"How Does Jesus Reign?"
Christ's love transcends all earthly powers
Sermon Preached by
The Rev. Dr. Andrew Stirling
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Text: Ephesians 1:15-23
I had never before seen a look of fear on faces like I saw on that particular day. It was Christmas time, and I was about 10 years old. I was visiting my family in England and I was on my own - my parents stayed home in Bermuda. As I walked through the door of my grandparents' house, ahead of me, waiting for me to arrive, were my two beloved cousins whom I hadn't seen for over two years. They looked absolutely awestruck and terrified. I thought, “Good Lord, surely I don't have this affect on them!” I went into my grandparents' home and the two of them immediately took me to the room in the front, for something had happened just before I arrived.
They had been running around the living room, playing as children do, and one of them had tripped over the other's foot and gone careening into a glass cabinet, shattering it. I looked at their faces and knew exactly why they were terrified, for in that glass cabinet was my grandmother's collection of memorabilia from the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. She had plates, dishes, bells and clocks - you name it, grandmother had it in the cabinet! Virtually the whole thing was destroyed.
I went into the back room and there sat grandmother with a cracked plate on her lap. I thought she would be thrilled to see me after all these years. All she could look at was her plate of Queen Elizabeth, cracked into pieces! All I could think was, “Thank you, Jesus; it wasn't me who did it!” My poor cousins looked so full of remorse. Finally, grandmother greeted me with a smile, was delighted that I was there and said that we were going to have a good Christmas. My cousins wandered off into another room by themselves. It was so sad!
I wondered why all this fuss about a few tacky plates and dishes, but what I didn't realize was what the coronation meant to my grandmother. You see, for my generation and successive generations, that event means little or nothing. We were born after it. But for people like my grandmother from earlier generations, it was a significant, emotional moment and a proud memory. I think it is fair enough to say that subsequent generations do not look at the monarchy with quite the same veneration as her generation did. We have a different sense of power and authority. We are somewhat more egalitarian. We have been brought up in an age in which there have been scandals and media coverage and perhaps there isn't quite the same attachment. Nor have we seen another coronation, so we have nothing with which to compare it. But for my grandmother, it was a very, very important sign. After World War II and the potential loss of a nation, the crowning of Queen Elizabeth in 1953 was a significant moment. So I understand now why she felt the way she did - it must have been traumatic to lose the memorabilia.
The whole notion of monarchy is very foreign to many people. Yet, it finds its roots in biblical times. The whole concept of a coronation, in fact, is very much present throughout the Old Testament. Psalm 110 was considered a psalm of the coronation of King David, and if not King David's, then definitely that of his successor, and it was sung and recited as the celebration of the Messiah, of the line of David. It was not only about David the person; it was about the rule of God, who was seen to rule through the monarchs. Therefore, the idea of a monarch sitting at the right hand of God and God sitting on high meant that the coronation was the celebration, not just of a king, but of God's reign, supremacy and power.
The Apostle Paul, in writing to the Ephesians, and as a classic Jew himself, picked up this very image in today's passage, which speaks of Jesus sitting at the right hand of God the Father - a form of coronation, as it were. Jesus was there because of his resurrection and his ascension, and he sits at the right hand of God the Father, and as God reigns, so Christ reigns with the Father. This great passage speaks, then, of the coronation of Jesus, the reign of God and the reign of the Son with the Father.
But, why are we looking at it today? Well, we are looking at this passage because this is Reformation Sunday. The Reformers believed in what was known as “The prophet, the priest, and the king” - those particular symbols and manifestations of the role of Christ. We at Timothy Eaton, a former Methodist Church and part of the United Church of Canada, which brought together the Congregationalists, Presbyterians and Methodists, celebrate the Reformation and the central belief in Jesus Christ as prophet, priest and, last but not least, king. We see Christ reigning with God the Father.
This is also a day when we are celebrating the work of Isaac Watts, himself a Congregationalist, as I was brought up a Congregationalist - a dissenter, a reformer. Watts believed absolutely in the cosmic significance of the death and the resurrection of Jesus. He believed that Jesus reigned with the Father through the power of the Spirit. One of his great hymns, Jesus Shall Reign, says it all. Another hymn, to which I will refer in a few moments, further demonstrates that Isaac Watts believed in the reign of Christ. With that in mind, I want to look at two symbols of the reign of Christ, both of which affect the way we see not only Christ, but also the Church and ourselves as reformed Protestants.
The first symbol is that of the throne seat. This image is right there in Psalm 110: God is seated, as it were, in heaven. It was Martin Luther who said that this is the high and the chief psalm of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Luther saw in Psalm 110 the very presence of Christ sitting on a throne. It is no coincidence that of all the psalms used in the New Testament, Psalm 110 is the most quoted. We often think of Psalm 23 or 121, but no, it is Psalm 110 that is quoted the most frequently. Why? Because the writers of the New Testament, St. Paul included, saw Jesus as reigning with God the Father, seated on a throne with God the Father in Heaven.
Why was that important? Why, in writing to the people of Ephesus, would Paul emphasize this incredible statement? It is because the Ephesians had people around them who were exercising great power and sovereignty. For example, a thing called “Jewish mysticism” had worked its way into some of the synagogues and into some of the early churches. It espoused theories about spiritual powers in heaven descending from God on high. The people had to please these spiritual powers and appease them with their support, love and faith. Likewise, Paul was writing during the time of the Romans, and Roman pagan power often used the belief in the gods to substantiate the rule of those who were in power. Even the military subscribed to the gods whom it believed gave it power and authority.
The people in Ephesus had, on the one hand, all these spiritual powers to which they were accountable - and often, I might add, lived in fear of the power of Rome and its gods and the power of its military. Paul came along and he said this radical thing: Above all dominions, above all principalities, above all powers, is Jesus. Above all dominions, whether they are spiritual, military or political, there is the reign of Christ. He believed this to be a fact. He believed this to be the truth that would encourage the Ephesians to keep the faith, no matter what powers and principalities were around. It was liberating, it was freeing and it was encouraging.
Paul did not see Jesus reigning from on High in a negative way. He didn't see him crushing with a military power; rather, he saw Jesus reigning through the power of love. At Christmas, we sing that hymn, Joy to the World. And who wrote it? Isaac Watts! In it, there is this incredible line:
“He rules the earth with truth and grace and makes the nations prove....”
What?
“The wonders of his love!”
Jesus rules heaven through the power of love.
I know we live in a day and age, and have for 50 or 60 years, really, in which this concept of monarchy and the rule of Christ is not something that is readily accepted. In the 19th, 20th and certainly the early part of the 21st centuries, much political and philosophical discourse has been spent on the genesis and use of power. Whether it is the power of the law, the power of the courts and administration, the power of elected officials or monarchs; whether it is the power, as we have been looking at recently, in economics, much writing has dealt with the issue of power. This is significant, because a lot of this power has been predicated on some sort of scientific or objective truth that backs it up. Those who have espoused these different forms of power have turned to truth, particularly to science, to validate it. In other words, all these powers exist because there is some undergirding scientific, rational power that gives it the right to be. Some, of course, have exercised that power and abused it. We saw that in World War II with the Nazis. We have seen it with communists. These are groups who have exercised their rule in the belief that they have scientific authority and truth to back it up. Many forms of power have been exercised based on that belief.
Recently, however, new philosophies have come along that have called into question that power and that truth. Foucault, for example, argued that power isn't something based on truth or science, but something based on subjects, on people, who themselves agree to give power. Power is not something that comes from the top down, but from the bottom up, therefore all sovereign powers and earthly powers are determined by us. In other words, he implies that a monarchy has no power except that which we give it. You can see this working its way out even in the Obama campaign in the United States, in which the Internet has been so widely used that there is a very broad sense of the people determining who is going to have the power and who is not.
The problem is that this concept has also been applied to matters of faith and religion. Basically, it says that a multiplicity of truths exist, therefore there is no real spiritual power except that which we, ourselves, give. If that is the case, then power and authority are simply determined by us. But there is something that this thinking misses. What it misses is the power of transcendence. Christianity does not base itself on the validity of scientific truth. It doesn't need scientific truth to substantiate it. It is confessional; it makes a declaration: “This is the way things are,” and invites people to believe in it. It is not that we give Christ his authority; it's that he is our Head who gives us his power. It is not that he is dependent on all other sources of authority and power, be they given by the state or by philosophy, but rather, he is above all dominions and powers, because he sits at the right hand of God, who is the Creator of it all.
This is something that the Apostle Paul believed, and if you ask me why it is that I believe in the Lordship and sovereignty of Christ, it is because of the power of Christ's love. It is because I believe that love makes all other earthly powers subject to it. I believe it is a greater power than the power that is at work in the world. I believe this, because I see the power of love in the death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.
As The Rev. David McMaster said in his sermon a few months ago, it is that very death and resurrection and that very confession that reaffirm our belief, not only in Christ, but also in the victory of his love. My friends, if I didn't believe that, if I just believed that all principalities and powers that I see and that exist in this world are the final word, I would despair. I do not despair, because I believe in the transcendent power of the love of Christ, above all powers.
Why is that important? It is important because of another symbol, the symbol of the glove that holds the sceptre. Ian Thomas suggests that the Church of Jesus Christ is like a glove, and the power of Christ is the hand that goes into that glove. The Apostle Paul asked, “How does this transcendent Christ reign today?” His answer was, “He reigns through the Church of which he is the Head.” Some have suggested that this means the Church has temporal power and authority over the state and over every other power. What that has done is drag the Church down to the level of all other powers. No, the presence of the power of the Church is a universal power that is moved and motivated solely by the power of the love of Jesus Christ. It was never intended to be, as it was in the Medieval Age, a power that would crush earthly powers or necessarily bless all earthly powers, but rather a power to which all earthly powers are accountable.
The glove that touches the world is moved by an invisible power within it, but it is the glove that actually touches the world. It seems to me that the glove can touch in two ways: It can either smite, like a metal glove that warriors used to wear in the battlefield, or it can heal. For the Apostle Paul, the presence of the Church - and this is at the heart of the Reformation - is meant to bring the healing, restoring, graceful power of Christ to the world. It is through the Church, his Body, here on earth, that the world is met with the grace and love of Christ. Paul goes on, in Chapter 2 of Ephesians, to talk about that. What he wants the Ephesians to have is that very power of love in their lives. Why? Because he knows that all other earthly powers must know that power is not an end in itself, but instead exists to serve the love of God who made us. What an image!
I recently attended one of the most touching events I have been to in a very long time. I was invited to bring the greetings of this church to the gathering of the Alcoholics Anonymous Hill group, which was celebrating its 60th anniversary of meeting at Timothy Eaton Memorial Church. It also happened to be my 50th birthday, and I told how pleased I was to be celebrating something that was actually older than me that day. I entered the room and it was absolutely full. From the very front row of the auditorium, which was almost against the stage, to the very back door, the place was packed with people whose lives had been touched and changed over many, many years, as well and some who were new. As one of the leaders said to me, “Dr. Stirling, you have no idea the thousands of people that have been through this church and AA in the past 60 years!”
As I sat beforehand in the front row, a man came in who clearly had been living on the streets, somewhere on Eglinton Avenue. Believe you me, there was a wide variety of people there. He started talking to me, wanting to know if it was my first time there, and I said that actually, it was. He welcomed me, and I thanked him. He said, “AA has done great things for me.” Then he said, “Isn't this the most beautiful church? Wow! This is an amazing place. I hear they have been meeting here a long, long time.” I said, “It's an amazing place all right!” Then they called my name out to give the greeting, and I stood up. Well, you should have seen the look on his face! “Oh, my God,” he must have been thinking. “I've been shooting the breeze with the minister!”
I got up and spoke, not for very long - they didn't want to hear me that night. Afterward, they gave a standing ovation, not because I said anything wise, but because I represented the church. I sat down, and the man had a big grin on his face. He just wrapped his arm around me, squeezed me tight, and said, “This is an awesome place! Thank you, Reverend.” I realized then that this church, as a place, has helped restore so many broken lives. “There but for the grace of God go I,” I thought - one of AA's mottos - as I left.
What an image for the church, I thought. It is like the glove that touches people's lives, but the force and the power behind it is the power of God. The church's outreach to the world is to show the reign of Christ in all its dominion, power and glory as a healing, restoring and loving presence. In a world that celebrates power, in a world that celebrates celebrity, in a world that thinks that power is an end in itself, the glove of Jesus Christ says something different. It says, “No.” It says, “God's love is the ultimate power.”
The day after the great debacle at my grandmother's, she sat gluing together the broken plates, trying to restore all the broken pieces around her. Clearly, she had forgiven my cousins, and many years later, when I visited her in a nursing home in Peterborough, England, she still had many of those plates that had been glued back together, but in a smaller cabinet this time. I thought, “What a wonderful symbol!” The coronation of Christ is the coronation of a broken and crucified Lord, who puts together a broken and crucified world, so that the world may know that there is a power, a source and a Lord that is greater than all others. For, “He rules the earth with truth and grace and makes the nations prove the wonder of his love.” Amen.