No Divine Policy Changes--November 27, 2023

No Divine Policy Changes--November 27, 2023

"God put this power to work in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and above every name that is named, not only in this age but in the age to come." [Ephesians 1:20-21]

I keep changing my mind on how I feel about term limits.

I don't mean to get us off on a tangent about the mechanisms of representative government, but indulge me for a moment.  Whether it's the office of the President of the United States or the local town council or congregational leadership, there's always the question of whether we should limit how long a person can serve in office.  And, as you surely know, there are different rules for different offices. As it stands now, presidents are limited to two terms, but members of Congress have no such limits.  Governors may have term-limits, but your state representatives might not.  Our system (which is really a hodgepodge of systems across every state, town, and county) sometimes puts limits on how long one person can be in office, and sometimes there are virtually none at all. And I know the arguments in favor of and against the idea of term-limits.  On the one hand, it keeps any one person from becoming a dictator for life, and it compels new voices with fresh ideas to keep arising so that new generations can take the reins from those who came before.  On the other hand, I'm sure there are times when it means that newly elected people lack wisdom and experience that the old hands could still have offered, and there are probably times when you wish you could have the continuity of someone who already knows what they are doing rather than having to wait for new people to figure things out.

In particular, it can be frustrating when you don't know what to expect from whoever is coming next in line.  Whether it's a change of individual leaders or a change of parties, it can be really difficult to know how a new administration will do things.  What policies from the old guard will remain?  Which ones will be undone or erased?   What should we expect from a new person in office?  Other countries may find it particularly challenging--will the alliance that other nations counted on still be in effect if a new person comes into office?  Will the humanitarian aid they were counting on after a disaster or a war still be on its way to help, or will that depend on the outcome of some future election?  Our own history has been shaped by the policy choices of new and incumbent leaders--that is, after all, what sparked the Civil War, as numerous states rejected the policies they saw coming from the election of Abraham Lincoln and what it would mean for slavery.  A great deal can ride on the question of whether the person who holds the reins of power now will be replaced by someone different later on, both for good and for ill.  And while you watch it all unfold, it can feel rather like being a yo-yo getting yanked back and forth.

Well, if that makes sense and you can understand how much rides on the questions of continuity in leadership, then I'll bet you can understand the importance of these verses from Ephesians.  Not to add a worry to your plate (I promise, it will all be resolved soon), but what kind of expectations should we have about God's reign over all of creation?  And... should we be prepared for wild changes in policy from the divine?  Should we fear that Jesus' lordship could expire, or run up against term limits?  

At first, of course, that sounds preposterous.  Of course we don't believe that Jesus won't leave "office."  Of course we don't have to be afraid that someone else will be voted in as God of creation--it's not a democracy, after all.  God's goodness and commitment to justice and mercy cannot be undone even if everybody votes for meanness and crooked selfishness, because God doesn't have to run policy choices past us (which, I have to think on balance is a good thing, knowing what narrowly self-interested and short-sighted stinkers we can be).  So far, so good.

But I will say this: sometimes we Respectable Religious Folk do end up sounding like there will be some grand divine bait-and-switch, between now and Christ's coming again.  Sometimes you'll hear folks say things like, "Well, he came as a Lamb the first time, but when he comes again, he'll be the fierce Lion!" Sometimes church folks sound like they're saying that grace is the order of the day now, but at some point, God will decide to get "tough" and crack down on sin and that the cross and resurrection won't be enough after all.  And we might not realize we're doing it, but in practice that ends up sounding like saying, "Jesus' Lordship has term limits."  And it can sound, too, like we can't count on God's love to be the defining characteristic of God's Reign.  It can sound like at some point God will give up on loving the world and will resort to a policy of zapping.

And this, dear ones, is why the claim made here in Ephesians is so important.  The writer of Ephesians is basically heading off that fear and saying that the same Christ who is risen and ascended to the divine throne now is the same One who will reign in "the age to come."  Times may change and epochs may come and go, but the way Jesus rules creation is not up for debate and is not subject to term limits. Even emperors in the first century would come and go when they died, and their successors could bring dramatic new shifts in the oversight of the Roman Empire.  But to hear Ephesians tell it, the same Christ who is Lord now is Lord forever, and we do not have to worry about him leaving office, being voted out, or changing policies.  The same One who saves the world by laying down his life for it in self-giving love reigns by the very same self-giving love over all of creation.  The book of Ephesians insists that God's way of running the universe is to bring resurrection out of death--even when we have done our worst by putting Jesus to a miserable and godforsaken death on a cross--rather than to say that resurrections are for "wimps."  At no point does God say, "I prefer messiahs who didn't get killed in the first place" and then replace Jesus with someone more bloodthirsty and vengeful to be in charge.   The Lord of the future who fills all in all is the same Lord with nail marks from the cross, and there will be no change of divine policy from "dying for your enemies" to "crucifying your enemies."  Even the book of Revelation itself gives us only a slain but risen Lamb, even after announcing the arrival of a Lion.  The Jesus whose love went to the cross is the same Jesus who reigns now and forever.   We do not have to worry about a change of administrations.

And that really is good news in the end.  It really is good news right now.

In case you've ever heard that talk that suggests we need to be afraid about Jesus' coming rather than glad, or that suggests God might change policies to look "tough" rather than "weak", take it from the writer of Ephesians: the same Jesus who is Lord now is the One who will reign even in the age to come.

Lord Jesus, help us to trust the constancy of your love to get through this day now.