Readings
Psalm 67 God rules the peoples,
and guides the nations
May God be gracious to us and bless us
And make his face to shine upon us,
That your way may be known upon earth,
Your saving power among all
nations.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
Let all the peoples praise you.
Let the nations be glad and sing for
joy,
For you rule the peoples justly,
And guide the nations of the earth.
Let the peoples praise you, O God;
Let all the peoples praise you.
The earth has yielded its increase;
God, our God, has blessed us.
May God continue to bless us;
Let all the ends of the earth
revere him.
Revelation 19:11-16 The rider on the
white horse
I saw heaven opened, and there before me
was a white horse, whose rider is called
Faithful and True. With justice he
judges and makes war. His eyes are like
blazing fire, and on his head are many
crowns. He has a name written on him
that no one knows but he himself. He is
dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and
his name is the Word of God. The armies
of heaven were following him, riding on
white horses and dressed in fine linen,
white and clean. Out of his mouth comes
a sharp sword with which to strike down
the nations. He will rule them with an
iron scepter. He treads the winepress of
the fury of the wrath of God Almighty.
On his robe and on his thigh he has this
name written: "King of kings and Lord of
lords."
Apocalypse Explained #726.2
The Lord's infinite power
The Lord has infinite power. We can see
this from these considerations: He is
the God of heaven and of earth. He
created the universe filled with
numberless stars, which are suns; and in
the universe so many systems and earths
in these systems--these systems and the
earths in them numbering many hundred
thousand, and more. He alone preserves
and continually sustains these because
he created them.
Further, just as he created the natural
worlds, so he created the spiritual
worlds above them, and these he
continually fills with millions and
millions of angels and spirits. Under
these he has also hid away the hells, as
many in number as the heavens. He alone
gives life to each and every thing in
the worlds of nature and in the worlds
above nature. And because he alone gives
life, no angel, spirit, or person is
able to move a hand or foot except from
him. . . .
These and many other things too numerous
to be mentioned could not possibly be so
if the Lord did not have infinite power.
The Lord himself teaches in Matthew that
he alone rules all things: "All
authority is given to me in heaven and
on earth" (Matthew 28:18).
Sermon
Let the nations be glad and sing for
joy, for you rule the peoples justly,
and guide the nations of the earth.
(Psalm 67:4)
Throughout recorded human history runs
the thread of human beings trying to
rule and control as much of this earth
as we are able. Nation rises against
nation, there are wars and rumors of
wars, empires rise to control vast
territories, enduring for perhaps a
hundred, perhaps a thousand years, and
then they are gone, surviving only in
the history books and in the collective
consciousness of the human race.
Right now, the United States is the
dominant power on this earth. Some
people think this is great. Others think
it is terrible. Still others are of two
minds about it. And though I have my own
opinion, I am not here today to say
whether this is good or bad, but to
remind you that it is temporary.
Every human work is temporary. We
may build great buildings that last
centuries, and great empires that last
centuries, but in the end, everything we
humans do here on earth will crumble
into dust and be gone. We may gain
control over a large part of the world's
territory and wealth, but that too is
only temporary. It may last for our
lifetime, or over many lifetimes, but
sooner or later the wealth and lands
will pass out of our hands, or out of
the hands of our descendents.
We humans on our own are
mortal--creatures of time. And in
particular, everything about us that
dwells in and relates to this material
world will live out its life, and then
die. We can have no permanent memorial
here on earth. Even if we manage to
build physical or cultural monuments
that last thousands and thousands of
years, we know that in the end, the
earth itself will be swallowed up by our
dying and expanding sun, and even the
entire universe will eventually either
collapse back on itself, or dissolve
into a thin film of inert matter, dead
stars, and random energy, incapable of
supporting any further life. All things
of this earth live out their lives, and
then die.
It is only in a temporary sense that any
one of us, any group of us, any human
government can be said to rule any part
of this earth. We may have the reins of
power in our hands for a time, but then
they are gone.
Yet even when we apparently have the
reins of power in our hands, much of
that power is illusory. The United
States is now the most powerful nation
on earth. Recently we militarily crushed
the governments of two nations with
ease. Then we discovered the same thing
that the North Vietnamese discovered
after they defeated us: that winning the
peace is much harder than winning the
war. With our overwhelming military
superiority, breaking the governments of
Afghanistan and Iraq was not difficult.
Establishing reasonable governments to
replace them is turning out to be far
thornier a task than we had imagined.
Even here in our own land, with our
government wielding the most
sophisticated means ever devised of
tracking its people's movements and
their economic and recreational
activities through computerized
databases reaching into many of the
things we do each day, our government
remains in power only as long as the
people want it to. The power that our
leaders feel they wield is not their
own, but is only donated to them for a
time. Those who were in power ten or
twenty years ago are now simply private
citizens, if they are not already in
their graves.
In the end, all human power--whatever
effects it may have for a time--is
merely an illusion. It is real for a
time, and then it is not real. And it
depends on so many factors beyond human
control that the power can hardly be
considered our own. Even the President
himself depends for his power on
thousands and millions of others who
could at any time decide that they do
not want to do what he wants them to do.
Above and beyond that, we may have the
strings of military and economic power
in our hands for a time, but we do not
create or control the physical,
economic, biological, and social laws
that govern all human action and
interaction. In fact, any human law we
make can be successful only to the
extent that it abides by and harmonizes
with higher laws that are not merely
legislated, but are built into the very
fabric of existence. If we abide by
these laws, our actions gain a certain
long-term staying power. If we violate
them, we are fighting against the very
nature and structure of the
universe--which is a battle we cannot
win for long. We are all subject to laws
that we did not create and that we
cannot change.
The Author of those laws is the only
true ruler of the universe and
everything in it. The Creator of the
physical and spiritual worlds, who
established their foundations and
delineated all their laws, is also the
supreme and only ruler of all
that exists. Our power is secondary,
derived power. God's power is the
original and real power, because God is
the source of all that is.
Now, many of us will accept that
theoretically. "Yes, of course,
everything comes from God." But we think
that God has done his "creation thing,"
and has now given us the power. And
there is a sense in which that is true.
God did put us in charge of the garden,
to tend it and care for it (Genesis
2:15). And he gave us dominion over the
fish of the sea and over the birds of
the air and over every living thing that
moves on the earth (Genesis 1:28).
Yet God still retained ultimate control.
When we violated the one prohibition
that he had given us--against eating
from the tree of knowledge of good and
evil--he expelled us from the Garden of
Eden, where all had been provided for us
in luxuriant fashion, and we began the
existence that we still know today:
scratching out a living for ourselves
through laborious work, in the sweat of
our brows. Dominion was only lent
to us as long as we tended and cared for
the garden according to the higher law
established by God. And to this day, all
of our power is merely lent to us by
God. Jesus, when he was before Pilate,
said to him, "You would have no power
over me if it were not given to you from
above" (John 19:11).
Even the idea that the power is ever
actually ours is an illusion. We may
think that God hands power over to us,
just as an employer writes a check so
that the money (or the power) is now
ours. And God purposely gives us the
illusion that this is how it works. If
we knew that, as Swedenborg says, "no
angel, spirit, or person"--that means
us!--"is able to move a hand or foot
except from him," we would rebel against
God, continually resentful of and
resistant to God's minute awareness and
rule over even the most trivial aspects
of our lives. God knows that if we have
a sense of personal power and control,
we will work and struggle to move
forward and achieve the purposes that we
believe are ours. So God allows us to
think that we are autonomous; that we
control our own lives; that everything
we do is from our own will and through
our own power.
But it is not true. Not only were we
originally created by God, and from
God's substance, but every ounce of
capability and power that we now have
comes from God, moment by moment. We
literally cannot move a hand or a foot
unless God gives us the power to do it
in that very instant. We may think that
it is our brain and nervous system and
muscles that enable us to lift a hand or
a foot, but that is true only in a
limited sense.
First, we now know that even this
physical body of ours, which looks so
solid, is mostly empty space. It is made
of infinitesimally small bundles of
energy and matter--electrons, protons,
and so on--whizzing around and giving
the illusion of solidity. When we touch
one another, it is not physical "stuff"
touching physical "stuff." Rather, it is
energy and force fields approaching one
another. The engine behind all that
energy and motion is God. If God were
not continually flowing into the
material world, sustaining every
particle and keeping them all in motion,
they would instantly cease to exist. Our
very bodies, and everything we touch and
see, are continually held in existence
by the power of God's love. If God's
presence in and around us ceased even
for an instant, we would instantly cease
to exist.
And second, even the impulse to move our
muscles comes from within. Without a
mind inhabiting this body of ours, it
would be a lifeless mass of flesh.
Without a spirit, the body is motionless
and dead. The impulse to move our hand
or foot comes from within--from our
will, which is part of our spirit. And
though we may think our thoughts and
feelings are our own, in fact, every one
of them comes from the angels and
spirits around us, and through them from
God. So even if the physical means
exists to move a hand or a foot, it will
not be moved except at the command of
our spirit. And our spirit also was
created by God, and is continually
sustained in existence by God.
Now let's look around at this world of
ours again. Doesn't it look a bit
different? Suddenly the weight of human
wealth and dominance seems light,
fleeting. Even the most powerful people
on earth are merely children playing
with their toys for a time, until their
toys are taken away from them.
There is only one ruler of all nations,
and of all the universe. Whatever the
appearance may be, God is in control of
our world. We may not always see God's
purposes, but we can take comfort in
knowing that God's purposes are eternal,
not temporary, and that they will
be accomplished. And we can take even
greater comfort in knowing that the God
who rules the earth with infinite power
is also a God of infinite love and
mercy. "Let the nations be glad and sing
for joy, for you rule the peoples
justly, and guide the nations of the
earth." |