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.