Richard Davenport

October 22, 2023 – Proper 24

Isaiah 45:1-7

            When I try to think back to my youth, I feel like politics was just different in those days.  I think that’s especially true when it comes to presidents.  I was born in the era of Carter.  I was way too young to know anything about him at the time. It was a few years later, in the Reagan era, that I started paying attention to the news and what was going on in the political world.  I still didn’t understand a lot of what was going on, but I was interested and listened.

            I know there were a lot of people who didn’t really like Reagan.  They disagreed with his policies and such.  There was a lot fear still with the ongoing Cold War, even as it was starting to wind down.  There was always uncertainty, the possibility that things could go suddenly and catastrophically wrong.  Still, for all of that, the dialogue regarding Reagan could only go so far. He seemed to hold the upper hand in our relationship with the Soviets and the economy did quite well.  So, the criticism around him never made it to the fevered pitch we have today.

            After him came George Bush, who some liked, some disliked, but he was more middle of the road than his predecessor.  In general people appreciated what he did in Desert Storm. Then you get Bill Clinton, who was certainly charismatic, but had some indiscretions that tarnished his character. After was the second President Bush, who many thought should never have been president, since he didn’t win the popular vote.  President Bush got the most flak for, what many thought, was an intelligence failure that led to our invasion of Iraq and the ousting of Saddam Hussein. 

Then you get Barack Obama who was extremely controversial because he was just as charismatic as Bill Clinton, but even more liberal.  It’s then that I think things really start to change. Lots of liberals didn’t like Reagan. Lots of conservatives didn’t like Clinton, but they could still talk about these people in a civil manner.  It started with Bush’s presidency, but it really heated up under Obama, then it was more of the same stuff under President Trump and it continues with President Biden. 

Wherever you happen to fall on the political spectrum, chances are one of these presidents in recent years has done stuff that goes directly against your beliefs and your understanding of how things should work in this country. What are you supposed to do with that? Civil disobedience seems to be all the rage these days, with riots and looting and such.  But, that isn’t going to get rid of the president.  There’s a process for removing a president through legal means and it generally requires the president to do something illegal. However reprehensible a president might be in terms of what policies he supports, he probably isn’t doing anything illegal.  So all of the protests you might hold aren’t going to have the desired effect. 

You could try armed revolution and overthrow the government.  I mean, it worked once before.  It might work again.  It’s a pretty big undertaking and it definitely wouldn’t be pretty.  There would be a lot of violence and death and you might not even achieve your goal for all of that.  Even if you do accomplish what you set out to do, what about all of the people will suffer, either directly or indirectly.

Of course, none of this deals with other uncomfortable issues, such as the 4th commandment, which tells us to honor, serve and obey, love and cherish our parents and other authorities.  How other people address authority figures is a concern, but the bigger question is how we ourselves are to manage this.  Not everyone accepts God’s Law as a guiding principle for their lives, but we do.  We are beholden to God and the Laws that he gives.  The fact that he gave the Law to begin with means he intends for us to follow it.  That means we have to somehow come to terms with his command.  It’s one thing to just dislike someone.  It’s another thing to think they’re misguided or even wrong. It’s yet another thing to think they are so wrong, so morally bankrupt, so despicable, that they no longer have any authority over you at all.

This isn’t really a new dilemma.  Isaiah’s prophecy looks to King Cyrus, ruler of the Persians.  The Persians aren’t known for their faith in God. In fact they have a fully developed false religion that permeates the entire empire.  Cyrus is a pagan.  There’s nothing at all that suggests otherwise.  Even still, he comes to the conclusion that it is in the best interests of his people and his empire to send the Israelites back to their ancestral home.  They won’t be a sovereign nation, but they will at least live in the land that had once been theirs.  They’ll get to rebuild their ruined cities.  They’ll get to restore the temple and resume the worship of God as outlined in the Laws of Moses. 

We might say Cyrus is doing a good thing, yet it still earns him no favor with God.  As a pagan, nothing he does will ever save him or even mitigate the punishment that comes for all sinners.  He isn’t faithful.  He isn’t righteous.  He isn’t a good, God-fearing guy.  Yet here, he is clearly doing the work of God.  We know that because God tells us so. 

Authority figures aren’t people we tend to deal well with.  It’s ok when things are going well or when they’re saying things we already like and support, but as soon as that stops being the case, we remind everyone of how terrible those authorities are.  We show off to people how much better we could do the job.  We can see things more clearly.  We would do things in a more God-pleasing manner.  We wouldn’t gloat about it as much as other people.  We wouldn’t act like a dictator, pushing everyone around to get what we want.  In short, we can always find ourselves doing the job better than those who have it.

We end up at odds with authorities so often because earthly authorities are representatives of God’s own authority and deep down we don’t really acknowledge any authority but our own.  Even obviously pagan rulers still embody God’s authority and are used by him in various ways. 

Submitting to that authority is a recognition that we are not in charge. That boss, that manager, that judge, that policeman, that mayor, that commanding officer, that president, is there because God put him in that position.  He is a sinner too, and may not always do the job according to God’s commands, but that doesn’t change that God has given that position to him. 

The Fourth Commandment reminds us that submission to earthly authorities is submission to God himself.  When it comes to dealing with God, humility is always the order of the day.  Pride in all its forms, pride in accomplishments, pride in ability, pride in knowing better than the boss, none of it stands before God.

Jesus’ own ministry could have gone any number of ways.  Jesus could have come here to assert his own earthly authority, set himself up as emperor and ruled here.  He could have demanded fealty from everyone he met and forced to carry out his every whim.  He could have done a lot of things.  Instead, he chose to do the will of his Father who sent him.  Instead he subjected himself to the earthly authority of the Roman emperor’s representative in the region, Pilate. Even when he knew it would mean his death at Pilate’s hands, Jesus was still advocating for people to give the earthly rulers the respect and honor they are due. 

Whatever may have eventually happened to Pilate, whether he came to faith through the whole ordeal or not, he was clearly a pagan at the start of his encounter with Jesus.  He didn’t understand and he didn’t believe.  Yet, God used him anyway.  From our perspective, Pilate’s role in God’s plan of salvation is an unenviable one, yet it was Pilate’s command that sends Jesus to the cross where he dies for the sins of the world. 

You are saved, not because of Christ’s pride, but because of humility. You are saved because God used his own Son and the earthly rulers he had put into place to carry out his plan of salvation for you, that you may be saved from your own sin and inherit eternal life.

Ruler don’t always follow God’s law and, when they don’t, we are called to bring those actions to light that they may repent of their sins and receive the same forgiveness God has given us.  In all of those places where they are not working against God’s law, we are called to heed their authority and learn submission.  God gives us these rulers to not only provide order and stability to a sin-filled world, but also to help us learn what it means to be humble, and to have constant reminders of the need to humble ourselves before God himself.

When Luther discusses the ongoing work of baptism, one of the elements he reminds us of is how the Spirit works throughout baptism to continuously bring us back to repentance.  Luther talks about how we constantly are at war with our own sinful nature, which wants no authority but its own.  Luther calls that sinful nature, “the old Adam”.  Adam disregarded God’s first command and sought to be his own authority, and we have been suffering from that sin ever since.

Luther says that every day the old Adam must be drowned in the waters of our baptism.  Not that we are baptized every day, but that every day is a return to our baptism. Every day we look again to the God who has given everything we have as a gift.  Every day we see again our inability to add even one minute to our lives. All of the food we put on the table, all of the joyous times we spend with friends and family, all of the peaceful moments we spend watching the sunset, all of the earthly gifts we have we created by God on his authority and given to us as gifts of love.  All of the spiritual blessings we have are gifts given as well.  Luther’s well-known trio, forgiveness, life, and salvation, all come to us as gifts brought about because Jesus submitted himself to his Father’s will and brought these to us through his death and resurrection.

We come to the font to humbly receive his gifts.  We confess our sins to humbly receive his forgiveness.  We come to his table to humbly receive the Body and Blood of our Lord, who died and rose again that we might live forever. All of this done, as Luther says, “without any merit or worthiness in me.”  Christ demonstrates that true glory is found not in being high and mighty but in being lowly and humble. 

Instead of berating and belittling the authorities over us, we pray for them. We pray they lead godly lives and live as godly examples of how those in authority reflect God’s own authority. We pray they are strengthened and encouraged to live according to the laws that are given them by God, the laws all of us are to abide by.  We pray they are cared for, just as we are, because they are there to do the job given to them by God.

We thank God that he provides us both with examples of humility and of authority.  We thank him that he helps us to live humbly, so that we do not seek to throw off his authority and reject his gifts.  We thank him for sending his Son, who lived as a humble servant, who died that our sins could be forgiven.  We give thanks that Almighty God, ruler of all creation, loves his sinful creatures so much that he would be willing to humble himself to save them.