How can we say...
Illustration
Object:
How can we say Christ is King in view of the natural catastrophes that befall our nation, in view of our international conflicts, in light of the poverty that mars the lives of 1 in 6 Americans (per U.S. Census Bureau statistics)? The black church has a phrase that is relevant to helping us confess our faith in Christ's lordship: "God may not come when you want you want him. But he's always on time!"
God is ruling in ways that include suffering, that remind us of the Cross, and in so doing deflate us of a sense that we are in charge through our brilliance, ingenuity, and hard work. In accord with our lesson's reminder that it was on the Cross that Jesus was declared king (vv. 37-38), Martin Luther called this way of Christ ruling the Theology of the Cross:
Because men misused the knowledge of God through works, God wished again to be recognized in suffering and to condemn wisdom... Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the Cross.
Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise... It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God's.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 31, pp. 356-357)
Ain't nothin' so bad that God can't make good out of it!
God is ruling in ways that include suffering, that remind us of the Cross, and in so doing deflate us of a sense that we are in charge through our brilliance, ingenuity, and hard work. In accord with our lesson's reminder that it was on the Cross that Jesus was declared king (vv. 37-38), Martin Luther called this way of Christ ruling the Theology of the Cross:
Because men misused the knowledge of God through works, God wished again to be recognized in suffering and to condemn wisdom... Now it is not sufficient for anyone, and it does him no good to recognize God in his glory and majesty unless he recognizes him in the humility and shame of the Cross.
Thus God destroys the wisdom of the wise... It is impossible for a person not to be puffed up by his good works unless he has first been deflated and destroyed by suffering and evil until he knows that he is worthless and that his works are not his but God's.
(Luther's Works, Vol. 31, pp. 356-357)
Ain't nothin' so bad that God can't make good out of it!
