Transcription

Daniel is living among the exiles in Babylon. And it would have been very easy for them to say, "Well, we're away from home. Now we don't know who we are, and we're cut off from our God." But Ezekiel and Daniel are saying, "No way, children. God is king, and he is still with us, and he is in charge:"

I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven, there came one like a Son of Man. And he came to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion, and glory, and a kingdom that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away. And his kingdom, one that shall not be destroyed.

In the ordinary use of the Old Testament, the expression Son of Man simply means "a human being." However, when Jesus uses this expression to refer to himself, he clearly has this passage from Daniel 7 in mind. Jesus' use of this phrase is cited 90 times all together, in all four Gospels. Jesus was very cagey about how he spoke to these Galilean fishermen. He wanted to tell them as clearly as he could who he was, and what he was doing, and what he expected of them.

So if he used the phrase, Son of Man, the title, in referring to himself, they could just say, "Oh, well, he's saying just like, "a man like one of you." It would have just gone over their heads. But you would think that since Jesus kept using this term, and if you saw how he spoke this way in context, you would realize he was talking about the vision of Daniel in chapter 7.

If we are to understand how Jesus was using this title, Son of Man, in teaching his disciples, and therefore, his understanding of the phrase, the Kingdom of God, which we are keenly interested in understanding, we need to understand the meaning of these words in the Jewish world in which Jesus lived. We need to travel back in time, and we need to hear the words of the Bible in context, and be very careful about not thinking that the words, as we read them in the text, mean the same thing as they do to us today, because for the most part, we are totally out of it, in today's culture.

So this sermon has two parts, and you'll be relieved to know that I 1

left almost everything out of the first part. We are in a culture that has lost its memory. I'm so embarrassed that so many of our contemporaries have no understanding, not only of American history, which is just a moment in time, but of the history of Israel, which is the story of God's struggling, very patiently, over millennia, to communicate with us, his human creatures.

Part 1: So anyway, I'm just going to hit two points in Part 1. It's not the whole history of Israel, but just two key points, which are the context of today's reflections. And then Part 2 is three suggestions on how this applies to us and is important for us to take to heart, in order to know what God is saying to us today.

You remember the history of Israel, starting with good old Abe and coming up through the Exodus and that amazing character Moses, and then the kingdom established under David. And things ticked along for a couple hundred years, which is as much history as we Americans are aware of. And then the superpowers closed in on the land of the Eastern Mediterranean, because it was just really a connecting link between Mesopotamia and Egypt. Everybody wanted to get their traffic through there without being harassed by the local population. First of all, in around 700 BC, the Assyrians, who were a particularly well-organized country militarily and very brutal, rolled in and wiped out the northern kingdom of the Jews, which is called historically, Israel. And as far as we know, when we talk about the lost 10 tribes of Israel, they were indeed, lost. That is what often happened when one people conquered another. Usually all the military men were killed, and the women and children were enslaved - and so the people lost their identity. As far as we know, that's what happened to the lost 10 tribes of Israel.

On the other hand, by an act of God the Judeans said, the Assyrians' siege of Jerusalem fell apart and the Assyrian army went home. It was another 100 years before the Babylonians came rolling in. And they had no patience with the little kingdom of Judah. They marched in. They destroyed Jerusalem, including Solomon's temple. And they took all of the elite people and a lot of the skilled craftsmen into exile in Babylon.

But you knew that. So this is the setting of today's texts. The first text, which is really important, and not only historically, because it's important for us, is Jeremiah. Jeremiah chapter 29. And you know who Jeremiah was. He was a prophet in Jerusalem. And he went through this whole hell of international political negotiations. The Judean king thought that if he had an alliance with the king of Egypt, that he would send funds and advanced weaponry and everything would be OK. But it didn't work that way. And so Jerusalem got wiped out.

Jeremiah was there through the whole of it. And he was treated very badly, which is normal operating procedure, again, for prophets. If you don't like what somebody's saying to you, then you have to cancel them one way or another. They did their best to cancel Jeremiah. They dropped him into a pit and left him there to starve. But a friend pulled him out. Once the exiles were settled in Babylon, Jeremiah sent them a letter. And this is the key. This is the heart of that letter:

These are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the surviving elders of the exiles and to the priests, the prophets, and all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had taken into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. And thus says the Lord of hosts. Build houses and live in them. Plant gardens and eat their produce. Take wives and have sons and daughters. Multiply there and do not decrease, but seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile.

Do you hear that? "Seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into exile." This is the action from Ezekiel's vision of the throne on wheels. "And pray to the Lord on its behalf." Pray to the Lord on behalf of the Babylonians who just messed us up totally and for its welfare. "For in its welfare, you will find your welfare." That is an amazingly revolutionary, positive approach towards the people who just destroyed your country. Can you imagine? I would call that very practical forgiveness. So what Jeremiah is saying is, "Don't conform, don't accept the lifestyle of the Babylonians, but work for their welfare."

Normally, if you're present in a hostile group of people, you want to be comfortable. And the best way to be comfortable is to speak the same way, act the same way, wear the same clothes, and kind of just melt in. Isn't that what we normally want to do? But Jeremiah is saying, "Don't do that. Don't get too comfortable. I want you to flourish. But retain your identity." "Remember who you are. Remember my purpose," says Yahweh. "Remember what my purpose is for you, my holy people." Don't forget who you are and what your mission is.

And related to this is a deep, dark concept which I hesitate to mention. Most preachers probably don't even think about it, or are too prudent, or cowardly, to mention it to the congregation: And that is, that adversity calls forth creativity. Adversity evokes creativity. If we're too comfortable, if we're fat and sassy and everything's going just smoothly (I'm speaking of myself), then we're not open to the new thing that the Lord has in mind. My tendency is just to sit back and go to sleep. I mean, everything is peachy keen. And I have heard people say, after this recent election, "Oh, I'm looking forward to the time where things settle down and I can just be comfortable again."

No, children. Don't expect to be comfortable if the hand of the Lord is on you. Was it in last Sunday's epistle, one of the verses in there that went skidding by, was, "It's a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God." And the Jews would say, "That the truth!" But that's what we've signed up for, guys. So when things get tough, what do they say, "When the going get tough, the tough get going?" And that's another way of saying that adversity evokes creativity. So when you've got a problem, don't hang your head and say, "Oh, this is terrible." You say, "Oh, OK, Lord, what are you saying to me? What do you want me to do?"

What is the creative, imaginative thing that I can do that will bring blessing not only to me and my household, but also to the world around me? So this is what's going on among the exiles in Babylon. And hence this strange idea, that the hardships, the calamity that has happened to them is the context of God's blessing! Now, put that in your pipe and smoke it, if you're upset about the recent election.

So Daniel's vision, and this is Number 2 in Part 1, and I'm almost done with this part, is of a son of man, a human person, is enthroned in the presence of the Creator of the Universe. And to him is given the imperial heritage of the Davidic monarchy, which is rule over the whole creation, and that this sovereignty has already been established and has already begun in the death and resurrection of Jesus and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. And if you all read your history, boys, and those of you who are a little bit older than (12-year old) Levi, for example, Tom Holland's book, Dominion, is a very good glimpse into the history of Western Europe -- how a few stubborn, dedicated people have changed the culture of Europe and the British Isles.

We all take this historical transformation for granted right now, and so does the world around us. Most of our compatriots don't know where it came from. The Kingdom of God has already started transforming human life on this planet, and not only in the West, but also globally. We need to be aware of it, and pay attention, and listen for the voice of God, because he's got a job for every one of us to do, in case you hadn't noticed. And I'm sure most of you have been listening, and you know what God wants you to be doing at this point. He is at work changing the way human beings live.

So here is Part 2: The three suggestions that we can draw from these readings that are important for our life here today. OK, number one: Jesus, in his last conversation with the disciples, well, the disciples are present, but Jesus is talking with that poor guy we know as Pontius Pilate. And Pilate is trying to figure out who this prophet is, because he's obviously not broken any rules, but he's a very dangerous character.

And Pilate is trying to figure this out, and he's saying, "Are you a king?" And Jesus is saying, "king" is your word. And then Jesus is trying to be really right up front, and he says, "My kingdom is not from this world." And if we knew the Greek - it's very hard to translate it simply into English. The ESV has done the best it could by translating the same Greek phrase two different ways. First of all, it has Jesus saying, "My kingdom is not of this world. And then the second time (it's the same phrase), Jesus says, "My kingdom is not from this world." And this is hugely important. What he is saying is that kingship or leadership in our experience comes through the exertion of deceit and violence. And that is just taken for granted. ("The first casualty in war," as Winston Churchill said, "is the truth." And Churchill, of all people, was brilliant at using deception in multiplying the strategic advantages of the Allied troops.)

However, Jesus' way, God's way, of establishing his authority in the historical process, is not the way we think it's done. The assumption of people is that might makes right. Or to put it in other terms, if your army wins and defeats your enemy, that is a demonstration that God is on your side -- if people are still thinking about God. I'll get to that in a minute. Most ancient cultures, and I would say probably most cultures today still, assume that theology and politics can't be separated. And so if your side wins, that's because you're the best, and you have divine approval. You're top dog. But Jesus is saying, "Yes, I have absolute, ultimate, eternal authority. But it is not based on deceit and violence." And boy, is that hard for us to understand.

OK, second thing. The vision of Daniel became a historic reality with the resurrection and ascension of Jesus. We rational people need to pay attention to the historical evidence, both in the New Testament and in the historical process, for the reality of Jesus' resurrection. The scholars, and I'm thinking particularly of Tom Wright, make it very clear that the historical foundation for the acceptance of the assertion that Jesus was raised from the dead is more powerful than most of the historical data that we have on any other person in history.

So pay attention. The old temple, and I talked a little bit about this last Sunday - the function of the old temple, the temple in Jerusalem, was that it would be the meeting place of heaven and earth. It was understood that God had two places, heaven and earth. And his intention, as represented by the Garden of Eden, was that these go together. In His plan, where God lives is where we live. That's what God wants. He wants us to dwell in relationship with him, be at home with Him. And we screwed that up when we told Him to get lost. Adam said, in effect, "I'm going to do this my way." (We're not blaming this on Eve in particular. I mean, we're all in this conspiracy together.) And so God said, "Well, I'm sorry about that. But you're out of here, children. And we've got some work to do."

This is the whole story of the scriptures. But what Israel longed for was to reconnect with the presence of God. And that was the function of the Jerusalem temple. The Judeans believed that through a system of sacrifice, a place could be created between heaven (that is, a place where God is) and earth (and that is where we are). And that we could be in relationship with the Creator of the Universe through the process of sacrifice, especially, in the Jerusalem temple. And as I mentioned last week, when the temple was destroyed, Jesus said this was a good thing, because he wanted his people to understand that he is the Temple.

We're in a difficult position, we Americans or we Westerners, because we assume that God is out of business, that God is dead, or that we don't need Him. And our culture is completely at sea. We don't know who we are or where we're going. If there is no God and if he does not rule, then we have no basis for knowing the difference between right and wrong. There is no foundation for morality, if God is not taken seriously. There is no purpose for our lives. How many of our young people live in terrible despair because they don't know what they're here for or what the purpose of their lives is, or what they should expect for the future.

Third, our mission, which we accepted at our baptism and which we reaffirm whenever we celebrate the Eucharist or recite the Creed -- our mission is to be the means by which all people may discover who they truly are and what God's purpose for them is, for us all. And it is to make our life together the reality of the way of the life of the Kingdom of God, by communicating the message of the Kingdom by word and action:

Oh God, you have made of one blood all the peoples of the earth and sent your blessed son to preach peace to those who are far off and to those who are near. Grant that people everywhere may seek after you and find you. Bring the nations into your fold. Pour out the spirit upon all flesh and hasten the coming of your kingdom through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.**

_______________________________
**The recording of this sermon was converted online from mp3 format to text by https://turboscribe.ai/ and edited by the author.