The Lord our Righteousness: A meditation on Jeremiah 33:16

                When the Lord accomplishes His will for His people, He said they shall be named:  “The Lord is Our Righteousness.”  Jeremiah heard these words while sitting in prison, and awaiting the awful judgment that Israel had called down upon itself through sin and rebellion to the Word of God.  The great captivity in Babylon loomed large on the horizon, and to the prophet’s eyes, it must have seemed an unrecoverable situation.  The land would be lost.  The temple would be lost.  The City of David would be lost.  The people would become the slaves of a pagan empire, formed in their culture, and steeped in their false gods.  But to the prophet’s despairing sight, comes another vision—one of redemption and salvation.  A remnant restored to the House of Israel, with joy and celebration and glory forever given to God.

                But how can such a thing be?  Only faith could receive such a message of hope, in the face of such awful circumstances.  Jeremiah knew that he and his people would have no hope of restoring themselves, and any pretense they might have had to save themselves would be dashed by the swords and chariots of foreign armies.  The Children of Abraham had sinned greatly, and more than deserved their judgment—but in their judgment, they could see plainly, that they could not save themselves.  In the depths of their dejection and humiliation, they could finally see, that they could hope in only one Savior, rather than the works of their hands or the schemes of their imaginations.  Under the curse of their torment, would come the knowledge of their condition:  they had fallen short of the glory of God, and were condemned by their own hands.

                It is a lesson we should learn, in our day and time, too.  When we sit in luxury and wealth, we often delude ourselves into thinking we can save ourselves.  We think we can find the right diet plan to make everything better; or the right drug; or the right therapy; or the right technology; or the right companion; or the right politics; or the right… well, fill in the blank.  We think “science” will save us, by crafting cures for our diseases.  We think politicians will save us, by crafting policies for our providence.  We think technology will save us, by creating tools for our weakness.  We think mates will save us, by slaking our lust.  We think we can save ourselves, by marshalling all these petty gods and more, as we craft our own destiny according to our own will.

                But eventually, it all comes crashing down.  Cures fail.  Policies fail.  Nations fall.  Lovers leave.  iPhones die.  And when we come to the end of our proverbial rope, we shall stand naked and exposed before the void of death, to pass that threshold like all the mortals who have come before us.  None shall escape the coming enemy—that foreign power, which approaches to some faster, and others more slowly, will besiege the city of your body and soul, and work its power upon you.  Eventually there will be no medicine, no technology, no person who can save you.  You will meet death, and you will be ravaged by it, left with nothing your hands have built.  For naked you came into this world, and naked you shall leave.  It is a fate we have earned through our evil and pride, and it will inexorably come.

                And for us, as we watch the approach of that ancient foe of the human race, it is only a heart of faith that can hear God speak words of comfort to us, that He will bring back the prisoner, the captive, and the oppressed—He will free those who could not free themselves, and in the streets of His Eternal City, there shall be rejoicing forevermore.  Where the scourges of death left devastation and corruption in their wake, The Lord God Almighty shall bring forth life, forgiveness, and hope.  Where we sit in darkness, the Lord shall break through with unimaginable Light.  In the face of our enemy, who takes away all our presumptions and delusions about saving ourselves, our Saving Lord brings forth that which we cannot do—He works our salvation for us, and gives to us that which we need to live forever.

                And this is exactly what Christ has accomplished for His people, and the reason why He came into the world.  For we who sit in darkness, have seen His Great Light.  We who see the approach of our enemy, see Him who triumphs over our enemy through His life, death, and resurrection.  We, who have nothing to offer for our own salvation, receive Him who is our salvation:  Jesus Christ.

                And so, though we may sit in darkness, we ought never to fear it.  Let the enemy of mankind come, as ferocious as he will—our Champion has conquered him, and promised to redeem even us.  There is no darkness that can withstand His Light, and we have been made children of His Light by faith, though we dwell in a dark, dangerous, and unbelieving world.  His Word has washed us, and made us clean, delivering to us the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation we lost so long ago.  His Word enters our ears, and gives us faith to believe, to see beyond the grave into blessed realms immortal.  He dwells with us by His Word, feeding us on His very Life, to sustain us in this earthly struggle against sin, death, and the devil.  And He is our Conquering King, who lays low the enemy of our race, that His people may rise to eternal lives of joy and peace.  We are the people He has made into His image, that we may sing forever:

THE LORD IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS!

All glory be to our Lord and Savior, who has done such great things for His people!

Amen.

A Meditation on Psalm 16

“O Lord, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup;

You maintain my lot.”

As a citizen of the United States, there’s no other time that I feel more out of synch with the world, than in the heated run up to an election.  Everywhere, from every quarter, there is a voice calling for this and against that, to do something and abstain from something else, to endorse one and vilify another.  This pattern is not new in our day, though our technology (and our constant connection to it) makes it seem ever more present and overwhelming.  And even if you cut the power off to your house, drown your cells phones, and give your laptop a lobotomy, someone would be banging on your door or putting signs up around your neighborhood, to ensure you heard their pleas.  The world is a political place, and it always has been since the fall.

                Now it’s true that there have been better and worse political constructs and characters over the course of centuries, but the basic rules still apply.  Gather the force of will to implement your positions, build political alliances, and overcome your adversaries—often with little or no moral compunction.  Machiavelli made a science of this, but he certainly wasn’t the first.  When the world seeks power, it uses the tools it’s familiar with, and just does what comes naturally… often leaving a great deal of character assassination and destruction in its wake.  The world, functioning as it does under a Theology of Glory, seeks power and might through the means of man—and when fallen man seeks his own glory through his own fallen faculties, he can end up creating an image of hell on earth, in varying levels and degrees.

                The Church of Christ, however, has never been called to function like this… not because we aren’t capable of it (just look at your own church’s beauracracy, and you’ll know what I mean,) but because that’s not who we are.  The Church is filled with sinner-saints, who have been ransomed out of the world, living by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, who has given His life that we might live in Him.  As such, we’re not exactly of this world anymore… we are not even our own, since we have been bought with the precious Blood of Christ.  We are children of God, joint heirs with Jesus of all the wonders and blessings of heaven.  We are citizens of the Kingdom of God, adopted into the Father’s family through the sacrifice of His Only Begotten Son.  We are free indeed from this world of sin, death, and corruption, because the Son who abides forever, has made us free.

                Of course, this creates quite the discord for the Christian.  Like all the other earthly citizens around us, we remain in this world, serving out our vocations as God has given them to us.  Like the unbelieving world, we’re citizens of nations, states, and communities, and participants in the political processes that the world brings about in the rule of society.  But unlike the unbelieving world, we know that our time here is temporary, and that our allegiance is first and foremost to the King of the Universe.  We do not use the earthly tools of fallen man to seize power or seek our own glory, but rather, inspired by the love of God in Christ, we use the gifts we have been given to serve and care for our neighbor.  We seek not our own good, but the good of others, even though it may cost us something… or cost us everything.  Because, unlike the world that derives its inspiration from a Theology of Glory, the Church receives all the blessings of life, forgiveness, and salvation from the Theology of the Cross—the Cross through which our Savior triumphed over sin, death and hell, and by which we are saved from the same.  The Christian is an ambassador of a distant Kingdom, made present in the Word and work of Jesus Christ—in the preaching of the Gospel for faith and repentance, and in the receiving of Jesus through His Sacramental means of grace.  What we have freely received, we freely give to a world lost in darkness and despair, bound up in the sins of fallen man, and blinded by the eyes of unbelief.

                So, the Church can feel out of synch with the world, when the world is doing what comes naturally in its sinful state.  But that’s our cross to bear, as the Lord Jesus Christ has not prayed for us to be taken out of the world, but that we might be preserved in the world—so that we may be reflections of His Light and Life into the darkness.  And even this is not our own work, but it is His continuing work to reconcile the world to Himself.  Just as Jesus has saved us and sustained us by grace through faith, so too He calls the world to faith and repentance, through His Word given through His people.  We should not be surprised when the world does what it does, nor should we be discouraged—Christ still reigns, and will reign for all eternity, in both heaven and earth.

                Be of good cheer, and take heart, beloved child of God—He shall not leave you, nor forsake you.  He will not let His holy ones suffer corruption, even as He did not let His Holy Son linger in Sheol.  Whether we are here in the body or at home with the Lord, He is our life, our sweetness, and our hope.  All who put their trust in Him shall never be put to shame, regardless of the world’s maneuverings for glory and power.  The Lord is the life of His saints, and His life endures forever.  He is our endurance, and our faithfulness, and His power and faithfulness never fails.  He is our love and compassion, and His love and compassion know no bounds.  He is our Word, and His Word always accomplishes the purposes for which it is sent.  He is our King and our Savior, and He reigns and saves forever.

Blessed be the God of our salvation, now and forevermore.  Amen.