Psalm 96
Preaching
A Journey Through the Psalms: Reflections for Worried Hearts and Troubled Times
Preaching the Psalms Cycles A, B, C
Object:
"Say to the nations, 'The Lord is king!' "
Our religious vocabulary is full of such claims as this. On this night, especially, we look forward to the birth of the "Prince of Peace." Indeed, there are likely a few who have taken the time to sing or to listen to Handel's Messiah where we laud the "King of kings and Lord of lords!" In a culture where we attempt to draw boundaries between church and state, such claims can be confusing at best.
If God is king ... or to use modern parlance, president, then what do we do with the fellow occupying the office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? After all, we hear in scripture that we cannot have two masters, for we will love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24). What, one has to ask, are good Christians to do?
Some follow the impulse to "Christianize" the government. We are, after all, a "Christian nation." The fiction of this former statement notwithstanding, this is a route followed by a vocal minority. Another impulse might be to ignore the guy in the White House and try to simply follow God's law -- assuming we can find consensus on that.
Neither of these options seem satisfactory, even as we await the birth of the King of kings. Perhaps a modest suggestion is in order.
What if our language revealed to us a hierarchy of sorts? What if this Messiah, this Prince of Peace, this Emmanuel, is indeed our true leader? To this one we owe our final fealty. This, however, does not erase the need for a viable civil government that guarantees the rights of all and protects the most vulnerable among us. Even with Jesus Christ as Lord, we will still need roads, hospitals, schools, and a decent sanitation department.
The difficulty comes, however, when civil government asks or demands things of us that we know will not please God. Herein lies the call to conscience, the opportunity for prayer and debate, the need for open hearts and committed lives of prayer. And, as Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, and a host of others have done, it may come to a choice to prayerfully disobey the civil government in order to maintain obedience to God. Remember, it has ever been thus. Even Saint Paul was forced to write some of his letters from a jail cell.
So what say you? On this Christmas Eve, let the bells ring out! Let the celebration begin! For Christ our Lord is born! He is our sovereign Lord, who claims our final loyalty. As we gaze on the manger scene let us also gaze on the public square where together we meet the common need and advance the cause of the vulnerable among us.
Our religious vocabulary is full of such claims as this. On this night, especially, we look forward to the birth of the "Prince of Peace." Indeed, there are likely a few who have taken the time to sing or to listen to Handel's Messiah where we laud the "King of kings and Lord of lords!" In a culture where we attempt to draw boundaries between church and state, such claims can be confusing at best.
If God is king ... or to use modern parlance, president, then what do we do with the fellow occupying the office at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue? After all, we hear in scripture that we cannot have two masters, for we will love one and hate the other (Matthew 6:24). What, one has to ask, are good Christians to do?
Some follow the impulse to "Christianize" the government. We are, after all, a "Christian nation." The fiction of this former statement notwithstanding, this is a route followed by a vocal minority. Another impulse might be to ignore the guy in the White House and try to simply follow God's law -- assuming we can find consensus on that.
Neither of these options seem satisfactory, even as we await the birth of the King of kings. Perhaps a modest suggestion is in order.
What if our language revealed to us a hierarchy of sorts? What if this Messiah, this Prince of Peace, this Emmanuel, is indeed our true leader? To this one we owe our final fealty. This, however, does not erase the need for a viable civil government that guarantees the rights of all and protects the most vulnerable among us. Even with Jesus Christ as Lord, we will still need roads, hospitals, schools, and a decent sanitation department.
The difficulty comes, however, when civil government asks or demands things of us that we know will not please God. Herein lies the call to conscience, the opportunity for prayer and debate, the need for open hearts and committed lives of prayer. And, as Martin Luther King Jr., Daniel Berrigan, Dorothy Day, and a host of others have done, it may come to a choice to prayerfully disobey the civil government in order to maintain obedience to God. Remember, it has ever been thus. Even Saint Paul was forced to write some of his letters from a jail cell.
So what say you? On this Christmas Eve, let the bells ring out! Let the celebration begin! For Christ our Lord is born! He is our sovereign Lord, who claims our final loyalty. As we gaze on the manger scene let us also gaze on the public square where together we meet the common need and advance the cause of the vulnerable among us.
