Hierarchy, The Pattern of Reality

[00:00:00] Grace, mercy and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. [00:00:11] Throughout the readings and the things that we have given to us through the lectionary handed down to us, there's a pattern that I don't know, might not be obvious on the surface, but we've seen multiple times hierarchical relationships, unequal relationships. [00:00:32] One of them you see in the prayer of the day, the collect of the day, almighty and everlasting God who governs all things in heaven and on earth. So we have a governor, an almighty governor, mercifully hear the prayers of your people. Okay, so we pray to God not as equals, but asking for mercy, asking for him to give us his gifts, right? Asking him to govern us. And so in this prayer we pray, grant us your peace through all our days that God's governing, that his rule would result in peace for us, his people, as we look to him to rule and to govern us, to govern our hearts, to govern us together by His Spirit. And that's, you could say that's kind of what the epistle reading is all about. It's about the one Spirit who governs the entire body and gives different gifts to different parts of the body, but we all, as Christ's body being governed by His Spirit. Notice that's a. A very unequal relationship between, let's say, the body and the head, because that's the image there, the body being ruled by the head. [00:01:54] It's unequal. The body doesn't tell the head what to do. At least it shouldn't. That's not the way that it's meant to work, although sometimes the head does listen to the desires of the body and gets led astray. [00:02:08] But the way it's supposed to work is that my head is governing everything, everything that I am outwardly physically, so that everything is governed harmoniously. That's the way it's supposed to work. This is a hierarchical relationship where my body has a ruler and it had better. [00:02:29] But the same with God's people being governed by His Spirit, the people us looking to Jesus in order to be governed by His Spirit. [00:02:42] This is an unequal relationship. [00:02:45] The same thing in that video, that wonderful video given by the resource center. [00:02:51] It was wonderful just to hear God's word there in so many ways. But we heard about the account, we heard from the account of creation that we were made to govern creation. Fill it and subdue it. Place it under you. That's what a leader does. That's what a ruler does. Place it under you, subdue it and make it flourish. [00:03:17] That's what a true ruler does. That's the ideal, is that a ruler makes those that he governs to flourish in an unequal relationship where one is the receiver of the action and one is the doer of the action. [00:03:35] Brothers and sisters in Christ as children of God. [00:03:40] That is our relationship with him. [00:03:43] To receive from God, just as children receive from the word of their mother and father. Ideally, the relationship between children and parents is one of obedience and of governance. The mother and father governing children and children receiving it. And then there's harmony. [00:04:04] They're governed in peace by their parents. You see, all of these images are about hierarchy. Now, the final image that comes through in a few different places today is the image of marriage. And that's a hierarchical relationship in Scripture. And it's not the way that our society sees it today. But notice that it matches the pattern of everything else in reality, that there's a leader and then there's the governed. And just because the earth can't make anything grow by itself, but it needs heaven to give it rain and to give it a seed. It doesn't make the earth any less valuable. It's just that the earth needs heaven. [00:04:52] You see what I mean? Like the soil needs a seed. [00:04:57] Both are important for the plant, so it doesn't denigrate the same way. It's not that children are not valuable or something like that just because their role is to receive from the word of their parents. Or the people aren't any less valuable than the king. But they need a king. They can't all be king, or it's going to be a mess. [00:05:19] So hierarchical relationships, even though our society today says hierarchy's bad, flatten it all, everybody's equal. It's not actually a scary thing, except it can be a scary thing. [00:05:31] But there can be problems on both ends. The people can be unreceptive and can rise up in an unhealthy way. And there can be anarchy, or the king can become a tyrant. [00:05:42] And that's no fun. [00:05:44] So certainly this can go wrong. [00:05:47] But the problem isn't hierarchy itself. It's the improper playing out of the hierarchy that's the problem. [00:05:58] So Christ. Christ is the bridegroom of his church. [00:06:03] That's an unequal relationship in the symbolic structure here in Scripture. So that's why I bring out the hierarchy stuff especially. It's just because from our standpoint in this modern age, it's a little bit difficult to see what's meant by that image of marriage. But it's really important because faith. [00:06:24] Faith is unequal. It's looking to Jesus to be governed by him. And that's the message. That's the image here. [00:06:33] So Christ is the bridegroom of his church ruling us. And in that sense, like men and women, all of us. Right. We play the role of the bride here in this image. [00:06:49] Okay, so let's go to this, our gospel reading, where Jesus is at a wedding in Cana. [00:07:00] Notice Jesus ends up playing the role of the bridegroom. Here, the bridegroom is responsible for. [00:07:06] For providing the wine. [00:07:08] He's responsible for providing the wine at the wedding, but there is no wine. And like I talked about with the children. Thank you, guys. That was fun. [00:07:22] No wine could represent, like, no joy. Where's the joy? Where's the celebration? This isn't working out. [00:07:33] Well, this is certainly true for. [00:07:36] Oh, you know what? [00:07:38] I missed an image. I'm going to backtrack just a second. Okay. The image of the wilderness, and that's in the Old Testament reading. The land will no longer be called desolate. Like, desolate, meaning like barren. Like, there's nothing there. It's not nothing growing. [00:07:54] It needs to be. To be sort of brought to life. Like a garden. It needs to be tended. [00:07:59] If I left my garden beds in the backyard untended, like, something would grow, but it wouldn't flourish with fruit and such. Right. It needs to be tended so well, this kind of wilderness, maybe nothing grows in it. Well, maybe weeds. Right. Don't want weeds. [00:08:18] All right, so. [00:08:20] And that's combined with the image of marriage in the Old Testament reading. There you shall no longer be termed forsaken, and your land shall no longer be termed desolate, but you shall be called. My delight is in her and your land married. For the Lord delights in you, and your land shall be married. For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry you. And as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God rejoice over you. [00:08:49] Joy. [00:08:52] All right, so in the gospel reading, there, Jesus is in Cana at the wedding, and there's no wine. And so Jesus solves the problem. [00:09:04] He brings the wine. [00:09:08] And then at the end there, when the master of the feast tastes the wine and is impressed, he calls the bridegroom to him, and he says, now you're an unusual bridegroom. [00:09:27] All the other bridegrooms. [00:09:31] So there is more than one bridegroom. And there's a difference between the bridegrooms and what's the difference? [00:09:42] Shout it out. What's the difference between the bridegrooms? [00:09:50] Hannah? Yes, way to be bold. You want somebody else to answer? [00:10:03] What's the difference between the bridegrooms? [00:10:07] Brandon? [00:10:17] That's true. Jesus can do amazing things, right? And so that sets him apart. Okay, so in the text here, the Master says, he calls the bridegroom to himself and he says, look, you're different than every other bridegroom. Everyone serves the good wine first. And when the people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. [00:10:38] But you have kept the good wine until now. [00:10:43] All right, now here's just one of the implications, I think that's intended in the text here. First of all, Jesus is the bridegroom. In the next chapter, in John, chapter three, John the Baptist calls Jesus the bridegroom. He says, look, I'm not the bridegroom, I'm just the friend of the bridegroom. Alright, that's not a coincidence. Okay, so Jesus is. He's the bridegroom and his people is his bride. All right, Jesus is the bridegroom. That's being talked about here. So what are the other bridegrooms? [00:11:21] So here, let's look at the hierarchical structure here and then think of ourselves as, say, that we're a wilderness that needs tending, or that we are a people that needs governing as we are. And that's been the theme for a couple weeks with John the Baptist and the wilderness and the spirit coming down and providing life in the wilderness, that kind of thing. That's the image that's going on here today. In our modern world, we can think of ourselves as individuals that are autonomous. Like we don't need anybody ruling us really. Like we can just sort of make what we want of our lives. So what am I going to do today? Whatever I decide, like, am I going to succeed in life? Well, if I pull myself up by my bootstraps, then yes. [00:12:13] If not, then no. [00:12:15] What is moral and virtuous for me? What should I do in my life? Don't tell me what to do. [00:12:22] I can figure that out for myself. In the modern age, we consider ourselves, we consider virtue and all of these things as something that we can think out with reason on our own, as if we're self governing, autonomous people. [00:12:40] But in the scriptural worldview and in the ancient worldview, that's not the case. They recognized that we are actually not as autonomous as we might think. You know, it's like, what am I going to do today? Whatever I want. I'm going to go sit and watch Netflix and Eat whatever I want. It's like, well, I'm really being governed by a pattern here. [00:13:02] I'm being governed by my own bodily desires. I just want to sit and I just want to enjoy myself. [00:13:11] Like I'm actually being governed by something. Even though it feels like freedom, in one sense, we're governed by one thing or another. So in the garden, when Eve turned away from the voice of God, from his word, she turned to another voice. [00:13:33] It was the spirit of the devil, right? It was the serpent to which she listened. And her own bodily desires, she saw that it was desirable for eating and for gaining wisdom. And it was a delight to the eyes. She was governed by something. It just wasn't the right thing. [00:13:50] Likewise, Jesus in John tells the Pharisees, the religious leaders, that they're children of the devil. It's like you're children of one thing or another, of Abraham or of the devil, of God or of the devil. [00:14:06] There's no either or. So this hierarchy, it plays out one way or another. And we human beings, we weren't made to be number one. We weren't made to be in charge of ourselves. [00:14:19] That's the spirit of pride. It's the spirit of Satan to rise up and say, I'm going to make whatever I want of myself. It's foolish. It doesn't actually work. We can't actually have freedom that way. We're governed by something. [00:14:38] So Jesus said, if anyone sins, he's a slave to sin. [00:14:43] That's what he means. [00:14:45] We're slaves to sin or to righteousness. Slaves of God or the devil. [00:14:52] Alright, so here's how the devil rules. [00:14:56] He serves the good wine first, and then when you've drunk freely, he gives you the bad wine. [00:15:03] He gives you what you want in the moment, what you want now, and then later it's not going to turn out well. [00:15:13] That's like spending all day, every day watching Netflix and then wondering why you don't have a job and you can't take care of yourself. Right? I mean, or it's like, I mean, that's part of maturing and growing up is delaying gratification. That's the same pattern. [00:15:31] So the devil, I mean, and so a worldly perspective says, I want to be rich, I want to have whatever I want. [00:15:41] I want to enjoy myself now. I want pleasure. All of these kinds of worldly things that seem so great, they satisfy for a time, but not forever. [00:15:53] So that's why Jesus says, hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. For they shall be satisfied. [00:16:01] Because hungering and thirsting for righteousness doesn't get you what you want in the moment. It doesn't give you immediate gratification. [00:16:09] For the apostles, it got them death, horrific death and weakness. Jesus on the cross, it got him weakness and death. [00:16:20] He apparently lost everything according to the way things appear. He lost everything according to the way things appear. The apostles and Coptic Christians in Egypt and those who are killed for their faith, they get nothing. [00:16:35] But they know that they don't need the good wine. First see the Christian life in giving up worldly things. [00:16:46] St. Paul saying, I consider everything as lost for the sake of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord. That's what he's doing. He's saying, I don't need those earthly things that would make me feel good now or make me happy now or make me feel honored now or lift me up now. [00:17:07] But God gives grace to the humble. He opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble. [00:17:14] Jesus saves the best wine for last. [00:17:21] But it's a struggle because the life of faith in Jesus, of being governed by him, means a lot of saying no to what we might want in the moment or what might seem to get us somewhere. [00:17:39] Jesus said, if anyone would follow me or would come after me, he must take up his cross and follow me. [00:17:48] This is the way of faith. Faith follows Jesus wherever he leads, into difficult, seemingly dark places. But in those places, in the darkness, we have the light of Christ that we receive by faith. It doesn't immediately scatter the scary or the painful or the difficult or the confusing, but it gives us hope for a future, for that feast to come when Christ comes back and appearances vanish and reality breaks forth. When reality is revealed for what it is and we see the apostles no longer suffering and dead, but now alive in Christ and crowned with glory and honor as he's promised. [00:18:43] When all the suffering gives way to joy, when the lack of wine gives way to wine, when God's promises are fulfilled, that's a life of faith. And if it didn't depend on faith, if it were just obvious, like, well, of course I'm going to follow Jesus because then I'll live in a mansion and never have any problems again, well, then it wouldn't depend on faith. It would just be sort of the obvious choice. [00:19:14] But this is the whole. This is the whole point of it all. [00:19:18] God, in sending Jesus for us to save us in this seemingly backwards way, to serve us the wine of gladness as he gives up his life on the cross with blood and water pouring out his side. [00:19:32] The whole point is to draw you and me back to God. So that we would not just go after whatever we think looks good for the eating. [00:19:43] So that we would listen to God with eyes closed. [00:19:48] So that we would give up appearances and give our ears to God's word, no matter what. To follow him wherever he leads. And he has promised, and His Word is faithful. He's promised to lead us to paradise. [00:20:06] Thanks be to God. In Jesus name, amen.