READINGS FROM HOLY SCRIPTURE:
Ezekiel 34:11-16
1 Peter 2:21-25
St. John 10:11-16
May grace and peace be multiplied to you. (1 Pet 1)
Who speaks to you today, saying:
“My sheep hear my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (v27)
Though this verse is not in our Gospel reading today, the
“Voice of the Shepherd” is and it is mentioned in John chapter 10 four
different times. This means that hearing the Good Shepherd is just as important
as following the Good Shepherd. Therefore, God includes this in His Word to get
us to realize this and point us to hearing His voice alone, over and above the
voice of the world.
For in our lives, there are many voices, but only one
Shepherd. We must be able to distinguish between them and have ears for Jesus
alone. This is accomplished by Jesus making His spiritual Word, physical. The
Word is the thing, as we shall say, and when Jesus says something, it happens.
As the eclipse frenzy draws down to a quiet riot, now
overshadowed by the next new thing, war, I must ask: why the fanaticism this
time around?
I have been through a couple eclipses and they were never
portrayed in the news in quite the fashion this one was. There was more of a
religious fervor this time, at least I noticed it more, with words being used
such as “incredible” and “majesty” and “bring us all together”.
Not to mention the screaming and cheering and crying that
would put any church service to shame, but for what? Why was the eclipse
“incredible”? Why should we connect the word “majesty” to such a thing? How
does it bring everyone together? And let’s not forget, “you’ll never see it
again” and “it was a gift given to you”.
Now, the Christian hears those words and ascribes any and
all cosmic events to God, rightly using “incredible”, “majesty”, and “gift”.
However, the media’s use was also religious in order to draw you away from God.
And as proof it offers you the calculations it uses, the CGI for examples, and
the low odds of such events taking place where you are.
Thus, you are to hear and see and believe in something not
Jesus. I agree that the eclipse, really any phenomena in nature, is worthy of
admiration, but not for its own sake. The world wants to distract you with
elaborate mathematics and unaffordable observation equipment. It wants you to
worship how great the calculations and observations are.
What Scientism wants is your faith placed in it when it
shows you the nakedness of the universe. See, the rain doesn’t fall when you
sacrifice a monkey, it falls because of the water cycle. See, the seasons don’t
change because gods are changing places on a throne, but because of
astrophysics. See, your faith is invalid because there is no mystery. We can
explain it all and it is all very predictable.
Scientism is the belief that the natural world is all there
is and chance makes it so. It is just chance that the Sun is exactly the same
size as the moon, in the sky. It is just chance that they cross paths every
once in awhile. We can show you on this paper, with these equations. So, give
up your faith, give us your money, and remember to take your Zoloft.
We hear the voice of that worldly shepherd and we know it
and we follow it. This is the shepherd that cares for us now. This is the
shepherd that gives us shiny toys now. This is the shepherd that gives me my
air conditioner and microwave. I bow to him. I give him my offering. I believe.
Repent. Am I telling you to close your brain? Far from it.
I’m telling you to open your eyes and see that traps are set all around your
feet. I’m telling you to not take everything you see on TV at face value. Think
about things. Ask questions. When someone says that scientism this or that is
going to bring everyone together, doubt it.
We now live in the post-eclipse world and what did it do for
all of us? Nothing. We have an experience, but we don’t really know what it was
and we can’t describe it. We don’t even know why there was an eclipse. Are you
a better person because of it? Is your neighbor better off? Has peace come over
the world? If its just something that happens, then why get so worked up?
Because everything in this world is a religious event for
everyone, whether they admit it or not. They either bring you closer to God or
further from Him. In the beginning, the sun, moon, and all stars were made to
do what, create religious events? No, to tell time and mark those things for
us: “And God said, ‘Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to
separate the day from the night. And let them be for signs and for seasons, and
for days and years’” (Gen 1:14).
Jesus wants us to connect His words to the very thing they
create. He wants the sun, moon, and stars attached to “And God said, Let
there be…” Meaning, when we encounter them, we should think of those words
of creation from nothing. And contrarywise, when we encounter the words of
time, we should think of the things that accomplish them. The word is the
thing.
That is what it means to confess that Jesus is the Word.
That when He speaks, whatever it is, comes to be. Pops into existence. The sun
is up there in the heavens, doing its thing, because God is continuously
telling it to do it. The moon and the stars as well. The word is the thing.
In the same way, Jesus wants majesty and glory connected
only to Him. That when we hear the word “majesty” we should think, “Ascribe
power to God, whose majesty is over Israel, and whose power is in the skies”
for “There is none like God Who rides through the heavens to your help,
through the skies in His majesty” (Ps 68:34, Deut 33:26)
And when we hear “glory” we want to think, “Then Moses
and Aaron went from the presence of the assembly to the entrance of the tent of
meeting and fell on their faces. And the glory of the Lord appeared to them”
and “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (Num 20:6,
John 1:14)
You see, the glory of God is much bigger than His creation,
though that should be enough to convince the world of His absolute kingship.
The glory of God is also bigger than just Jesus walking around, telling us to
be nice, though that also should be enough to convert everyone.
The Glory of God is that God became flesh, in Christ, and
suffered, died, and rose again from the dead. The glory of God is the Glory of
Jesus, crucified for sinners. And that that crucifixion pays for redemption and
righteousness for all who believe. For, as St. Peter says, “we did not
follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty” (2 Peter 1:16) on
the cross.
And the Power of God is the Word of the Cross. The Word is
the thing. In this case, the word is salvation and the thing is the Body and
Blood of Christ.
For Jesus reveals His Resurrected self to His disciples in
two ways: the word and the thing. When He appeared on the road to Emmaus, He
both told the disciples He was raised and showed them. From St. Luke, “beginning
with Moses and all the Prophets, he interpreted to them in all the Scriptures
the things concerning himself…and…he was known to them in the breaking of the
bread” (Lk 24:27, 35)
He told them and showed them. The word is the thing.
Again, when He appeared in the locked, upper room, He both
told the disciples He was raised and showed them. “’See my hands and my
feet, that it is I myself. Touch me, and see. For a spirit does not have flesh
and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he had said this,
he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy
and were marveling, he said to them, ‘Have you anything here to eat?’ They gave
him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate before them. Then he said
to them, ‘These are my words that I spoke to you’” (Lk 24:39-44).
The Word is the thing. Jesus attaches His Word, His
teachings, to His Body and Blood. Now when we think of the Resurrection of
Jesus, we think of Him in His proper Body. So that, when we encounter Him, as
the Good Shepherd, those things come along with Him.
That is, in order to distinguish between the world’s voices
and the voice of the Good Shepherd, we need only match the word with the thing:
the Voice of the Shepherd to His Word and Sacraments.
That is why God in the flesh, Jesus, is “majestic”,
“incredible”, and “unifying”, because He has come to redeem all people from
their sins, sacrifice His Body and Blood to do it, and bring us all under His
arms. The Voice of the Shepherd is the Word of Forgiveness. The Word of
Forgiveness is the thing, that is the Gospel preached and the Sacraments
administered.
In the natural world, God is hidden. We cannot find Him in
eclipses, or lightning strikes, or northern lights. Though He has made such
things for us and for our enjoyment, the lights in the sky are to tell time.
The times that we are to remember God: His life and His Church Service for us.
But those things only come to us by His spoken Word and no other way.
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