Thought for Today
1 Samuel 8:5 and said to him, "You are old and your sons do not follow in your ways; appoint for us, then, a king to govern us, like other nations."
Psalm 10:16 The LORD is king forever and ever; the nations shall perish from his land.
Matthew 2:1 In the time of King Herod, after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, 2 asking, "Where is the child who has been born king of the Jews? For we observed his star at its rising, and have come to pay him homage."
This morning, Greta astutely (and wisely) reminded me that in all I wrote yesterday about heaven and eternity, I never fully answered the questions in most of our minds. I never gave any details about the exact nature of heaven. Every time humans try to understand or explain heaven or eternity, we come up against the same impenetrable brick wall. We can phrase it differently, but however we do, the truth is that only God is God. I’m not sure I ever read that truth explicitly in anything I read in seminary. I don’t remember any professor ever saying just those words. But the absolute, eternal truth for us all is that only God is God. Irrespective of one’s wealth, power or intellect, only God is God. Notwithstanding one’s earthly importance measured by human metrics, only God is God.
I often remind myself that, “There’s always somebody smarter. There’s always somebody richer. There’s always somebody prettier.” Those are all human comparatives, based on human metrics. God cannot be measured or understood based on human metrics. God certainly cannot be ‘contained’ by human metrics. One of my seminary professors frequently reminded us that God can do anything other than not be God.
In evaluating all of those human metrics, we tend to think in terms of pyramidal structures. Pyramids of wealth; pyramids of power; maybe even pyramids of beauty. Interestingly, I cannot ever remember encountering any discussion of pyramids of intellect. Yet, every time I try to understand the workings of my computer, smartphone or many of my devices, I am faced with that same realization, there is somebody smarter than I am. Somebody figured out how to build it; somebody figured out how to program it; somebody figured out how to convince me that I needed it.
“Genesis 1:1 In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth.” God created Creation without a computer, without a smartphone or a smartwatch. God created Creation from nothing, creatio ex nihilo, “The Christian view that God created all things out of ‘nothing’ and is thus the ultimate cause and source of meaning for the whole created order.” (Westminster Dictionary of Theological Terms, pg..65) Remember, only God is God.
Historically, the peak of the human pyramid of power was a king or emperor. In our modern age, titles have changed, but nations still have leaders. We can refer to them as presidents, chairmen or some other appended label, but nations, commonwealths and unions have leaders at the apex of their pyramids. All human endeavors have leaders, CEOs, CFOs, moderators, etc.
Our own nation was founded with full realization of pyramids of power and leaders at the apex of the pyramid. Our Founding Fathers also understood something else, what is known as the ‘consent of the governed.’ “The earliest known use of the specific term ‘consent of the governed’ appears in the writings of Duns Scotus, a 13th-century Scottish Catholic priest and Franciscan friar, in his Ordinatio around the 1290s . . . In 1776, the Declaration of Independence declared that governments derive their just powers from ‘the consent of the governed,’ meaning the people’s consent through representation.” (Copilot Search)
As a Christian, I fully understand that only God is God. Yesterday, I hit that brick wall as I tried to comprehend heaven and eternity. As a Christian, I live within the reality of a pyramid of realty. At the apex of that pyramid is our Creator God. Human concepts like ‘consent of the governed’ do not apply in this instance. Jesus’ own words are more applicable, “Luke 20:25 . . . ‘Then give to the emperor the things that are the emperor's, and to God the things that are God's.’" Like those wise men, I have seen the rising star of the Son of God. Like them, I “come to pay him homage." Because, only God is God.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
Pastor Ray