First Thoughts Common Lectionary June 2 2008

Morning: Psalm 145:1-21
Ecclesiastes 2:1-15
Galatians 1:1-17
Matthew 13:44-52
Evening: Psalm 47:1-9

Reading our Covenant group's one year in the Bible has kept me from reading the daily Common Lectionary, but today I returned to it. How rich the lectionary scriptures are today for me. The psalms especially as I am preaching in June on the psalms. I continue to be struck by how the psalmists praise God over and over for His role in bringing down evil nations and saving the oppressed. The contrast between the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this earth is striking. But this is the case, not just for Israel but for us today. And God is still working in the economic and political arenas to bring down the wicked, and the Kingdom of God will ultimately provide peace and prosperity for all.

I preached about that yesterday - using an illustration of geopolitics as it relates to the oil and food shortages in the world. I was influenced by an article my husband emailed me called "The Geopolitics of $130 Oil" by George Friedman. He writes that as a result of these shortages, shifts in power and relationships are occurring all over the world - in Russia, China, Iran Iraq, USA. I begged the question could God be working in the oil crisis to diminish conflicts, where the lion may be laying down with the lamb so that people and nations can survive? Could it be that God has tripped a wire in geopolitics to realign power to His will?

One member thought I was too political in my sermon. Perhaps because I named nations. But the psalmists were very political. Quoting from Psalm 9, I agreed with King David from the pulpit that under God's rule, the wicked will be voted out, destroyed, by God. Maybe not Hittites, or Jebusites (God has already wiped them out) but I can and did name nations that might not be around in the end, that oppress other nations today. If we carry the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other, we read that human geopolitics intersect with the Kingdom of God. And we must reflect on where God is in it all. Otherwise in our thinking God is One who cares only about our personal needs. But His word tells us he is Lord over all the nations, all the people and leaders of the world, and will save the oppressed, and judge them all for their deeds.

Jesus said it too in today's gospel: ⁷"Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and caught fish of every kind; ⁴⁸when it was full, they drew it ashore, sat down, and put the good into baskets but threw out the bad. ⁴⁹So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous ⁵⁰and throw them into the furnace of fire, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

Yet I hear, "Don't go there, Pastor." Paul would relate to that warning, as he heard from his critics. Yet he takes the risk when he responds in Galatians today: ¹⁰Am I now seeking human approval, or God’s approval? Or am I trying to please people? If I were still pleasing people, I would not be a servant of Christ.

The Jesus I serve was political. The gospel is very political when you get down to it. And we live in a world where everything is political. Where the globe is smaller and international politics and economics and struggles affect us here and now. Yet the gospel is also the truth that saves and restores, transforms nations and people - hearts, souls, minds, political systems. It disrupts the haves and gives hope to the have nots. Only if every nation would bow to the King of all nations, Jesus, the Christ. Then all the people of the world could be praising the Lord for his blessings, rather than starving to death or struggling to fill their gas tanks.

Esther is One to Watch

Our Covenant Groups are reading Esther this week. Everyone knows the story of Esther. Especially if you're Jewish, or Christians raised in Sunday School, and attended a VBS. Don't hear about her preached much. If you've preached on Esther I would love to hear about it.

Anyway, I preached on her story yesterday, on the well-known verses of 4:11-17. Juxtaposed with Romans 8:26-32, the challenge for us all was to remember that God is working all the time to bring about good when others might intend evil. Having to risk death facing the King to save her people, I asked the congregation, "How was she gonna get out of this one?" I asked us all the same question. The answer is, of course - by the sovereignty of the God, who in his fullness as the Trinity, is working in us and through us to bring his purposes to bear on earth. We all face dilemmas of life or death, as the hidden God places us somewhere, "for such a time as this." Esther is honored for her courage and selflessness, in heeding the call to save her people: "If I die, I die."

After the service, a member came to me with another thought about the message. In so many words, he offered that God might also be calling us "for such a time as this" simply to experience God's delight. Wow! I thought about that - and though we don't know how Esther FELT after it was all over, knowing what we know about God, I can imagine that she was smiling, and happy, and delighting in her people. And with God.

I can tend to take myself pretty seriously. OK, yes, I can be very intense. I can overdo the need to save a situation. God knows the world needs saving and as a Christian, I don't take that lightly. But in the midst of all that, I will consider whether God might be calling me to a life or LAUGH situation, where I can say, "If I die laughing, I die laughing."

Is it time to have more JOY in the Lord?

Feel free to post any ideas!