St. Paul’s United
Church January 30, 2011
God
Is In Charge – Rev.
David Mundy
Daniel 6:16-22, 25-27
John 18:33-38a
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Did you know that the bible is celebrating a birthday of sorts this
year, 2011? It is a very particular celebration, the completion of the English
language translation called the King James Version. You know the King James. It’s the one with
all the “thees” and “thous”
which is difficult to read and sits on a shelf in your house gathering dust.
The King James bible was
commissioned by – wait for it – King James 1st of England who asked
or commanded teams of scholars to produce an English language bible for use in
parish churches across the realm. They began their task in 1604 and completed
it in 1611, four hundred years ago.
You might be surprised that the
official English-language bible is only four hundred years old, but the truth
is that King James’ predecessors actually did everything in their power to
discourage the translation of the bible from Latin, which hardly anyone read, into
the common language. King Henry 8th,
the monarch who had all those wives and a racy television series was perhaps the
most brutal. When he got wind of translators who were working on an English
bible he chased them down and punished them. Some of them fled England to
Europe for fear of their lives. More than once Henry’s henchmen tracked the
translators down, and William Tyndale was brutally executed, even though much
of his translation of the bible eventually made its way into the King James bible.
Why would kings
and a queen, Queen Elizabeth 1st, be so worried about the
bible? After all, they supposedly became monarchs through the grace of God. But
the bible is a dangerous book for those who are trying to maintain power. You may have noticed that there are many
stories in the bible of unfaithful kings who are toppled by God. When Mary sang her wonderful song of promise
about the birth of her child, which we call the Magnificat
she declares:
God has shown strength with his arm
God has scattered the proud in the imagination
of their hearts.
God has brought down the powerful from their
thrones and lifted up the lowly:
God has filled the hungry with good things, and
sent the rich away empty.
Wouldn’t these ideas make you a little nervous if you were king or
queen? If common people can read or hear about this in their own language, what
ideas might they get about their own kings?
And the bible is clear that God is the one in charge over all nations,
even though temporal leaders come and go, and might appears to make right. When
we repeat the Lord’s Prayer, we pledge our allegiance not to earthly rulers but
to God: “Thy kingdoms come, they will be done on
earth as it is heaven.”
In the end King James decided that it was better to have control over
the process of translation and distribution of the English bible, so the
magnificent Authorized version came into
being, a gift to the world. Still, those monarchs who went before him may have
been right, at least in terms of the rights of kings to rule. It has been
argued that the creation of the English bible began a change of perspective
about power that eventually led to democracy in Britain and spread through
Europe. Sure there is still a monarch in
Britain, the venerable Queen Elizabeth the 2nd. But she is no longer the ruler
of a British Empire in the traditional sense.
This is the third in a series of sermons on the Lord’s Prayer and the
phrase “thy kingdom come” is our focus this morning. It isn’t difficult
to find passages of scripture which are about God as ruler of heaven and earth,
the Holy One who is greater than any other king or emperor we might imagine. We
will sing several “kingdom” hymns in worship today, and we listened to two
passages which help us ponder what sort of reign we want to live under.
The story of Daniel in the lion’s den is familiar to most of us, even if
we don’t have much in the way of biblical knowledge. It’s the dramatic tale of
Jewish Daniel, a faithful follower of God, who refuses to bow down before the
king or emperor Darius. Even though Darius is fond of Daniel, who was an
up-and-coming government official, he realizes he must reluctantly make an
example of him or lose his credibility. But as we heard, when Darius checks on
Daniel in the lion’s den in the morning the young man is still alive and well.
Daniel exclaims “O king, live forever!” before explaining that God has delivered
him. Darius is actually relieved that he is still alive, and gives credit to
Daniel’s God “for he is the living God, enduring forever. His kingdom shall
never be destroyed.”
In John’s gospel Jesus stands alone before the Roman official, Pontius
Pilate, representative of the most powerful empire that had existed on the
planet until that point. Pilate didn’t bother to round up Jesus’ followers,
likely because he knew they are a harmless bunch. Jesus himself is a peasant
who had already been roughed up enough during his arrest and first trial that
he looked pathetic rather than threatening. Still Pilate asked Jesus if he is a
king and the answer is “My kingdom is not from this world . . . you say that
I am a king, For this I was born and for this I came into the world, to testify
to the truth . . . ”
In the end Pilate decided that Jesus must die and when he was executed
on the cross, the words “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews” were
attached to indicate his “crime.”
In these stories of Daniel and Jesus both of them stand before those who
rule with conventional power and offer an alternative which is centred in God.
Battered and bruised Jesus affirms that God is in charge, even though it must
have seemed absurd to the “man in charge.”
“Thy kingdom come, thy
will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Do we believe that God is in charge,
that the God revealed in Jesus Christ reigns in our world? There aren’t
many monarchies anymore, and most kings and queens are figureheads rather than
actual rulers. There are still empires just the same, and as Canadians we live
alongside a great democracy which is also a military power unequalled in human
history. The United States spends as much on its military machine each year as the
next twenty three nations combined. That amount is over a trillion dollars by
some estimates, close to the size of the Canadian economy. Can you imagine what
would have happened last week if in his State of the Union address President
Obama had declared that he would wipe out his nation’s deficit by disbanding
the military and promising that the country would now follow the principles of
Christ for peace? He might have been
ushered directly from the House of Representatives to a rubber room!
Not all that long ago there was another mighty kingdom, another
so-called superpower, the Soviet Union. When it crumbled, we wondered if we
would enter into a more peaceful era on the planet, but wars have not come to
an end. And another great and ominous power is arising, that of China, which is
expanding its military presence and flexing its muscles.
In our world there are now retail “kingdoms” which are as powerful,
economically, as nations. Walmart, which recently
invaded Bowmanville, has worldwide sales of $400
billion.
What we know from history is that every powerful empire eventually comes
to an end. Even though they do their best to convince their subjects that they
are glorious and powerful and will last forever, it never, ever happens. Even
powerful religious empires eventually falter and fall.
So perhaps its not as
foolish as it seems to claim as we Christians do, that God is in charge. When
as Christians we pray for the coming of God’s reign and Christ’s reign –thy
kingdom come -- we are envisioning an alternative view of reality, which may
seem unlikely or even impossible at times, yet is the only true way, the hope
for the world.
In his book on the Lord’s Prayer called The Greatest Prayer John
Dominic Crossan offers that the kingdom of God or
reign of God could be rephrased as the “ruling style of God” which is centred
on justice and righteousness. Crossan calls the
kingdom of God is the Great Divine Cleanup of the World and focusses on three essential goals which are outlined over
and over again in scripture:
Worldwide Peace
Worldwide Banquet
Worldwide Equality
So, there will be a true shalom, a lasting peace. There will be enough
for everyone to satisfy their hunger. There will be equality in relationships
and politics and race and religion. The Lord’s Prayer tells us that this is
already the reality in heaven, so we are called to bring this into being in the
present, in the “here and now” in whatever ways we can, even though at times it
may seem that our choices and actions
are foolhardy or naive and don’t count for much. I am fond of quoting Clarence
Jordan, the civil rights activist and Christian, who worked for racial equality
in the American south during the 1960s Jordan claimed that hope in believing
in spite of the evidence and watching the evidence change.
I was away last week, attending a conference in Victoria, British
Columbia and one of the speakers was Flora MacDonald, a former federal cabinet
minister who was the first woman to run for the leadership of a national
political party. She knows about the corridors of power in Canadian government.
Ms McDonald is now 84-years-old and “retired,” although we have to take
her notion of retirement with a grain of salt. For the past decade Flora, a
lifelong United Church member, has been visiting the northern provinces of
Afghanistan, working with villagers. She doesn’t have any bodyguards. Her sole
companion is an Afghan Canadian who drives and translates for her and they are
unarmed. While the armies of NATO fight insurgents in the south, she roams
around setting up health care clinics, and establishing schools and village
councils. She beams when she tells her audience that women are now being
elected to these councils and girls are going to school, as well as boys.
Even though they have been accosted by robbers in the night, Flora
MacDonald appears fearless, and is planning another trip in May. For me, she is
a kingdom person, a person of God who is living her conviction that there are
other ways to bring about change in the world.
One last thought on the reign of God or the kingdom of God. Have you
ever noticed that it is the only concept expressed twice in the Lords Prayer? At the conclusion of the prayer we
Protestants say the words: “For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory.” Just in
case we didn’t get it the first time, we say it again. There is an upbeat sung
version of the Lord’s Prayer which we may learn which emphasizes each of these
phrases with actions.
Let’s show the world that we trust that God is in charge with our actions
this week in whatever we say and do.