The Ace Up God's Sleeve--April 7, 2017
"For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep we may live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build up each other, as indeed you are doing." [1 Thessalonians 5:9-11]
There are a number of card games--Spades, Hearts, and Euchre, for example--where you play with a partner who sits across the table from you with his or her own cards. You may not be able to see what is in your partner's hand, but because you are both on the same "team," so to speak, their good cards can be good for you as well. If you spend much time at all playing one of these games, you get to a point where you feel a certain rhythm to things, and where you can tell if your partner has a particularly high card to bail you out when you only have low cards yourself left in your hand. In other words, there comes a point where you know that, whether you have the cards to make a win yourself or not, your partner has you covered. She has a trump card when you need it, or he has an ace of spades ready and waiting to beat the other team's king. And sometimes, based on which cards have already been played, you can tell that no matter what you do with your turn, your partner can ensure the win, whether you've got a hand full of face cards or a measly batch of off-suit fours and fives.
Well, to hear Paul tell it, Jesus is the ace up God's sleeve--the high card of all high cards, whose life offered up for us guarantees our own lives in him beyond death. "Whether we are awake or asleep," Paul says, we are enabled to live with Christ, because of what he has done for us, and not dependent on the cards in our hand. In the end, the promise of eternal life does not stand or fall on what cards I play or how much I do. The victory comes from Jesus. The victory is Jesus.
Whether I am alive when Jesus comes or not, Jesus will raise me up to live with him. Whether or not we have good cards in our hand, our Partner across the table has a high ace that he is willing to play for our sake: "For God has destined us not for wrath but for obtaining salvation..."
There is a song that has become pretty familiar among the two congregations I serve, by a Lutheran band called Tangled Blue. And the refrain echoes this passage so wonderfully--it goes, "No matter what, no matter what may come, no matter what may come I will not let you go." It's another way of saying what Paul says here, "Whether we are awake or asleep," we can count on the power of Jesus' life given up for us so that "we may live with him." God's promise is that regardless of whatever cards you are carrying today in your hand, your life is covered. Jesus lays himself down to cover you, whether you felt like you had a shot on your own or no chance of winning by yourself. Jesus is the ace up God's sleeve, but God is our partner across the table in this game, and that means God's good cards are spent for our benefit, too. God's win is given to us as our win, too.
Unlike so many of the offers out there in the world--offered by religions, by self-help writers, or by the vague fuzzy thing we call "the American dream"--the Good News of Jesus does not start with the caveat, "As long as you do your part first...." The Good News does not start with, "If you can play your cards right, you can win..." Rather, the Gospel begins with, "Regardless of what you bring to the table, Jesus is enough for you, too." That makes the Christian Good News subversive of all the other games being played out there, but it also makes the Gospel genuinely good news rather than a deal or a trick. Today, that is the message we offer to the world--that our partner at the table is none other than the living God, who has an Ace up his sleeve for our sakes like you wouldn't believe.
Lord Jesus, for whatever else happens in this day, and whatever else the hours ahead will bring, let your life, given for me, be enough to let me live in and with you. And let me trust that it is true.
There is a song that has become pretty familiar among the two congregations I serve, by a Lutheran band called Tangled Blue. And the refrain echoes this passage so wonderfully--it goes, "No matter what, no matter what may come, no matter what may come I will not let you go." It's another way of saying what Paul says here, "Whether we are awake or asleep," we can count on the power of Jesus' life given up for us so that "we may live with him." God's promise is that regardless of whatever cards you are carrying today in your hand, your life is covered. Jesus lays himself down to cover you, whether you felt like you had a shot on your own or no chance of winning by yourself. Jesus is the ace up God's sleeve, but God is our partner across the table in this game, and that means God's good cards are spent for our benefit, too. God's win is given to us as our win, too.
Unlike so many of the offers out there in the world--offered by religions, by self-help writers, or by the vague fuzzy thing we call "the American dream"--the Good News of Jesus does not start with the caveat, "As long as you do your part first...." The Good News does not start with, "If you can play your cards right, you can win..." Rather, the Gospel begins with, "Regardless of what you bring to the table, Jesus is enough for you, too." That makes the Christian Good News subversive of all the other games being played out there, but it also makes the Gospel genuinely good news rather than a deal or a trick. Today, that is the message we offer to the world--that our partner at the table is none other than the living God, who has an Ace up his sleeve for our sakes like you wouldn't believe.
Lord Jesus, for whatever else happens in this day, and whatever else the hours ahead will bring, let your life, given for me, be enough to let me live in and with you. And let me trust that it is true.
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