Jeremiah 23:5-6
The Rev. Dr. Robert S. Langworthy, preaching
November 24, 2024 – Christ the King Sunday
Author Timothy George attended Harvard Divinity School and studied under the great Gardner Taylor. Oncem Dr. Taylor shared how as a young pastor in Louisiana he preached at an evening service in a poor backwater parish. The Sanctuary was illuminated by a single, little light bulb dangling from the ceiling.
In the middle of his sermon, the electrical power shut off and the building went pitch black. The young Dr. Taylor didn’t know what to do and stumbled around until a deacon in the back shouted out, “Preach on, preacher. We can still see Jesus in the dark!”
In fact, we often see Jesus best in the dark. And, what’s more, whether we see Him in the dark, He always sees us in the dark!
I don’t think that, in my lifetime, there have ever been so many people who see our culture as having fallen into a deep spiritual, moral and relational darkness. It used to be that a whole lot of us believed that, just as human beings are progressing in scientific knowledge and technological capability, we are progressing in all other dimensions of life as well; and that, if given enough time, we might just make heaven on earth.
But it appears we’ve mainly grown stronger in our capability to do evil. Thus, fewer and fewer of us have faith in some natural human tendency toward improvement; and more and more of us are looking for help from beyond the merely human – that is, for help from outside of us. More of us are hoping for a Messiah who can save us from ourselves and set everything right.
Jeremiah lived in a dark time as well. Israel had lost its last king, and had ceased to exist as a sovereign nation. The Babylonians had conquered the Israelites and were driving them off, in a forced march, to exile and a second enslavement. Moreover, as the four verses prior to today’s scripture make clear, the spiritual leaders of Israel, “the shepherds” God expected to watch over His people for Him, had failed to care about their flocks, attend to them and keep them close to their divine Shepherd.
Yet, in that dark time Jeremiah, inspired by God, proclaimed hope. The Holy Spirit moved Jeremiah to announce to people struggling against despair that God will “raise up” new shepherds who will better “shepherd” them and alleviate their dismay, dejection and despondency. More importantly, Jeremiah announced, God will raise up one Shepherd who will be more than just a shepherd. He will be “a righteous Branch” of David who “shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his day Judah will be saved and Israel will live in safety.” In Jeremiah’s time, that Shepherd went by the name, “The Lord is our righteousness.” Today we of course call Him Jesus.
And of course we today need that Shepherd to keep us safe from ourselves and to put our broken world right again.
That Shepherd gives us hope, not just for the end of history as we know it, but also for our lives in the here and now as we follow His lead, work for righteousness and wait for Him to take decisive action and break the tape at the finish line. But, for here and now, we are a mess, and our biggest problem.
Three years ago, USA Today ran an article about an Australian sheep named Baarack. Apparently, Baarack had been abandoned years before and been living without oversight ever since. During that time, it grew a huge fleece that, when sheared, broke the scales at 78 pounds. Carrying that amount of wool actually endangered Baarack’s life. It made him slow of foot, and blocked his vision. It entrapped seeds and thorns that caused ulcers. It harbored manure and urine that led to infections.
It turns out that Australian sheep, for their own health and longevity, need to be guided and governed by superior beings, by sheep kings and sheep queens who, for example, shear them on a regular basis.
I guess we’re like Australian sheep. We need to come under the kingship of Jesus Christ. For, if we let Him take over, He shears off what is weighing us down and making us sick. He enables us to live strong and well. He uplifts our souls.
He also gives us confidence that He will in the end make everything right, not only in our individual world, but in the whole world. He guarantees the arrival of that coming reality – and thereby makes us strong and steadfast in making our righteous contribution. He will make happen what He alone can make happen – and that means that the full establishment of righteousness everywhere is in the bag.
All this is to say that we are saved by grace, and that the whole world will be set right by grace. The remaking of earth into a heavenly place will be all the unaided and unmerited doing of the Shepherd King.
Bono, lead singer and songwriter for the rock band U2, is no professional theologian; but I love the way he talks about grace.
Bono is stunned that the King of the universe cares about everyone in it and especially stunned that the King wants to keep company with the likes of him.
Bono makes a distinction between grace and karma, as he uses the term. Karma, he says, is the idea that “what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physical laws that every action is met by an equal and opposite reaction.” Grace, Bono says, is the idea that upends that “as you reap, so you will sow” inevitability. The love behind grace defies and blocks the full consequences of our actions, which, Bono says, “in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”
Bono makes clear he does not think that grace excuses the bad things he’s done. He’s just saying he’s staking his life on grace, because he knows who he is and what he’s done and how he doesn’t stand a ghost of a chance if he depends on his willpower or spirituality. He’s hanging all his hope on what the King of kings did for him on the cross.
And because he believes that the King of kings did that for one puny person who doesn’t really matter that much in the long run, Bono believes that the King of kings will one day do all that is necessary for putting everything right throughout the universe.
Let us believe that Jesus sees us in the dark and that we can count on the coming of the day when the earth will tremble and there will be no night – but only the light of the King of kings!
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