Every Knee Shall bow and Every Tongue Confess!
Sermon Text for Sunday January 4, 2009
1. Good Morning. Let’s pray.
O Lord, may the words of my mouth and the meditations
of our hearts be pleasing to You O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
2. Opening Comments: Let me tell you a story. Once upon a time many many
many years ago in a happy little village a child was born – a god child.
His flesh was that of His mother but His Spirit was that of His Father,
God Almighty. His coming was by worldly
standards rather inauspicious but there was one rather strange event that did
occur around the time of His birth. Some
strangers arrived and claimed that they had come to pay homage to a child
king. They came and found the child and
gave Him gifts and worshipped Him and then returned to their distant homes and
that was it.
The child grew up like any other child.
Yes, He was different but not that different. He was liked by all and all felt His
love. Perhaps that was the most
distinctive thing about Him – we all felt His love and that seemed to cast a
spell of peace and joy over our entire village.
We felt blessed. I am amazed now
that I think about it that we didn’t think more about this but we didn’t and
the years passed and He grew up.
Strangely He never married. And
you know, we didn’t think too much about that perhaps
because we all wanted to feel His love.
His mother and father were loved by all and when Joseph died His mother
was given a special place of honor in our village. She was a very kind and blessed woman. You know the sort – you just feel good to be
near them.
Now the rest of this story as you’ve probably guessed is history but I
want to tell you an untold story about the strange men who came to find and pay
homage to the child.
They returned to their distant homeland and told their friends that the
stars proclaimed Him as a great King.
Indeed, this was no simple king but rather the King of all Kings and
Lord of all Lords and so they were compelled to find and worship Him. They told of the star that led them to Him. Clearly they knew that they were being called
to find Him.
They told their people of their long and exhausting journey and of
their ultimate encounter with this child King.
Now we know that they found the child in a manger surrounded by animals. This was not the setting of a magnificent
royal court but strangely in the telling of their story they made no mention of
the simplicity of His surroundings but rather they spoke of His Presence – His
eyes, His . . . . Ah! Whenever they tried to describe Him they became lost in
wonder and all listening were left to wonder themselves at what they were
remembering – what they were seeing.
This story was told again and again and many including the good men
themselves wanted to return to this child-King but now there was no star to
follow and ever so slowly they realized that when the time was right the great
God of the Universe would send them another sign again but until then they
would have the assurance that this child-King was revealed to them and was therefore
their King also. Each of them has this
wonderful sense of being specially blessed – blessed to have been chosen to see
and proclaim His coming to the world.
And so the world outside of the child’s little village waited for
further revelations of Him – perhaps His coronation!
Oh He was crowned . . . with thorns and He was enthroned . . . on a
cross but that’s another story for another day.
What must be known today is that this child-King is in fact the King of
all Creation and all creation has been waiting for Him.
He is not a king who will arrogantly force Himself upon His followers
but rather will draw all to His side with the gossamer treads of selfless
love. His is not a kingdom held in check
by fear or force but rather a kingdom of priests seeking with every breath to
offer the sacrifice of their love to Him!
Other kings and queens and holy men and women will come and go but all
will ultimately bend their knees and confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord and
King of all Creation.
This is the message of Epiphany Sunday – Jesus Christ is the King of
all Kings and the Lord of all Lords and all are blessed because of this!
Listen to our song of declaration about this our King:
Ps 72:1-2, 7-8, 10-11, 12-13
(R.) Lord, every nation on earth will
adore you.
O God, with your judgment endow the king,
and with your justice, the king’s
son;
he shall govern your people with
justice
and your afflicted ones with
judgment.
(R.) Lord, every nation on earth will
adore you.
Justice shall flower in his days,
and profound peace, till the moon be
no more.
May he rule from sea to sea,
and from the River to the ends of
the earth.
(R.) Lord, every nation on earth will
adore you.
The kings of Tarshish and
the Isles shall offer gifts;
the kings of Arabia and Seba shall bring tribute.
All kings shall pay him homage,
all nations shall serve him.
(R.) Lord, every nation on earth will
adore you.
For he shall rescue the poor when he cries out,
and the afflicted when he has no one
to help him.
He shall have pity for the lowly and the poor;
the lives of the poor he shall save.
(R.) Lord, every nation on earth will adore you.
Isaiah – arguably the greatest
of the Old Testament prophets wrote of Him:
Is.
9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son
is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince
of Peace.
Is. 9:7 Of the increase of his
government and peace there will be no end. He will reign on David’s throne and
over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness
from that time on and forever. The zeal of the LORD Almighty will accomplish
this.
St. Paul remembered what the prophet wrote about Him also in his letter
to the Christians in Rome:
Rom. 14:11 It is written: “‘As surely as I live,’
says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to
God.’”
And again St. Paul
wrote to the Christians in Philippi:
Phil. 2:10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and
on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father.
I wonder what the wise men from the distant land left for posterity
about their ancient pilgrimage and their great discovery. Was it perhaps written or preserved in their
oral tradition.
The fact is though that God announced to the world outside of Israel
the coming of His Son. He announced it
to those who would hear and so it is today – We are God’s proclaimers
to all who would hear – that Jesus Christ is the King of Kings and the Lord of
all Lords. Some will hear but many sadly
won’t!
What does all of this mean then?
God has revealed Himself to be God of ALL of His Creation! Not just the Jews. Christians is not just a Jewish sect but
followers of the Lord of all Lords and the King of all Kings!
What then is our role to the world?
Ah! St. Peter tells us in no
uncertain words in his first letter:
1Pet. 2:9 ¶ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who
called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
Do you feel like a member of a royal priesthood – a citizen of a holy
“set apart” nation – a person belonging to God with the calling to declare to
the world just how wonderful your Lord is who has saved you from eternal
damnation into His wonderful light!
Let’s reflect upon who we are just for a moment. You and I are not Jewish yet because Jesus is
Lord of all Lords and King of all Kings we belong to His Kingdom with the same
rights and privileges as any citizen of His Kingdom and we are all infinitely
loved by Him – we belong to Him!
Think about that – you and I belong to God! It may help us to better understand what this
really means if we understand what the Greek word means. The word is:
peripoi÷hsiß
And as a verb it
means: to
preserve, reserve, keep for oneself, acquire; to bring about, to effect for
oneself; but as a noun which it is in this verse it
means “a possession” – a kept being!
Now back to St.
Peter – He tells us that we’re a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a possession of God!
‘
We belong to God –
He preserves us! He keeps us for
Himself! He has a
infinite interest in us!
As I try to grasp
this – to understand it so well that it is me – it defines me – it is an
expression of who I really am – not what I want to be, or what I aspire to be –
but what I am, . . . as I thing about
that I find myself wondering what ever became of those wise men?
Do you think they
ever ventured back to Bethlehem?
Do you think they
died frustrated old men who had waited for another sign but never got it?
I don’t! I think they knew who Jesus was the moment
they saw Him for they fell down and worshipped Him!
I think they felt
blessed to have seen the heavens declare Him and I think that from the moment
they fell down before Him they were His!
And He was theirs!
They belonged to
Him body, soul, and spirit! They were
forever captive to Him! They forever
owed Him their full and unmitigated allegiance!
Let me close with a
declaration of surrender to our belonging to Him!
Magnificent Incarceration!
Owned by You – belonging to You! Captive to You! bond-slave to
You! Such magnificent
incarceration! Why, why, why . . . why
do I run from you? Why do I avoid
you? Why do I live as if I were my
own? Why do I think about everything
else but rarely wonder at who I really am and more
importantly “whose” I really am?