“Angelic Stars of Heaven”

Daniel 12.1-3

Revelation 12.7-12

Pastor Tom Johnson, September 25, 2011

 

The the idea of someone or something watching over us is as simple as a gaze into the night sky. The fixed stars are the lesser gods. The traveling stars—what we know as planets—were the greater gods—the sun the father, the moon the mother. Even the creation story in Genesis tries to dispel that early explanation—God made the stars, the sun, and the moon. From the beginning, God the Creator is the only one, true, and living God.

And yet, in the context of both our readings from Daniel and Revelation, both authors worshiped the angels they encountered. Both fall down prostrate because of how awesome the angels appear. But they are immediately encouraged not to bow dow but worship God alone. They are not to be worshiped but listened to. The angels have a message for us. The word angel simply means “messenger.” Angels are often the ones who deliver news from God. An angel gave Mary the message that she would have a son. Angels rolled away the stone from Jesus’ tomb so that the disciples would see it empty. Angels were the first to announce that Jesus had risen from the dead.

Artwork depicts angels with wings, harps, halos, and the faces and bodies of babies. But Scripture describes angels as beaming with light, radiant robes, warrior physiques, with weapons or trumpets. The one creature that has wings, the Seraph, do not have two but six wings—and not two eyes but a multitude of eyes. Angels are creatures—created beings who serve God. But as our readings remind us this morning, some of those angels rebelled. We don’t know when or how it all began, but war broke out in heaven. Those that opposed God were quickly defeated by Michael and the army of other angels he led.

The war that started in heaven spilled out to us when God exiled Satan and those who followed his rebellion. And again, we don’t know why God would allow evil to enter our world. And so we know Satan and his fallen angels are defeated foes. They have already lost the war. They have been driven out of heaven. And it is only a matter of time before the last battle is fought. Satan is angry and enraged, our text says, “because he knows that his time is short.” Satan is like the general of a defeated army. He knows that he cannot win the war. Each major battle has been lost. But rather than surrender to Michael the general of God’s army, he will not go down without a fight. His time is short. But he will fight until the bitter end.

Both Daniel’s vision and John’s revelation of angels are revealed to them bring a message to us. The messengers of God want us to be grounded in reality—to assure the believer that victory has been won. The angels give us a peek into heaven to see that our salvation is secure and that eternal peace is near. But here is where our discussion of angels takes an unexpected turn: even the archangel Michael and his army of angels do not defeat God’s enemies by their own strength or any power that they possess. “They conquer [the enemy] by the blood of the Lamb and by the word.” As Luther’s great hymn says, “Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us, We tremble not, we fear no ill; They shall not overpower us. The world’s prince may still Scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; One little word can fell him.”

When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary. He did not just bear the load of our sin and the world’s brokenness. He also bore the load of all evil—Satan, his angelic host, and even death itself. The world’s evil—human and angelic—did their best defeat Jesus. It briefly seemed that Jesus was the defeated. He died. He was buried. The sealed tomb seemed like it swallowed him up forever. But early that third day, by the power of that blood that he shed on Friday the Word himself rose victoriously from the grave. And it is by the power of that same blood and Word that Michael and his army defeated Satan.

And so, if Jesus defeated death and sin by his own blood—and the angels defeated Satan and his army by Jesus’ blood and his Word—then we also must win our battles—not by our own strength—but by that same blood and the Word.

Do you remember our desciption of the angels—like stars of heaven? At the end of our reading from Daniel—and at the end of John’s vision in revelation—it describes a time after we finish our battles on earth. Soon we “shall shine like the brightness of the sky…and like the stars forever and ever.” The bright stars of the night sky are a shadow of what we will become. God will transform us from creatures of dust into bright and angelic occupants of our heavenly home—all by the power of the Blood and the Word, Jesus.

“God’s Boundless Concern”

Jonah 3.10-4:11

Pastor Tom Johnson, September 18, 2011

 

Jonah thought God was mistaken when he called the prophet to go preach to the Ninevites. The Ninevites had their own religion. They were foreigners. They were a violent people. And Jonah’s people were victims of their violence. But Jonah knew God to be good and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love. And so Jonah went in the opposite direction—to the opposite side of the known world—to Tarshish in modern day Spain. And, you remember the story...

God caused a storm to almost sink the ship Jonah and it’s pagan crew was on. They prayed to their gods while Jonah was sleeping in ignorance. When he realized that they were all going to die, he volunteered to be thrown overboard—willing to die so that Nineveh would not hear God’s word. We should think of the greater prophet to come, Jesus, who is willing to die so that the whole world hear God’s word of forgiveness and eternal life.

But a great fish, out of obedience to the Creator that put the disobedience of the prophet to shame, swallowed Jonah whole. And it was only while the stomach acid and lack of oxygen ate away at Jonah that he had a partial change of heart. At the command of God, the fish vomits Jonah up in the correct direction toward that axis of evil, Nineveh. And Jonah walks around the city preaching his doom and gloom: “In forty days God will turn you all to ash,” he says. It was a horrible sermon. The only thing Jonah preached was the imminent destruction of that great city. There was no hope for redemption in his message. Jonah preached a fiery, vengeful, and angry God who was about to crush them.

But then the unexpected happened. Despite the disobedient prophet and his poor homeletical skills, the Ninevites begin to respond. The Ninevites cover themselves with ash. Even the animals were covered in sackcloth and ash. Both humans and non-humans fasted and prayed that God would relent this disaster. “Who knows?” they asked. “the Prophet Jonah only preached destruction, but maybe God will be merciful.” And so all the Ninevite creatures repented.

After Jonah is done preaching doom and gloom, he found somewhere he could sit to watch God rain fire and brimstone on Nineveh. It was hot and dry place. So, when he found a bush to shade himself under, he appreciated the plant very much. Jonah loved the shade-tree but still despised those Ninevite humans and their animals. So when nothing happens to the Ninevites but, instead, God causes a worm to eat the shade tree, Jonah is angry—so angry that he says that he is “angry enough to die”—he was willing to let his anger consume his life. Again, we should think of the greater prophet to come, Jesus, who is “compassionate enough to die”—willing to let his love for the world consume his life..

It’s only at the very end of the story of Jonah that the real point of the story comes out loud and clear: God loves his whole creation. “Is it right for you to be angry about the bush?” God asks. “You are concerned about the bush, for which you did not labor and which you did not grow; it came into being in a night and perished in night.” “Jonah, I am the Creator. You are just another creature. Don’t fall under the delusion that you are the master of your own destiny. Don’t limit my goodness to your own little world.” “Don’t have such a enlarged view of yourself in the place of creation and such a small view of other humans, animals, and plants. And even more importantly, don’t have such a small view of the Creator of heaven and earth and his love.”

“Should I not be concerned about Nineveh,” God asks, “that great city, in which there are more than a hundred thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also many animals?” This last verse tell us a lot about God’s love for the world.

First of all, God loves great cities. The greatness of any city is matched by the greatness of God’s love. No skyscraper reaches out of reach of God’s love. No urban sprawl passes out of the boundry of God’s mercy. No population is too numerous for God not to hear each of their individual thoughts and prayers. No corruption and brokenness is beyond God’s compassion and care. A great city will always be outmatched the greatness of God’s love.

Also, God loves the little children—he cares for young humans that grow up in a broken culture and dysfunctional relationships—too young to know their left from their right—impressionable minds that God wants to impress with his love, forgiveness, and eternal life through his son, Jesus Christ. "Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world—red and yellow, black and [Ninevite]—all are precious in his site. Jesus loves the little children of the world."

And finally, God cares about the many animals in Nineveh. His love is not bound to humans. His love is so deep and so wide that it extends to the depths of the oceans to the great fish and to the cattle on every hill.

If God loves the great cities, little children, and even the animals, so should we. We too should target that mass of urban humanity, prioritize teaching our little ones the Gospel, and we should not forget to be good stewards of God’s creation by caring for plants, fish, and animals.

"The Prison of Unforgiveness"

Matthew 18.21-35

Pastor Tom Johnson, September 11, 2011

 

This morning we need to put our math hats on. It begins with Peter’s numerical question: “If someone wrongs me, how often should I forgive? Seven times?” How many times must I forgive? What is the threshold of enough forgiveness? When does asking for forgiveness over and over again become an unhealthy pattern and abuse of mercy? Seven times sounds pretty reasonable. Otherwise we run the risk of encouraging serial wrong-doers. Rather than helping them by our forgiveness, we may be enabling them. It seems reasonable, doesn’t it?

But Jesus does not think that Peter is nearly generous enough with his mercy and forgiveness. “Not seven times,” Jesus says, “but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.” In other words, forgive over and over again—even until you lose count. Scripture says, “Love keeps no record of wrongs.” God himself says over and over again, “I will remember your sins no more.” By raising the bar of forgiveness, Jesus wants us to be generous and frequent in our forgiveness. And so he tells a story.

A king confronts a slave who owes him an enormous debt. The man owes the king 10,000 talents. One talent is 15 years of wages for a worker. In other words, the man owed him 15 times 10,000 talents. Today, the average worker makes about $40,000. That means that the slave owed the king, by today’s standard, 6 billion dollars. A year ago, that was the estimate of how much money Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook was worth. No explanation is given how this slave could have spent such a vast amount of money. Jesus makes no comment how this king could have let the slave get away with accumulating so much debt.

When the slave cannot pay the king, the king plans to sell the slave, his wife, children, and all that he has to help pay what he owes. The slave drops to his knees and begs for more time. And the king’s heart is filled with pity and compassion. The king does not just give him more time to pay what he owes. He completely writes the debt off. He wipes his financial slate clean. The slave has his freedom, family, possessions, and owes nothing to the king.

As the slave leaves, he comes upon a fellow slave. His colleague owes him one hundred denarii—that is one hundred days of wages. That is about $15,000 based on the same average yearly wage. That is 1/400,000th of what he owed the king. Like the first slave, this slave also begs for more time and promises to pay him back. The indebted slave cannot fall to his knees because the first slave has him by the throat. And rather than give him more time, he has him put in prison. When all the other slaves see what he did, it absolutely knocks the wind out of them. They are “greatly distressed” and tell everything that happened to the king who is just as shocked as everyone else. It’s in the king’s rebuke where we find the principle of forgiveness: “Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?” “Shouldn’t my forgiving you your billions encourage you to forgive someone else’s thousands?”

And here is the twist to our story: the slave is not in prison for his debt but for his unforgiveness. It is a prison of unforgiveness—the bonds and shackles of a merciless and uncompassionate heart. The great tragedy of this story is that what the king forgave did not result in life-transformation and a compassionate heart. And that is the point of the story to Peter, to the other disciples, and to me and you. God, in his mercy, has forgiven us billions of dollars of sins through Jesus. If we truly understand how much mercy and love we have received, how can we withhold mercy and love toward others?

If we are unable or not willing to forgive others, it is because we are trapped in our own prison of unforgiveness. We only have ourselves to blame for our incarceration. And that is the warning of this passage, that harboring bitterness, anger, resentment, and unforgiveness does just as much harm to ourselves as it does toward others.

A little over twenty years ago, my sister was living in Manhatten and took me to the top of one of the trade center towers. The images of those towers in flame and collapsing deeply impacted me. I still cannot fathom the enormity of that crime against humanity—the loss of life, the grief, and the unanswered questions. And yet, Jesus is talking about sin on a colossal scale—crime against humanity truly of biblical proportions. He reminds us that God’s forgiveness is even more colossal and able to cover the vilest offender. Many of us cannot even begin to imagine the grief and visceral outcry of those who lost loved ones. But for all of us, Jesus reminds us that victimization can lead to greater tragedy—the prison of unforgiveness, vitriolic anger, and vengeance.

On our journey from the events of 9/11 into the future, we must remember to go by the way of the cross. The King has forgiven the enormity of our sin and brokeness. Forgiveness is the only thing that will motivate true heart change. We have been completely forgiven. And we have the opportunity to spread that same forgiveness around us to transform the world. As the hymn born out of tragic loss says:

“When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride. Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too small; Love so amazing, so divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all.”

"God's Presence in Conflict"

Matthew 18.15-20

Pastor Tom Johnson, September 4, 2011

 

We human beings love conflict. I think of being out on the playground on recess. Two children begin exchanging words and a shoving match begins. And their classmates begin to chant, “Fight! Fight! Fight! Fight!” Rathering than crying out “Peace!” We seem to enjoy watching and escalating violence. In our teenage years, we encounter junior high politics—where gossip and defamation of character rule the day.

Instead of setting aside our childish ways, we simply dress it up in adult clothing. In stead of crying “Fight!” we shrewdly share an unfavorable tidbit of information about someone at the water cooler. “Did you hear what so-and-so did?” Often times our first reaction to being offended by someone is to run in the opposite direction and tell our sordid tale. We hope to gather a crowd of people who are just as sick and tired of that individual as we are. Call it what you want: “junior high politics,” “gossip,” “playground bullying,” or “poor interpersonal skills.” The Bible calls it “sin.” It it is part of our broken human condition. And it is all too common among Christians who should know better.

Jesus’ teaching on conflict presupposes that there will be conflict in the church. In fact, there is conflict whenever people come together. And far too many people have left the church or “organized religion,” because they are tired of the fighting, the backbiting, and lack of transformative peace among believers. Mahatma Ghandi, advocate and non-violent organizer for the forgotten poor of India said, “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” Sadly, many Christians and Christian communitities are so unlike Jesus. We love conflict. God loves reconciliation.

Jesus could not be more practical in his words of wisdom. He outlines a three-step program for peace among believers. Step one: confront the offender in private. Step two: if necessary, confront the person again with witnesses. Step three: if necessary, seek out the authority of the church.

Step one. Don’t be a coward. If you are offended, go and tell that person why you are offended. If your offense is unfounded, you will have a hard time convincing them they’ve wronged you. Jesus tells us to get in their face. You are more likely to not blow things out of proportion. There is accountability when you go directly to the source. You are less likely exaggerate, less likely to twist the truth to make yourself look better, and less likely to embellish the story to make the other person look even worse. And by doing it in private no one needs to know about it. You protect yourself and the other person in case it was all a misunderstanding. You can let it go and leave it behind you because it was resolved in the peaceful confines of private conversation. The goal is reconciliation. What’s so beautiful about step one is that more times than not you leave that confrontation having won a sister or brother. They now know that you want peace. You care about harmonious relationships. And you leave with that warm feeling of peace in your gut that the thought that human beings aren’t as bad as you thought.

If step one does not work, Jesus gives us step two. Step two is find one or two mediators. Someone trustworthy and impartial. Someone who can keep things in confidence. This person’s job is to establish the truth. They have not taken sides. They want each person to see more clearly. Their goal is reconciliation. So, at most, three or four people know how ugly things got. No more than four people know how messy things became. So, once it’s over, and reconciliation happens, everyone goes home knowing the dirty laundry—but they have seen it go through the wash cycle and the wringer and come out as white as snow.

If step two fails. Jesus tells us to go to step three. Step three is really the same as step two. It just involves more people and the authority of the church. That means the leadership and the pastor should be the last to know about conflict in the church! Jesus assumes that believers will have the maturity and unction of the Holy Spirit to resolve conflict in a godly, efficient manner. Say goodbye to gossip, junior high politics, and petty fighting. Say hello to a ministry of reconciliation.

If all three steps fail, Jesus says to treat the offender as a Gentile and a tax collector. And just how did Jesus himself treat Gentiles and tax collectors? He loved them. He called them. He taught them the good news to the ignorant. He died and rose for their forgiveness, salvation, and eternal life. When we don’t deal with conflict in a peaceful way, is not just a misunderstanding of how to relate to one another. It ultimately is an indicator that we do not understand the very heart of the Gospel itself. Jesus says to treat people like this as a mission field. In other words, start the three steps over again at the most fundamental level. They do not understand that at the heart of the Gospel is forgiveness and reconciliation.

In the end, Jesus assures us that where two or three gather in his name—even in conflict—there he is in our midst. Jesus will bless and enable us by the Holy Spirit to see the transformational power of the Gospel—where forgiveness, reconciliation, and peace reign. “How very good and pleasant it is when sisters and brothers dwell together in unity!” (Psalm 133). Jesus has shown us the way.