{"id":7096,"date":"2021-08-24T06:46:45","date_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7096"},"modified":"2021-08-24T06:46:46","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T13:46:46","slug":"the-cross-alone-conquers-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7096","title":{"rendered":"<div style=\"font-size:40px\" style=\"color:rgb(0,0,0);\">The Cross Alone Conquers Evil<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p style=\"text-align:center\"><a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pentecost-14.pdf\">Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n<div style=\"color:rgb(0,0,0);\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<html>\n\n<head>\n<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\">\n<meta name=Generator content=\"Microsoft Word 15 (filtered)\">\n<style>\n<!--\n \/* Font Definitions *\/\n @font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Cambria Math\";\n\tpanose-1:2 4 5 3 5 4 6 3 2 4;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:Calibri;\n\tpanose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}\n@font-face\n\t{font-family:\"Open Sans\";\n\tpanose-1:2 11 6 6 3 5 4 2 2 4;}\n \/* Style Definitions *\/\n p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal\n\t{margin-top:0in;\n\tmargin-right:0in;\n\tmargin-bottom:8.0pt;\n\tmargin-left:0in;\n\tline-height:107%;\n\tfont-size:11.0pt;\n\tfont-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;}\n.MsoChpDefault\n\t{font-family:\"Calibri\",sans-serif;}\n.MsoPapDefault\n\t{margin-bottom:8.0pt;\n\tline-height:107%;}\n \/* Page Definitions *\/\n @page WordSection1\n\t{size:8.5in 11.0in;\n\tmargin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}\ndiv.WordSection1\n\t{page:WordSection1;}\n-->\n<\/style>\n\n<\/head>\n\n<body lang=EN-US style='word-wrap:break-word'>\n\n<div class=WordSection1>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:12.0pt;line-height:107%;font-family:\n\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>A sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost\n(Series B, 16<sup>th<\/sup> Sunday)<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Every\nSunday in the Prayer of the Day, after naming those who have asked for prayer,\nwe pray for \u201call those who have particular need or difficulty.\u201d I suspect that\nthat\u2019s goes by us as a general statement, not thinking that there are\nparticular sorrows or needs, or difficulties, but, of course, they are among us\nand even in our own hearts and lives. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>It is\nsometimes important to be specific about that because we\u2019re asked in times of\ntrouble: Where is God? Someone may come to you and say: \u201cI\u2019m old. What\u2019s the\npoint of it now? I\u2019m just sitting here. I have nothing worthwhile to do, and\nI\u2019m not worth anything. Why is God allowing this?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Or then\nthere are those terrible illnesses and weaknesses that creep up on all of us.\nThinking of the big \u201cC,\u201d but also all kinds of things that disable and hamper\nus. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>And also\nthe inhumanity of man to others, the terrible things that some people do to\nothers. People say: How can God allow that?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>In\njournalism they say: If it bleeds, it leads. When and where there is sickness\nand suffering, violence and war, when terrible things happen, people ask: Where\nis God in all this?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Psalm 73:3-5\nasks: \u201cWhy do the wicked prosper?\u201d (Also Jer 12:1, Hab 1:13, and Job\u2019s\nfriends).They do all kinds of evil things, and it doesn\u2019t bother them. And they\nsay: \u201cI do what I want. There is no God\u201d (Ps. 10:4; 14:1). And those of us who\nare trying to do the right thing are not doing so well. You might as well go\nwith the flow. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>What do we\nChristians say to all this? There\u2019s a lot of pop religion around. And pop\npsychology. There are many proverbs people throw out, like: It\u2019s always darkest\nbefore the dawn. That\u2019s not really what it\u2019s about. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Nor are we\ntalking about foxhole religion. (Lord if you get me out of this jam, I\u2019ll\nchange my life.) There\u2019s a lot of that, and it doesn\u2019t stick. It\u2019s a way of\ntrying to manipulate God. What do we say about all this? Why does the terrible evil\nthat is all around us exist?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>The dilemma\nis obvious. On the one hand, God is all-powerful. On the other hand, God is\nloving. If he is all powerful, why isn\u2019t it life working out better? If he\u2019s\nnot all powerful, then his love is weak and ineffectual. If he\u2019s all powerful,\nthen the way things are going, he\u2019s a monster.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>We get\ncaught in that kind of thinking. The poet John Milton talked about justifying\nthe ways of God to man. Another word for that is theodicy. Theodicy means judging\nGod\u2019s justice. It\u2019s a ridiculous thing. On the one hand, you can almost see it\nas a cartoon. One of us shaking his fist at heaven and saying: God in heaven,\nyou\u2019re bad. On the other hand, the cartoon could have one of us saying: God,\nyou should do it differently. If you and I would just work together, I could\njust tell you how to fix things. That\u2019s also pretty ridiculous. Yet, as you\nknow, it happens all the time.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>With that\nwe come to the Book of Ephesians. It is really not a letter or an epistle. If\nwe look at these first three chapters, in one sense, even though it\u2019s not a narrative\nor a parable, it is the basic story. You recall in Ephesians 1:4 it said: He chose\nyou before the foundation of the world. Then in 1:9-10 it says: He has revealed\nto us the mystery that he has from eternity in Christ planned to save, to put a\nnew head on the whole of humanity.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>The\nunderlying pulse of these chapters is found in three polarities:\nHidden\/revealed, formerly\/but now, and far off\/but near. There\u2019s a certain\nbasic rhythm, a basic sense to these chapters.\u00a0 What\u2019s it\u2019s saying is: The\nmystery of it all is now revealed. That\u2019s different. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Of course,\nin the reading for today, Ephesians 2:13-22, it says: It\u2019s in the cross. The\nblood of the cross. That this all has been made near. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>How do we\nspeak that? The answer is not available to non-Christians. Paul in 2 Cor 4:3-4\nwrites: \u201cThis is veiled to those who are perishing.\u201d It\u2019s like a beautiful\ntapestry. If you look at the backside of the tapestry, it\u2019s obscure, confusing.\nThat\u2019s what non-believers see, and they can\u2019t tell what it\u2019s all about. But\nthose of us who are in Christ see the front side of the tapestry. The mystery\nis revealed. The big picture is unveiled in Christ on the cross. We see what\nit\u2019s all about. The Lord is Lord, and he is bringing in his kingdom by his\npower alone. Thank the Lord.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Paul writes\nin 2 Cor 1:20: \u201cAll the promises of God find their Yes in him.\u201d One could say,\nand this is not flippant, paraphrasing Paul here: The cross is the answer;\nwhat\u2019s your question?<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>How does\nthis all work? First of all, in the basic, ordinary life we all live, we want\nto remember what the Lord did was to create cosmos out of chaos. He created\norder. And that ordering is there, and we rejoice in it. We could give as an\nexample, medicine, which is part of his ordering. He gives us reason, the\nscientific process, and ways of dealing with things.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>But, of\ncourse, it doesn\u2019t ultimately go right. And it\u2019s important to remember \u2013 which\ngoes against all science \u2013 that in Romans 8:22 it says, nature is groaning,\n\u201cthe whole creation is groaning in travail.\u201d It\u2019s caught in futility, waiting\nfor redemption and freedom. We mustn\u2019t say: Well that\u2019s the final word. There\nis evil and a battle going on.\u00a0 But the Lord is doing it his way, he is working\nin this to create order.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>In the\nsecond place in these three chapters, it talks about the church. That is the\nplace where there is to be help for us in all kinds of terrible things that\nhappen. We\u2019re called upon to help. In one sense the church is no help at all.\nIf you look at the history of the church, it surely is not like a mighty army.\nIt is actually a terrible story of how people have acted. We could say that the\ngreatest proof for the existence of God is that the gospel continues in spite\nof the church.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>The historian\nHerbert Butterfield said the church is like a big orchestra. Each one of us has\nan instrument. The Lord is the conductor. His baton is the cross. When there\u2019s\na false note, he rewrites the music to make harmony. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>The music\nproclaims the coming of Christ, the central event of all time. The event which\naffects all other events. The event which gives perspective to all other\nevents.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>This\ncentral and key event, that God in Christ died for you and me, was done in the\npast, but it is not only in the past; it is happening now and announces a world\nbeyond this world. It is forever.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>This key\nevent, this central event is twofold, the cross <b>and<\/b> resurrection. The\nresurrection snatches victory from defeat. The resurrection brings about God\u2019s\nnew world, God\u2019s kingdom where sickness, sorrow, and death are no more. The\nresurrection certifies that sin, death, and the devil were defeated on the\ncross forever.<\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>Which\nbrings us back to the Bible itself. God has made it all right in the cross.\nIt\u2019s the message of these chapters in Ephesians, the message of the gospel. <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>In the\nfirst chapter of Matthew it says; \u201cBehold a virgin shall conceive and bear a\nson, and his name shall be called \u2018Emmanuel\u2019 (which means God with us)\u201d (Matt\n1:23). And the last verse of the last chapter of Matthew it says: \u201cAnd Jesus\nsaid to them . . . lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age\u201d (Matt\n28:20). <\/span><\/p>\n\n<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-family:\"Open Sans\",sans-serif'>\u201cEmmanuel,\u201d\n\u201cGod with us always\u201d are the parentheses, the beginning and the end of\nMatthew\u2019s gospel, the gospel for us. Amen<\/span><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\n\n<\/body>\n\n<\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A sermon for the fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost. Select <a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=7096\"> here<\/a> to read more or <a href=\"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Pentecost-14.pdf\">here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7096","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7096"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7096\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7101,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7096\/revisions\/7101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7096"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7096"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7096"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}