Sermon 12/4/16
Psalm 72:1-14, Mark 4:35-41
His Name Shall Be Called: Mighty God*
“And his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” On this
second Sunday of Advent, we’re thinking together about what it means to call
Jesus “Mighty God.” Thinking of Jesus as God incarnate might come pretty
naturally to us. Christians worship a Triune God. That is, we believe that God
is a Trinity – Father, Son, Holy Spirit – three persons of God, but still one God. But in the story of the
scriptures, though God’s people were longing for a messiah – which means anointed one, a title given to a king –
they weren’t expecting the messiah to
be God-in-the-flesh exactly. God’s best servant leader, yes. But God in human
form? Maybe not. So, how do we come to see Jesus
in the words of the prophet Isaiah, when Isaiah calls the promised child
“Mighty God”?
In many cultures over the millennia, nations would view the
rulers of their country as attaining their role, their position, because of
divine decree. In other words, the ruler was in place because God or god(s) wanted
them to be. And so, often, the ruler himself (and it has been predominately “him”) would be viewed as having divine
qualities, divine power, if not being actually considered divine. Certainly,
for the Israelites, there was no separation of church and state. The nation was
God’s people, and the king was a servant of God. People were longing for a
ruler, then, who would clearly be God-chosen, God’s servant leader directing
God’s people.
The ideal ruler had a lot of responsibilities. The ruler
would have “victory in war … success in economics … productivity in agriculture
and … justice in social relations.” (20) Also, the king’s job was to “practice
economic justice toward the poor and needy.” (21) It was written in to the law
that the ruler would be the protector of the most at-risk in society. We read
about this in our passage from Psalm 72, where the whole Psalm is a prayer of
blessing for a king, containing a description of what a king who is serving God
ought to look like: “May he judge your people with righteousness and your poor
with justice … In his day may righteousness flourish and peace abound … May all
kings fall down before him … For he delivers the needy when they call, the poor
and those who have no helper. He has pity on the weak and the needy, and saves
the lives of the needy. From oppression and violence he redeems their life; and
precious is their blood in his sight.” The Psalmist speaks of a Ruler who is a
protector of the poor and vulnerable, who cares deeply about their lives, a
Ruler who is strong enough to shield them from violence and oppression.
Still, Isaiah describes something
more than a Mighty King. Isaiah says Mighty
God, a bold claim. Does Jesus meet the criteria? In his book, Names for the Messiah, Walter
Brueggemann writes, “Jesus is a carrier of divine power.” (22) The phrase
“Mighty God” “asks about [Jesus’s] power in a world that is organized around
many claimants for power, most especially the power of Rome. It is clear that
[Jesus] will not compete with the power of Rome on the terms of Rome.” (23)
Instead, Jesus insists that his power “is not grounded in the usual authority
of empire; it is not an authority that comes … in coercive or violent ways. His
kingdom, his claim to authority is indeed “divine” in that it is rooted in and
derived from [the will of God], whose intention for the world is quite unlike
the intent of Rome.” (24)
We get a picture of Jesus, Mighty
God, in our gospel lesson from Mark. Jesus has been teaching the crowds by the
seaside. The crowds become so great that Jesus gets into a boat and teaches
from just offshore, just enough to give him a platform, and a little distance
from the press of the crowds. When evening comes, he says to his disciples:
“Let us go across to the other side.” So they leave the crowds, and they head
across the water. A windstorm rises up as they travel. The waves are beating
against the boat, and the boat is nearly swamped. And through all this, Jesus
is asleep in the stern of the boat. The disciples wake him, asking, “Teacher,
don’t you care that we’re about to die?” Jesus gets up, rebukes the wind, and says
to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” He uses the same kind of commands and actions he
would to drive out an unclean, harmful spirit from a person. And immediately,
the wind ceases and there is total calm. Jesus turns to the disciples and asks
them, “Why are you afraid? Have you still no faith?” Their only response is to
turn to each other in awe and wonder, “Who then is this, that even the wind and
the sea obey him?” They’ve heard Jesus teach and they’ve seen him heal. But
power over the elements like this – this is something different, something more
altogether. There were many healers and teachers. But power like this was
reserved for God. To have power over the chaos of a storm – to have the storm obey, like the unclean spirits also obeyed Jesus – this is the power of
Mighty God.
Passages like this one are known as
theophanies. A theophany is one of those fancy church words that means a simple
thing: A God-appearance, where the glory of God is revealed in a particular act
or moment. You know the word epiphany – when something is revealed suddenly,
when we have sudden clarity – a light bulb moment. A theophany is when God is
suddenly revealed – when the presence of God in our midst is revealed. In
Jesus, we encounter the ultimate theophany – the ultimate revealing of God’s
presence, God-with-us. Throughout Mark’s gospel, Jesus does what only God can
do, revealing the glory of God.
It’s that same revealing of God’s
glory that is woven through the story of Jesus’ birth. Listen to what Luke
tells us: “In that region there were shepherds living in the fields, keeping watch
over their flock by night. Then an angel of the Lord stood before them, and the
glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel
said to them, ‘Do not be afraid; for see—I am bringing you good news of great
joy for all the people: to you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who
is the Messiah, the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a child
wrapped in bands of cloth and 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 heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors!’” A
Mighty God comes in the Christ-child, and God’s messengers fill they sky to
tell the news.
Jesus, God-with-us, carries divine
power that is different than the power the world knows. Brueggemann says, “Jesus
exercises counter-power that refuses the coercive, exploitative power of Rome
and instead enacts abundant power that makes life possible.” That’s the aim and
focus of Jesus’ power: Jesus, Mighty God, makes
abundant life possible. (24) We see this in the gospels when Jesus casts out
unclean spirits – he has power over that which makes chaos and disorder, stumbling
blocks to life. And we see it when he calms the storm. The spirits, the storm –
they obey Jesus because in him is the power of Mighty God. Writes Brueggemann, “Clearly
the two adversaries of Jesus, the unclean spirit and the storm, are forces of
chaos and death. They are agents of ‘uncreation’ … Jesus contains and subjects
these deathly chaotic threats by creating space for new life.” Creating space for new life – that’s the
work of Jesus in the world.
Jesus, Mighty God, doesn’t
promise a lack of chaos in the world. Instead, our Mighty God-made-flesh in Jesus
promises to draw from the chaos abundant life and hope, where the alternative
is death and despair. This is the ultimate hope we have as people of faith, as
we recite these words from apostle Paul at graveside services: “Where, O death,
is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” We believe that Jesus brings
life, where we expected death.
But beyond longing for or trusting in Jesus’ ultimate giving
of life eternal instead of the hopelessness of death, what does it mean for us,
for our lives now, for Jesus to be
Mighty God, Lord of Life? We have to ask ourselves: Where do we need to allow
Jesus to create space for new life in us? Where is our life full of chaos,
where is death and despair threatening to take hold of us? The more we can
offer our whole lives to God, even
those parts of our life – especially those
parts of our life we’re embarrassed by, the stuff of our life that makes us
feel ashamed or weak or overwhelmed or like we just can’t handle it anymore –
when we offer that to God, and let go of protecting and hiding the chaos of our
lives, God can get to work drawing out new life from the mess. We have to be
vulnerable. We have to be ready to offer our obedience, our willingness to
follow this Mighty God. But I promise, the Lord of Life can transform your
chaos, can transform your hopelessness into joy.
Not only can Jesus create abundant life out of the chaos we
entrust to him, but Jesus also invites us, his disciples, to carry out his
work, his mission, by being co-creators, by helping to make paths for creative,
new, abundant life to take place. How are we making pathways for new life in
world? How can we nurture creative energy for life in our families, in our
congregation, in our community? God makes us caretakers of the garden of earth,
and we can work to make sure what God is growing is soaked in light and water
and planted in good soil. Who do you know who is feeling hopeless who needs
some words of encouragement? Who is beginning a journey with God of new life
that needs your support? We are called to clear the path for the Lord of Life
to be at work in the world.
On the flip side, we have to do some self-examination in this
season of Advent. Jesus wants to make new life of our chaos, and wants us to
help make new life pathways in the world. Sometimes, when we turn away from
God, we find ourselves instead making stumbling blocks, putting barriers in the
way of God’s paths. Sometimes, we find ourselves stirring up the chaos, in our
lives, and in the lives of other, instead of working with God to create life. In these days that feel so chaotic, when the temptation to add
the swirl of hate and anger can be so tempting, we must ask ourselves: Am I
adding to the chaos? Are my actions toward others leading them toward
hopelessness, or toward abundant life? Jesus speaks in some of his harshest
words in the gospels toward those who get between others and their life with
God. There are so many ways that God might bring new life out of your chaos,
but it will never be through causing
chaos for others.
Jesus is about the work of making space for new life in the
world, in our lives. Let us be about
the work of making space for Jesus. In these Advent days, and all the days that
follow, let every heart prepare him room, room for Mighty God, the Lord of
Life. Amen.
*References throughout are from Chapter 2 of
Names for the Messiah by Walter Brueggemann.
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