘Christians’ who had made the devils bargain, exchanging their values for power, would fall on their faces and cry out to God for forgiveness.  White Supremacists would have an epiphany.  And the cult of Donald Trump would come to an abrupt and sudden end.  

Ok, maybe we didn’t think all that would happen.  But we at least hoped that major progress would be quickly made. 

Instead, almost the exact opposite is happening.  Q Anon is thriving, within the very halls that its adherents and allies attacked a mere matter of weeks ago.  Militia groups are arming (so much for needlepoint).  Trump fans are, well, still Trump fans.  Republicans in Congress are siding with those who lied about the election (not all mind you, just 90% of them).  The ringleaders have not only not been held accountable, but it looks like they will all get off scot free.  Trump will, barring a miracle, not be convicted by the Senate.  The aforementioned white Evangelicals are doubling down on the devil’s bargain.  White supremacy is going strong.  And the cult of Trump is nursing its wounds and planning a comeback for its master ‘in some form.’

The truth is that the country is mess.  Evil lingers still.  It will be back. One of America’s two major parties is choosing the path of insane conspiracy theories, lies, hate, and authoritarian tactics. [1]  It feels as if we stand on the edge of a dark abyss, and it is only a matter of time before we are pulled in.  It seems as if we are captives to our times, and there is little we can do about it as we watch dark events unfold. 

What are people of goodwill to do?  What, most particularly, are followers of Jesus to do? 

The answer is simple.  Live.  We are to live, knowing that we are not captives to our times.  We are the keepers of a better future.  We know that no matter what happens in the coming years, in the end, Julian of Norwich will be proven correct: ‘all shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.’  I have been struck as of late by the words by the late Francis Schaffer, a theologian who wrote extensively about the ongoing suffering and evil of our world, and the responsibility of the Christian who lives within it.  We are not to just resign ourselves as captives to our times, or to lay down and die in the face of the evil around us, any more than we are to join such evil.  We are to live in the midst of said evil differently, in the direction of what we know the future will be, in the direction of a world made new by the love and grace of God at the return of Jesus.  Schaffer wrote:

‘Wars will continue until the Prince of Peace comes, but we must pursue harmony now.  Hunger and poverty will remain until the Bread of Life returns, but we must still care for those in need now.  Sin will permeate this earth until the Spotless Lamb arrives, but we must preach forgiveness now.  Our actions today should be driven by our knowledge of what is to come.’ 

He is so right.  Yes, the world is a mess.  But we have been called to live as ‘citizens of heaven’ (Philippians 2:27), ‘strangers and exiles on earth’ (Hebrews 11:13) waiting for the better world that Christ will one day bring.  We are not captives of our times; we are liberated to live the in the light of the future that will be.  Even when the world around us is a total mess. 

Stephen Blackpool is one of my favorite Dickensian characters.  He is a mere ‘hand,’ a cog in a vast industrial machine, with little power or influence in a society ruled by misguided men.  ‘It’s all a muddle,’ he says, over and again, as he tries to figure things out.  He laments that there is nothing he can think of to make things better.  But at one point he grasps that carrying on in the way of the world will never work. He says: 

‘I cannot, with my little learning and my common way, tell you what will make all this better…but I can tell you what won’t.  The strong hand will never do it.  Victory and triumph will never do it.  Believing your side is unnaturally and always forever right, and the other side unnaturally always and forever wrong…will never do it till the Sun turns to ice.’[2]

Stephen is on to something.  The world is a muddle.  In our day as well as his.  Behaving like the world will never make anything better.  Power politics will never do it.  Winning at all costs, selling your values for power, will never do it.  Demonizing those you disagree with, to the point of violence, as so many do today, will never do it.  All of this is the way of empire.  The way of hate.  The way of vengeance. 

But living as children of light in a world of darkness, now that’s something.  Living as signposts that point to a better day that is to come, that might make a difference.  Living as those who believe in justice.  Living as peacemakers.  Living as truth tellers.  Living as those who love while those around us rage.  Those things just might make all the difference in the world. 

The world may be a mess, and maybe we can’t arrange all the improvements we would like.  Probably not.  But we can live as signposts pointing to coming day.  A day that, as followers of Jesus, we know is coming soon. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

[1] I should add that even if the government stays ‘blue,’ that doesn’t rid us of evil.  Blue or Red (or yellow or purple for that matter), empires are empires.  They are inherently power seeking and corrupt (though under present circumstances, I’d prefer Blue over Red any day of the week). 

[2] Stephen speaks with a heavy accent.  With apologies to Mr. Dickens, I’ve cleaned it up to make it easier to understand.  I still love the original. 

Greetings from Exegol

‘We will be back in some form’ – Donald J. Trump, January 20, 2021

Well it’s been a disappointing month to be sure.  After so many millennia, we of the Sith Eternal really thought it was going to work this time.  Our man was in place and he was wreaking all sorts of galactic havoc.  He even created a Space Force!  We thought it would last forever.  Ugh.  The sight of all those smiling liberals on the Capitol steps (a mere two weeks after we almost had it for our own!) as an old man waxed about decency, unity, and kindness was revolting!  It was almost as infuriating as watching those dancing Ewoks so long ago in a galaxy far, far away…

But hey, that just reminds us that we’ve been here before.  This ain’t our first rodeo.  When the traitor Vader (weak and sentimental as he was, may his name be cursed forever!) threw Darth Sidious down that infernal shaft, it seemed to be over then too.  But we improvised.  We adapted.  We overcame (yes, we know we sound like Clint Eastwood in Heartbreak Ridge.  Didn’t you know he’s one of us?).  We took our Dark Lord’s body from the wreckage and brought it home to Exegol.  There, in the darkness of the Outer Rim, shielded from all eyes by the remains of Megafauna, we kept our Master alive, plotting and planning his return.  We spliced genes to find a suitable vessel for our Lord’s dark essence.  We raised the First Order from the ruins of the Empire and built a fleet of Xyston-class Star Destroyers worthy of his majesty.  Nothing was going to stop us!  Well, until Vader’s grandson (the weak and sentimental Ben Solo cursed be his name forever) decided to help Palpatine’s granddaughter (weak and sentimental as she was, cursed be her name forever too).  Oh it was terrible!  To come so close to victory only to be ruined by a girl and her bad boy crush!  

But as those of you who study history may have noticed, and in the words of Chubawumba, ‘we get knocked down, but we get up again, ‘cause you’re never gonna keep us down!’  In every age, in every era, we return anew.  We may be, for the moment, nursing our wounds at Mar-a-Lago (aka, New Exegol) but we will be back!  Even now, we are nursing our current Master, keeping him alive for his inevitable return, or at least until we find a suitable heir.  And when the time is right, we will unleash our fire!  We shall once again threaten all that is good and decent throughout the universe!  One day soon, my progressive do-gooder foes, we shall prevail!  You may have set us back, but not for long!  In the words of our immortal Emperor, ‘Do not fear that feeble attack, my faithful!  Nothing will stop the return of the Sith!’

Mwoohahahahaha! (i.e., evil Sidious-esque laugh). 

Yours truly,

The Sith Eternal

Editor’s Note: we’re not exactly sure how this deranged correspondence came to us, but we want our readers to be assured that no matter what happens in the time ahead, all shall be well.  Yes, the Sith Eternal, or whatever you want to call the dark principalities and powers of the unseen world that lay behind the evil deeds of men and women in our own, exist.  And yes, in every age they find men and women willing to do their bidding.  But know this brothers and sisters: the empires they spawn shall always fail.  The ‘Palpatines’ of the earth come and go, but the Kingdom of God endures forever.  Amen.

Stop Saying ‘Both Sides’

‘The truth shall set you free’ – Jesus

I don’t like binary choices.  I don’t see the world that way.  I’m neither a Republican nor a Democrat.  I try to remain dedicated to the principles of Jesus, and see problems with both political parties.   Neither represents the values of Jesus’ Kingdom.  Nor could they.  They are part of the American empire, not the Kingdom of God.  Their approach to changing the world  is ‘power over’ not ‘power under.’ They are followers of the way of the dragon, not the way of the Lamb.  

All that, as I’ve said before, is to say that although I find myself these days more in tune with those who lean blue I’m not altogether on the side of any political party.  I am however altogether on the side of truth.  And truth compels me to respond to those who are blaming the January 6th insurrection on both political parties.  I’ve heard it expressed in various ways and from various people, from shameless defenders of the President to modern day Neville Chamberlains who think they can somehow appease the deranged inciters and purveyors of violence (and those who sympathize with them) by assigning blame everywhere. ‘Really, both sides are guilty here.’  ‘There are bad actors on both sides.’ 

Let’s get some things straight.  

The Democrats did not spend months before the 2020 Presidential election lying to their voters by telling them that the other side was massively cheating and that they could only lose if the election was stolen. Donald Trump and his Republicans allies did that.  

The Democrats did not spend the two months following the election tweeting and rallying and promoting false conspiracy theories about how the election was stolen.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not dog whistle support for Q Anon conspiracy theories and predictions of a ‘storm’ that would take over the US government and lead to the execution of political enemies.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not empower and encourage white supremacists, call them good people, and encourage violence against people of color over the past four years.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not pressure state legislators and election officials to ‘find votes’ or refuse to certify state election results in an attempt to thwart the will of the people in those states.   Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not hold phony ‘hearings’ led by extremist members of their party to offer fake  ‘evidence’ of election fraud.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not invite thousands of Q anon conspiracy theorists and white supremacists to Washington DC on the day the Electoral College vote was to be certified.  Nor did they tell them to ‘be wild’ as they assembled.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not deliberately enflame said denizens of humanity by appearing before them and encouraging them to March on the Capitol building, nor did they call for ‘trial by combat’ or encourage them to ‘bring the storm’ on January 6, 2021.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not, once the Mob was cleared, press on in an attempt to steal the election by refusing to recognize state electors.  Nor did they make the preposterous claim that the riots had been led by ‘Antifa.’  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that. 

The Democrats did not encourage the use of confederate symbols, such as the flag waved inside the Capitol building, at any point during the past four years.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

The Democrats did not have 197 members of their party vote against impeaching an insurrectionist President.  Donald Trump’s Republican allies did that.  

In short, the Democrats did not do a single solitary thing to encourage or support a coup or insurrection.  Donald Trump and his Republican allies did that.  

To be sure, the Democrats are not perfect.  And as they take power in the days ahead they may very well act inconsistently with the teachings of Jesus, constitutional principle, and basic human decency.  Like I said, they are part of the empire and follow imperial ways, so it really won’t surprise me.  When they do such things, we can call them out for it.  

But make no mistake: what happened on January 6th was not the fault of ‘both sides.’   

That is the truth.  May it set you free. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

Calling Out Quislings

‘A vile race of quislings – to use a new word which will carry the scorn of mankind down the centuries – is hired to fawn upon the conqueror, to collaborate in his designs, and to enforce his rule upon their fellow countrymen, while groveling low themselves’ – Winston Churchill, June 12, 1941

Let me be clear at the outset of this post that I believe in forgiveness and enemy love.  God commands these things, and believe it or not, they are powerful forces that can and do change the world.  But I also believe in justice and accountability.  God talks about them a lot too. 

This past week’s attack on the Capitol Building in Washington cries out for accountability and justice.  Make no mistake: this was a coordinated insurrection orchestrated by the President of the United States, who even as it unfolded, called Senators to convince them to heed the will of the mob and overturn a free and fair election.  That the President and perpetrators of the assault need to be held accountable should go without saying (though sadly, it needs to be these days). 

But accountability needs to go much further than the President and his Brownshirts (or should I say Redhats?).  Just as there were many fingers on the trigger that killed Jimmie Lee Jackson, there were many collaborators in the assault on the Capitol that killed five people, including a law enforcement officer.  What happened at the Capitol was the inevitable result of four years of fomented outrage, wholesale engagement with the politics of fear, hate, and division, and a collective refusal on the part of those who know better to simply stand and say, ‘enough.’ (It is actually in a deeper sense the inevitable result of hundreds of years of American History, but that’s a longer story for another time).

The insurrection was led by Republican members of Congress who, for four years, stood by in silence as children were put in cages.  As families were torn asunder.  As racism roared from the mouth of a white supremacist president.   As daily assaults against the institutions of democracy flowed from his twitter account.  As the President invited foreign interference in what was then the upcoming election, and as he spun false conspiracy theories about election fraud once he lost while simultaneously attempting election fraud himself.  As these and a parade of a thousand other horribles swept across the land, these members of Congress, almost to a man and woman, stood by and did nothing.  In fact, they defended it all.  And when given the opportunity to remove a would-be dictator from office before he could do further damage, failed to do so.  My goodness, even in the wake of the assault, 147 of these Congressman continued to press false conspiracy theories in an attempt to steal the election!  As for the rest, well, we can be thankful they finally decided to step back from the brink to some degree.  But even they have failed to own up to their part in this insurrection.  Shame on them.  Shame on them all. 

It was also led by members of the President’s own administration, who stood by and defended the President at every tweet, every provocative word, every assault on the fabric of society.  They stroked his ego, fueled his narcissism, and carried out his cruel and destructive orders.  They peddled lies about the election themselves and kindled the fires of rage.  In the wake of the attack, some have resigned.  Some have been silent.  None have stood up.  None have owned up.  Shame to them as well. 

It was led by the heroes of right-wing media.  Outlets like FOX News, Newsmax, and One America have knowingly reported lies as facts, all in the name of ratings and the dollars they bring.  And when the coup failed, their spin machines went into action.  ‘It’s the fault of the liberals.’  ‘It was really Antifa.’   Have they no shame?  Whether they do or not, shame on them all. 

And it was led by leaders of the white American Church.  White Evangelical leaders such as Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell Jr., and Eric Metaxas, Christian Nationalists all, may as well have broken the barriers at the capitol themselves.  Such supposed followers of the Prince of Peace put down their crosses and took up their swords in defense of a man whose every utterance threatened lives and defied the teachings and way of Jesus.  And not just white Christian leaders.  White Christians in general are, tragically, among the most likely to believe the President’s lies.  The most likely to repeat them.  Heck, there were even some among the insurrectionists waving Jesus flags and crosses alongside Confederate banners.  Even now, many still stand beside the man who inspired an attack on Congress.  Shame, the deepest shame, be on them all.  It’s long past time we stopped calling these folks Christians. 

The above quote from Winston Churchill is a reference to the government of Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian politician who betrayed his country in an attempt to gain power through a collaborative alliance with the Nazis in the 1930s.  He brought shame to his family name and nation and earned the legacy of a coward and a collaborator with evil.  Sadly, he was not the last of his kind by a long shot. 

Republican Senator Mitt Romney, a standout of virtue amidst the crisis of the Trump Presidency, spoke like Churchill the other day.  In the wake of the insurrection, he spoke in defense of democracy:

‘We gather today due to a selfish man’s injured pride and the outrage of his supporters whom he has deliberately misinformed for the past two months and stirred to action this very morning.  What happened here today was an insurrection, incited by the President of the United States.  Those who choose to continue to support this dangerous gambit by objecting to the results of a legitimate, democratic election will forever be seen complicit in an unprecedented attack against our democracy.  They will be remembered for their role in this shameful episode in American history.  That will be their legacy.’

Like I said at the outset, I am a big believer in forgiveness and enemy love.  But I’m also for justice and accountability.  We cannot sweep the actions of these scoundrels under the carpet.  We must call them to account.  We must pray and call for their repentance.  For there can be no moving forward, no peace, no reconciliation, no justice, and no hope for a better tomorrow otherwise. 

And so, until there is repentance, until there is accountability, let us remember who and what the collaborators are: a vile band of quislings complicit in an unprecedented and violent attempt to inaugurate an era of authoritarianism in America. 

For their sake, for the sake of the Church, and for the sake of our society, I pray for their transformation, and if it happens, I will gladly stand in line to embrace them.  But let us not pretend that things are fine before then.

The quislings must be held accountable. 

Under Christ’s Mercy

Brent

A Call to Prayer in a Time of Crisis

Today, the Capitol Building of the United States, a symbol of democracy and freedom all over the world, has been stormed.  Congress has been evacuated.  Prevented from performing its constitutional duty of counting the votes of the electoral college and affirming the will of the people as expressed in a fair and open election.  God only knows what happens next.  Who among us, just a few short years ago, would ever have imagined that such a thing could happen? 

As I preached on the Sunday after Christmas, followers of Jesus should not place their hope in the politics of the world.  They should stand for Kingdom values and live with Jesus, and no one else, as their king.  What is happening now has been helped along by many who have rejected such a stance.  Too many professing followers of Jesus have placed their hope in an imperial savior who cannot save, who has fed their grievances and stoked the fires of hate and fear.  What we are seeing now is the fruit of such complicity. 

Whatever side of the political divide you have been on to this point, I call upon all who claim the label Christian to put the politics of the world behind them in this moment and embrace the politics of Jesus by condemning those who would, by force or otherwise, attempt a takeover of a legitimately elected government.  This is not the way of Jesus.  It is the way of imperial madness.  It is the way that always leads to destruction and darkness. 

While as Christians we are not to entangle ourselves in the politics of the empire, we are to seek the welfare of the society in which we live.  To that end, I call upon each of us to work to restore peace to this troubled republic.  And I ask you to pray.  Pray for the safety of Capitol police and members of Congress.  Pray for peace.  Pray for sanity.  Pray for an end to the madness, hate, and fear that has for too long gripped this nation and led to this dark day.  And yes, pray as well for those who would destroy the very fabric of our society – that they will come to their senses before harm comes to anyone, them included.  Pray also for the Church across this nation, much of which has, tragically, accepted a devil’s bargain and sought power, power that has led to violence, the weakening of the Church’s witness, and untold trouble in the days to come.  Pray that she, that is we, will come together in a spirit of repentance and follow the way of the Lamb. 

Pray that somehow, in all of this, people everywhere will wake up and discover that the hope of this world is not found in the politics of empire, but in the politics of the Prince of Peace. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

Missing Christmas

‘If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that we were made for another world’ – C.S. Lewis

Pandemic notwithstanding, I suppose it was a good Christmas.  I savored special moments with family, soaked myself in the Christmas story, and otherwise set my mind and heart on the true meaning of the season.  I did many of the things I love to do each year: I decorated the tree, set up and played with the trains, listened to Linus tell Luke’s story, played our family’s version of Elf on the shelf, watched and read A Christmas Carol. Our church celebrations were different but meaningful. Although there were some traditions we had to skip this year, I managed to check off all the important boxes.    All in all, I have nothing to complain about this Christmas. 

And so it was with a sense of discouragement that I found myself, the day after Christmas, feeling down.  I felt as if I had missed something.  This feeling first manifested itself in the realization that there were certain songs I hadn’t heard this year (I blamed this on Alexa; I have this awesome Christmas playlist, but when I tell her to shuffle the songs, she keeps playing the same dad gum songs over and over).  So I deliberately spent some time listening to the forgotten songs.  Oddly enough, this did nothing for my mood.  It felt too late, and I was overwhelmed with the sense that I had, once again, missed Christmas. 

I say once again because, truth be told, I feel this way every year.  Every December 26th, I get the post-Christmas blues.  Maybe it’s the letdown. At some point in November (Okay, October, I’m one of those people) I start to get excited about Christmas.  The season holds forth great promise, and I really try to fulfill it.  Some years I come close.  I get at least an epiphany or two.  Sometimes I get close enough to the story that it feels as if I can reach out and touch the face of God.  And sometimes, glory of glories, I’ve felt God reach out and touch me.  But then, somehow, on December 26th, it feels as if its over.  I’m not sure why I feel this way.  Christmas is never truly over.  But the realization that the official season has come and gone gets me every time. 

The ghosts of Christmas pasts inevitably play a role in the letdown.  I have this image of ‘the perfect Christmas’ in my mind, one that I supposedly experienced once upon a time.  The truth is that this ‘perfect Christmas’ is an amalgam, a highlight reel if you will, of my now 53 Christmas pasts.  All the best moods, moments, family times, and spiritual experiences rolled into one super memory of a marvelous Christmas. It’s a nice Christmas to remember, but it is of course pure fantasy.  I’ve never experienced a single Christmas that matches the collective one in my imagination.  No wonder I feel let down every year.  How can reality match the dream world?

I could chalk it all up to that then, this post-Christmas blues.  But as I forced Alexa to play those forgotten songs and pondered the feelings they inspired this past Saturday, I realized that there is more involved than the letdown.  I realized that this feeling of having missed Christmas is inevitable.  Indeed, it’s necessary.  Christmas is the story of God becoming man, the Starkindler born beneath the stars, the Almighty Maker of Heaven and Earth casting off his prerogatives and privileges that he might renew the whole of His Creation.  It is a story too vast for capture.  It is too grand and glorious for the likes of me, or any of us, to fully experience in a single year, or even in a lifetime of Christmases.  The collective fantasies of a 1000 Christmases couldn’t come close to apprehending the wonder and majesty of this story. 

And so, this year, after many December 26ths worth of missed Christmases, I’ve accepted something.  This feeling of Christmas missed is as it should be.  It serves a purpose.  I am not meant to feel satisfied at Christmas.  I am meant to feel empty.  I am meant to experience a deep sense of unfulfilled longing – an unfulfilled longing for another world. 

For one day, at the Final Advent, there will be another world.  It will come to me, or I to it, in one of two ways.  Either I will die and enter the world of God’s eternity, or Jesus will come during my lifetime and bring God’s eternity to me.  Then, and only then, will I be satisfied.  Then, and only then, will my elusive longings be sated.  Then, and only then, will I finally plumb the depths of Christmas and all that it means. 

Until then, well, I guess I will experience this missing of Christmas every December 26th for the rest of my life.  And that is fine with me, for it will keep me longing for the day when it will finally be, and truly feel like, Christmas forever. 

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent

The Voice of the True King

The following Christmas message is excerpted and adapted from my book, Royal Mistakes: Life Lessons from Some Seriously Messed Up Judean Kings.

‘The people refused to listen to Samuel’s warning.  ‘Even so, we still want a king,’ they said.  ‘We want to be like the nations around us.  Our king will judge us and lead us into battle.’  So Samuel repeated what the people had said, and the Lord replied, ‘Do as they say, and give them a king.’ – 1 Samuel 8:19-22(a)

Back in the days before Rehoboam, before Solomon, David or even Saul, Israel was one nation under one King, and that King was God.  God appointed Judges to lead and impart guidance to the people, but these men and women were not monarchs in their own right.  They were merely representatives, ambassadors if you will, of the One True King.  God was Israel’s King.  It was as simple as that. 

At least it was supposed to be.  The people, fallen and fickle as they were, tended to forget who their king was.  Whenever they did, it got them into trouble.  The Book of Judges tells of the trouble they got themselves into in those days.  The people would forget who their king was, turn their back on him, worship idols and wind up conquered by their enemies.   Then they would cry out to God for help and God would send a Judge to help them. The people would then turn back to God for a while, but before long they would forget him again, and the whole cycle would repeat itself.  You know, lather, rinse, repeat.  It was a troubling time in which to live.  The final verse of Judges sums up the problem: ‘In those days Israel had no king; all the people did whatever seemed right in their own eyes’ (Judges 21:25). 

Now you must understand, Israel did have a king.  God was the King.  Israel just had a hard time following a king they could not see.  What they lacked, they figured, was an earthly king, someone they could see, someone who would stand tall and strong and mighty at the head of a great army carrying a sword and shield, someone who would wave a flag and rally the troops, someone who would make them great like the nations that surrounded them.  True enough, God had gone before them once in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night (See, Exodus 13:21).  But that had been a long time ago.  And truer still, God still went before them in battle through the means of the Ark of the Covenant.  But doggone it, it just wasn’t the same thing.   What they needed was a true king!

And so, on a day that would live in infamy, the people of Israel approached the man God had chosen to be the current Judge of Israel, Samuel.  ‘Look,’ they said, ‘we want you to give us a king like the ones in all the other nations’ (See, 1 Samuel 8:5).  They felt that if they only had that, all their problems (you know, the problems they had because they refused to acknowledge God as their One True King) would be solved.  All they needed was a tangible, earthly king.  One they could see.  One they could hear.  All they needed was to hear the voice of this true king, and everything would be wonderful. 

Samuel was heartbroken.  He immediately turned to God, whom Samuel at least acknowledged as King, and asked what he should do.  God told him to go ahead and grant the request. 

‘Do everything they say to you,’ the Lord replied, ‘for they are rejecting me, not you.  They don’t want me to be their king any longer…Do as they ask, but solemnly warn them about the way a king will reign over them.’ (1 Samuel 8:7-9). 

Samuel warned the people.  He told them that if they had a king like the nations, he would take their sons off to war, turn them into slaves, confiscate their property, tax them to death and otherwise make life miserable for them (sound familiar?).  ‘If you put your trust in a human king rather than God,’ Samuel told them, ‘you will live to regret it.’  (See, 1 Samuel 8:10-18). 

But the people would not be dissuaded.  ‘Yeah, yeah, we still want a king.  We want to be like the nations around us.  We want a king who will lead us into battle.  We want a king we can see and hear.’  And so Samuel checked with God again, and God again told him to go ahead and give them their ‘ideal’ king. 

The First King of Israel

Samuel did as instructed.  He found a king for Israel.  His name was Saul, and at first glance, he seemed perfect for the job.  He had the bearing of king. Tall and handsome, he stood head and shoulders above every other man in Israel (1 Samuel 9:2).  He hailed from a wealthy and influential family (1 Samuel 9:1).  He was skilled in battle.  Early in his reign, he led Israel to many victories.  But for all that, there were problems. 

For one thing he was a bit of a fraidy-cat.  On the day Samuel went to anoint him King of Israel, he hid behind a pile of luggage (1 Samuel 10:22).  And then there was his behavior during the whole David and Goliath thing.  Goliath, the Philistine champion, taunted Israel’s army for forty days, challenging them to send out the best man to fight.  That man, of course, was Saul.  But Saul never went, ultimately leaving the task of felling the giant to a shepherd boy who may have been no more than ten years old (See, 1 Samuel 17). 

Saul was also a jealous man.  As the years rolled by, and the young shepherd boy David grew to be a man, he led Israel’s armies in battle with great distinction, winning many battles over Israel’s enemies.  But as the people began to sing David’s praises, Saul became jealous (1 Samuel 18:7-9).  In fact, before long he became a paranoid, homicidal lunatic, hurling spears at David and chasing him all over the wilderness in an attempt to kill him (See, 1 Samuel 19-26).  When all was said and done, God was so disgusted with Saul that he stripped him of his kingdom.  Saul himself met with a dreadful end, falling on his own sword in battle (1 Samuel 31:4).  It turned out that Saul had not been the king Israel had been looking for.  His voice was not the voice of the True King. 

Israel’s ‘Best’ King

So Israel moved on to David, who was a much better leader.  David was no coward.  He was strong and courageous.  He was a Warrior-Poet, a man from whose heart sprang forth the beautiful songs we call the Psalms.  Best of all, he was a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14).  That is, he cared about what God cared about (at least on his best days).  But even so, he was only human, and being human, he had problems.  His biggest problem was his weakness for the ladies.  His first six sons came from six different wives.  The most infamous of his relationships was the one he had with Bathsheba (2 Samuel 11).  Alone one day, walking about on his royal parapet, he looked down and noticed a beautiful woman taking a bath.  And he kept looking (it’s the second look that gets you in trouble).  He soon invited her to the palace, offered her a drink, and well, one thing led to another, and even though she was married, he slept with her.  Things became complicated when she announced she was pregnant (just imagine that conversation), and that her husband, Uriah, had been away at battle for some time, thus eliminating the possibility that he was the father.  What did David do?  He arranged the murder of her husband.  David was not only a peeping Tom, he was a murderer.  And this was but one of the moves by which David, the best earthly king Israel ever had, sowed the seeds of destruction for his own kingdom.  No, not even David was the king Israel needed.  Once again, his was not the voice of the True King.

Worldly Wisdom Personified

But third time’s a charm right?  After David came his son, Solomon.  Talk about a man who had what it takes to be king!  Solomon was the wisest man on earth.  As we noted in chapter one, people came from all over the world to listen to the pearls of wisdom that dropped from his lips (1 Kings 4:34).  He was an administrative genius who created the most efficient government Israel had ever seen, and a master builder to boot (See, generally, 1 Kings 4).  Moreover, he was amazingly wealthy; the Bible describes him as the richest king on earth (1 Kings 10:23).  But even he wasn’t the king Israel needed.  Because if David had a weakness for the ladies, Solomon was weaker still.  He had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), many of whom led him into idolatry and the worship of false gods.  Yes, the wisest man who ever lived turned out to be a fool and set up the scenario that would divide his kingdom during the reign of his son Rehoboam.  Not even Solomon’s was the voice of the True King. 

After Solomon

And after Solomon?  Years of royal screw-ups. A Divided Kingdom.  War. Idolatry.  Social Injustice.  Defeat and exile.  The northern kingdom of Israel defeated, her ten tribes led away by the Assyrians, erased from the pages of history.  The southern kingdom of Judah defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, her tribes taken to Babylon for 70 years before being allowed to return under Persian rule.  Then came the Greeks, a brief period of independence, and finally Rome. Eventually Rome gave Israel a king.  His name was Herod, a brutal megalomaniac who murdered members of his own family to stay in power.  No one in Israel ever made the mistake of thinking that his was the voice of the True King. 

The dream for a king like the nations had proven to be a nightmare.

The Return of the True King

But God never gave up on his people.  He never gave up on his dream of a people who would know him, and him alone, as their True King.  A people who would be his own and show the world how he wanted people to live.  And so, throughout this sordid history of earthly kings and empires, God sent the people reminders of his dream.  Perhaps the best examples of these reminders are the ones that came from the mouth of God’s prophet Isaiah.  Isaiah spoke of tough times, but also offered hope:

‘Nevertheless, that time of darkness and despair will not go on forever…there will be a time in the future when Galilee of the Gentiles, which lies along the road that runs between Jordan and the sea, will be filled with glory.  The people who walk in darkness will see a great light.  For those who live in a land of deep darkness a light will shine.  You will enlarge the nation of Israel, and its people will rejoice.  They will rejoice before you as people rejoice at the harvest and like warriors dividing plunder.  For you will break the yoke of their slavery and lift the heavy burden from their shoulders.  You will break the oppressor’s rod, just as you did when you destroyed the army of Midian.  The boots of the warrior and the uniforms bloodstained by war will all be burned.  They will be fuel for the fire.  For a child is born to us, a son is given to us.  The government will rest on his shoulders.  And he will be called, Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.  His government and its peace will never end.  He will rule with fairness and justice from the throne of his ancestor David for all eternity.  The passionate commitment of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will make this happen!’ (Isaiah 9:1-7). 

‘Out of the stump of David’s family will grow a shoot – yes, a new Branch bearing fruit from the old root.  And the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.  He will delight in obeying the Lord…He will give justice to the poor and make fair decisions for the exploited.  The earth will shake at the force of his word, and one breath from his mouth will destroy the wicked.  He will wear righteousness like a belt and truth like an undergarment.  In that day the wolf and the lamb will live together; the leopard will lie down with the baby goat.  The calf and the yearling will be safe with the lion, and a little child will lead them all…nothing will hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain, for as the waters fill the sea, so the earth will be filled with people who know the Lord.  In that day the heir to David’s throne will be a banner of salvation to all the world.  The nations will rally to him, and the land where he lives will be a glorious place’ (Isaiah 11:1-10).

 In other words, God would bring beauty out of the tragedy that occurred on the day Israel asked for a king like the nations.  The God who was Israel’s True King would reveal to them and to the world what their hearts had truly been longing for all along.  It was as if God, through Isaiah, was saying: ‘Hear O Israel!  Your True King is coming, and when he comes, when you follow him, when you hail him as your True King, then you will know peace.  Then you will know joy.  Then you will know salvation.  And this peace, this joy, this salvation, will be not just for you, but for the whole world!  It is coming Israel!  You shall one day hear the voice of your True King!’

The centuries slipped by in the wake of Isaiah’s words, and the people longed to hear that voice.  They longed for the arrival of its owner.  And for a long time, it must have seemed as if it would never happen.  But then, at the dawn of what we now call the first century, an angel named Gabriel showed up.  And he told an old man named Zechariah that the True King was coming.  And he told a young girl named Mary that she would conceive by the Holy Spirit, and that her child would be the True King.  And he told her carpenter fiancé Joseph, a descendant of David, that he should go ahead and marry her and raise the child as his own.  And in the fullness of time, the angels broke forth in glorious song outside the little town of Bethlehem, the birthplace of David, as they announced that the True King had come.  The King Israel should have wanted all along.  God himself.  God in the flesh.  God as one of us.  God as our king. 

And so it came to pass that as Mary brought forth her child into the world on that still, not so silent night, a newborn baby’s cry pierced the darkness of the Judean countryside, and Israel finally heard the voice of the True King. 

The True King’s Kingdom

The voice, of course, belonged to Jesus, whose kingdom was and is unlike anything else the world has ever seen.  Jesus never had a kingdom like Saul, David, Solomon, or any of the nincompoops we’ve studied in this book.  He never wielded a sword.  Never carried a shield.  Never waved a flag.  Never exercised power in the conventional sense.  Never had a palace.  No, Jesus’ kingdom was different.  It was a peaceful kingdom, a kingdom whose power was based on the idea of just coming alongside of people and loving them.  Even if they were enemies.  He traveled up and down the land of Israel, teaching about the Kingdom of God, showing the world his way, revealing to the world the way of the True King. 

Jesus died on a Roman cross for the sins of the world, and I suppose when that happened, it must have seemed as if once again, Israel had not found her True King.  But then came Easter, and the glorious news that Jesus had risen from the dead!  And then, forty days later, he ascended to heaven, from whence he rules and reigns now and forever, and from whence he shall one day come again to make earth and heaven one.

Until that day, his Kingdom expands.  It expands one life at a time.  It expands through those who dedicate themselves to living and loving in his name.  It expands, as through the words and deeds of his followers, the world continues to hear the voice of its True King.

And, as Isaiah said so long ago, it will never stop expanding.  The kings and kingdoms of the world will always fall.  But the Kingdom of God and the Christ will endure forever.

Under Christ’s Mercy,

Brent