Second Sunday in Lent (2)
Image: Chad, Bishop of Lichfield (https://forallsaints.files.wordpress.com/2011/03/chad-of-lichfield.jpg)
is revered for his great humility in the conduct of his episcopal ministries,
embodying the Pauline injunction of Ephesians 4.2.
The appointed psalm for evening prayer on Tuesday, March 2nd
is the majestic Psalm 68. It has an immense scope; powerful, even disturbing,
language and a theme of the progressive triumph of Yahweh over the enemies of
Israel. The text is familiar from a variety of contexts. Two of its verses find
their way into the libretto of Handel’s Messiah, Part the Second, first an Air
for alto or soprano: Thou art gone up on high; Thou hast led captivity
captive, and received gifts for men; yea, even from Thine enemies, that the
Lord God might dwell among them (Ps 68.18), and the following Chorus: The Lord gave the word; great was the company of
the preachers (Ps 68.11). In the sequence of the beloved oratorio, these quotations are set soon after
the account of the Passion of the Messiah, following the declaration that Thou
didst not leave His soul in hell (Ps 16.10), signifying the triumph of our
Lord in the very act of dying – humiliation transformed into victory.
And they are followed in close sequence by the great Hallelujah Chorus that
completes this middle section of the work. Part the Third in Messiah is the
application to the believer’s life, the appropriation of resurrection and hope
beyond this life by Christ’s followers, and the finale is – so highly
appropriately – the worship of the saints before the throne of God (Rev 5.12-14):
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood,
to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory,
and blessing. Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sitteth
upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever. Amen.
If the use by Handel and Jennens are so familiar to
us, we should not forget that St. Paul also exposits this Psalm incisively in
the Epistle to the Ephesians. The great theme of Eph 1-3 is the absolute
victory that Christ has won over the powers of evil and darkness, a literal
‘harrowing of hell’. Triumphing decisively through his crucifixion, [God] 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 also in the age to come. And he has put all
things under his feet and has made him the head over all things for the church,
which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all (Eph 1.20-23
NSRV). Near the start of Eph 4, he specifically uses Ps 68.18 as a fulcrum
between the ‘theory’ of the first half of the epistle and the ‘application’ in
the second half: we as members of Christ’s body – the church – are to live
triumphant and obedient lives because of the mighty things that God has already
enacted. In His triumph over all ‘powers’, every principal and factotum of
evil’s empire, Christ has stripped them and carried off the spoils, in the
imagery of an Old Testament era King-Warrior. From this abundance of plundered
resources, Christ gives to his people a rich store of what have come to be
known as the ‘spiritual gifts’. The gifts he gave were that some would be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip
the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until
all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ (Eph 4.11-13
NSRV).
I find it so fascinating that these rich provisions
are given to a people who are [urged] to live a life worthy of the calling
you have received. [To] be completely humble and gentle; patient, bearing with
another…keeping the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (Eph
4.2,3 NIV). It is human nature to strive for the resources needed for
flourishing; for an Assembly to recognize its needs, and ‘do whatever is
necessary’ to get the leaders, teachers, influencers and supporters that will
assure its success.
Not so God; in His foresight and wisdom, all that the
Assembly needs for its flourishing has been acquired by our victor Jesus, who gives
to each of us sufficient grace to enable the full development and
maturity of the Assembly – if only we would have the humility and integrity to
receive and use these charismata. The Christian Faith is not one of
weakness; our humility is not that of being doormats for the strong; our
gentleness is not vacillating before the power of Evil; our patience is not a
giving in to the odds stacked against us; our forbearance is not from a lack of
courage to face wrong. No! We live and act in total confidence in our Victor, who
has triumphed over the powers and distributes to us the spoils of that victory
in the perfect fulfillment of Ps 68. Praise be to the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every
spiritual blessing in Christ (Eph 1.3).
-Dr. Rene Boere