READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Joel 2:12-19
St. Matthew 6:16-21
Grace to you all and Peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus, the Christ.
Heard today, Jesus speaks from Joel 2 saying,
“Rend your heart
and not your garments and turn unto the Lord your God for He is gracious and
merciful”
It has been a very satanic and twisted 20 years of US
history that have brought us to tonight. And all the lies have focused on one
thing: subverting God’s Word. How? Because Western civilization, in other words
our current culture, needs Christianity and has been shaped by Christianity and
has succeeded because of Christianity.
One example of this is the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as
you would have them do to you”, says our Lord in St. Matthew 7:12. This
one, golden thread has shaped modern thought, research, and warfare since it was
spoken nearly 2000 years ago. For not only does it force us to see our enemies
as human as we are, it places the onus on us to be the better person first.
Outside of Christianity, this does not exist. Other cultures
do have some form of the Golden Rule, but it is only because Christ has been
preached to them and they have hijacked it for their own purposes.
Regardless, the Golden Rule has been changed to the Kevlar
Rule, spattered with blood. It now reads: Do unto others before they do unto
you. Of course, we would reject this aberration. But not if it was fed to us
slowly and especially not if it was buried in a pile of Patriotism.
Here is the key turning phrase that has changed the Golden
Rule into the Kevlar Rule for us: we’re the good guys. Now, this is not “we’re
the good guys” as in “we did nothing wrong and don’t deserve to be attacked”.
Of course we, as individuals, did nothing to provoke anyone. In fact, we want
to be left alone to our own lives more than anything else. And that’s good.
However, since we have adopted “we’re the good guys”, any
and everything has become permissible beneath that phrase. Any thing done in
the name of the USA, anything mandated beneath the flag, or anyone aggressed in
the name of “democracy” has become the excuse to break the Golden Rule.
For this we repent whole heartedly. For this we are accomplices
in the destroying of millions of lives. For this we come before our holy God
guilty.
And of course this is too big for us. Of course our betters
take the reins and then say we were to dull and stupid to handle things anyway.
For this we beg for mercy from God.
Our first reaction, in sin, is to put the blame back on God:
well He started wars too. Yes, He did, but are you wiser than God? You do remember
that all the war and fighting in the Old Testament was local and terminal,
right? God was very specific in His battles; this time, this place, these
people, these things AND NO MORE.
Plus, all of God’s wars are religious wars. They are based
on a false god taking people from Him. They are based on others saying their
gods are better than the one, true God. They are completed when those sins have
been eradicated and His people restored to holiness.
Which means that all wars are God’s wars and they are “…
against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of
this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places” (Eph. 6:12). In
other words, vengeance is not yours. War is not yours. You are to love your
enemy. And in the face of a world obsessed with violence, here is what you do.
First, the wars and violence of the world should remind you
of your own violence against God. As we are doing tonight, you need to constantly
as the Holy Spirit to carry on His war against your flesh until everything that
opposes God is destroyed. Romans 8:13 says, “For if you live according to the
flesh you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the
body, you will live.” Thus, we pray against ourselves.
Second, war, violence, and tyranny should be prayed against,
not used. Yes, God’s love and mercy means that He will intercede against our
enemies, however, we are to bring those sins of violence to God, for in our sin
we are enemies of God. Pray against our enemies, but those prayers should also
be followed by prayers that visualize making the sign of the cross on their
foreheads. God invites us to name our enemies and the pain they have inflicted
upon us clearly, but we are to let God handle the dirty work in His way.
And His way is the Incarnation of Himself in Jesus Christ.
The third thing to do is to remember this Incarnation where God was spared no
violence and war against Himself. Betrayal, unjust trials, and undeserved
persecution. This our sins inflicted upon God in order that He show us that
there is not instance of pain or suffering that is outside the bounds of
prayer.
For Jesus, more in number than the hairs of His head are
those who hate Him without cause and mighty are those who would destroy me,
those who attack Him with lies. What He sis not steal, it is demanded of Him
that He must restore (Ps 69:4). They hated Him without cause, says St. John
15:25.
Which then moves to our fourth thing to do and that is hold
the cross before our eyes. For it is in the violence of the suffering and dying
of our Savior that we see clearest God’s love for us and our enemies. Jesus
wrestles with the death of friends, unplanned disasters, and political
overreach in His Passion, which is not sanitized in the Bible at all. So our
prayers and repentance should be just as unsanitized.
Finally, war, violence, and tyranny in the world and in us
should draw us to the empty tomb. All this injustice demands that God move,
act, do something definitive about the success and reign of death and evil in
this world. And His definitive action is in the suffering, death, and
resurrection of Jesus Christ.
The bowels of death have been forever ripped apart because
Jesus has descended into hell and broken its power. The resurrection of Jesus
declares that God has acted and that God will continue to act forcefully in the
face of evil and death, to break their power over us.
In this way, the presence of sin, death, and the power of
the devil invite us to pray boldly in the power of the resurrection. Christians
should, in good faith, pray in the face of violence as needed, because every
act of praying is a gathering at the cross, an act of preparing the burial
spices, and an announcement of the resurrection of Christ, the triumph over
death, and the victory of God in the flesh—however much our present
circumstances resemble a cold and empty tomb.
Because it is only in the power of the cross of Christ, the
power of the Gospel that will undo the endless cycle of violence and oppression
in the world. It is only in God’s warlike act of converting sinners, which will
save us. It is only in God’s violence against Himself, proclaimed, that the
wicked man forsake his ways and the unrighteous man his thoughts and return to
the Lord for mercy.
In this strong God, Who promises peace and mercy, we are
given faith. And in faith and hope and trust in God’s Will, we love our enemies
as ourselves, do good to those who hate us, and pray for those who persecute us
(Mt 5:44, Lk. 6:27-28). Are we pacifists? We can be if we want. Are we violent
when defending righteousness? We can do that too.
It does not change things. We are still in need of
repentance, for our thoughts are evil from birth. It is not clothing, outward
appearances, that need rending, but our hearts. And our hearts of stone can
only be broken by God and replaced with a new heart, one beating with
everlasting life, able to forgive all sins, and never stop. This heart, given
by Christ, is a gift, strengthened and preserved by Him
We repent of our violence which causes God’s crucifixion.
But we repent in hope. Hope that God fights for us. Hope that this life of war
and bloodshed ends quickly. And hope that our bloodstained hands are forgiven, which
Christ Crucified declares they are.
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