Viva La Vida

Ok, I've got a theory on the meaning of the title track on Coldplay's new album. First, here are the lyrics. My commentary will be at the bottom.

I used to rule the world
Seas would rise when I gave the word
Now in the morning I sleep alone
Sweep the streets I used to own

I used to roll the dice
Feel the fear in my enemies eyes
Listen as the crowd would sing:
"Now the old king is dead! Long live the king!"

One minute I held the key
Next the walls were closed on me
And I discovered that my castles stand
Upon pillars of salt, and pillars of sand

(chorus)
I hear Jerusalem bells are ringing
Roman Cavalry choirs are singing
Be my mirror my sword and shield
My missionaries in a foreign field
For some reason I can not explain
Once you know there was never, never an honest word
That was when I ruled the world

It was the wicked and wild wind
Blew down the doors to let me in.
Shattered windows and the sound of drums
People could not believe what I'd become
Revolutionaries Wait
For my head on a silver plate
Just a puppet on a lonely string
Oh who would ever want to be king?

First, of all lets look at the album art


The album artwork, which is my least favorite of all the Coldplay albums is clearly a depiction of the French Revolution. If you google image "french revolution" this painting comes up. The French flag is waving over a bloody battlefield. I don't get the exposed breasts, but that is more a commentary on the art then the meaning of the song. So, with this odd album cover about the French Revolution, some of the context for this song is established. If you go through and read some of the verses, you can start to see how this is being told from the perspective of the overthrown King Louis XVI, who "used to rule the world." This powerful man is remembering how it was when he was in charge. He could give a word and see massive changes. I think this sufficiently explains the verses.

The chorus is a bit harder to explain. I think this is remembering another historical instance of great political upheaval. Connecting the "roman cavalry" and the Jerusalem bells can be hard, but it makes me wonder when were there times the bells in Jerusalem would have been ringing. Bells for us are happy sounds, but think about them more as air raid signals. One time the bells would have been ringing was when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70. Or there were times when Jerusalem was attacked by Christian "roman" armies in the crusades. These two options carry different significance.

Let's pretend it is the first option. The Jewish people had aligned themselves politically with Rome and enjoyed certain privileges that other ethnic groups did not enjoy- for instance, they did not have to worship the Caesar. Early Christians were shielded from much persecution because they were a Jewish sect. That is, until Jerusalem bells were ringing because of the Roman army. This is also when Christianity really began to spread, explaining the missionary statement.

If this is a valid explanation, why connect it to the French Revolution? At both of these times in history, these people experienced a fall from the heights. The Christians were protected before and then found themselves as martyrs, but continued to grow nonetheless. The French fell from power because their pride, and ended up at the bottom. The Christians fell, but found themselves powerful in a few generations.

This is the theme of this album. The powerful fall and the weak become strong. I believe this fits the rest of the album as well and Chris Martin's social justice emphasis.

Justice, part 2

Thinking about Justice in the Bible, for my sermon this week.

To begin, Justice is directly (and somewhat obviously) linked to God as judge. This is uncomfortable for most of us. One reason has been explored a little in the previous post. Another reason is that we have had the idea of God as judge stolen from hate-spewing preachers who claim every natural disaster, terrorist attack, and calamity as the hand of God. This is not a full view of the biblical notion of justice. As a result we then discard any notion of God seeking justice and judging the earth.

Let's explore some ways God is judge in the Bible:

Genesis 3 is probably the first instance of justice in the Bible. This is the story we all know of Adam and Eve who ate from the tree and rebelled against the command of God. I can't say I understand much of this story. I don't understand why this is considered sin. I don't know why God ever told them not to eat from the tree. All I know is that it sounds remarkably similar to my own story. I know the way I should be, and yet cannot seem to achieve this kind of life. The result, God speaks judgment on Adam and Eve. The judgment God speaks is essentially mortality. Christian theology, largely due to some words of Paul, and later articulated more clearly in Augustine called this the original sin. Now the guilt of this original sin taints all of us, even babies. One thing I learn from this story is that judgment is linked to the command of God, namely I learn that there are consequences to sin. And these consequences reach far beyond me, even to subsequent generations.

Exodus 14 is the story of the parting of the Red Sea. In this passage, the Egyptians are judged for holding the Hebrews in slavery for generations. The Egyptians experienced the ten plagues and now the "horse and the chariot are cast in the sea." God judges the Egyptians and the result is the salvation of the oppressed, the Hebrews.

Later in the Scripture, God judges the people of Judah by destroying the Temple and then sending them into captivity in a foreign land. How could a good God possibly judge the people in this way? They had been led into great apostasy and were in need of severe correction. The major objection most people will (and probably should) raise is how is God good and loving when he allows (and even ordains) destruction on people?

This leads us to the main judgment in the Scripture. I'm not talking about the final judgment. The final judgment pails in comparison to this judgment. All of humanity stands condemned just as Paul (and later Augustine) taught. We stand condemned by the way we participate in the story of Adam and Eve, how we have all participated in the rebellion. We have seen that God cannot tolerate sin. I believe this is in large part because God has created us for so much more. We are created to live in the very image of God, imago Dei and yet we have settled for so much less. We have settled for a lie and when we confess this lie through our lives as the ultimate truth in our lives, then we stand condemned, condemned by our own confession. Knowing that we cannot remove this condemnation, God judges humanity. But his act of judgment is as unbelievable as you can imagine. He endures our judgment. He takes it upon himself. He assumes our judgment and releases us from judgment if we would only receive this freedom for ourselves. God is just, and in this he shows his great justice and his great mercy. How can there be mercy without judgment?

When we place our faith in this judgment, then we say in theological terms that we have been justified. We have been made right. God's justice makes us right. This is the very heart and character of God's justice. Not judgment for punishment, but judgment to make things right. We have been made right through justice; we have been justified.

This work of justice has not ended with the work of the cross and with our decision(s) to follow and obey in faith. God is continually seeking to spread his justice. This is similar to how our salvation both begins now and will be completed at the end. Justice started with Jesus and will be completed at the end. In the meantime, God is seeking to make things right. He is seeking justice to be on the earth. He is seeking to end poverty. He is seeking to end human trafficking. He is seeking to end the reign of the evil one. He is seeking to bring people out of depression. He is seeking to bring healing to broken homes. He is seeking to tople the systems that keep people down and in systems of pain and trouble and sin. He is seeking for his word to go out and bring healing. For those in the far away places to be brought into relationship. This answers the question how can God be both good and judge. The bigger question is how could a non-judgment God be good? He is seeking justice. He is seeking to make the wrong things right. God is on mission, the mission of God, the missio Dei.

The question now is turned on us. How will you respond? You've been justified, you've been made right in his image. You've been made a new creation. God is on mission, will you join him? Will you realign your life so that your life reflects the mission of God. In your job, how will you join in God's mission to make things right? In your family, how will you join in God's mission to make things right? In your free time? How about this: in your finances? Does your finances look like someone who has been justified and is now being used by God to make things right?

Justice, part 1

Preaching this week on God's justice.

This can be a very difficult subject, but I think is something we need to re-claim as central to our theology. We speak of mercy and grace, and yet abandon justice. I think we are afraid of this subject. This is probably due to a few reasons, but the primary reason, I contend, is that we live in a culture where the chief virtue is individualism. The lasting legacy of the Enlightenment is the individual, and if we are to say that God stands above the individual then we are assaulting some central tenets to modern thought. What if the individual is not the chief being in our world? What if there are larger forces at work than my own pursuit of happiness? What if my actions actually have consequences on others? What if there is a God who sees all of the cosmos and will hold me accountable for the ways I have selfishly lived my life?

How do I reconcile these questions with the individualism that invades our culture?

more from Wright, again.

“The second feature of many communities both in the postindustrial West and in many of the poorer parts of the world is ugliness. True, some communities manage to sustain levels of art and music, often rooted in folk culture, which brings a richness even to the most poverty-stricken areas. But the shoulder-shrugging functionalism of postwar architecture, coupled with the passivity born of decades of television, has meant that for many people the world appears to offer little but bleak urban landscapes, on the one hand, and tawdry entertainment, on the other. And when people cease to be surrounded by beauty, they cease to hope. They internalize the message of their eyes and ears, the message that whispers that they are not worth very much, that they are in effect less than fully human.

To communities in danger of going that route, the message of new creation, of the beauty of the world that is yet to be- with part of that beauty being precisely the healing of the present anguish- comes as a surprising hope. Part of the role of the church in the past was- and could and should be again- to foster and sustain lives or beauty and aesthetic meaning at every level, from music making in the village pub to drama in the local primary school, from artists’ and photographers’ workshops to still-life painting classes, from symphony concerts to driftwood sculptures. The church, because it is the family that believes in hope for new creation, should be the place in every town and village where new creativity bursts forth for the whole community, pointing to the hope that, like all beauty, always comes as a surprise.”

more from Wright

From N.T. Wright's Surprised By Hope: Rethinking Heaven, The Resurrection, and The Mission of the Church:

"How can the church announce that God is God, that Jesus is Lord, that the powers of evil, corruption, and death itself have been defeated, and that God's new world has begun? Doesn't this seem laughable? Well, it would be if it wasn't happening. But if a church is...actively involved in in seeking justice in the world, both globally and locally, and if it's cheerfully celebrating God's good creation and its rescue from corruption in art and music, and if, in additon, its own internal life gives every sign that new creation is indeed happening, generating a new type of community- then suddenly the announcement makes a lot of sense."

I've been involved in the church my whole life. Most of the time when I read the Scripture and then look at how she is intended to be I see major disconnects. I see disconnects in the way I read Scripture and the realities of life. I see disconnects in the way the church treats the poor, the rich, the outsider, and the each other. It is hard to evangelize friends and family when they just bring up the church, and I really can't refute their frustrations with the way the church acts. However, I have this hope that it doesn't have to be like this. That the church can grow into the image of God. That we can love one another- not perfectly, but we can try. That we can care for those on the outside. That we can be responsible with our money and care for the poor and teach the rich how to be faithful with their status in life. Then when we announce the good news, there is a whole new level of authenticity and power.

Judgment

From Surprised by Hope by N.T. Wright regarding Jesus as the coming Judge,

The early Christians held on to a belief of Jesus as the judge even those in a liberal/postliberal worldview balk at this idea. For the early Christians the judgment of God was something to be celebrated. N.T. Wright writes, "In a world of systemic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression, the thought that there might come a day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and weak are given their due is the best news there can be. Faced with a world in rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wickedness, a good God must be a God of judgment."

It seems that these words can just as easily apply to our society. Yet, we can't imagine a God of judgment. I see maybe two reasons for this. One is that we have such an individualistic worldview that we have discounted the possibility of God acting in our world. God is not as supreme as the individual is. The other possibility is that those who reject the idea of God as judge are those who themselves will stand in judgment: those who benefit from systemic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression.