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Photo: The Killing Tree in the Cambodian Killing Fields.
This is a sermon preached by Rev. Adam Chandler of Victoria, British Columbia, on the occasion of the Ascension and the March for Life (Canada). It is entitled, “Where is His Peace?” In Canada, the March for Life takes place on the second Thursday of May and happened to fall on Ascension Day this year. This sermon comes to us through Lutherans For Life – Canada.
Where Is His Peace?
by Rev. Adam Chandler
Grace, mercy and peace be to you in the name of God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
“[God] raised [the Lord Jesus Christ] 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 one to come. And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church …“ (Ephesians 1 ESV).
The Ascension is often overlooked in preaching and teaching. Usually, we focus on the death and resurrection of Jesus. Now, there is nothing wrong with focussing on these, but we can’t omit the importance of the Ascension. Christ’s death on the cross promises us the forgiveness of sins by the shedding of his blood. The resurrection gives us the assurance that this forgiveness ends in our own resurrection. And Christ’s Ascension gives us the assured hope that our resurrection will lead into the world to come. Christ’s kingdom is not of this world. His kingdom spans heaven and earth across all hearts which believe in him. His kingdom is of a paradise of peace that is founded on the Spirit. It is the Ascension of Jesus which promises we can leave the wickedness of this world and enter into the eternal peace of God.
Now, the peace of Christ which passes over all understanding (Philippians 4:7) also passes over the entire world by the Gospel. Yet, the world does not seem peaceful. It never does. We see conflict and contention all the time (cf. John 16:33). We see sickness and death, poverty and abuse. Yet, Christ still reigns. Despite all the evils we encounter, Christ still has everything under his feet and he is still above every authority here in this world. Although we see authorities in this world abusing power with antibiblical laws, Christ is still above these authorities and he will bring about justice in the end.
This is what we cling to. We cling to the idea that our Lord will enact his justice. We want sin destroyed and righteousness rewarded. But we should also be mindful of what this means for us. We are sinners. For God’s justice to be done, we ourselves should be destroyed. But we know that God desires not to destroy us as the work of His hands (cf. Job 10:3). He wishes to destroy sin. Through forgiveness by way of Christ’s cross, our Lord destroys our sin. He does not destroy us but destroys our sin by washing it away in baptism (Acts 22:16). And so we are saved, not by our righteousness but by the righteousness of Christ who clothes us with himself in baptism (Galatians 3:27). It is not because we were right with God that we receive the reward of heaven but that Christ was righteous on our behalf that we may enter into the paradise of peace. The peace with God we enjoy is not found by our striving in this world to create it (Romans 11:6-7). The peace of God is received purely by grace through faith.
So, when we look to the world and see an absence of peace, we do not see this absence due to Christ’s lack of presence in the world. If anything, the fact that there might be peace anywhere in the world is a gift of God. But it is these conflicts—these wars and rumors of wars—that arise not because of God’s lack of justice or disinterest in the world. The evil that we see always finds its source in the heart of humanity which has fallen into sin (Mark 7:21-23). Rest assured, Christ remains in authority. He has ascended on high and is seated in power and authority above every earthly power and authority, and he will judge all people in the end. But until this final judgment, there is a lack of peace.
One of the most drastic examples of the absence of peace in this world which comes to my mind is the Cambodian genocide. This occurred in the late 1970s under the Prime Minister at the time, Pol Pot. During that time around two million people died, about a quarter of Cambodia’s population. And I only say about two million people because we really don’t know the numbers. People were slaughtered without any regard for their personhood. Why would they care to count you if they counted your life as worth less than a bullet? And I mean that. The followers of Pol Pot were encouraged to end the lives of people in killing fields with anything and everything because they did not want to spend extra money on bullets. Yet, despite the massive mounts of death and ruin, Pol Pot was never arrested or tried. He even held political power for over a decade after the killing stopped. He died of old age before the genocide trials began the next year in Cambodia. And the question comes: where is God’s justice? Where is His peace?
Now, this is a sensitive topic but I do want to mention one more thing. There was one thing that nearly broke me when I visited the killing fields in Cambodia a few years ago, one evil in particular. It was a tree. Just an ordinary tree. But it was smooth on one side at about chest height. That was because this was what the soldiers used to smack infants before throwing them into the pit in order to kill them. It was horrific and I nearly broke down and cried right then and there. Yet, as time went on throughout the day, and I could continue thinking through everything going on, I was surprised at how many people knew of the genocide, visited all the sites, and were silently swearing that this should never happen again. I was surprised because there has been a far more heinous crime sanctioned by various governments and peoples worldwide.
There is a marginalized group in our society. A group discriminated against because of their location, level of development, and need for loving assistance. And this group suffers a number of deaths every year that dwarfs the killings in the Cambodian genocide. These are the unborn. People in the genocide were counting as worth less than the cost of a bullet, and these unborn infants are counted as worth less than the cost of a medical procedure since universal health care would mean their deaths would be free to the taxpayer. Although, many people who go through the turmoil of deciding on an abortion know there is a heavy price to pay for these lives within them. And these unborn, like in the genocide, are also killed without recognition of their personhood, being called fetuses instead of children and clumps of cells instead of human beings. And, like the Cambodian genocide, many of the perpetrators will never be prosecuted in this world. And the question comes: where is God’s justice in all this? Where is his peace? Where is Christ?
I’ll tell you. Our Lord is exactly where he needs to be. He is seated at the right hand of the Father in heavenly places, far above all authorities and powers. Our Lord is seated above every human government, every human court, and every human clinic that offers death as a treatment. It is Christ who will have his judgment in the end. His justice will be done even when worldly justice is absent. There will come peace even though the world now cries that there is no peace. Christ will judge the living and the dead. All will stand before the throne and be judged according to their deeds. Those who have good will enter into eternal peace in Christ’s kingdom, and those who have done evil will come into eternal judgement. (John 5:25-29)
But this sounds a little hollow to us who are experiencing the abortion genocide in this world. It sounds a little light that we have to wait for the end before something can be done. Why are our tears our food day and night while they say to us continually, “Where is your God?” (Psalm 42:3) The truth of the matter is that our God is not far from our groaning (Psalm 21:1, 19). Christ is not only present at the right hand of God the Father. Christ is present everywhere he promises to be. Christ promises to be where two or more are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20). He promises to be in bread and wine through his word. And Christ promises to be present in God’s Word itself. When we are in trial and tribulation we know that we are not alone. We are present with the God who speaks to us through His Word. He will comfort the sorrowing heart and He will bring about comfort and change.
When we deal with the problem of evil in the world, we know the source lies in the human heart. And when we seek goodness and justice, we know the source to be God Himself. Therefore, we need God to strike down the sinfulness of our hearts to bring about peace and good within us, and this peace and goodness can then come out into the world. Just like God created caring and loving hearts within us by making them new in Christ Jesus, so too does the world around us need our Lord to create clean hearts and renew right spirits in everyone (Ps 51:10). And God will do this just as He has promised He will do it. He has promised that through the cleansing of Christ by Word and Sacrament that He will sustain His people and transform them in saints. And so it is our hope that through His Word preached and taught and through the Sacraments rightly administered, that the world might be changed and those who have done evil might be brought into repentance and salvation.
And it is the Church of God, that is, the body of Christ of whom he is the head, that the Word is preached in its purity and the Sacraments are administered correctly (Augs Conf. VII.1). If God will bring about the repentance of the people in this world, it will be through His Church that He will do it. It will be through us that the Lord will call the people in this world out of sin and into the peace of Christ. We don’t want people to have abortions nor for doctors to perform them. We also don’t want medically assisted suicide to be recommended to people vulnerable in spirit. And for those who have been involved in these deaths, we want them to come to the feet of Christ so that his blood may wipe away their sins. We want our Lord to exercise His power and authority in bringing about good in this world, over and above the powers and authorities in this world legislating evil.
As we march, let us work together in Christ equipped with his Word (cf. Ephesians 6:17). We do not go merely to be a public demonstration. We go out as members of the body of Christ that Christ may come to bring healing and peace to the nations. We go out as those who preach peace by the Word of the Gospel. We go out as those redeemed so others may be redeemed. And Christ who is far above every authority and power will be marching alongside us for he will also be exactly where he promises to be: with those he has cleansed in heart. Amen.
The peace that surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.