Psalm 121: The God Who Helps His People

This is a sermon manuscript originally prepared for March 14, 2021 at Reformation OPC (AZ).

Introduction

We do not know exactly when Psalm 121 was written or by who or what exactly the psalmist had in mind as the Spirit moved him to write these words. Since it is a Psalm of Ascent, we might assume it was written by David or by one of the psalmists in his or Solomon’s court. Its interpretation does not depend on identifying the human author or the historical circumstances of its writing, but think for a few minutes about the many who could have sung these words.

Imagine Abraham looking up the slopes of Mount Moriah as he and Isaac ascended the hill, the boy loaded down with enough wood to burn a body, the father loaded down with grief knowing the body appointed for sacrifice that day was his own son. I lift up my eyes to the hills. For whence comes my help? Imagine Moses standing at the base of Mount Sinai, warning the people not to draw near to the mountain, but knowing they would not anyway because the entire mountain is shaking, the peak is burning and smoking like a furnace, and the air is full of the sound of a trumpet that is not being blown by a human mouth. Moses gives instructions to the people and then turns to the mountain, staff in hand, and prepares to ascend the slope and enter the darkness at the top which is shrouded in smoke. I lift up my eyes to the hills. For whence comes my help? Imagine Elijah after the great victory on Mount Carmel. Queen Jezebel sends a message to him: “This doesn’t change anything. By this time tomorrow, you’ll be dead.” The prophet begins to run. He runs into the wilderness. Finally he reaches Mt. Horeb, the mountain of God. He is physically, mentally, and spiritually exhausted. He is ready to quit; ready to die. I lift up my eyes to the hills. For whence comes my help?

I don’t imagine any one of these scenes is the original background for Psalm 121, but its sentiments would well-suit the experience of any one of those saints and countless others. It is a prayer of faith, a song of gospel promise, a hymn of hope. I pray it will encourage us as well.

Looking to the Mountains for Help from God (1-2)

The opening verse of the psalm immediately raises an interpretive issue: how are we to take the psalmist’s anxious look to the mountains, and how is the second line of v.1 to be understood? The KJV punctuates the second line as a statement, but most modern versions take it as a question. But is the question genuine or rhetorical? Is the psalmist looking to the hills instead of the Lord? Is v.1 an expression of sinful man’s unbelief and search for deliverance by worldly means? The text can be punctuated either way, but perhaps many take the second line as a question because they view the psalm as presenting a contrast: rather than looking to the hills for help, look to the Lord. There is good evidence for this interpretation. The Lord said through Jeremiah: “Truly, in vain is salvation hoped for from the hills, and from the multitude of mountains; Truly, in the LORD our God is the salvation of Israel” (3:23). Natural man may look to mountain fortresses for security and help in a time of danger, but the people of God know their help is found in God alone. This is a good interpretation of Psalm 121. But I want to suggest another possibility.

Psalm 121 is a Song of Ascent, part of the playlist Israelites would sing as they journeyed to Jerusalem and ascended the Temple Mount for worship. Did you get that? They were ascending the Temple Mount, and as they climbed the hill, they sang and prayed: I turn my eyes to the mountains; from where will my help come? (JPS) I am suggesting Psalm 121 is not contrasting looking to the mountains with looking to the Lord but calling us to lift our eyes to the mountain of God from where our help is sure to come. It may be we can even marry the contrast from the first view with this second interpretation. As we lift our eyes to all of the mountains (plural, הֶהָרִים) of the world, where do we expect to find help? Not from the mountain fortresses of men, but on the mount of God which we now ascend. The contrast would be seen in the plural: our help does not come from just any mountain but from God’s mountain: Mount Zion.

The mountain of God is a theme that runs all through Scripture but that is often overlooked. Eden is never explicitly called a mountain in Genesis, but it is described that way in Ezekiel. There in lamentation against the King of Tyre the proud, rebellious monarch is described as having been “in Eden, the garden of God” and “on the holy mountain of God” (28:13-14). The description is obviously figurative--and describes the King of Tyre, not Satan as some interpreters claim--but the characterization proves that Eden was understood to be on a mountain. Once this is seen, several other features become clearer: for example, a river flowing out of Eden to water the garden (Gen. 2:10) and the parallelism between the mountain garden in Revelation 21-22 with the mountain garden in Genesis 2.

Mountains are associated with God throughout Scripture and redemptive history. After the great Flood, the Lord brought Noah and his family to safety by securing the ark on the mountains of Ararat (Gen. 8:4). God called Abraham to sacrifice Isaac on a mountain (Gen. 22:2), the same location David later purchased as a place for sacrifice (1Chr. 21:18-22:1) and where Solomon later built the Temple (2Chr. 3:1). The Lord appeared to Moses at “Horeb, the mountain of God” (Ex. 3:1), and he revealed himself to Israel at Mt. Sinai, another name for the same (De. 1:19; 5:2). Aaron died on Mt. Hor (Num. 33:38), Moses died on Mt. Nebo (De. 34:1-8), Elijah defeated the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel (1Kg. 18:15-40) and then fled to Mt. Horeb immediately after when his life was in danger (1Kg. 19:8), and God revealed himself to the prophet again there. Many parts of Jesus’ ministry took place on mountains, including part of his wilderness temptation (Mt. 4:8), the Sermon on the Mount (Mt. 5-7), times of prayer (Lk. 6:12; Mk. 6:46), and his transfiguration (Mk. 9:2). Jerusalem was associated with Mt. Zion (Ps. 135:21; Mic. 4:2), but the reference was always typological. Jerusalem in the OT was the “already but not yet” Zion, the mountain where God’s Temple was built that anticipated a greater Temple Mount.

The prophets Isaiah and Micah spoke of the mountain of God as the destiny of the nations in the glory of the Messianic age.

Now it shall come to pass in the latter days that the mountain of the LORD’s house shall be established on the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow to it. Many people shall come and say, “Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, and we shall walk in His paths.” For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. He shall judge between the nations, and rebuke many people; they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore. (Isa. 2:2-4; cf. Mic. 4:1-3)

This Messianic mountain Temple to which all nations would flow is a picture of redeemed Israel, encompassing both Jews and Gentiles who believe in Christ. The prophets anticipate the ultimate triumph of God’s kingdom over all the nations. This victory is won not by carnal weapons but by the gospel which summons men to faith in the Lord and grants them new life so they can believe. In Revelation Mount Zion is where the Lamb dwells with all who wear the Father’s Name (14:1). The New Jerusalem is eschatological, a city established on a high mountain which comes down from heaven so God might dwell with his people in the new heavens and earth (Rev. 21:1-22:5).

Thus from Eden, the garden sanctuary on God’s holy mountain, to New Jerusalem where perfect righteousness reigns, God’s people meet their Savior and King on a mountain. While Israel had to remain at the foot of Mount Sinai and trembled because of God’s awesome power and terrifying majesty, the Israel of God has been brought near to the greater mountain in Christ.

For you have not come to the mountain that may be touched and that burned with fire, and to blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore. (For they could not endure what was commanded: “And if so much as a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned or shot with an arrow.” And so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I am exceedingly afraid and trembling.”)

But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel. (Heb. 12:18-24)

The Lord’s Diligence (3-4)

As we come into the body of the psalm, we find first the Lord’s diligence in protecting his people. Matthew Henry rightly observed: “The same that is the protector of the church in general is engaged for the preservation of every particular believer, the same wisdom, the same power, the same promises.” Psalm 121 not only teaches us this blessed truth, it provides us with a means to regularly confess it in prayer and song. Whether you read Psalm 121 once a year in your Scripture reading or once a month or every weekday in midday prayer, every time you come to vv.3-4, make it a sincere confession: He will not let your foot give way; your guardian will not slumber; See, the guardian of Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps! (JPS) These are not merely words to read; they are truths to believe and confess, gospel promises to preach to ourselves in devotion to God.

We are blessed with many beautiful places to hike in Arizona, and all of us who have ever gone hiking know what it is like to slip. Maybe it was on loose rocks or on a steep part of the hill. Maybe your foot slipped but you quickly regained your balance, or maybe you slipped and fell to the ground. As Christians we are journeying to the mountain of God, and the route is narrow and difficult to pass. This is not an easy drive along the highway; it is an arduous trek, more like the hobbits’ journey to Mount Doom than a relaxing walk on a smooth and level path. But this psalm assures us we will not fall into a ravine, we will not slip and roll off the cliff, we will not fail to make it all the way to the mountain Temple of God.

Yahweh never sleeps but watches his people and protects them day and night. Remember Elijah’s mockery of the Baalists on Mount Carmel. When Baal did not answer their prayers, the prophet of the true God began offering helpful suggestions: “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened” (1Kg. 18:27). Baal may have been asleep or out of town or distracted, but the true God never is.

The Lord’s Nearness (5-6)

The next thing we see in the body of the psalm is an assurance of the Lord’s proximity to his people. “Am I a God near at hand… and not a God far off?” he asks rhetorically in Jeremiah (23:23). The Lord remains close to his people, at our right hand, to guard us day and night. Many of us may lack a clear sense of God’s presence in our daily lives. We may sometimes feel as if he is far off and unaware of (or unconcerned with) our problems. But this is never the case. Again, this must not only be words we read but gospel promises we sing, pray, and confess. Believe that the Lord is your guardian and your protection at your right hand. In Psalm 121 we pray his promises as a means of being strengthened by the grace he freely bestows.

Commentators have taken the reference to sun and moon in v.6 in different ways, but the simplest explanation seems to be to take them as poetic shorthand for day and night. Jacob spoke of such dangers he endured while in the service of his treacherous father-in-law Laban: “There I was! In the day the drought consumed me, and the frost by night, and my sleep departed from my eyes” (Gen. 31:40). God used suffering in the house of Laban to humble and sanctify Jacob, and he may use similar struggles for good in our own lives. Psalm 121 does not promise we will never encounter such difficulty and discomfort. It might seem that way at first, but when we compare this to the rest of Scripture, we come to understand that we will suffer in the present age, but God will protect us, he will remain near us, so that we never have to face danger or difficulty alone. We also can be sure that although we may be overtaken by trouble, we will not be ultimately overcome.

We need to deliberately cultivate an awareness of God in our daily lives, to perceive his power and goodness and nearness in all that we see and do and face. This is mystical, in one sense, because we are focusing our attention on spiritual realities that are unseen, but it is not mystical in an unbiblical or undisciplined way. It is the kind of spiritual awareness which the Psalms cultivate within us as we give ourselves to praying them regularly and faithfully.

O LORD, You have searched me and known me. You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off. You comprehend my path and my lying down, And are acquainted with all my ways. For there is not a word on my tongue, But behold, O LORD, You know it altogether. You have hedged me behind and before, And laid Your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; It is high, I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me; Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You, But the night shines as the day; The darkness and the light are both alike to You.

… 

How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You. (Psa. 139:1-12, 17-18)

The Lord’s Preservation (7-8)

The two final verses affirm God’s sustaining grace for his people. He will guard us, lead us, and keep us from all harm. He will keep our lives, for our times are in his hand. He ordained every day and hour of our lives, before the first one began. He promises to work all things together for the good of those who love him. We may fall into the hands of our enemies, we may be seriously or terminally ill, we may suffer disaster from which we cannot recover in this life, yet even there, the Lord upholds us. Even at that time, our lives are in his hand.

We’ve spoken before about living with reverent abandon. It is a concept we revisit from time to time because it is one of those seeds we want to plant repeatedly until it takes root and begins to grow. We are not to tempt God. It is not godly to be reckless, careless, or indifferent to life. But if we understand the meticulous sovereignty of God, if we know there is not one maverick molecule in the entire universe that is outside of his control, if we have grasped the truth of his promise that all things work together for good to those who are called according to his purpose, then we can live our lives with reverent abandon. Reverent, rather than reckless, because we know it is the Lord who is in control. Abandon because we know that until the hour he has appointed for our death, we are bulletproof, and at the hour he determined for our death, there is nothing we can do to escape or survive. We do not play in traffic lest we discover that before the foundation of the world the Lord ordained that we would die as a fool playing a human version of Frogger. Neither do we worry overly much about our lives. We take reasonable precautions. I wear a seatbelt, lock my doors, and take a daily multivitamin. But my life is only a vapor that soon vanishes away, and the purpose of my life is to glorify God so that I might enjoy him forever. We are not so concerned about how long we may live as how well. We can concentrate on this rather than worrying about our survival because the Lord preserves our soul.

As Reformed Christians we love the perseverance of the saints, and we should. Those who are given new life by the Spirit of God, savingly trust in Jesus Christ and always will, because they are “kept by the power of God through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time” (1Pet. 1:5). But don’t miss why they persevere. How can we know that all those who truly believe will always believe? Because they are kept by the power of God. The saints will persevere because they are preserved. God not only grants us faith, he keeps faith alive within us. We have eternal security because “the LORD will preserve your going out and your coming in from this time forth and even forevermore.” If it depended on our strength, we wouldn’t make it. Thank God it doesn’t depend on our strength. We are saved, beginning to end, by the power of Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

We read the Bible, but we live in the Psalms. Even so, there are some psalms that we will return to more often, and for many of us, Psalm 121 belongs to this category. It is a psalm to learn and to love, to sing and to pray, to believe and to confess, for as long as we live in this world. As in all the psalms, we sing and pray Psalm 121 with King Jesus and with his universal Church. May God give us joy and peace through receiving and delighting in the gospel songs of Zion. Amen.

What God Hath Wrought

I’m sure many of you have been thinking about the financial and leadership issues we discussed in our Congregational Meeting on Sunday. These are weighty matters, and they caught all of us by surprise. As was discussed in the meeting, if certain things had been done differently, many (or all) of these issues might have been avoided or discovered much earlier than they were. The Session was working with the information we had at the time, seeking greater transparency and accountability, and then taking responsibility for the errors and their resolution once the situation was known. None of us can promise that we will not make mistakes, but we can (and do) promise to try to learn from them and do better in the future. The challenges and trials our congregation has gone through over the last 8 years have given us the opportunity to learn many lessons, and I am deeply thankful to God for the careful, sober, and sincere way in which our ruling elders have responded to this most recent challenge. One of the things it has taught us is that when we know a situation needs to change and structures for transparency and accountability are lacking, that must be remedied more quickly and decisively, even at the risk of hurting feelings. It is better to implement structures before serious errors are committed, even if sometimes it is error that helps us understand what kinds of structure we need.

It may be discouraging to those who have been here a few years to once again hear a difficult announcement by the Session. We’ve had a few since 2017, and none of them have been easy. We have shed many tears and lost sleep, but the Lord has used these hard providences to drive us to more earnest and diligent prayer and, I trust, has made us better shepherds as we worked through them. I don’t know exactly how things work in your family. Maybe every day and week and month and year is exactly the same and the routines are so well designed that nothing ever happens that is unexpected or unpleasant. But that isn’t how it is in most families, and that is what the church is: the family of God, and the visible family which is still on earth and gathered in local congregations is a bit of a mess. We are still being sanctified. God hasn’t finished all he intends to do in making us like Christ. It can be a painful process. Some of you came to faith as adults, after you were married, after you had children, sometimes after you had older children who had grown up in a very different type of household. What was that transition like?

Most of you were not here 8 years ago when my family moved to Arizona. Let me tell you a story. This congregation, then known as Community Christian Church, was the largest church in Apache Junction. That may not be saying much, but at the time documents in the office counted around 950 members. We had two services in the winter with ~150 in the early service and ~500-650 in the second service. Worship then was very different than what we have today. There were certainly believers in the church then, several of whom are still with us, but there had not been a clear and consistent articulation of the gospel from the pulpit in a long time, if ever. Most people didn’t even bring a Bible to church on Sundays. They didn’t need one. When I accepted the church’s (third) call and moved to Arizona, I already self-identified as Reformed, but I was still figuring out what that meant. I was not yet covenantal. I did not understand how Reformed theology needed to inform our understanding of the church and the sacraments. I was learning and growing, and as I learned and grew, so did the church.

The first three years of growth involved a lot of division. When I started preaching through Romans, dozens of people began leaving the church every week. Others were showing up at the same time, enthused about the new commitment to gospel proclamation, expository preaching, and the authority of Scripture in the life of the church and every believer. Jacob and I did not understand at the time the hostility and anger those sermons from Romans were creating. We would go back and listen to them again. Were we being legalistic? Were we beating people over the head with the Law without bringing Christ and the Gospel to them as well? Were we, what we deliberately and explicitly tried not to be, a couple of young, arrogant Calvinists coming in to change the church with baseball bats and hand grenades? I’m sure that is what many of the people who left still think, and I am sure we made many mistakes. There are things we might have done differently if we had it to do over again, but we also saw the Lord use hard providence and unforeseen circumstances to force changes that we were not seeking to make at that time. In fact, he took us all on a journey none of us anticipated. When I moved to Arizona, I had no idea I would become an OPC minister a little over three years later. I could not have predicted it, but that is what the Lord did.

The first new elders God raised up to shepherd our church did not come from Reformed backgrounds. One had been a member in the PCA after coming to faith in middle-age. The rest of us had belonged to non-denominational or Baptist churches before coming to CCC. We were learning on the job what it meant to be a well-ordered church, and we leaned on the wisdom and resources other brothers and the historical tradition had to share. There were a lot of growing pains, but God did not give up on us. He continued to teach us. We faced financial disaster when we discovered a handful of prior elders had made decisions several years before that were never disclosed to the elder board. We had to make changes in the Lord’s Day worship much earlier than we planned due to unrest regarding the choir and divisiveness by one of its leaders. We faced the pain of unrepentant sin: lying, slander, sexual immorality, and false teaching that undermined the church’s leadership and witness. We did the hard work of introducing the practice of church discipline which had been largely (if not entirely) unknown and neglected in the church up until that time. We even had to discipline elders and stand against those who were greatly loved and had contributed much to the church’s reformation yet were found to be unrepentant in serious sin. Looking back, I don’t know how to explain this church’s survival and transformation except by two words: But God. It was his work and grace, not our wisdom, good deeds, or skillfulness. At times this journey has felt more like holding on desperately as we careen down a mountain road without brakes than like the well-planned, well-executed program we expected it to be when I arrived in 2013. I had a one-year, two-year, five-year, and ten-year plan for this congregation. The OPC wasn’t on any of them, and none of those plans were based on what we actually discovered when we got on the ground. God decisively changed those plans in the first six months of our ministry together.

What has conversion, ongoing repentance, new commitment to discipleship, and sanctification looked like in your household? Do you see any parallels? Maybe you had it all figured out from the start. Our family certainly didn’t. All five of our children were born in churches that rejected instrumental music, Reformed theology, original sin, justification by faith alone, the celebration of Christmas, the brotherhood of believers in other churches, and affirmed many unbiblical doctrines that ranged from unhelpful and idiosyncratic to dangerous and anti-gospel. Our daughters remember a time when their parents did not understand the gospel and also later when Dad and Mom began sharing what they were learning about grace and the changes it would make in our family. I wish I could have raised my children in a consistently Reformed home from day one. I wish Community Christian Church had been a Reformed congregation before I arrived, even though it would mean they never would have called me. I wish many things in the last 8 years had gone differently than they have, that we had better foreseen errors, better understood issues, and been able to make more efficient and effective decisions in navigating those unseen challenges. But do you understand the implications of wishing it had been otherwise? Who decided things would unfold in this way? Who was and is in control?

We must balance two ideas: a strong and sincere regret for our sins coupled with a desire that it had been otherwise, and a calm and contented resting in the sovereign providence of God knowing that if we could change our past it would only be for the worse. That may be hard to believe, but God works all things together for the good of those who love him (Rom. 8:28), he works all things according to the counsel of his will (Eph. 1:11), and he wrote every day of our lives in a book before we were born (Psa. 139:16). That does not mean I should not mourn and regret my many sins. I should; I must. But it does mean that my life is traveling along the path God designed for me, and if he allowed me to design it, I could not do it as well; I could only make it worse. The last 8 years are not how I envisioned the ministry here would develop, but I take comfort in the fact it is evidently how the Lord decided it would go. The fact it has been hard does not mean it is intended for our harm. On the contrary, his hard providence works for our good. In fact, it is the lessons taught by hard providence we tend to learn best.

I am humbled by, grateful for, and truly rejoice in the work of reformation God has done in this congregation in less than 8 years. The transformation is remarkable, and if we could have foreseen or tried to plan such a transition, we never could have pulled it off as quickly or as well as the Lord did. This has been his work, and he should receive all the glory for it, while all of the mistakes and shame are ours. But look at what the Lord has done. Look at how our congregation is now connected to the work of our Presbytery and how this story has been shared in many other places, even beyond our own denomination. Look at the people that have come to saving faith. Look at the children that have been baptized and are now being discipled as members of the church. Look at the individuals and families who have come to and are now growing in a fuller understanding of the doctrine of grace than they ever knew before. Look at the Lord’s service of worship which we receive and from which we benefit every Lord’s Day. Look at the relationships we have with faithful brothers and sisters around the world and at the blessing of that fellowship even in the kind of guest preaching we enjoyed this past week. Look what God hath wrought!

“God brings them out of Egypt; He has strength like a wild ox.

For there is no sorcery against Jacob, nor any divination against Israel.

It now must be said of Jacob and of Israel, ‘Oh, what God has done!’

Look, a people rises like a lioness, and lifts itself up like a lion;

It shall not lie down until it devours the prey, and drinks the blood of the slain.”

(Num. 23:22-24)

Come and hear, all you who fear God,

And I will declare what He has done for my soul. (Psalm 66:16)

Now the man from whom the demons had departed begged Him that he might be with Him. But Jesus sent him away, saying, “Return to your own house, and tell what great things God has done for you.” And he went his way and proclaimed throughout the whole city what great things Jesus had done for him. (Luke 8:38-39)

With the election of three new deacons on Sunday evening, six of our nine officers came to this congregation from established NAPARC backgrounds. We are stronger, healthier, and more well-ordered than ever before, notwithstanding the financial issues recently discovered. We are imperfect, as is every congregation and individual in the visible Church, but we are reformed and reforming, learning and growing, dying more and more unto sin and foolishness, living more and more unto Christ and in his wisdom. I have never been happier to be a pastor, and I have no desire to ever be more than Kirstie’s husband, my children’s father, my grandchildren’s grandfather, and your pastor until the day I die or God removes me. If the last 8 years has taught us anything, it is that he is in control, and we are not. We must submit to his plan, not insist on acting according to our own. I will not make foolish promises about the future that I cannot control. I am the Lord’s servant: to live, do, serve, suffer, and die at his pleasure. I pray that he will use me up. I am eager to spend and be spent for the sake of your souls and hope to leave all that I have on the field of battle. But regardless of my role or yours, this church belongs to the Lord. He will do with us as he pleases. And that is a good thing, even if it must sometimes be a bumpy and difficult ride.

Lord, do with us as You will. Let Your will be done in each of our lives, our families, and in this congregation, even as it is done in heaven. Do what is necessary to teach us, shape us, and renew us in the likeness of Your Son. Use us in Your service and for Your glory, and save us in the end. Amen.

--JME

A Perfect Prayer

On Monday, January 4th, the 117th Congress celebrated its opening session with a prayer of invocation by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver II, an ordained minister in the Methodist Church. His prayer got a lot of attention, largely because of the unconventional way in which Rep. Cleaver closed it. Treating Amen as a gendered term, our highly esteemed representative balanced the scales by adding “awoman” to the closing line. It must be seen to be believed.

Here is the uncorrected transcript of the entire prayer provided by C-Span.

LET US PRAY. ETERNAL GOD, WE BOW BEFORE YOUR THROWN OF GRACE AS WE LEAVE BEHIND THE POLITICALLY AND SOCIALLY CLAMOROUS YEAR OF 2020. WE GATHER NOW IN THIS CONSEQUENTIAL CHAMBER TO INAUGURATE ANOTHER CHAPTER IN OUR ROLLER COASTER REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT. CONTROL OUR TRIBAL TENDENCIES AND QUICKEN OUR SPIRITS. THAT WE MAY FEEL THY PRIESTLEY PRESENCE EVEN IN MOMENTS OF HEIGHTENED DISAGREEMENT. MAY WE SO FEEL YOUR PRESENCE THAT OUR SERVICE HERE MAY NOT BE SOILED BY ANY UTTERANCES OR ACTS UNWORTHY OF THIS HIGH OFFICE. INSERT IN OUR SPIRIT A LIGHT SO BRIGHT THAT WE CAN SEE OURSELVES AND OUR POLITICS AS WE REALLY ARE, SOILED BY SELFISHNESS, PERVERTED BY PREJUDICE AND INVAGUELED BY IDEOLOGY. NOW MAY THE GOD WHO CREATE THE WORLD AND EVERYTHING IN IT BLESS US AND KEEP US. MAY THE LORD MAKE HIS FACE TO SHINE UPON US AND BE GRACIOUS UNTO US. MAY THE LORD LIFT UP THE LIGHT OF HIS COUNTNENCE UPON US AND GIVE US PEACE. PEACE IN OUR FAMILY, PEACE ACROSS THIS LAND AND DARE I ASK, O LORD, PEACE EVEN IN THIS CHAMBER. NOW AND EVER MORE. WE ASK IT IN THE NAME OF THE MONOTHEISTIC GOD AND THE GOD KNOWN BY MANY NAMES AND FAITHS. A MAN AND A WOMAN -- AMEN AND AWOMAN.

It seems appropriate to offer a few brief observations in response to this piece of public piety by one of our elected magistrates.

First, by adding awoman to the close of his prayer, he misgendered amen which is a loanword from Latin which transliterated the Greek αμήν (which also transliterated an earlier Hebrew word) and which translated means firm, certain, or so be it. Misgendering is a serious offense in these very serious times. I scarcely need to point out how inappropriate a gender binary is in closing a public prayer like this. Is our esteemed leader unaware of the many other gender categories now accepted and represented among his constituents? This error displays Rep. Cleaver’s cisgendered assumptions and intransigent male privilege. We hope an apology will be forthcoming from his office. We decline, however, to hold our breath as we hope.

Second, it is possible Rep. Cleaver is more intelligent and sophisticated than us all and deliberately misgendered amen in order to make a dramatic statement regarding the equality of women. However, since amen, so interpreted, would be a plural masculine reference, the inclusion of awoman creates a further imbalance by introducing a singular alongside the plural. Women were not represented by the Representative, only a-woman. This likewise is a serious offense in our very serious times, and we look forward to a clarification and correction from Rep. Cleaver’s office. We decline, however, to hold our breath while we wait.

Third, we admire and commend the Representative’s desire that the proceedings of the 117th Congress of the United States not be soiled. It was a noble petition, albeit a vain one. Perhaps he should have prayed, “May these proceedings not be further soiled once I finish what I’m doing here.”

It has been observed by others for some time that satire is becoming impossible in our society. If Rep. Cleaver set out to compose a parody prayer highlighting the most absurd, blasphemous, and contemptible features of the Democratic Party’s current agenda, he scarcely could have done better. “Professing to be wise, they became fools” (Rom. 1:22). Indeed. There are, however, two serious points I wish to suggest for the believing Church, i.e. the Church that has the sense not to allow Rep. Cleaver to lead a prayer or serve as a minister.

First, the Church should lament and pray that such blasphemy is celebrated in the halls of government. “Rivers of water run down from my eyes, Because men do not keep Your law” (Psa. 119:136). Rep. Cleaver’s prayer will not bring divine blessing upon our nation. Pray as those to whom God has promised to listen. The prayers offered from the podium in Congress may not be received in heaven; your prayers offered in your congregation and closet will be. Pray for Rep. Cleaver’s repentance. Pray for God’s mercy upon a sinful nation, laden with iniquity. And pray for God to restrain, reform, or entirely remove those who would advance a godless, unbiblical, and destructive program.

Second, the Church should laugh with scorn and rejoice in the inevitable triumph of the Son. We must tread carefully here. No doubt some will take offense. I do not say we should treat Rep. Cleaver with scorn, only his worldview, platform, and prayer. This is the kind of foolishness the prophet Elijah mocked on Mt. Carmel, and he did so in terms far less polite than would be tolerated by many enlightened evangelicals on social media. If you imagine yourself to be more enlightened, polite, and Christian than God’s prophets, it is time to put down the device on which you are accessing social media, and pick up a Bible. The former is making you stupid. The latter can make you wise.

And so it was, at noon, that Elijah mocked them and said, “Cry aloud, for he is a god; either he is meditating, or he is busy, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is sleeping and must be awakened.” So they cried aloud, and cut themselves, as was their custom, with knives and lances, until the blood gushed out on them. And when midday was past, they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice. But there was no voice; no one answered, no one paid attention. (1Kings 18:27-29)

This is what you fear? These are the people who cause you to wring your hands and lose sleep at night? Seriously? You tremble because so much of our nation is embracing a godless, anti-Christian agenda, yet you cannot see that such a program is doomed to destruction by the foolishness of the very people who promote it? The Lord will not have to knock this kingdom down; he only has to step out of the way. These are ideologues who think that Amen is a gendered word. They believe a boy can decide he is a girl and the rest of the world must not only go along with his madness, they must approve of it. They believe protecting sea turtles eggs is a moral priority and so is allowing a woman to kill her unborn child. Civilizations that declare sodomy as marriage, transgenderism as sanity, and abortion as healthcare have lost the right to use the term civil as a self-designation. Societies that make a sacrament of barren sex and abortion are signing a Do Not Resuscitate order on the day they appear. They will not last. They cannot. They do not believe in children.

Turn off the news, and read your Bible. Love your wife and have lots of babies. Pray, sing, and study Scripture with your family. Catechize those kids to the point they start seeing things in the Word of God you haven’t yet noticed. Be part of a faithful church. Work hard. Spend less than you make. Enjoy creation and all of God’s good gifts. Live joyfully every day. Rejoice that the sun is still shining even if it is hidden for a while behind clouds full of rain. Rep. Cleaver has given believers a tremendous reason to be encouraged at the beginning of this new year. Do not miss the opportunity to rejoice that Jesus is and always shall be King! --JME

The Offense of Christmas #3 (2020 Advent Series)

 Psalm 2; Matthew 2:13-21:

Christmas and the Fall of This World’s Kings

Introduction

This is the last lesson in our (abbreviated) Advent series this year. Over the last two weeks we have examined several passages that highlight the way in which Christ’s coming challenged the gods and false religion of this world and has decisively defeated them. Specifically we have seen that Christmas is fatal to any theory of neutrality or naturalism. Christmas proves that neutrality is a myth and that the system of naturalism fails at every point. The world is not neutral, secular space because Jesus has come, and he is Lord over all. Neither can naturalism be entertained. The world is not a closed, mechanical system. Human beings believe in morality and magic. Christmas is true, and unbelievers who hate and oppose its celebration show their fear of it.

Today we come to two passages that set forth clearly this antithesis between Christ and the world system. The King of all Kings is hated and opposed by the petty, tyrant-kings who presently rule in the City of Man. But they will not prevail. Yahweh has enthroned his Anointed One on Mt. Zion, and there is nothing the rulers of men who oppose it can do about it. The first coming of the Lord announced the end of their rule was at hand. His second coming will close the chapter finally.

Psalm 2 may seem a strange psalm to use during the Christmas season. In some ways it is better suited to Easter since it is a hymn of the resurrection. The apostle Paul gives an inspired interpretation of the text in his synagogue sermon at Pisidian Antioch in Acts 13. There he makes it plain that the phrase “today I have begotten You” speaks not of what happened at Bethlehem and Christmas but of what happened at Joseph’s tomb on the third day (Ac. 13:32-33). This begetting is God’s declaration in space and time and by an act of divine power that Jesus truly is the divine Son of God (cf. Rom. 1:4). The resurrection of Jesus is the definitive sign of who he is. It is not the manger but the empty tomb that ultimately convinces us he is the Son of God.

Yet as a resurrection hymn, Psalm 2 is appropriate on every Lord’s Day, and it is especially appropriate on the Lord’s Day nearest to the Church’s historic celebration of the Incarnation. Today two great remembrances of the Church are joined: that the Son of God came and that after he died for sins he arose. The Lord’s Day is a weekly celebration of the resurrection, but there could be no resurrection unless Jesus died, and he could not die unless he was truly incarnated (enfleshed), i.e. made man (John 1:14). Everything in the gospel downstream of Jesus’ birth presupposes it. There is no ministry, no miracles, no parables, no exorcisms, no sacraments, no serving, no suffering, no salvation at all unless Jesus had truly come as a Man. This, not incidentally but as an aside, is why our tradition of rejecting the medieval Church’s calendar and affirming that the Lord’s Day is the one day the Lord appointed for his Church to observe is so valuable. There is an important sense in which we do not have Christmas hymns, Easter hymns, or Pentecost hymns, and we firmly reject hymns to Mary or any other saint. We have Christian hymns, biblical hymns, Scripture songs, and they are appropriate on every day of worship when God’s people gather.

I want to examine these two texts side by side. Psalm 2 liturgically affirms the principle. Matthew 2 shows it to us in history. Psalm 2 gives us the theology, and Matthew shows one aspect of it in Jesus’ life. Remember the psalms are the “songs of Jesus.” We benefit tremendously from them and can relate personally to most of them at some point in our lives. But they preeminently point to Christ. He is the righteous man who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly and can dwell on God’s holy hill. Psalm 2 is explicitly Messianic, one of the few that can only refer to Christ. Most of the psalms have an application for the psalmist and for saints who join in prayer and praise as well as a larger, eschatological application in relation to the Messiah. But Psalm 2 is all about Jesus, the Savior who is both the Anointed One and the Lord. He is the King born in Bethlehem whom Herod feared and world leaders hate; he is God’s King on the holy hill of Zion.

Christ’s Coming was Feared, Hated, and Violently Opposed

What would cause a king to order the slaughter of babies in one of his towns? Rage? That was not the case here. Hatred? Again, not the issue. Madness? Undoubtedly, but even madness has some reason for the order, however demented. Herod’s actions can only be understood in relation to fear. Herod was afraid of the appearance of the Messiah and what it would mean for his throne. 

Fear, of course, is a powerful motivator and has often been the reason for violence against others. We fear what we do not understand. People often fear what they perceive as different. And we fear what threatens to take away the things that we love and the idols in which we trust.

Herod did not order the slaughter of the Bethlehem infants because he had good reason to think the Messiah would be like Stalin or Hitler or Mao Tse-tung, as immoral, wicked, and gross as even that would be. No, Herod ordered the slaughter of the children because he knew that if the Messiah arrived he would become king and then Herod could not be. He was not opposed to the Messiah’s rule on moral grounds. He was opposed to anyone who might rule other than himself.

You probably have sent or received Christmas cards this year with Luke 2:14 printed on it: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men!” I still want someone to create a Christmas card with Matthew 10:34-36 on it:

“Do not think that I came to bring peace on earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to ‘set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law’; and ‘a man’s enemies will be those of his own household.’”

Jesus came to establish peace between God and his people, the new human race, the citizens of Zion. But his coming was and continues to be met with fear, hatred, and violent opposition. If you believe in and follow Jesus Christ, you will be persecuted. Not may be. Not probably will be. “All who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution” (2Tim. 3:12). And that persecution will sometimes come from your family or your own brethren. Jesus said so. So do not be surprised.

But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed. “And do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled.” … For it is better, if it is the will of God, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. (1Pet. 3:14, 17)

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter. (1Pet. 4:12-16)

Christ Came as King to Rule Over His Enemies

Why do people react violently and spitefully against Christ and those who follow him? Didn’t he come to save men, to establish peace, to bestow divine blessing? Yes, but he does so as the Sovereign Lord, Master and Commander, Maker and Judge. If he came only to save and then promised to leave everyone alone, perhaps more people would be willing to receive his work of grace. Who doesn’t like free stuff? I am being facetious to make a point. No unregenerate person will receive Christ no matter the offer. But don’t miss the point: Jesus’ gift of grace and work as Savior is inextricably linked to his authority and rule as Lord of all. You cannot have Christ as your Savior while rejecting him as Lord. He is both Savior and Lord, objectively, and those who reject his authority as King, like those in Psalm 2, will not enjoy the benefits of his work as Savior.

Many evangelicals think of Jesus’ role as a position we grant to him by our decision. Some of you have heard the expression: “God votes for you, Satan votes against you, and you cast the deciding vote.” Stuff and nonsense. What you see in Psalm 2 is that Jesus is King whether you choose him or not. He will rule regardless of man’s cooperation. Some of the same believers who say you must make Jesus Lord of your life will acknowledge this globally while denying it on the personal level. You see this, for example, in the notion of the carnal Christian, the idea that you can have Jesus as Savior but not as Lord, that you can be saved while remaining in unrepentance and disobedience. This is not what the Bible teaches. Jesus is Savior and he is Lord, and man’s denial of either role has no material affect on his position and power. He is, objectively, Lord of all, and the psalm says explicitly he rules over his enemies.

“Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, And the ends of the earth for Your possession. You shall break them with a rod of iron; You shall dash them to pieces like a potter’s vessel.’” (vv.8-9)

What if those nations don’t want Christ to rule over them? It doesn’t matter. What if I prefer my autonomy and want to govern my own life? He is still Lord and King. You do not place Jesus on the throne, not of your life, not of anything. He is on the throne already. He is Lord of all lords. He is Ruler over your life, and you will acknowledge that now or later, but you will acknowledge it. God’s Word says: “Every knee shall bow… and every tongue shall confess” that Jesus Christ is Lord (cf. Rom. 14:11; Php. 2:9-11).

The Lord rules over all creation, in heaven and on earth, not only his redeemed sons and daughters but also his enemies. For the latter, he uses a rod of iron, and for the former, a shepherd’s staff. His is an everlasting and invincible kingdom that shall outlast and overrule all kingdoms of this present world. Ancient Israel was not that kingdom, and neither is the modern state of Israel. The United States is not that kingdom anymore than was the Roman, Greek, or Neo-Babylonian Empires. We must beware of kingdom confusion; though we are citizens of temporal and political nations, our true allegiance is to the King of Glory and his everlasting dominion. We are part of that kingdom right now having been delivered from the “power of darkness and conveyed into the kingdom of the Son” (Col. 1:13), but we still await its consummation. We seek “an entrance…  into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2Pet. 1:11) which we will see on the day when the kingdoms of this world are brought into subjection to the true King. The enemies will be shattered like pottery, and the farthest ends of the earth will be ruled by Messiah.

The Lord Laughs with Scorn for His Enemies and Joy for His Sons

Only an invincible kingdom could begin as meanly and vulnerably as Christ’s coming into this world. He was not born as a prince into a noble family. Sure, his lineage was kingly--he was a descendant of David! But no one looking at Joseph and Mary would have associated them with royalty or political power. He was born into poverty and obscurity and worked with his hands as a carpenter until his public ministry began (cf. Mark 6:3). He was hunted by Herod, hated by the religious establishment, and finally executed by the government authorities. And all of these were preparatory to the successful, inevitable, unconquerable inauguration of his kingdom rule.

Herod’s opposition, like the resistance of rulers described in Psalm 2, was not only evil and despicable; it was desperate, pathetic, and futile. He hoped to kill the child born to be king and so secure his own hold on the throne. But all he accomplished was increasing his own condemnation. He was already an evil man; now he became a murderer of children. But he could not stop Christ. He could not prevent or impede the kingdom of God in any way. The reign of the Messiah was inevitable. Herod’s days were numbered. He had two choices: submit to Christ or perish.

How does the Lord respond to the wicked, violent rebellion of his foes? He laughs. This is surprising to some people who are not accustomed to such a picture of God, but Psalm 2 says he laughs at the wicked. He is not laughing with amusement. He is not laughing as we might when we see the adorable but futile wrestlings of a baby or a puppy. He is laughing with scorn. He holds the wicked in derision. He despises their violent attempts to overthrow his authority, but he does not fear them. We may. We look at the world and are tempted to wring our hands. “What is going to happen?!” But the Lord does not wonder. He knows. He ordained the end from the beginning. And nothing this world’s rulers or rebels ever do or even can do can ever change the authority and sovereignty of Christ over all creation. Submit to Christ, or perish. Those are their only options.

Christ Entered the House of Bondage to Deliver God’s People

One of the great ironies in Matthew 2 and the Christmas story is Joseph and Mary’s flight to Egypt to escape Herod’s attempts to kill the Child. Egypt was the house of bondage, the historic site of Israel’s original captivity, and a metaphor for the judgment of God’s people in the prophets. But Jesus goes there, of all places, to escape danger in the promised land. If you suspect there is something more going on, you are correct.

The flight into Egypt and subsequent return to the land is a picture of Christ’s first advent in miniature. The Son of God descended into the house of slavery in order to bring the sons of God up from there once again. Christ’s ministry is the new and true exodus, the deliverance the first exodus could only foreshadow. He came into a world full of sin where men were bound by the power of darkness. He entered that house willingly because we needed a deliverer, and Christ, as the new and greater Moses, brought God’s people out of Egypt forever.

There is more to see here--more in fact than we have time to unpack today--including the paradox of God’s salvation. He saves in unexpected and impossible ways. The foolishness of preaching in contrast to the wisdom of man. Saviors born to barren women. Victory given to the weak and few over the strong and many. “Not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called” because “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise” and mighty and things the world admires and adores (1Cor. 1:26-27).

Joseph goes to Egypt as a slave and becomes savior of his family there. Moses is born in Egypt as a slave, leaves, but willingly returns in order to deliver the Israelites. Now Jesus follows their footsteps to do what their lives only anticipated. He finds refuge in the house of bondage, but he is not there to hide. Like David who sought refuge among the Philistines, the Lord is positioned in plain sight of his target. He is not there to pass the time. God’s heroes go to Egypt to plunder it.

Christmas and the Fall of This World’s Kings

Herod’s violent opposition to the birth of Christ both historically enacts the rebellion in Psalm 2 and serves as the prototype for all unregenerate, reprobate rulers. The kings of this world have fought Christmas from the very beginning because they know that the birth of the King will be the end of their rule. “The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!” (Rev. 11:15) Regardless of your eschatological view, you have to reckon with that passage and many others like it. The “glory and honor of the nations” are brought into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 21:26). All nations, all earthly kingdoms, all rulers and authorities, will one day pay tribute to the true King of the universe: Jesus Christ.

This is not to say the kingdom of Christ is an earthly or political institution like the nations of this world. Jesus made clear to Pilate: “My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). He said to the Pharisees’ question of when the kingdom would come: “The kingdom of God does not come with observation; nor will they say, ‘See here!’ or ‘See there!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:20-21). This is a spiritual, otherworldly kingdom. It is not claiming a particular piece of land, building a capital, mustering an army, and marching out to conquer the nations of the world as any of them might do. But that does not mean the kingdom of Christ is theoretical or merely ethereal. It has an earthly manifestation and practical, temporal implications for the City of Man which will be increasingly obvious as Christ exercises his rule over all.

Do you want a Christian nation? Well it depends on what you mean. If you mean do I want only Presbyterians to be allowed to hold office, all atheists executed, and all Roman Catholics and credo-baptists jailed, then no, as a matter of fact, I do not. What some have sought or expected as a “Christian” nation turns out not to be very Christian or biblical or realistic at all. But that does not make the advocacy of a secular state the preferred or proper solution. There are ditches on both sides of the road. And if some views of a Christian nation are much too sectarian, some views of politics held by believers in the present age are simply pagan. No, that’s not true and it’s unfair to pagans. At least pagans believed the gods were involved in their national affairs and so their city leaders offered public prayers and sacrifices accordingly. Christian secularists won’t allow that.

Every kingdom is religious. Every single one. Stalinist Russia was religious. Their religion was secularism and atheism, but it was practiced religiously as a religion nonetheless. Have you heard of the Cult of Reason which developed during the French Revolution? Human beings are religious by nature, and if we refuse to be religious, then we will be religious about our irreligiosity. The question is not whether we will worship a god; the question is which god we will worship. Every kingdom is a theocracy, and the most tyrannical are states that insist they are not theocratic. The god of the state rules the kingdom. His word and values become the law, and they must be obeyed on pain of death. Do you doubt it? Consider what tolerance and diversity looks like in our present social context. We must make room for all views, except any view that departs from the new norm. How quickly we went from admitting abortion as “safe, legal, and rare” to hashtags like Shout Your Abortion and public celebration on the steps of the Supreme Court for the slaughter of children. Just over twenty years ago our society was challenged to reject what was term homophobic hatred and violence. Today we have hate crimes legislation which punishes crimes more severely if they are committed with a bad motivation--as opposed to all of those crimes that arise from good and wholesome motivations--and which now threatens to penalize, silence, or otherwise subjugate opinions, beliefs, and language that offends the new morality. “Silence is violence,” but words are also deemed “violence,” as when someone refuses to participate in the normalization of mental illness by using preferred pronouns contrary to a person’s biological sex.

Theocracy is inevitable, and if it isn’t the true God then it will be Zeus or Ra or Marduk or Tash. Lest you think I am suggesting we ought to have a Christian theocracy in order to beat them at their own game, I am arguing there is no game at all because Jesus has come and he is Lord! We are not trying to engineer or politically maneuver the kingdom into power. He already has it. He has all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:18). What authority does he lack? Where is he not King? Not all of his subjects recognize his authority. Not all of them are obedient to him. But don’t get too worked up about that. He is a great King, and he knows how to defend his throne.

Kiss the Son. We think of kissing in the context of romance. This is a kiss in the context of monarchy. It is kissing the ring or kissing the feet, a sign of submission, but not grudging, fearful submission to a tyrant, but the willing, joyful submission of a slave who has been redeemed and delivered and then adopted as a son. Jesus came into this world and shed his blood so that his enemies might be awakened from the sleep of death and made his friends. Rather than merely vanquishing us as foes, he has vanquished us as a lover wins his beloved, by wooing the heart. The bride gladly submits to her husband, because he won her submission by love, service, and self-sacrifice. Jesus is King, and his hand must be kissed because he is Lord of all. If he is Lord, then I am not. But there is a kind of romance in it after all. Not the erotic kind of romance, but the covenantal romance of a Bride won by the love and sacrifice of her Savior.

Jesus did not merely show up, proclaim himself King, and order everyone to worship him. He could have done so. Instead he came “not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45). He gave himself, repeatedly and fully, so that his foes might be conquered, not by power but by grace. The iron rod which will destroy all his enemies first fell on the King himself, as he laid down his life for the sins of God’s chosen ones. We worship Christ because he is God, we obey Him because he is King, but we love him because he is good. We love him because he first loved us (1Jn. 4:19). And what a love that is, beyond comprehension!

Conclusion

In this series we’ve examined some of what makes Christmas so offensive. It is because Christmas was the eschatological equivalent of D-Day in a spiritual, but very visible, war. Christ’s Advent confronted, combated, and has conquered the gods of this world. The idea of neutrality? Everywhere is sacred space, because Jesus has sanctified it by his presence, and he is Lord of all of it. The system of naturalism? The Creator stepped into the world, became a creature. He did what was impossible for the creature in order to save the world. This is not a closed system; it is a terrarium full of magic and creatures that contemplate morality. The kings and kingdoms of this world? They are all under the authority of the King of all Kings, the Ruler of the everlasting kingdom. Those earthly kingdoms are becoming the one kingdom of our Lord and Savior. His kingdom will stand forever. None of the kingdoms of this world can or will.

No one is particularly offended by a baby in a manger. That is why the world has tried to strip Christmas of all theological substance in its sanitized celebration of the “winter holidays.” Even the Church has been complicit in this mistake. The Lord was a baby in a manger, but he is not anymore. It’s not so much that the things we say this time of year are wrong--some of them are, but mostly it is an issue of what is not being said and where the emphasis is being laid. But regardless of the world’s hostility and the hatred and opposition of civil magistrates, regardless of the Church’s lack of theological discernment and the misplaced emphasis on “the little Lord Jesus” --who unlike every other newborn in the history of the world evidently never cried--no matter the sanitized and de-theologized Christmas many people may celebrate, the truth still breaks through and will prevail. Jesus is Savior and Lord. He is a mighty King, the Deliverer of his people, and Sovereign, enthroned on Mt. Zion, the One before whom all earthly kings must inevitably bow or fall. Rejoice the Lord is King. O come, let us adore him. Merry Christmas. Amen.