Justice, Mercy, Humility: A Meditation on Micah 6 for the 4th Sunday of Epiphany

Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,

and bow myself before the high God?

shall I come before him with burnt offerings,

with calves of a year old?

Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

shall I give my firstborn for my transgression,

the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?

 

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good;

and what doth the Lord require of thee,

but to do justly, and to love mercy,

and to walk humbly with thy God?

 

The words of the Prophet Micah echo forward from 700 years before Christ, to when the Incarnate Word preached to the gathered multitude from the mount in Matthew 5, and down through every age since.  The confusion of those times is not unlike our own, where evil abounded in the land, together with political turmoil, and the pretension of holiness promoted by the mental gymnastics of presumably educated people.  Such confusion brought a darkness upon the population which God’s Word came to illuminate, cutting through the deceptions, half-truths, and inferior philosophies to reveal what was still immutably true:  man’s obligations to his Maker are always defined by His Law as He has spoken it, not by the convolutions of men who hope to twist, hide, or add to it.  In the light of that Law are the demands of true Justice, summarized by God’s revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai in the 10 Commandments a thousand years before Micah’s time.  Before the purity of that Law all men must beg Mercy before their God, knowing their faults and their need for grace, which should then extent to others who offend them.  Lastly, knowing that no man lives apart from Mercy, the walk of the faithful with their God is one of Humility rather than pride, since no man who abides in the presence of God does so by his own merit.  Where men confuse their times with crime, manipulation, hypocrisy, and vanity, God’s Word continues to bring clarity for nurturing life in this world, and securing eternal life in the world to come.

 

This is particularly poignant in our times, as well.  What lack is there today in man-made opinions about right and wrong, good and evil?  When fallen men refer to everything but the Word of God to form their moral opinions, they end up in a bewildering diversity of contrary speculations, at odds with each other and the realm of Nature within which they are set.  The technological megaphones of our age simply reveal more obviously what has always tormented the human mind when divorced from divine inspiration:  fallen man makes poor law, both for himself and for others.  Consider the use of the word “justice” today, and the many applications it has been given which are anything but Just—from the bizarrities of contemporary sexual morality, to the rationalization of racialized mob violence, the pomposity of those who argue for the virtue of murdering children, the destruction of women’s dignity and societal protections to pander to psychologically impaired men, and the devaluation of honest education and intellectual inquiry to the blind acquiescence of political authorities.  Where the life affirming nature of God’s Word has been removed from the public square, a multiplication of destructive ideologies has filled the vacuum, bringing with them a devolution of man’s body, intellect, and soul, as well as the crumbling of his general society.

 

It is a remarkably reliable observation across history, that with the abandonment of God’s Law and His concept of true Justice, comes also a forgetfulness of God’s grace and Mercy.  Men who presume themselves their own lawmakers almost always presume themselves other men’s judges, with a right to compel others into submission.  The authoritarian impulse of fallen man often seeks to enslave his neighbor through deception of mind or brutality of body, cloaking such evil intent with a robe of feigned virtue.  Consider the self-appreciating crowds in our modern cities, which crow and berate others of differing opinion until they are “canceled” from the public sphere, deprived of their livelihoods, incarcerated as political prisoners, or victimized by violence in the streets.  When all men stand before God’s universal Law, they come to the same conclusion that they must all plead for a common Mercy, which by plain Reason extends from God to their neighbors through them.  But when men stand as their own lawgivers and their neighbors’ judges, Mercy is more often replaced with condemnation as each man seeks to promote his own interests upon others.  Only before a universal Law which demands all men yield in equality to the same divine standard, can all men see each other as brethren in a common struggle, as common beneficiaries of the universal grace which allows all men to stand together in love and compassion.

 

This commonality among men is what brings forth the true Humility of faith.  As each man stands alone before his Maker, accountable for the life he has been given before the Justice of divine Law, so each man stands in need of divine Mercy for his failure before divine Truth.  Thus the common obligation and the common need of all men, brings forth the fruit of a common Humility which confesses the same Truth, receives the same Grace, and lives together in the same eternal Hope.  Among such enlightened men there is a striving for a truly Just life, even as they know their frail frame can only approach but never attain the full holiness of their Maker.  These enlightened souls can only press forward in such a striving, knowing that their God and King is a Merciful Savior who has done all things to reconcile their fallen nature to Himself, so that their failures are overwhelmed in His own Sacrifice on their behalf.  The grace of the Gospel which overcomes the condemnation of the Law is the Vicarious Atonement of Jesus for the sins of the whole world—an irrevocable and unconquerable truth toward which the Prophets like Micah looked forward, and a truth toward which the Saints have looked back ever since.  In Jesus alone was the fullness of Justice made manifest through His Cross, and the inexhaustible riches of Mercy poured out.  There, in Jesus’ humiliation is the Humility of man made perfect, that faith might rise to everlasting life in all who follow Him, even as Jesus rose triumphantly forevermore from the grave.

 

Hear the Word of the Lord as it comes once again into the confusion and bewilderment of our times, cutting through the gloom to bring the purity of divine Light.  For what more does the Lord require of you but to strive heartily in the Justice of His Law, to love and reflect the grace of His Mercy poured out to you through Jesus, and to walk with Him in faithful Humility all the days of your life?  For in this is the life of the saints in every age, and the truth which dispels all darkness and deceit:  the divine Law which teaches all men their common obligation, the divine Gospel which reveals to all men their common salvation, and the true Faith bestowed from above by water and Spirit which is divinely empowered to walk humbly with Him forevermore.  Glory be to God Almighty, Creator and Savior of Heaven and earth: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and unto ages of ages without end!  Amen.

 

Light Into Darkness: A Meditation on Matthew 4 for the 3rd Sunday in Epiphany

Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee;

And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum,

which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim:

That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying,

The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim,

by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles;

The people which sat in darkness saw great light;

and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up.

From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say,

Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

 

There is a theme which emerges between our Gospel lesson in Matthew 4, the Epistle lesson in 1^st Corinthians 1, and the reading from Psalm 27:  the Wisdom of God is greater than the wisdom of men, just as the Light of God is superior to man’s darkness.  King David trusted in that Light and Wisdom to save him from the power of his enemies who conspired against him with evil intent.  Isaiah prophesied of this Light and Wisdom which would come upon the peoples who sat in the darkness of their own futile ideas, and Jesus fulfilled that through His Incarnation and preaching ministry.  St. Paul echoed that same message when he wrote to the church in Corinth, that they were sealed together in the Light and Wisdom of Jesus, not the earthly imaginations, pretentions, and associations of men.  The Wisdom of God With Us, Jesus Christ, is the Light of understanding and truth which pierces the darkness of man’s fallen intellect, and raises him up to fellowship with the Triune God.  This is why Jesus would preach, as His Apostles would preach after Him, that all people should Repent:  for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand—with Jesus comes His Kingdom, and it is inaccessible by any means of fallen man’s devising, but alone received through the faith in Him, whose grace makes all things new.

 

While this revealed concept is absolutely true, and demonstrated as such in century after century since the foundation of the world, our time is not unlike others which have repudiated it.  In the West, once built upon the promise of God’s Word as the foundation of human society, where the obligations of duty and love are formed in the Law, and the freedom of the conscience is nurtured in the Gospel, many other earthly ideas have been contesting for power.  Today, ideologies of Atheism, Marxism, and a form of Secular Humanism which has merged with an almost messianic appeal to Science and Technology, are all competing for dominance in men’s minds.  Certainly there are other movements afoot, too—from the resurgence of old pagan religions, witchcraft, and occultism, to variations on militant Islam or the cults which hide themselves under Jewish or Christian mantles—but as evidenced in the last 60 years, the levers of power in this country and across the world have increasingly fallen in the hands of Atheists, Marxists, and those who think they can save the world through Technology and social control.  It is an odd nexus of authoritarian ideals, as if the aspiration were for man’s meaningless life (Atheism) to be made level and equitable to all through the compulsion of an enlightened ruling class (Marxism) and be executed most efficiently by turning individuals and societies into the likeness of computer chips and applications while fed their daily instructions by Artificial Intelligence devised by chief scientists (Secular Humanism and Scientism).  What could possibly go wrong?

 

Like so many dark ideas of man which sprout up apart from, or in direct rebellion against, the Word of God, these chief three of the last half century have brought much suffering and devastation.  Atheism has built nothing of beauty nor reflected any hope for man’s moral worth, and like many of its chief advocates, breeds only despair, depression, and selfishness unto a miserable, often suicidal, death.  Marxism must force the taking of labor and produce from those who work for it, so that it may be given to those who don’t and won’t work for it, often resulting in the slaughter of millions and the complete dissolution of any semblance of a free society, or one that honors human dignity in mind, body, or spirit.  Scientism, or the reliance upon Technology and technologists to save mankind and the world, has produced dehumanizing products and services which drain mental acuity, poison people through chemicals, and created weapons of war which can reduce the earth to a lifeless hellscape like Mars or Venus in matter of hours.  At least technology, which itself is neutral in so far as men seek to better understand the physical, chemical, and biological paradigms which are written into Creation, can produce useful tools for the betterment of mankind if the means to a good end are not turned into idolatrous ends in themselves; Atheism and Marxism, on the other hand, produce nothing good at all.  Blended together, they have the potential to make the wars and slaughter of the last century pale in comparison to what they may bring about in the 21^st.  A deep and noxious darkness, indeed.

 

Epiphany reminds us that we are not left alone in this darkness, and that the Word of the Lord still reaches toward us all with calls to repent, believe, and live.  Jesus still testifies through His Incarnation to the dignity and worth of man created in the image of God.  Through His Cross, Jesus testifies to the love of God for man which sacrifices all for the salvation of others, that man might live in that same sacrificial love toward their neighbors.  Through the Law of Love, Jesus defines the duty and obligations of all men, from the Commandments given at Mount Sinai through Moses, to the expounding of that Law through Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.  By His resurrection, Jesus testifies to the truth that eternal life in fellowship with God is the goal of this earthly life, and that this gift of eternal life is made possible only in Him.  By His preaching and teaching, Jesus showed that He is the only Way, Truth, and Life, and that those who seek to save their life through selfish ambition and the dark machinations of man’s fallen intellect will most certainly lose it, while those who lose their lives in this world through the embrace of Christ and His Word will find it secure to them forever.  Jesus is still the Light which leads all people to abundant life in this world and the next, who appeals to all people in the dignity of their humanity with the persuasion of infinite love, that others might choose freely by His Word and Spirit to live in His love.  Where God has all power to compel and to control, He rather condescends to fallen men, that they might be won by the appeal of His Word, and live into the fullness He has intended for them since before the foundation of the world.

 

Here, even here in the darkening West, the Light of God’s Wisdom still shines.  To some, the preaching of Christ and Him crucified will sound like foolishness—a stumbling block to those who think they can save themselves through the works of their own weak bodies and corrupted minds.  But to those who are being saved by grace through faith in Christ alone, it is the power of God unto true salvation, true eternal life, and true human flourishing.  The Word of the Lord is still the Light and Life of all people, and it still comes to you and to me that we might abide in Him forever.  Like David over 3000 years ago, we have nothing to fear even if the armies of darkness surround us, and in their conniving plot against Jesus, His Word, and His people, for there is no darkness of men which can prevail against the Light and Wisdom of God With Us.  Amen.

 

Word and Witness: A Meditation on John 1 for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany

Again the next day after John stood, and two of his disciples;

 And looking upon Jesus as he walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!

And the two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.

 

Then Jesus turned, and saw them following,

and saith unto them, What seek ye?

They said unto him, Rabbi,

(which is to say, being interpreted, Master,) where dwellest thou?

 He saith unto them, Come and see.

They came and saw where he dwelt, and abode with him that day:

for it was about the tenth hour.

One of the two which heard John speak, and followed him,

was Andrew, Simon Peter's brother.

He first findeth his own brother Simon, and saith unto him,

We have found the Messias,

which is, being interpreted, the Christ.

And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said,

Thou art Simon the son of Jona: thou shalt be called Cephas,

which is by interpretation, A stone.

 

The first chapter of John’s Gospel sets forth Jesus as the only begotten Son of the Father, fully God and fully man, the very Word of God made flesh.  Through the baptismal account of Jesus by John, John the Baptist declared Jesus as the anointed one, the Messiah whom he was sent to prepare the way for, and that Jesus alone would be the Lamb of God whose sacrifice takes away the sins of the whole world.  All that God had spoken through His Prophets, from Adam and Eve, through Abraham, Moses, David, Isaiah, Malachi, and all the rest, He made present in Jesus for the salvation of mankind.  The work God began at Creation and preserved through the Fall, would now be present among men as the Incarnation, the Vicarious Atonement, and the Resurrection unto eternal life.  This Word of the Father, the Gospel of salvation in Jesus Christ alone, by His grace alone, received by His gift of faith alone, and lived in the power of His Word and Spirit alone, is the Word which St. John says dwelt among them full of grace and truth.  This is the Word that John would later record of Jesus, who alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life, apart from which no one may approach the Father.  And this Word, witnessed, confessed, and preached by John the Baptist, converted the hearts of those who heard it, and made of them disciples of Jesus.

 

God could have chosen any number of ways to enlighten mankind about Himself, but His primary means of doing so has been His Word.  By His Word, He created the universe, our world, and all that abides within it, together with all the natural laws by which it functions; by His Word, He gave His Law to show the distinction between the path of virtue leading to eternal life and the path of evil which leads to everlasting death; by His Word He established His covenant with Noah, Abraham, Moses, and His people in every age; by His Word He became flesh of the Virgin Mary, suffered and died on Calvary, and rose again the third day; by His Word He ascended into heaven, gave His Holy Spirit to enliven, enlighten, and empower His disciples, instituted His Sacraments, and began the missionary age of His Church; and by His Word He will come again to judge the living and the dead, ushering in the full presence of His Kingdom which has no end.  God’s Word has always been His primary means of grace in how He comes to man, and the primary means by which man is reconciled to God.  While we might dream in our fevered little minds that God should have or could have used better means, the inescapable reality is that God has already chosen His means, and His creatures are not free to establish any others.

 

Once we understand the fundamental nature of God’s Word as our revelation, our enlightenment, our preservation, and our eternal salvation, the evangelistic mission of the Church comes into full focus.  The Church is not an association of similarly persuaded fellow travelers, whose agreement over side dishes, carpet, structural design, liturgy, vestments, ceremony, or cultural distinctives make them holy.  Neither is the Church a political association made to lobby governments, promote legislative agendas, fund campaigns, or provide imprimatur to various politicians.  The Church is not a philosophical debate society, nor a daycare program, nor a youth, men’s, or women’s activity group.  The Church does not exist for the purpose of collecting money from its members, of giving or receiving accolades, or buying and selling anything.  The Church is not a business, not a political action group, not a common interest club, nor an experiment in self-aggrandizing professions.  The Church is, has always been, and shall always be, that gathering of people who live by faith in the Word of God.  While there are plenty of groups out there which call themselves churches, the only real Church is the one founded by Jesus on His Word like the rock upon which St. Peter was built, which abides in His Word, and for whom His Word is their very life in this world and the next.  That peculiar association is marked by the Word of God preached, taught, received, and lived in its purity and simplicity, and the Sacraments exercised as they were established by the Word.

In the end, this simplifies much for the Church in our very confused age.  While the Church may use all created things for the glory of God according to God’s created design, it is always His Word which Christians are called to believe, teach, and confess according to their individual vocations in this world.  The Word of God, Jesus Himself, will make His disciples, and all His sheep will hear His voice speaking through His Word—those who will not hear His Word, are not His sheep.  The Christian then becomes a witness to the Word (which is the old meaning of the term “martyr,”) and how that Word shaped, informed, enlightened, and enlivened them.  The Christian doesn’t have to worry about whether they have the right website, the right technology, or the right parish programs to lure people in the door and butts into seats.  Rather, the Christian need only point the people around him to the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world, and thereby share the Living Word of Jesus with the world.  We share the truth of the Law, and the truth of the Gospel; the reality of who we are, the forgiveness we need, and the love of God which has come to absolve and save us all.  We may show the efficacy and surety of that Word as it comes into contact with science, philosophy, politics, economics, engineering, or any other field of human endeavor, but it is still the Word of God which saves the Christian, and the primary gift given to the Christian whereby he may be used to save others.

Hear the Eternal Word which comes to you this day, as it comes to the whole world to bring the light and life we so desperately need.  Remember again the Word which sought you, which saved you, which renewed your mind and quickened your soul.  Know the One who sets you free from sin, death, hell, and the power of the devil, and the One who speaks to you of grace, mercy, love, and faith.  Alive in that Saving Word, be formed into witnesses of that Word by the power of His Holy Spirit, that your whole lives may shine forth in the places He has sent you.  His Word is our life, just as it is the life of the whole world, and it is the inestimable dignity given to us by our Savior to bear His Saving Word to all.  So let it be for His Church in this, our day.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.

 

Jesus as our Epiphany: A Meditation on Matthew 3, for the first Sunday in Epiphany

Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan

unto John, to be baptized of him.

But John forbad him, saying,

I have need to be baptized of thee,

 and comest thou to me?

And Jesus answering said unto him,

Suffer it to be so now:

for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

Then he suffered him.

 

And Jesus, when he was baptized,

 went up straightway out of the water:

and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him,

and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove,

and lighting upon him:

 And lo a voice from heaven, saying,

This is my beloved Son,

in whom I am well pleased.

 

An epiphany, even in modern usage, often refers to a moment or event of great enlightenment, where ignorance is lifted and replaced with deeper knowledge and wisdom.  In the classical sense it also includes the notion of revelation, particularly the revelation associated with God making Himself known to men.  The Gospel text in Matthew 3 reflects these nuances of an epiphany, where John the Baptist, his disciples, and the multitudes are enlightened by the immediate revelation of God With Us in Jesus Christ.  As the Gospel writers make clear, John the Baptist knew that Jesus was more holy than himself and that He was the Lamb of God who came to take away the sins of the world, but he did not seem to fully understand Jesus’ divinity and unity with the Father and the Holy Spirit until the baptismal vision took place.  As the skies opened, the Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and the Father’s voice rang out in declaration of Jesus as His beloved Son, mankind was made witness to the Trinitarian Mystery of One God in Three Persons.  In this sense, the revelation of Jesus Christ as fully God and fully man, discernable and yet indivisible from God the Father and God the Spirit may have been the greatest enlightenment of men since the Creation itself.

 

This also helps us to debunk an ancient yet recurring heresy, that this baptismal revelation was enlightening Jesus rather than mankind.  The old heresy turns on the idea that Jesus was just a great guy who God decided to adopt, anoint, or somehow ordain on this particular day.  The heresy denies Jesus’ full divinity, and in turn, tries to ascribe some power of men to ascend into divinity or at least into divine favor.  The text makes clear, however, that Jesus was fully aware of who He was and what His purpose in coming would be, so that He could counsel John the Baptist on the necessity of baptism and the fulfilling of all righteousness.  This self-awareness continued throughout Jesus’ life, travels, teaching, and prophecy, as He called His disciples, preached faith and repentance, cured the sick, raised the dead, suffered and died on Calvary, rose again the third day, and ascended back into heaven before sending the Holy Spirit to anoint His Apostles on Pentecost.  Jesus was not enlightened at His baptism—rather, it was Jesus who was enlightening us about who He is, what He came to do, and how we might have eternal life in His Name.

 

St. Paul would write about this enlightenment in Romans 6, where he reflected on what it meant for Christians to be baptized into Jesus.  Just as Jesus was and is very real, having lived a very real life, suffered a very real death, and rose again in a very real resurrection, our baptism unites us to Him in a very real way.  Jesus is not a theological or intellectual symbol, but a living and saving reality.  Our baptism is made as real as the One into whom we are baptized, by the power of the One who established it by His Word and work.  When Paul says we are baptized into the death of Jesus, that’s not figurative language—we are really and fully grafted into Jesus as He suffered and died upon that Roman Cross, making His death ours.  And when Paul says that through our baptism we are raised with Jesus, it is His actual resurrection from the dead, emerging from that Easter tomb, that is now become ours.  Our baptism is not a symbol or work of men, but God Himself working in and through us by the power of His Word and Spirit to unite us to Jesus by grace through faith.  It is Jesus who makes our baptism effectual, just as He established it in Himself with John the Baptist, and gave it as His command after His resurrection, together with teaching His Word for the making of new disciples.  Holy Baptism is a reality as certain as Jesus Himself, not just an ecclesiastical ceremony or work of men.

 

And as Paul notes, knowledge of this reality, this epiphany, should have real impacts on our very real lives.  If we are dead in Jesus as He was sacrificed for the sins of the whole world, then we are no longer to let sin reign in our mortal bodies.  It is Jesus who paid for our sins with His own blood, and we dare not live out our lives in willful re-submission to the evil He died to save us from.  Likewise, if we are risen in Jesus, we should live in Him and the inspiration of His Word and Spirit, just as He lives.  As Jesus is by His divine nature the only and eternally begotten Son of the Father, so He is by His human nature our elder brother and first fruits of the resurrection that we too shall experience in our own bodies.  That resurrection is made present to us through our baptism, just as the atonement for our sins through His death is made present by our baptism.  The totality of our lives now change by virtue of who Jesus has made us to be through His Word and Spirit, united to Himself, now and forevermore.  Through our baptism, He has made us dead to sin and alive unto righteousness, so that we no more live under the fear of the Law but under the joy of the Gospel.  We are new creations, created for good works in Jesus Christ, sustained in Him just as we begun, by grace through faith in Him alone.

 

Behold the Light of the World who pierces all darkness, who alleviates all ignorance, and who bestows all divine wisdom, so that all might live through Him!  Remember the good work Jesus has begun in you, that you might resist the evil which wars against your mind to bring you back into its slavery unto death.  Remember the promise of Jesus that everyone who believes, repents, and is baptized shall be saved.  Remember that He has given to you the power of His Word and Spirit, that you might live each day so enlightened and empowered that your life will be His, and His life will be yours.  Remember to whom you belong, and the life into which you are grafted, that by grace through faith you might live in Him forevermore.  Soli Deo Gloria!  Amen.