Judges 6:36-40: Best 2 out of 3?

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 22 Jan 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

Do you ever run across questions that just make you wonder, that cause you to pause in thought. I ran across a few such questions the other day:

1) If laughter is the best medicine, why do some people they 'die laughing'? 
2) Why do people say "heads up" when you should really duck?
3) How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink?

4) Why do doctors leave the room when you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.

5) Why is it that when we "skate on thin ice", we can "get in hot water"?

6) Why is the Lone Ranger called 'Lone' if he always has Tonto with him?

7) If a child refuses to sleep during naptime, are they guilty of resisting a rest?

8) If a bee is allergic to pollen does it get hives?

Along those lines, this portion of scripture that we are looking at today, Judges 6:36-40, especially in light of Luke 1:11-20, has always posed a challenging question of that nature for me.

 

First: There is an important scripture in the Bible, right back in the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy 6:16 that reads, “Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah.” To refresh our memories, Massah was one of many examples in the journey from Egypt to the Promised Land where the people were whining and crying to God actively doubting and questioning Him – “Is the LORD among us or not?” – they asked (Exodus 17:7). It was at this point where God gives them water from a stone. Looking back on this experience, God, through Moses warns the people: Exodus 17:2: “Why do you put the LORD to the test?” Deuteronomy 6:16: “Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah” (Exodus 17:7; cf. Exodus 17:3, Deuteronomy 9:32, 33:8).

 

Forward to our text today (Judges 6:36-40) and we see Gideon doing exactly this – testing God. The passage we are looking at today is the same as Gideon tossing a coin in the air and saying, “Alright God: heads, I’ll do what you say; tails, I won’t.” And then after God meets this test, contrary to all Biblical wisdom, Gideon says, “Okay God, best two out of three!”[1] Judges 6:36-40:

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised - look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

This is just like Gideon tossing a coin in the air and saying, “Heads, God you are telling me to do this and I will do it.” The coin then lands heads up and Gideon says, “Okay God, best two out of three”

 

Forward now to the Gospels: When the devil is tempting Jesus in the desert trying to convince the Lord to jump off building and show the world his power, “because if you really are God’s son”, the satan says, “God will protect you.” Then the devil quotes Deuteronomy to say that Jesus can trust God to protect him and then, Matthew 4:7, Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

 

Luke 4: 9-12 recounts the story this way:

The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

Jesus answered, “It says: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

But back to our text today Gideon does just this and sets up this test for the Lord: 

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised—look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said.” And that is what happened. Gideon rose early the next day; he squeezed the fleece and wrung out the dew—a bowlful of water.

Then Gideon said to God, “Do not be angry with me. Let me make just one more request. Allow me one more test with the fleece. This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

In effect Gideon might as well have been tossing a coin in the air and saying, “Heads, God you are telling me to do this.” The coin then lands heads up so Gideon says, “Okay God, best two out of three.” So how come Gideon is allowed to put the Lord our God to the test?

 

Now forward again to the Gospels, this time to Luke 1:5-20:

 In the time of Herod king of Judea there was a priest named Zechariah, who belonged to the priestly division of Abijah; his wife Elizabeth was also a descendant of Aaron. Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly. [But they had no children, because Elizabeth was barren; and they were both well along in years.

Once when Zechariah’s division was on duty and he was serving as priest before God, he was chosen by lot, according to the custom of the priesthood, to go into the temple of the Lord and burn incense. And when the time for the burning of incense came, all the assembled worshipers were praying outside.]

 Then an angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing at the right side of the altar of incense. When Zechariah saw him, he was startled and was gripped with fear. But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. [He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God.] And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.”

 Zechariah asked the angel, “How can I be sure of this? I am an old man and my wife is well along in years.”

 The angel answered, “I am Gabriel. I stand in the presence of God, and I have been sent to speak to you and to tell you this good news. And now you will be silent and not able to speak until the day this happens, because you did not believe my words, which will come true at their proper time.”

 

Zechariah asks how he can be sure of this and is dumbstruck because of this but back in our text today, we have Gideon’s coin toss:

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said…”

     Then Gideon said to God, “…This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

“Heads, God you are telling me to do this.” The coin then lands heads up so Gideon says, “Okay God, best two out of three.” So how come Gideon is allowed to put the Lord our God to the test? Are you getting the pattern? In the Old Testament, the Gospels and the New Testament, God is pretty clear that He doesn’t want you to put Him to the test; He wants you to trust Him; so why does God grant this grace to Gideon and not rebuke him at all for his blatant questioning and testing through requesting palour tricks of sorts from God? But in other incidents in the Biblical record why does God, for example, strike Zechariah mute for asking a question of Him; how this is possible? 

 

There is more - Hebrews 11:6:  “And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to Him must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”

Back to our text today…

Gideon said to God, “If you will save Israel by my hand as you have promised— look, I will place a wool fleece on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece and all the ground is dry, then I will know that you will save Israel by my hand, as you said …”

 Then Gideon said to God, “… This time make the fleece dry and the ground covered with dew.” That night God did so. Only the fleece was dry; all the ground was covered with dew.

“Heads, God you are telling me to do this.” The coin then lands heads up so Gideon says, “Okay God, best two out of three.”

 

James 1:5-7: “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord…”

 

And also our Lord Jesus himself says on two occasions that it is “a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” (Matthew 12:28, 16:1-4).

 

So, tell me: as this is the case, why does Gideon get off the hook with ‘fleecing’ God here? Gideon who doubts here, not only escapes punishment from God but God even answers his sign, in a very rare way. Gideon says God do this for me and God does it.

 

This is not, of course, the only time that people receive signs from God. Do you remember what happens when Moses and Abraham each receive a sign from God?[2] Neither of them request the specific stunts that Gideon does vis a vis the fleece (but cf. Genesis 28:18-22). Moses – when God is speaking to him from the burning bush – gets his sign. Does anyone remember what the sign is that God gives Moses? God says that AFTER Moses has finished doing what God tells him to do, then Moses will worship God on the very mountain upon which he is standing now. Moses will get his sign that God is telling him to do something AFTER Moses does it (Exodus 3:11,12).

 

Abraham even more, Abraham’s sign from God: God says that AFTER you are dead you will get your sign; your descendents will be slaves in a foreign land for 400 years. God says He will give Moses, a great man of faith, his sign from God only after he does what he is told to do. Abraham – a man through whose seed the LORD has chosen to save the whole world - Genesis 12:3 (cf. John 3:16) - Abraham never sees his sign. Abraham’s sign only comes after he is dead, Genesis 15:17-21.[3]

 

But why is Gideon so different?  Why can Gideon ask in effect of God, “Best two out of three” and God so amicably agrees? Of Gideon, Hebrews 11:32-34 says: “And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength; and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.”

 

Gideon questions God. Gideon doubts God.[4] We’ve read many passages here in the Pentateuch, the Old Testament, the New Testament and the Gospels where God instructs us not to doubt the LORD. Again, James tells us that when we ask of the Lord, we must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  That man should NOT think he will receive ANYTHING from the Lord (James 1:7). And Matthew tells us that our Lord Jesus himself says that “a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign” (Matthew 12:28, 16:1-4).  And even though Jesus himself refuses to test God in the desert, God freely consents to the test of moistening a fleece for Gideon. Why does the angel of the Lord strike the priest Zechariah mute when he asks how he can be sure of what an angel of the Lord is telling Him but God simply graciously jumps through the hoops that Gideon has lined up for him? Has anyone else ever wondered about this?

 

What makes Gideon so much different from Abraham, Moses, Jesus, the Apostle Paul, James, Zechariah and the even whole generation that walked the earth at the time of our Lord?

 

I’m going to tell you my best guess to solve this predicament. I think the reason that the Lord submits to Gideon’s tests but does not do the same thing for Abraham, Moses, or Zechariah is specified right at the beginning of the story with Zechariah. Luke 1:6 records of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, “Both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.” Abraham was a man who was a friend of God. Moses was the prophet who God used to lead the Israelites out of slavery. These people were upright. Gideon?

 

Gideon, I don’t think was quite there yet. Remember that just like we are all saved by Grace; God is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow; so Gideon and the ancient Israelites are all saved by God’s Grace as well. God by Grace called all of the aforementioned people here. The big difference and the reason that I think Gideon is granted the leeway to put God to the test in the time of the judges is that the people are so steeped in sin that there are not a lot of holy people through whom the Lord would save them. Even Samson, who in this book God uses as a deliver, is not so good at living up to his covenant responsibilities but God still saves His people through him. Gideon, very far from being upright, has altars to Baal right on his property. I guess technically it isn’t really his property because he is still living at home with mom and dad. Remember from the earlier part of Scripture that we read today, Judges 6:25-40, He – after speaking with God- maybe like a teenager today, sneaks out at night with his friends and has a party of sorts where he vandalizes the community’s altar to Baal – which happens to be on his property. When the people find out about this, Gideon still does not come out and claim he heard a voice from God; he instead hides firmly behind his parents’ apron strings. Gideon was not a holy man who grew up in a ‘good pre-Christian household’. He possibly, like his own father, even worshipped God and Baal at his dad’s shrine on his dad’s property.[5] This is not the last time by the way that Gideon and his family will struggle with promoting the worship of false gods (Judges 8:22-28). This struggle with God, Israel and his own family stretch even beyond Gideon’s lifetime and ultimately result in the death of dozens and dozens of his own children and grandchildren (Judges 9).

 

So why does God jump through the hoops with the fleece games that Gideon sets up for Him whereas he does not do the same for Moses or Zechariah or others whom we have mentioned today? I think it is precisely because as Luke 1:6 records of Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth that “both of them were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly.”[6]

From those who are given more, more is expected. God loves us all. When we are baby Christians, when we do not know the Lord very well, when we are new to the faith, God doesn’t expect us to know as much as those who have grown up loving and relying on Him. So here God is patient with Gideon, a man who is seemly new to the idea of worshipping the Lord ONLY. God has patience with him, like a toddler, and He helps him along (cf. Genesis 28:18-22, Exodus 4:1-9).[7]

Zechariah was upright. Zechariah was holy, set apart for the Lord. God expects that those of us who have been serving Him for a while will act the part (cf. 1 Corinthians 3:2; cf. also John 9:41, John 19:11, Romans 14). It is like the difference between our one year-old daughter and our 9 and 10 year-olds. Heather, our baby is allowed to wonder back and forth across the sanctuary here as we are leading the meeting without upsetting us at all. If our older girls were to do that, it would be an entirely different story. Any of us who have been Christians for a while, if we look back on our lives hopefully we will see a lot of growth in our relationship with God. When we are young in the faith, when we are baby Christians, I don’t think it is uncommon for us to lay our fleece on the ground, toss a coin in the air, wonder back and forth across the sanctuary, or ask God for a sign. That is us eagerly seeking a God that we are just beginning to get to know. But as we grow up in that faith, we should actually have a more mature relationship with the Lord (cf. John 9:41, John 19:11, Romans 14, 1 Corinthians 3:2).[8]

We should know him better. For those of us who are married, it is the difference between when you are dating or when you are first married versus when you have been married one, two, three, four, five decades or even more. One suspects that you know your spouse today much better than you did on that day when you first laid eyes on her or him. This is what, in my opinion, it is like with God and it is like with Gideon. Gideon is like a baby believer in a culture and a country that has by-and-large turned its back on God. As he and his society grow up more will be expected from him but in today’s pericope God’s grace abounds as God, like a loving father with his baby Gideon, God happily condescends to play the fleece game with the baby Gideon.[9]

So today in our own lives, if we have been walking with the Lord for a while and if it is time to grow up and stop playing baby games, I encourage us to – just like the myriad of scriptures we read today extol - to do just that and put the childish tests behind us and grow up in the Lord. But for those of us here today who are at the beginning of our relationship with the Lord, I encourage us to, like a little baby enjoy the fleece games of our infancy in Christ, for the time is coming soon and very soon, when we too will be strong in the faith, just like the big kids, and then what a day of rejoicing that will be (cf. TSA docs 8-10).

Let us pray.

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[1] Herbert Wolf, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Judges/Exposition of Judges/II. The Rule of the Judges (2:6-16:31)/F. The Victory of Gideon Over the Midianites (6:1-8:32)/6. The fleece (6:36-40), Book Version: 4.0.2

[2] Cf. Dennis T. Olsen, The Book of Judges (NIB II; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 803-804

[3] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today. Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army, 61-74.

[4] Herbert Wolf, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Judges/Exposition of Judges/II. The Rule of the Judges (2:6-16:31)/F. The Victory of Gideon Over the Midianites (6:1-8:32)/6. The fleece (6:36-40), Book Version: 4.0.2

[5] Herbert Wolf, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Judges/Exposition of Judges/II. The Rule of the Judges (2:6-16:31)/F. The Victory of Gideon Over the Midianites (6:1-8:32)/4. The altar of Baal destroyed and Gideon's life imperiled (6:25-32), Book Version: 4.0.2

[6] Cf. Dennis T. Olsen, The Book of Judges (NIB II; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 803-804: Here examples are given of other times that those weak in the faith are granted signs that those strong in the faith should know better than to ask.

[7] Cf. 'Is it acceptable to "lay out a fleece" before God in prayer?' in got Questions?org. Available on-line: http://www.gotquestions.org/prayer-fleece.html

[8] Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 87

[9] Arthur E. Cundall and Morris, Leon: Judges and Ruth: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1968 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 7), S. 108 Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 87

Judges 6:1-16: Salvation, Theodicy, Gideon, and Dinosaurs

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 08 Jan. 12

By Captain Michael Ramsay

There was a show on Television late last century called Dinosaurs; it was about an anthropomorphic family of dinosaurs. There was a mom, a dad, a brother, a sister and a baby. Here is a clip about a running exchange between the dad and the baby. The dad loves the baby and will do anything to just try to get the baby to call him ‘Daddy’ but instead the baby just keeps referring to him as ‘Not the Mama’.

[1]

This, I think in some sense, is God’s relationship to Israel in the book of Judges. God just wants Israel to love Him and show that they love Him. He wants them to call him Father but they just refuse to and instead they just do whatever they see as fit in their own eyes. This is the tragedy of the book of Judges. It really is a love story that has all of the sorrow of Romeo and Juliet or some other Shakespearian tragedy.

 

God in the opening scene of Judges offers Israel the place of rest that she had been promised. It is before her. God uses Joshua, a conquering hero, to bring His people into this promised land and this is good as, Judges 1:7, “ the people served the LORD throughout the lifetime of Joshua and the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the LORD had done for Israel” (cf. Joshua 1:14, 10:7; compare Judges 1:10–15, 20 and Joshua 15:13–19; Judges 1:21 and Joshus 15:63; Judges 1:27, 28 and Joshua 17:11–13; Judges 1:29 and Joshua 16:10).[2] But, Verse 10, “after that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what He had done for Israel.” And, Verse 11, “Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals.” This is the sad, sad story of the story of Judges that is repeated again and again and again (Judges 2:11, 3:7, 3:12. 4:1, 6:11, 10:6, 13:1, 20:13). God loves His people and, like the Daddy Dinosaur, He just wants them to call on Him, their Father, but again and again and again the people refuse to this and instead they serve other gods or -possibly even worse- just like today; Judges 21:25, instead of serving God, everyone just does as he sees fit; the Authorized Version reads, “…every man did that which was right in his own eyes.” God loves them but instead –like Baby Dinosaur- they just serve themselves.

Our story today opens up with, “Again Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites” (Judges 6:1; cf. Genesis 25:2; Numbers 22:7, 25:6, 31:8). Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and they suffered the natural consequences of this.[3] They decline God’s offered love and protection so they do not have it; they reject the Lord and so they do not have Him. I don’t know how many of you know Stephen; he has been our janitor here since Alvin moved. Stephen is from England and he worked in a street mission in one of the larger cities over there. Sometimes when we chat, we compare the Lord’s blessings through Stephen’s serving the Lord in urban missions in Birmingham, England with Susan and my experiences on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and Winnipeg’s North End. We were talking the other day. Stephen was mentioning the really high unemployment in England, the crime in the large urban centres, the people that he had known who were pedophiles, addicted to drugs, involved in violence. He relayed to us one story where he needed to rely on the Lord’s strength in order to evict a man from the shelter who was, in turns out, carrying a loaded gun. I then relayed similar stories from our experiences living and working alongside prostituted peoples, people enslaved by addiction, and other horrors that do occur in a society where people are beginning to walk away from the Lord and so there is poverty in the midst of abundance.

The Lord has provided more than enough for everyone in our country – for everyone in our world really. The problem is now that we in this country are quickly moving away from the Lord; we are failing to share these resources with our neighbours, with society. Now – societally speaking– at the same time as we in the English-speaking world are refusing to share our material resources, we seem have no problem in eagerly sharing a secular sense of entitlement with everyone we meet. We deserve everything in our own eyes but we are unwilling to be reconciled with God and with our neighbour. We want everything for ourselves. We just want to do what is right in our own eyes (Judges 25:21); more and more in this country we choose to do evil in the eyes of the Lord (Judges 6:1). We continue to focus on ourselves, instead of on God and our society (our neighbour), and then we are somehow surprised and even complain that– even though it is us that has left God and our neighbour - when we need God and when we need our society, we complain that they are not there. You cannot keep your cake on a shelf forever and eat it all at the same time. You cannot turn down a job and still expect to collect the paycheque.

In our country as we have more and more resources and finances we seem to be more and more readily committing the sin of Judges and we seem to be more and more moving away from the Lord as we more and more are doing what is right in our own eyes instead of loving God and loving our neighbours. We leave God and we leave our neighbour behind and then are offended and surprised when God and society, whom we left behind, are not right there with us when we need them. We leave God behind and then our surprised when more and more of us are struggling with sin, poverty, addiction, rejection, and isolation. We leave God behind and then we are surprised when more and more people in this country are more and more oppressed as they feel the effects our actions.

There is even more than this though – lest you think that somehow in our discussion so far that I am promoting the prosperity heresy, which states that if you love God, you will be healthy, wealthy and wise but if you don’t you won’t be. This is certainly not true. (The opposite may even be true to some extent.) Judges 6:1:“Again Israel did evil in the eyes of the LORD and for seven years He gave them into the hands of the Midianites.” God loves His people. God, like the daddy dinosaur in our opening clip, God wants his people to love Him. He really wants his children to show and experience the same love for Him that He has for them. God knows that His people will be so much better off -even if they have nothing else- so long as they have Him. God never promises that if we turn to Him there will be no hardship; God however does promise that with God we can rejoice even in our suffering because God will see us through it (2 Corinthians 12:9) God really wants us to experience all the joys of loving Him which are so abundant, so plentiful, so good that even in the midst of our very real suffering in this life we can boast and we can be joyful (cf. Genesis 39; Romans 5:3-4; Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13).

 

God also knows that many of our problems tend to happen when things are apparently going quite well. When societies are wealthy, we tend to do what is right in our own eyes and what is evil in the eyes of the Lord (Judges 6:1, 25:21; Proverbs 3:5). God, in His love for the Israelites, finally gives them into the hands of the Midianites. This is the action is a Father who is willing to do whatever is necessary for the salvation of His children. The picture here is of a people who have rejected God and are so trapped in their sin like someone with a limb caught in an active piece of farm machinery. In pulling them out they may lose a toe, finger, a foot, or even worse but if you don’t pull them out they will die. This is the pain that God is suffering through. God is the Father extricating His child from the machinery. The Israelites are so steeped in their sin that the way to pull them out now is through the seven years in the hands of the Midianties and even though it hurts God so much to see His children suffer in this way, He knows that this is the way He can save them from their sin, from themselves, and from even eternal separation from the paradise of His love so -even though it pains them and even though it pains Him- the LORD is willing to do even this to save His children (cf. TSA docs. 6,10,11).

I think that we in Canada in the 21^st Century are just like the Israelites of the twelfth and eleventh centuries BCE when it comes to turning our back on God and beginning to feel the consequences of that.[4]  I mentioned last week how I recently read comments on news sites where people feel free to blame God for every difficulty that they encounter. At the same time, however, they are completely unwilling to turn to Him for the support that He offers us when we suffer the consequences of our own actions.

In and through and maybe even because of our affluence, things are starting to get bad here. The income disparity is higher than even before, drug addiction is more prevalent than ever before, sexual perversion is more known and accepted than every before. There are many things to which Canada and Canadians are becoming enslaved as we leave the safety and security of our Lord. God doesn’t want us to walk in this direction but we are and as we are, people in our society are suffering.

Here is the real tragedy: God wants us to be saved from all of this (TSA docs. 6,10). God does not want us to be trapped in our sin or enslaved by the Midianites and God will do whatever is necessary to extradite us from the machinery of our sin that has got a hold of us and is pulling us to our death. God will do what is ever necessary and we know that He has already provided for our salvation at a great cost to himself. Looking back from our text today to the story of Abraham where God promises salvation to the whole world -Genesis 12:3- and even promises that He will die if necessary to save us from our sins –Genesis 15:7-21.[5] Looking forward in our text to where God does indeed send His Son who is Himself, God Incarnate; we see that this is true. God is faithful even when we are faithless (cf. Romans 3:3,4; see Deuteronomy 31:6,Joshua 1:5, Hebrews 13:5). God has provided for the salvation of Gideon; God has provided for the salvation of the Israelites; God has provided for the salvation of the Canadians, and God has provided for the salvation of the whole world (cf. TSA doc. 6). John 3:16: “For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.” This plays out in a number of different ways.

1)      As far as Gideon and Israel are concerned in our story today, the Lord answers Israel’s cries and Gideon’s doubts with, Judges 6:16, “…I will be with you, and you will strike down the Midianties together.”

2)      As far as Canada is concerned, if indeed we cry out to the Lord, He has already provided for our salvation from those things with which the devil is presently enslaving our society. He will answer our cries and doubts with, “I will be with you, and we will strike down the oppressor together.”

3)      As far as each one of us in this room today is concerned, God – like the daddy dinosaur from our introduction –loves us and just wants us to love Him. Whatever challenges there are in our lives, whatever difficulties there are in our lives, He does not want us to perish under their weight. God does not promise us that there will be no suffering in this life. What God does promise us however is the opportunity, as the Apostle Paul repeatedly tells us in his letters, to learn how to suffer and even to experience joy in the midst of our suffering (Romans 5:3-4; Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). And the story of Joseph in Genesis tells us how to prosper in our imprisonment, in our slavery, in our troubles, and in our life (Genesis 39). God can save us for now and forever.

So today then, I know that some of us are feeling the weight of being crushed by our world around us; some of us are feeling deep oppression. Some of us are struggling with sin. Some of us may be suffering under the oppression of circumstance, the oppression of unemployment, the oppression of crisis or the slavery of stress, the slavery of disabilities, the slavery to struggle. Some of us may be suffering from real emotional, intellectual, or physical pain. Some of us may be suffering alone, as instead of casting our burdens upon the Lord, we like the sin of the judges, continue to do what is right in our own eyes (Psalm 55:22, 1 Peter 5:7). We don’t need to suffer alone; with the Lord we can rejoice in every circumstance: Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose again, fulfilling the promise to Abraham and fulfilling the promise to the whole world that indeed the whole world can be saved (Genesis 12:1-3, 15:7-21; John 3:16). We can prosper in our troubles. We can delivered in our suffering to the point that we can even rejoice in whatever circumstances we face in this life (Philippians 2:17, 3:1, 4:4; 2 Timothy 1:8-12; 1 Thessalonians 5:18 1 Peter 4:6, 4:13). Jesus is there for us; he is offering this salvation to the whole world so that whosoever may will be saved (John 3:16; TSA doc.6). So I encourage all of us today, if there are any here who have not fully grasped hold of His salvation and if there are any of us here today who are not experiencing the joy of the Lord even in the midst of our very real suffering, please come up to the altar, to the mercy seat here and we will gladly pray with you as you accept this salvation which the Lord offers freely to each and everyone of us here.

Let us pray.

 

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1]‘Not the Momma’ Dinosaurs clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNR4hKbSH7I

[2] Arthur E. Cundall in Morris, Leon: Judges and Ruth: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1968 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 7), S. 21: There are close parallels between the two accounts [Joshua & Judges…The minor points of difference will be dealt with in the commentary on the text. But what appears to be a major difference is that in Judges attention is given to the individual participating tribes, particularly Judah, whereas in Joshua the Conquest is viewed as the work of the united tribes under one leader.

[3]Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Praise The Lord For Covenants: Old Testament wisdom for our world today. Vancouver, BC: Credo Press, 2010. (c) The Salvation Army

[4] Dennis T. Olsen, The Book of Judges (NIB II; Nashville: Abingdon, 1998), 724

[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, 'When God is Bound… a look at Genesis 15:7-21’ in Journal of Aggressive Christianity, (Issue 52: December 2007 – January 2008), pp. 5-10

2 Corinthians 5:17: Turning the Page, a New Creation

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 01 Jan. 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

New Years is often the time when we look back on the year and there are often quizzes to see how much we remember of the significant events that occurred in the world, our country and our community. In that spirit here is a New Years Day Quiz for you.

EVENTS IN OUR WORLD (answers below)[1]

1)      A tsunami swept through this country?

2)      What did these two cities have in common in 2011: London and Vancouver?

3)      Who is the new General of the Salvation Army in 2011?

EVENTS IN OUR COUNTRY

1)      Who is famous for the following quote from last year? “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic. And we’ll change the world.”

2)      Famous Wedding this past year where the honeymooners visited Canada?

3)      Who won the Grey Cup in 2011?

EVENTS IN OUR COMMUNITY

1)      Which bank was robbed here on January 7/11?

2)      Who won this riding (Swift Current) in the provincial election?

3)      What member of this congregation spoke her first words and took her first steps this year?

Baby is still doing a lot of firsts. She just had her second Christmas this year. There is a lot to look forward to for our little one. The Scripture that we are looking at today, 2 Corinthians 5:17, says, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

As well as quizzes, New Years Day is the time when many people make resolutions: where we promise to make changes, to do something new. People decide to turn a new page, turn over a new leaf and make a new start. Because of this, Susan suggested that today we look at 2 Corinthians 5:17: “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” I think this is something worth considering on a day like today when many people are considering new starts; when we are turning the page on a new calendar year. So let’s take a look at this verse in the context of 2 Corinthians here.[2]

We know who wrote this letter, 2 Corinthians, right? The Apostle Paul. Who did he write it to? The Corinthians. This is one of two of Paul’s letters to the Corinthians that we have in our Bibles. Scholars think that he wrote at least four, maybe more. He probably wrote this 20 or so years after Christ rose from the grave. Now, do we know where Corinth is? It is in Greece and Grecian Corinth was an important city in the Roman Empire of the first century. Paul is writing this letter to a congregation probably about the same size as the group of folks we have gathered today and presumably they are all saints. They are all Christians to whom Paul is writing. This letter addresses a number of different things: the joy Paul feels for their response to an earlier letter, the troubles he has suffered, why he has had to change his travel plans; he is also asking them to forgive another, telling them not to be yoked with unbelievers, and explaining the joys that come from suffering for the Gospel, teaching about grace, dealing with opposition in the church, and telling them to get ready for his arrival in Corinth. It is not as focused as some of his epistles; Paul really does chat about quite a few different things in this letter to the Corinthians.

In this letter, in our verse for today, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Paul writes, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” “Therefore if anyone is in Christ…”: This phrase refers to anyone who is a Christian or as the New Testament more commonly refers to us, saints. We know what a saint is, right? The Greek word ‘saint’ in our Bibles is derived from the same word as ‘holiness’. In the New Testament ‘saint’, simply put, just means ‘Christian’.[3] A Christian saint is contrasted with a ‘sinner’. So in the apostolic letters in the New Testament there really are just two choices in this regard. You can be either a Christian saint or you can be a sinner.[4] As Paul’s letter reads ‘if anyone is in Christ’ it is saying that for all of us saints, for all of us Christians, we are a new creation – the old is gone, the new has come for all of us! This is exciting. When we hand our lives over to the Lord, it is like a changing of the guard; a new, fresh set of eyes now guards the prize. It is like those New Year’s pictures we see with the old year being ushered out as the new baby year comes marching in, full of energy and a big smile on his face. Paul is saying, like with the changing of the page on the calendar when the year is renewed; so when we each turn the page on our life, giving it to Christ, we are holy (cf. Leviticus 19:2, 1 Peter 1:16).[5] We are renewed (cf. Isaiah 42:9, 43:19-20).[6] The old has gone. The new has come.

This is good news. At New Years we often make resolutions to turn over a new leaf, to do something different and something new. How long, stereotypically, do these resolution usually last in our contemporary Canadian culture? Not very long… The Apostle Paul is telling these Christians who are reading and listening to his letter and he is telling us as well that we don’t need to abandon our new life in Christ like others might abandon a hasty New Years resolution. Paul says, much to the contrary, that we have died to sin and we are now alive in Christ (cf. Romans 6:1,11; 8:10; Ephesians 2:1; Colossians 2:13). He is speaking to Christians here and he is encouraging us to keep on, keeping on. And He is not just speaking in global, nebulous terms. He is telling us specifically how our lives should be different now that we have turned the page to our new life in Christ. Let us look back a bit in this letter to the Corinthians to see how our lives looked Before Christ and compare them to what they look like now, Anno Domini, in the years of our Lord. I think it will serve us well to look through this letter to see exactly what Paul means by this new creation versus that old creation.

If we turn back to Chapter 4, we can see what he is talking about. The Apostle Paul talks about how we have changed. Paul says of the old self, 2 Corinthians 4:2: “Rather, we have renounced [those] secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.” Paul says that our old selves were selfish. Our old selves used deception and distorted the word of God. This is interesting because as our country, moves further and further away from our salvation, I have noticed this same thing appear here quite a bit – honesty seems to be a sad casualty of the secular evolution of our nation. In the week after Christmas here I read a couple of articles on the CBC website and in the Globe and Mail, talking about the Pope and the Queen’s Christmas messages and about how the Third World has been turning to Christ en mass. One article in the Globe and Mail by Margaret Went asks,[7]

“What’s the fastest-growing religion in the world today? It’s Christianity. You can be excused if you guessed wrong. For the past decade, the Western world’s attention has been transfixed by Islam. But in sub-Saharan Africa and the Asia-Pacific region, it’s Christianity that’s on the march. Today, Christianity claims 2.18 billion believers – a third of the world’s population. By 2050, Christians will outnumber Muslims 3 to 1.”

Praise the Lord for, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

But there is a sad note: you should of read the hatred towards everything Christian that people wrote in the comment section underneath this article about the worldwide growth of our faith. I have come to expect a certain level of anti-Christianity from CBC message boards but I was floored by how much hatred and prejudice there is against Christians and the Bible in the Globe and Mail as well. I even reported as hate speech a few of those comments that the Globe and Mail and CBC moderators allowed. It was that bad. People are misquoting the Bible and blaming Christ and Christians seemingly for every conceivable evil in the world – and they were doing this during the Christmas season in articles about Christians and Christianity. The Apostle Paul tells us 2000 years in advance of this that this is what people do. This is what people -who are not saints living out their salvation- do. Paul says that before we were saved, we deceived and we distorted the truth to make our point. That is what some of those commentators were doing.

Paul says, that prior to turning the page to the new creation, we are blinded by the god of this age. That is the devil and this is how the devil works. He blinds people to the abundant truth of God’s through all kinds of deception. Just open the news headlines in any given western country’s papers in any given year in the 21^st Century. How many scandals are there, involving the elected leaders of the world, our country and various provinces? We have a political system with which the devil feels right at home. It all boils down to a popularity contest every few years. I will tell you how much this old creation dishonesty and deceitfulness has become: we, Canadians, have become so used to our leaders deceiving us and distorting the truth that less and less people are even bothering to vote – why bother if people are just lying to us? It is not only in our leaders that we see the old creation represented in North America today. We also see this on TV. I am shocked by the kind of deception and shameful ways that are extolled by our media and entertainment industries. This all filters down to our individual lives to and then back up into our society as a whole. I can’t tell you the number of times I have heard people justifying a ‘white lie’: cheating on our taxes, not declaring our income, or lying about our age: young people trying to be older; elders appearing to be younger. Deception has grasped our society as the god of this age, 2 Corinthians 4:4, has blinded the non-believing heart. This is what old creation is like without reconciliation with God and without Christian renewal.

The Apostle Paul says, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” Paul says that we can turn the page on all this as we are made anew, like the year is made anew.[8] This is important – being a new creation. We, the New Year, the new creation, as we are reconciled with Christ, we are completely differently from the old.[9] Paul writes, 2 Corinthians 2:15-16, “For we are to God the aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are the smell of death; to the other, the fragrance of life.”  This is cause for happiness because we are the fragrance of life for some and this is cause for sadness because we are the smell of death to others. Some people really hate Christians. Some people really hate Christ and that is becoming a viewpoint that is more the norm than the exception in our country in this century and this is sad. Even sadder still, I think, is the fact that this ‘old creation deception’ that we have been talking about can even be seen in the churches. Actions consistent with the old creation can be seen in the churches where the new creation is supposed to be flourishing. How many of us have heard people complaining and planting seeds of discontent? How many of us have ever been tempted to act like life Before Christ instead of living Anno Domini, in the year of our Lord? How many of us have been tempted to keep on sinning, and thus like the author of the sermon to the Hebrews says, trample on the body of Christ (Hebrews 10:29)? We don’t need to do this: Paul encourages us that God wants is to be reconciled to us all. God wants us all to experience His new creation. “… it is the privilege of all believers to be wholly sanctified, and that their whole spirit and soul and body may be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (TSA doc. 10) Christ died on the cross and rose again from the grave so that we can die to sin and rise again to salvation.  So let us do that. Let us turn the page on the old creation and in this New Year let us instead experience all the joys of the New Creation. 2 Corinthians 5:17, for “…if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!”

In a couple of months, we are going to start a sermon series here looking at the Salvation Army doctrines. I am going to do my best to try and find some good speakers and big name people to share with us their thoughts and feelings on the doctrines. I ran across this holiness test from O&R posted on www.armybarmy.com this week. I think it is a good one for us to try to answer ourselves to see if we are taking full advantage of the holiness of salvation that is available to us all.

TEST FOR SELF-EXAMINATION: ORDERS AND REGULATIONS FOR SOLDIERS.

1. Am I habitually guilty of any known sin? Do I practise or allow myself in any thought, word, or deed, which I know to be wrong?

2. Am I so the master of my bodily appetites as to have no condemnation? Do I allow myself in any indulgence that is injurious to my holiness, growth in knowledge, obedience, and usefulness?

3. Are my thoughts and feelings such that I should not be ashamed to hear them published before God?

4. Does the influence of the world cause me to act, feel, or say things that are unlike Christ?

5. Do my tempers cause me to act, or feel or say things that I see afterward are contrary to that love which I ought to bear always to those about me?

6. Am I doing all in my power for the salvation of sinners? Do I feel concern about their danger and pray and work for their salvation as if they were my children?

7. Am I fulfilling the vows I have made to God in my acts of consecration or at the Penitent Form?

8. Is my example in harmony with my profession?

9. Am I conscious of any pride or haughtiness in my manner or bearing?

10. Do I conform to the fashions and customs of this world or do I show that I despise them?

11. Am I in danger of being carried away with worldly desires to be rich or admired?

Let us pray.

www.sheepapek.com

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[1] WORLD: 1) Japan, 2) Riots, 3) General Linda Bond; COUNTRY: 1) Dr. Jack Layton, 2) The Royals William and Kate, 3) BC Lions; COMMUNITY: 1) BMO, 2) Hon. Brad Wall, 3) Heather and Cecilia

[2] Philip E. Hughes, ‘2 Corinthians Introduction’, 1803, in NIB Study Bible. Edited by Kenneth L. Barker, Grad Rapids, Michigan, USA: Zondervan, 2002.

[3] W.E. Vine. . 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 555.

[4] Cf. John D.W. Watts. 'Holy.' In Holman Bible Dictionary, general editor Trent C. Butler. Nashville, Tennesee: Holman Bible Publishers, 1991), 660. W.E. Vine. 'Holiness, Holy, Holily.' In Vine's Expository Dictionary of New Testament Word. (Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers Inc., 1939), 555.

[5] Captain Michael Ramsay, 1 Peter 1:16 (Leviticus 19:2): God says, “…be holy because I am holy”, presented to the Swift Current Corps (13 February 2011). Available on-line at http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2011/02/1-peter-116-lev-192-god-says-be-holy.html

[6] J. Paul Sampley, The Second Letter to the Corinthians (NIB X: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 2000), 94.

[7] Margaret Wente, 'God's far from dead in the global South' in the Globe and Mail, Dec 29, 2011 3:19PM EST. Available on-line: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/opinions/margaret-wente/

[8] Cf. N.T. Wright, On Becoming the Righteousness of God: 2 Corinthians 5:21 (Originally published in Pauline Theology, Volume II, ed. D. M. Hay: Augsburg Fortress, Minneapolis,1993, 200–208. Reproduced by permission of the author.) Available on-line: http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Becoming_Righteousness.pdf

[9] Cf. Rev. Dr. Leslie Milton, ‘14^th March 4^th in Lent – Joshua 5:9-12; Psalm 32 (11); 2 Corinthians 5:16-21; Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32’, in The Expository Times: Journal of Biblical Studies, Theology and Ministry, (Vol. 121: No. 5: Feb, 2010), pp. 241-242.

Luke 2:1-20: A Tale of Two Kings

Presented to Swift Current Corps and community on Christmas Day, Sunday, December 25, 2012. By Captain Michael Ramsay

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair”: this is the famous opening line of A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens; it is about Paris and it is about London. Today’s story from Scripture is a real life tale of two kings by Luke the physician; it is about Augustus Caesar and it is about Jesus Christ and in Luke’s Gospel, like in Dickens’ story, it is the best of times and it is the worst of times.[1]

The second chapter of Luke’s Gospel opens with, “And it came to pass in those days, that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” Caesar Augustus is the first king of our two kings, chronologically speaking, that we will address today.[2] What do we know of this king and of this world that he has ordered taxed?

Caesar Augustus was the Roman king and the world was certainly a Roman world that he ordered to be taxed. Prominent New Testament scholar and historian N.T. Wright, writes:

In the Mediterranean world …the fastest growing religion was the Imperial cult, the worship of [the king, Augustus] Caesar.

In Rome itself, …being hailed as the son of the newly deified Julius was an important part of [Caesar] Augustus’ profile, and that of his successors, at home as well as abroad.  But in the East [including Judea] …the provinces saw no need for restraint. With a long tradition of ruler-cults going back at least to Alexander the Great, local cities and provinces were in many cases only too happy to demonstrate their loyalty to the emperor by establishing a cult in his honour, and in need by vying for the privilege of looking after his shrine.[3]

In our tale of two kings today, the first king here mentioned, Augustus Caesar, leader of Rome, the paramount Superpower in the first Century, when Jesus lived; he is worshipped as a god. Augustus Caesar, this alleged god-king, who rules the most powerful country in the world; this alleged god-king is seen as a son of god, in that his deceased adopted father Julius Caesar is also revered as a god; this ‘god-king’, ‘son of god’ has an interesting biography. This is the tale of Caesar Augustus. [4]

Augustus Caesar

Caesar Augustus is born Gaius Octavius on September 23, 63 BCE. He takes the name Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus (Octavian) in 44 BCE after the murder of his great uncle, Julius Caesar, who was the Roman ruler at the time. In his will, Julius Caesar had adopted Octavian thus making him his heir to the helm of the Roman world.

Octavian is a shrewd, brilliant and astute politician; he is able to achieve ultimate power in Rome. At the time of his uncle’s assassination, Octavian /Augustus – like Deng Xiaoping, centuries later in China, during the Tiananmen Square incident –held no official position. However, shortly afterwards, he, with his armies, march on Rome, forcing the senate to name him consul, thus showing to the world that indeed he is a power to be reckoned with.

Augustus, then, along with Marc Antony and another Roman General (Marcus Lepidus) begins to rule the Roman world. After taking power, they slaughter thousands of political enemies. Antony later marries Cleopatra and wages war against Augustus.  The Roman Navy under Herod Agrippa defeats Antony and Cleopatra in 31 BCE and within a year they both famously commit suicide.

Following this Rome officially bestowed upon Octavian/Augustus the name ‘Augustus’, which means ‘the exalted.’ The politicians also gave him the legal power to rule every aspect of the whole Roman Empire all to himself. Through wars, murder and intrigue, Caesar Augustus becomes Rome’s ultimate Emperor, bringing stability to the realm.

Rome achieves its glory under Augustus. After 100 years of civil war, he becomes the prince of peace; no one dares challenge Caesar Augustus. His empire expands as his armies conquer Spain, Gaul (now France), Panonia and Dalmatia (now parts of Hungary and Croatia), Egypt and most of southwestern Europe.

Caesar Augustus rules with an iron-fist. He is worshipped as a god and as a son of a god; by destroying his enemies in war he even ironically becomes known as the prince of the ‘Pax Romana’, the Roman peace. When the Gospel of Luke that we read from today was recorded, Augustus was known as a god, a son of god and a prince of peace. Luke then tells of our other king, the real king.

Jesus Christ

Jesus truly is God, the Son of God, and the Prince of Peace. Notice how different the real King of Kings is from Caesar Augustus or any other king or any leader of any superpower either past or present. Luke, in invoking Caesar Augustus’ name and this taxation is drawing this parallel and making this contrast for all of us to see.

Luke and all his readers know very much what we have just said about Augustus Caesar. They know his story. That is their life and times. In our passage today Luke is intentionally showing us that Jesus, Jesus’ mother and adoptive father are very different from Augustus Caesar and his adoptive father. Rather than conquering an Empire by force, Joseph and Mary travel by foot to another city in order to pay their taxes to this aforementioned Caesar Augustus.  In so doing it is ironic that Augustus Caesar is pretending to be what their child, who is about to come into the world, really is: the Son of God and the Prince of Peace (Luke 2:4).[5]

When Mary and Joseph arrive in Bethlehem to pay their taxes, the city is full. Imagine the buzz of activity with people everywhere coming to be registered. The buzz of activity: with everyone going to a specific location to register, it reminds me sort of hamper day. It is not feasible for us to deliver hampers to everyone’s home in the community so they need to come to us. It is not feasible for the Romans to go to every house in their empire to register them for the census; so the people needed to come to central locations.[6] On hamper day we have people everywhere: between volunteers, staff, and those in need coming to pick up their hampers. I imagine this buzz of activity of hundreds of people around here on hamper day to be a microcosm of what it was like in Bethlehem two centuries ago. As busy as it was here it was even busier there as the busyness filled the whole city.

I can’t quite remember what the situation was like here when we had the women’s world curling championships last year but I do know what it was like in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. I had friends of mine tell me repeatedly how landlords would evict tenants so they could rent out their rooms at much higher rates than they would ordinarily get. Hotel rooms were filled during the Olympics. People who lived in Vancouver were even going on vacation somewhere else during the Olympics and renting out their homes for enough money to pay for their entire vacation. The city was full. There was no room anywhere. If you didn’t have relatives or reservations and you wanted to stay in Vancouver during the Olympics you would have to be resourceful – even the shelters were full.

It is the same in Bethlehem. Anyone and everyone descended from the iconic figure King David of Judah, was descending upon this small city.[7] There was no room in the inns. This was the environment when this other king of the Jews, the real king of the Jews, the real Son of God, and the real God incarnate comes into the world – a little different from the life of Caesar Augustus, who is mentioned at the beginning of our text today and of whom the same claims of kingship and god’s sonship are made.

Jesus’ mother, Mary, gives birth in the only room available and makes her baby as comfortable as possible, wrapping him snugly in pieces of cloth and placing him in a feeding trough, in a manger packed with straw.

It is at this point in the narrative then that Luke begins to draw a real distinction between our two kings in our tale today: Augustus Caesar, who some uphold to be a god, a son of a god, and the Prince of the Roman Peace and Christ Jesus who really is God, the Son of God, and the Prince of Peace. Whereas the king Augustus Caesar had his power acknowledged by the powerful politicians of his day through war, murder, and intrigue. Christ Jesus’ kingship is heralded through angels to working class shepherds who were working the night shift.[8]

Luke 2: 8-14:

And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them: and they were sore afraid. And the angel said unto them, “Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger.

 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” And it came to pass, as the angels were gone away from them into heaven, the shepherds said one to another, Let us now go even unto Bethlehem, and see this thing which is come to pass, which the Lord hath made known unto us.

These working class shepherds, who are working that night, are invited by God’s messengers to come and see His new born Son, born to parents who are here to pay their taxes to the leader of the temporal superpower of their day: who is ironically enough an impostor pretending to be the son of a god.  These shepherds listen to God and go to Bethlehem and are blessed to see the birth of God’s truly only begotten son who will grow up to save the whole world.

Luke 2:19-20: “…Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things that they had heard and seen, as it was told unto them.”

Thus our tale of two kings concludes with the same question before us today as was before the shepherds and the readers of Luke’s gospel in the first century. Which of the two kings will we serve? Will we serve Caesar or Christ? Will we serve the rulers of our current time and place in history – Presidents, Prime Ministers, Kings, … – and their empires and systems – the English-speaking empire, capitalism, democracy, consumerism, imperialism, or whatever else… - or will we serve the only real Son of God who lived and died and rose again so that we can all rise again and live forever in His Kingdom to come if we so choose. On this Christmas Day two centuries closer to the return of our King, the choice is ours and I encourage us all to serve our Lord, who is returning anytime now. I invite us all today, in recognition and in a pledge of allegiance to Jesus who truly is the King of Kings; I invite us all to sing alongside the angels of two centuries ago, as it is recorded in Luke 2:14 where they sing: “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill toward men!” Please stand with me and sing “Gloria in Execelis Deo” which, of course, in English means, “Glory to God in the highest.”

Let us pray[9]:

Glory to God in the highest,
and peace to His people on earth.
Lord God, heavenly King,
Almighty God and Father,
we worship You, we give You thanks,
we praise You for Your glory.
Lord Jesus Christ,
only Son of the Father,
Lord God, Lamb of God,
You take away the sin of the world:
have mercy on us;
You are seated at the right hand of the Father:
receive our prayer.
For You alone are the Holy One,
You alone are the Lord,
You alone are the Most High,
Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit,
in the glory of the Father.
Amen.

Benediction: Let us go forth on this Christmas Day forever serving the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings, Christ Jesus our Saviour. Amen.

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[1] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63 for a good discussion of the comparison made here by Luke.

[2] Cf. Walter L. Leifeld, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Luke/Exposition of Luke/II. Birth and Childhood Narratives (1:5-2:52)/B. Birth Narratives (1:57-2:20)/3. The birth of Jesus (2:1-7), Book Version: 4.0.2

[3]N.T. Wright, 'Paul and Caesar: A New Reading of Romans', originally published in A Royal Priesthood: The Use of the Bible Ethically and Politically, ed. C. Bartholemew, 2002, Carlisle: Paternoster, 173–193. Reproduced by permission of the author. Available on-line at http://www.ntwrightpage.com/Wright_Paul_Caesar_Romans.htm

[4] For more information on Augustus, cf. Will Durant, The Story of Civilisation III: Caesar and Christ. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1944. See also Lucid Café Library On-line: http://www.lucidcafe.com/library/95sep/augustus.html

[5] Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63

[6] Cf. Leon Morris, Luke: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, Il.: InterVarsity Press, 1988 (Tyndale New Testament Commentaries 3), S. 99. See also A. Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East (Hodder and Stoughton, 1927), p. 271. Deissmann says that Luke uses official ‘departmental language’ in reporting the order (ibid., p. 270, n. 5).

[7] But cf. Cf. R. Alan Culpepper, Luke (NIB 8: Nashville, Tenn.: Abingdon, 1995), 63

[8] Cf. Fred B. Craddock, Luke (Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky: John Knox, 1990), 35. Re: the comparison between royal heralds of good news.

[9] ‘A Catholic Prayer: Glory to God’, available on-line: http://www.catholic.org/prayers/prayer.php?p=785