March 14th
The earth is the Lord's

Psalm 24

In April 1525, only a few months after the first adult baptisms that had given birth to the Anabaptist movement, the Zurich authorities arrested a young woman – Elsy Boumgartner – on the charge of rebaptism.  But when they offered to release her if she would promise never to return to the area, Boumgartner stubbornly refused.  Instead, she quoted the first vs from Psalm 24:

        The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it,                                             

           the world, and those who live in it.

She insisted that ‘God made the earth for her as well as for the rulers so she would not leave her home.’  

During the century that followed, persecuted Anabaptists returned repeatedly to this vs – ‘the earth is the Lord’s’ – referring to it as they were interrogated, in court room defenses, in confessional statements, letters of comfort, and even in their hymns.  

The last Anabaptist to be executed in Switzerland  was a seventy-year old, self-educated farmer named Hans Landis.  After interrogation by the authorities, Landis was offered the chance to emigrate.  He refused saying that ‘the earth was the Lord's’ - no one had authority to send him away out of the country.  He quoted this vs repeatedly to gov’t authorities before he was beheaded on September 30, 1614.

Hans Landis had a stately figure, "a long black beard mixed with gray and a manly voice." The executioner asked his pardon for what he was about to do; Landis replied that "he had already forgiven him; may God also forgive him; he knew very well that he must carry out the government's orders."   In the Ausbund, No. 132, is a song of 46 stanzas commemorating his death. It begins "Ich hab ein schön neu Lied gemacht." (‘I have made a new song’).

For other Anabaptists, the vs offered comfort to many who fled their homeland.  It is often found in immigrant homes and churches in the form of a wall motto or inscription. 

‘The earth is the Lord’s!’   What was it that the Anabaptists found so compelling about that simple verse?   And what might it mean for us living in 21st century Saskatoon?  What might it mean for MRMC as we seek to live faithfully in our city and our time?

A POLITICAL CLAIM   (vs. 1-2)

IN THE FIRST place, as Elsy Boumgartner and Hans Landis argued, the claim that the earth is the Lord’s is fundamentally a political claim:  where does true sovereignty, and true authority lie?   Anabaptist-Mennonites have generally respected the state in its mandate to protect the good and punish evil.  Yet, for many centuries, Mennonites regarded citizenship as possessing only relative importance.  Becoming a Christian, the Anabaptists taught, means that you are now joined to a new body, a new kingdom.  In worship, in communion, in sharing our possessions, and in mutual correction and encouragement, we demonstrate to the world what the Kingdom of God looks like.  Membership in this Kingdom has a more fundamental claim on our time, our resources, our identity, and our allegiance, than anything else, including the nation. 

The opening of the psalm establishes all of creation as the sphere of the Lord's reign: "The earth is the Lord's and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it" (Ps 24:1). John Calvin expressed this truth when he referred to the universe as the "theater of the glory of God."  God builds and owns the stage upon which life's drama unfolds. Pushing back the chaos, the Lord created and maintains the world. The Lord "founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers." In the psalmist's view, there is nothing beyond the purview of God. Were God to withdraw that providential hand, the chaos would return. To live in the world is to affirm that most basic reality that God reigns. God created and therefore is sovereign over the world.

We live in a world where the truth of God's reign over the earth does not seem self-evident to many observers. Accidents, murders, illness, abuse, and countless other realities create disorientation.   Yet the tone of Psalm 24 is one of assurance that in spite of all, the Lord does reign. It reflects confidence in a God who can deal with the chaos.

A NEW UNDERSTANDING OF NEIGHBORLINESS   (vs.3-6)

Next the psalm challenges us to a high standard of neighborliness.  The psalmist asserts that only those who have clean hands and pure hearts will receive blessing and vindication from God.   As OT scholar, James Mays points out, the adjectives ‘clean and pure’ are ethical terms.  Elsewhere in the NT they have to do with living justly and peaceably with our neighbours.

If ‘the earth is the Lord’s’  then we are simply stewards – for the earth does not belong to us but to God and we are called to share freely and joyfully with others what has been entrusted to us.

THE LORDSHIP OF CHRIST     (vs.7-10)

Finally, to say that ‘the earth is the Lord’s’ is not only an affirmation of political loyalty or a new and generous neighbourliness; it is ultimately a confession that God has entered history in the person of Jesus Christ. 

9Lift up your heads, O gates!                                                                            

      and be lifted up, O ancient doors!                                                              

      that the King of glory may come in.                                              

10Who is this King of glory?                                                                              

       The Lord Almighty –                                                                                

       he is the King of glory.

Handel uses vs.7-10 in the resurrection section of his MESSIAH.  As Christians, we confess that this King of glory is none other than Jesus Christ who rose victorious from the grave in victory over the forces of sin and death.  The future has already been settled. 

Because God has won the victory, Christians today can share in Christ’s ministry of healing and reconciliation and in the confident hope of the resurrection. 

Because God has won the victory in Christ old barriers are removed and we are one in Christ across racial, ethnic, and national boundaries.

Do you see?   The earth is the theatre of the glory of God and our life together is intended to be God’s living, breathing invitation to all: the wounded, the broken souls,  and needy strangers to receive God’s healing, forgiveness and hospitality ... and then to join in the new song of praise to the God whose handiwork it is.

The earth is the Lord’s.

 

https://youtu.be/7wfgTI1lsMQ  -  ‘Lift up your heads’ (Handel)

*This reflection was inspired by John Roth’s 2012 Bechtel lectures ‘Blest be the ties that Bind’ (Conrad Grebel Review, Winter 2013).