Resurrection Lutheran Church, St Catharines

Did you hear in the Vicar’s sermon last Sunday that he dared to mention politics from the pulpit? We have kind of an unwritten rule that you don’t get too political in the pulpit. In contrast to some other religious denominations who have little trouble telling their people for whom they should cast their vote, we Lutherans recognize that it is a little more complicated than that. The kingdoms of the world have never been perfectly aligned with the kingdom of God. So the Vicar noted last week that even as Christian citizens we follow the disappointing cycle of elect, regret, repeat.

 

As Christians living in the world, we see that there is no political party that is Christian, even if that party appeals to a large group of citizens who are Christians or even if that political party uses the word “christian” in their name. Not even the kings of Israel, hand-picked by God Himself, were perfectly aligned to His will. King David, the greatest of them all, was guilty of grave sins.

 

There was always hope that God would send His Messiah to establish His kingdom on earth, but when He did send Jesus, the Jews had Him killed. The sign over His head upon the cross said, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews,” even though Jesus told the Roman Governor that His kingdom was not of this world (John 18:36).

 

We ought not to look for or expect that any kingdom of this world will fulfill what we desire to have ruling over us as Christians. We can hope that the ruling government will so govern the nation that we may continue to meet together as churches in relative peace and safety. We can hope that the government will recognize and protect the sanctity of human life, even if it does not recognize God as the source of all life. We can hope and pray that the government will use the authority entrusted to them honourably and for the good of the people.

 

We can exercise our democratic right to vote for candidates and political parties whom we think will follow such principles, but we will never in this world be fully satisfied with any political system, for we are citizens of a kingdom that is not of this world, and we await the coming of the King who will take us out of this world.

 

Meanwhile, we do complain a lot and much of it is very similar to the complaints that the LORD heard from His people Israel in the days of the prophet Isaiah, as we heard in today’s Old Testament Reading. “My way is hidden from the LORD, and my right is disregarded by my God” (Isaiah 40:27). In other words, perhaps, “God has no idea what we are going through down here. We deserve to have a better life than this.”

 

In Isaiah’s day the people of Israel knew they were in a tough spot. The nation was a political disaster. Their independent empire had fallen. They were like a 51st state of Assyria, and threats were coming in from Egypt and Babylon as well. They longed for the days when their nation was regarded as the LORD’s nation, even if much that went along with that perception was only in their imaginative memory. Much like when you hear people talk about when Canada was a Christian country. When exactly was that?

 

The reason that we complain and God doesn’t seem to be concerned about our complaints is that we desire to live a victorious life according to a faulty standard. We look for victory in the wrong things. The people of Israel in Isaiah’s day thought that their status as the people of God meant political independence and superiority over the nations around them. If God wasn’t going to save them from Assyria and Babylon, then they felt that He was abandoning them.

 

There is a great temptation to despair in this, not just when Christians are subject to governing authorities that are not Christian, but when many other things in life are not going the way that we think they ought to go. For example, when we are not able to live at least at a middle-class level in society; or when we are diagnosed to have a chronic illness; or when we seem to have been abandoned by family and friends. In these times we are tempted to think that God has abandoned us too, or that He is unaware of our troubles.

 

The prophet Isaiah reminded the people of his day who struggled with this temptation of despair that they should look up at the stars every night. God created all of those countless suns within their own galaxies. He is the one who causes them to shine so they can be seen every night. We are still trying to map them all and to give them strange letter and number designations like car license plates. But He knows them all by name, their courses and their duration.

 

Your ways are not hidden from Him. He knows you by name. In Holy Baptism He joined your name to His own. He knows the duration of your life, the number of your days, and He knows your orbit, the path of your life, and everything that happens to you. He never dozes off or zones out and looses track of what you are going through. He is aware of it all in a most caring and loving concern for you.

 

We see this in Jesus’ words to the disciples on the night before He was crucified. He knew what they would go through and what they would suffer as the events of His arrest, His trial, and His death would unfold before their eyes. So He spoke to them the comforting words that we heard in today’s Gospel Reading. “A little while and you will see Me no longer; but again a little while and you will see Me” (John 16:16). And as that only left them with more questions about what was going to happen, He explained more plainly, “You will be sorrowful, but your sorrow will turn to joy” (v. 20).

 

And He gave them the example of a mother’s agony in giving birth to a child, and the incomparable joy that comes once the child is born. She doesn’t even remember the pain. After thirty-six hours of watching my wife in labour our first child was born. Within the week Linda asked me if I was ready for another one. Although she had forgotten the pain of the birth, watching her in pain was still fully ingrained in my memory. So I treasure this promise from Jesus, “So also you will have sorrow now, but I will see you again and your hearts will rejoice, and no one will take your joy away from you” (v. 22).

 

We complain about the pains in our mortal bodies, thinking that we deserve for God to give us a long and vigorous earthly life. We complain about the political state of our country, as if God’s mercy toward us were dependent upon certain bylaws and levels of prosperity. We fret about our religious freedom, but we have the example of the disciples who, when locked in the upper room for fear of the Jews, were blessed with the coming of the resurrected Lord Jesus into their midst.

 

God is not bound by politics. He is not defeated when our health wanes and we grow weak. His resurrection from the dead, when the Jews sought to kill Him and the occupying Romans collaborated to bring about His crucifixion, proves that the kingdom of God transcends all of this. Jesus is our king in such a way that He is beyond compare to any earthly ruler, and His kingdom is such that nothing on earth can impede it.

 

It is understandable that we grow weak and weary. Everyone does—every citizen, every ruler, every earthly kingdom. Kingdoms and rulers fall and pass away, and another takes their place as we vote, regret, and repeat. But the LORD is God Everlasting and from Him comes strength to us in our time of weakness and trouble.

 

It is to the weak that He gives strength. The death and resurrection of Jesus not only portray that for us, but they are the source of His strength for us. This is the unsearchable wisdom of God that we cannot comprehend. When we fail to remember this we are led to complain against God that our circumstances threaten to cut us off from Him. But it is in these times of weakness that God’s strength is made known. His glory shone brightest through Jesus’ death on the cross for our salvation.

 

When we have fallen to sins of despair, His forgiveness makes us holy again. When our bodies give way to death, they sleep in anticipation of the resurrection day. When our hope fades, then He brings to us the good and comforting gospel, “I will see you again, and your hearts will rejoice” (John 16:22).

 

This gospel promise gives strength and power to us when we are weak and powerless. When the circumstances of this world have us fainting with fear, God’s good news of resurrection points us again to the everlasting and indestructible kingdom of God. And when we gather here, perhaps despondently and with little hope, He comes into our midst. Through His Word and His body and blood in the Sacrament He comes to turn our sorrow into joy.

 

He has not forgotten those whom He called by name in Holy Baptism. He knows our condition and He does not turn away. He comes to forgive our sins and to restore our joy. He comes to strengthen us when we are weary. He comes as a constant reminder that He is coming again and we will see Him.

 

His Word of forgiveness, restoration, and resurrection renews our strength that we might be lifted from the depths of despair as if on the wings of eagles. Like the disciples caught in fear were elated to see Jesus Christ risen from the dead, we too have the resurrected Jesus. With Him we have hope and peace and an inner strength to run the race that is set before us and not grow weary. We are empowered to walk in the way of the Lord and not faint.