Sermon for August 5th
Preached at St. John's Lancaster
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| The Lion of the Tribe of Judah |
It was an auspicious day, for a new king had been anointed in Zion. It was the latest verification of that promise which had been given by God through the patriarch Joseph, “Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be…” (Genesis 49:8-10) The prophet Zechariah understood the prophetic nature of these utterances about the house of Judah and of David when he proclaimed “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, o daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.” (Zechariah 9:9) His understanding was vindicated and the prophecy fulfilled on that day “when they drew nigh unto Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, unto the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, Saying unto them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them and bring them unto me. And if any man say ought unto you, ye shall say, The Lord hath need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass. And the disciples went, and did as Jesus commanded them, And brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitudes that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord: Hosanna in the highest.” (St. Matthew 21:1-9)
The Jewish people suffered much in the thirteen or fourteen centuries which contained these prophetic events. There were wars and rumors of wars, slavery and deportations, famines and earthquakes and fire and flood. Invasion and economic ruin were never far over the horizon. For much of that time we might apply Churchill’s description of life in Iron Age Britain that “Life is brutal and short, and then you die.” But God’s promise prevailed, and among the people, even in the darkest of hours, that hope flickered that God would remember his chosen, and that the “scepter would not depart from Judah until Shiloh come.”
And now, by virtue of our response to God, we too are numbered among His chosen people. Because ‘we have confessed our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.’ (I John 1:9 sic) Because ‘we have confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus, and believed in our heart that God hath raised him from the dead, we shall be saved.’ (Romans 10:9 sic) Because ‘we have been born of the water and of the Spirit, we can enter into the kingdom of God.’ (John 3:5 sic) Because we ‘eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, we have life in us…and we dwell in him and he in us, and he shall raise us up at the last day.’ (St. John 6:53-56 sic)
Like patriarchs and prophets and kings before us, like those who are ‘unremembered…who were men of loyalty and good deeds…, whose lives led their children to stay within the covenant of God.’ (cf Ecclesiasticus 44:9-12) we find in our lives those times of dryness and disappointment, those times of difficulty and unexpected disorder, those times of darkness. But the promises of God are true. During the years when Jerusalem was in ruins and God’s faithful people wept by the waters of Babylon, they remembered the promises (cf. Psalm 137). In the most difficult of times, when they cried “Out of the depths” (Psalm 130:1), the people of God affirmed their faith that “he shall redeem Israel from all his iniquities.” (Psalm 130:8) Blessed Job in the midst of his infirmities and misfortunes cried out in faith “I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:25-26)
And so should we, when life’s vicissitudes and uncertainties and unpleasantries confront us, place our hope in God, who is “our refuge and our strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake at the swelling thereof. Selah. There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High. God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early. The heathen raged, the kingdoms were moved: he uttered his voice, the earth melted. The Lord of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. Selah.” (Psalm 46:1)
As war descended across Europe in the closing years of 1939, King George VI addressed the people of the Empire and of the world. He quoted from a poem by Minnie Louise Harkins and said “I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year, Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown, and he replied. Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way! So I went forth and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night. And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.”
Whatever darkness my threaten you this day. Whatever sorrow you have known or whatever difficulties you face. I bid you this day to put your hand into the hand of God in the knowledge that Shiloh is come into the world and that the prophesies are fulfilled. Jesus Christ, who bid his disciples “be not afraid” on so many occasions, gives to us the same admonition today. Praised be God, who has not allowed the scepter to depart from the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and who in his mercy and grace has named you and me to be the heirs of the Kingdom of God. In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. AMEN.
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