First Reading: Isaiah 45:1-7
1Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I have grasped, to subdue nations before him and to loose the belts of kings, to open doors before him that gates may not be closed: 2“I will go before you and level the exalted places, I will break in pieces the doors of bronze and cut through the bars of iron, 3I will give you the treasures of darkness and the hoards in secret places, that you may know that it is I, the Lord, the God of Israel, who call you by your name. 4For the sake of my servant Jacob, and Israel my chosen, I call you by your name, I name you, though you do not know me. 5I am the Lord, and there is no other, besides me there is no God; I equip you, though you do not know me, 6that people may know, from the rising of the sun and from the west, that there is none besides me; I am the Lord, and there is no other. 7I form light and create darkness; I make well-being and create calamity; I am the Lord, who does all these things.”
Psalm 96:1-13
1Sing to the Lord a new song; sing to the Lord, all the whole earth. 2Sing to the Lord and bless his Name; proclaim the good news of his salvation from day to day. 3Declare his glory among the nations and his wonders among all peoples. 4For great is the Lord and greatly to be praised; he is more to be feared than all gods. 5As for all the gods of the nations, they are but idols; but it is the Lord who made the heavens. 6Oh, the majesty and magnificence of his presence! Oh, the power and the splendor of his sanctuary! 7Ascribe to the Lord, you families of the peoples; ascribe to the Lord honor and power. 8Ascribe to the Lord the honor due his name; bring offerings and come into his courts. 9Worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness; let the whole earth tremble before him. 10Tell it out among the nations: “The Lord is King! he has made the world so firm that it cannot be moved; he will judge the peoples with equity.” 11Let the heavens rejoice, and let the earth be glad; let the sea thunder and all that is in it; let the field be joyful and all that is therein. 12Then shall all the trees of the wood shout for joy before the Lord when he comes, when he comes to judge the earth. 13He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with his truth.
Second Reading: 1 Thessalonians 1:1-10
1Paul, Silvanus, and Timothy, To the church of the Thessalonians in God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ: Grace to you and peace. 2We give thanks to God always for all of you, constantly mentioning you in our prayers, 3remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. 4For we know, brothers loved by God, that he has chosen you, 5because our gospel came to you not only in word, but also in power and in the Holy Spirit and with full conviction. You know what kind of men we proved to be among you for your sake. 6And you became imitators of us and of the Lord, for you received the word in much affliction, with the joy of the Holy Spirit, 7so that you became an example to all the believers in Macedonia and in Achaia. 8For not only has the word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere, so that we need not say anything. 9For they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, 10and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.
Gospel: Matthew 22:15-22
15The Pharisees went and plotted how to entangle {Jesus} in his words. 16And they sent their disciples to him, along with the Herodians, saying, “Teacher, we know that you are true and teach the way of God truthfully, and you do not care about anyone’s opinion, for you are not swayed by appearances. 17Tell us, then, what you think. Is it lawful to pay taxes to Caesar, or not?” 18But Jesus, aware of their malice, said, “Why put me to the test, you hypocrites? 19Show me the coin for the tax.” And they brought him a denarius. 20And Jesus said to them, “Whose likeness and inscription is this?” 21They said, “Caesar’s.” Then he said to them, “Therefore render to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s.” 22When they heard it, they marveled. And they left him and went away.
God has a Plan
One of the interesting experiences of our culture today is the innovation of the “escape room!” I haven’t tried this yet, but from what the kids and grandkids tell me, it sounds like fun. There are several to choose from in our area so you have an opportunity to find something that will challenge even those with highly analytical minds.
For those not familiar with this form of entertainment, basically, you pay money to be locked in a room for one hour either with friends or with strangers. You’re given clues and puzzles that will help you find a way to escape. You can choose your level of escape, from easy, to a bit more challenging, to nearly impossible. This experience affords the opportunity for every person to be an “escape artist.” But the most interesting thing about escape rooms is that you can’t do them alone. The puzzles are designed to be solved by a group effort. Each person’s unique skills contribute to the success of the escape.
Because of this group effort aspect, escape rooms have become the “go to” team-building skill of the current decade. The only way you can escape from your unique challenge is to rely on each other, work together, and walk through the steps of the game in tandem. Once all the puzzles are solved, the doorway is opened, and all are granted release. But be warned, this isn’t a game for the claustrophobic, the anxiety-ridden, or the faint of heart. It’s a venture that requires patience, focus, and a great deal of trust.
“Do you trust me?” is the question each participant must ask not only of each other, but of the person locking you in. In playing the game, you’re not just relying on your own ability and acuity, but you are also putting your freedom in the hands of the person holding the keys. But escape rooms are not the only area in which we’re called upon to trust others. Placing our trust in cars passing on the highway, for example, is another similar metaphor.
Every day out on the highways, we seldom give a second thought to the people around us going 60, 70, or more miles an hour, and yet we trust our lives to complete strangers, trusting that they will make the right decisions because in a matter of seconds, disaster could strike. Yet in other ways we’re not so trusting. When we enter unfamiliar places, we want to see the open doorway, before we agree to enter the room. We want to know the end game before we’re willing to take the first steps.
In our Old Testament reading for today, we are reminded of the story of God’s people who were nearing the end of their exile. For nearly 70 years, the Israelite people have been in a foreign country under foreign leadership. At God’s direction, they had established businesses, built lives, and raised families. But as the prophets kept reminding them, this was not their home, they would return to the land God had promised to their ancestor Abraham. God, over the decades had reminded them that there was a pathway of escape. Their hope lay in God who would lead them back. The prophet Isaiah had repeatedly given them words of hope. The question was why, and how?
The answer came in the form of an unlikely person, Cyrus, the Persian king. Cyrus was a pegan, he knew nothing of the God of Israel, yet God chose him to release His people. Different than most pegan kings of that time, Cyrus was renowned because of his policy of tolerance for peoples’ customs and religions in the lands that he conquered. God indeed had a plan; 150 years before the release of His people, God spoke through His prophet and called this pegan king by name. To get a complete picture of who Cyrus was, we also need to look at the Old Testament books of II Chronicles, Daniel and Ezra.
Cyrus is mentioned more than 30 times in the Bible and is identified as Cyrus the Great who reigned over Persia between 539 and 530 BC. Cyrus is important in Jewish history because it was under his rule that the Jews were allowed to return to Israel after 70 years of captivity. More than that, Cyrus funded the trip! In this amazing prophecy, the Lord revealed to Cyrus His decree to free the Jews from captivity.
One hundred fifty years before Cyrus lived, God calls Cyrus by name and gives details of Cyrus’ benevolence to the Jews: “This is what the Lord says to his anointed, to Cyrus, whose right hand I take hold of to subdue nations before him . . . ‘I summon you by name and bestow on you a title of honor, though you do not acknowledge me’” (Isaiah 45:1, 4; see also 41:2–25; 42:6). Demonstrating His sovereignty over all nations, God says of Cyrus, “He is my shepherd and will accomplish all that I please” (Isaiah 44:28).
Additionally, Ezra, a priest and scribe, recorded additional information about Cyrus in the book of Chronicles.
In 2 Chronicles 36:22–23 we read, “Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the LORD by the mouth of Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the LORD stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, so that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom and also put it in writing: ‘Thus says Cyrus king of Persia, “The LORD, the God of heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and he has charged me to build him a house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever is among you of all his people, may the LORD his God be with him. Let him go up.”’” The other Old Testament book that mention Cyrus is the book of Daniel.
Fulfilling God’s plan, King Cyrus actively assisted the Jews in rebuilding the temple in Jerusalem under Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. Additionally, Cyrus restored the temple treasures to Jerusalem and allowed building expenses to be paid from the royal treasury (Ezra 1:4–11; 6:4–5). Cyrus’s generosity helped to restart the temple worship practices that had languished during the 70 years of the Jews’ captivity.
Among the Jews deported from Judah and later placed under the rule of Cyrus was the prophet, Daniel. In fact, we’re told Daniel served until at least the third year of king Cyrus (Daniel 10:1). That being the case, Daniel likely had some personal involvement in the decree that was made in support of the Jews. The historian Josephus says that Cyrus was informed of the biblical prophecies written about him (Antiquities of the Jews, XI.1.2). So it would be natural that the person to show Cyrus the scrolls was Daniel, a high-ranking official in Persia (Daniel 6:28). Further proof that God had a plan.
Besides his dealings with the Jews, Cyrus was known for his advancement of human rights, his brilliant military strategy, and his bridging of Eastern and Western cultures. He was a king of tremendous influence and a person God used to help fulfill an important Old Testament prophecy. God’s use of Cyrus as a “shepherd” for His people illustrates the truth of Proverbs 21:1, “The king’s heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases.” I share all this to illustrate the fact that no matter the circumstance we find ourselves in, God has a plan, and God can, and does, work through unlikely sources and people to achieve His plan.
Like being locked in an escape room, sometimes it’s hard to move forward when we don’t have an “end” in sight, when we don’t know where we’re going, but only rely on the providence of God. But we have the assurance that God gives us in scripture. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God reminds us, “For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future” (29:11). What’s difficult for us is to trust in God, we dislike not knowing, we fear the unknown. We want to know the exit strategy, and we want to be able to see the open door, the exit. The same is true about our future as a church. God has a plan for His faithful people. What He asks from us is faithfulness and trust in His plan.
Now we want to be careful here and not turn the expectation of following God’s plan in a prosperity gospel direction. Far too often people want to focus on the words, “to prosper you” in the prophet’s statement into a get rich scheme. This is not what God is saying here. What God is saying is He wants want’s best for us, for the church, and most importantly for His kingdom. Our financial status may not have anything to do with His desire to prosper us. I know plenty of medium to large churches that struggle financially because the members’ focus is on themselves rather than on what God is calling them to do. I also know plenty of small churches who God is working through, who do not struggle. And why? They are focused on what God is calling them to do for His kingdom.
Their hope and trust is in God, and they focus on what God is calling them to do, and they trust that God will supply the need. God declared through Isaiah, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts” (55:8-9). Consider this, who would have thought that the answer to humanity’s problem of sin was to send Jesus? From the beginning, God knew the only answer to our need for a savior was to send His one and only Son. And Jesus is the only way for us to come to the Father. Jesus is the Door. Jesus holds the keys to God’s kingdom in our midst.
Jesus didn’t see the cross as a tragedy, but as God’s greater plan for salvation. And when we look back at the event, God’s plan was greater than the plan of the religious leaders, was greater than Pilate’s plan, or even Caiaphas’ plan. Neither of their plans worked, because their plans were against God’s plan. Certainly, the crucifixion took place, we know that. But it didn’t turn out according to the religious leader’s plan.
Their plan was to make life easier for themselves; they wanted to be rid of the troublemaker. God’s plan was to bring new life to everyone. God’s plan was to give the world a Savior. So, God took the plans of politicians and used them for the plan of salvation. The plan of the religious leaders was to destroy the movement. God’s plan was salvation for humankind and to establish His church. When God is in the planning and we are listening to God, there’s nothing humankind can do to stop it.
St. Paul said it best, “What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword?” St. Paul concludes this passage by reminding us, “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:31-39). God indeed has a plan for each of us, and He has a plan for His church.
There are times, I know, when it’s hard to see the exit when we’re in the midst of troubling times. It’s in these times that I look to scripture and what God has done through some of the most unlikely people in the Bible. Consider Joseph for example. Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers. They hated him, so they got rid of him. Despite the situation, Joseph applied himself in Egypt, and eventually God directed his path, and he rose to be prime minister. Using his God given gift of interpretation, he convinced the Pharoah to store up grain against the coming famine. God’s plan was to do more than prosper Joseph, God’s plan was to save His people and fulfill His promise made to Abraham and to king David. Remember how Joseph answered his brothers? “You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good” (Genesis 50:20).
God invites us to participate in His plan, a plan that was started before us and will continue long after us. We’re one part of an ongoing journey taking place in our churches and in our discipleship. God wants to do good things for His kingdom through each of us and through this congregation. God wants to use us, and He’s waiting for us to trust Him, to pray about what He wants us to do, and to move forward in faith. God is waiting for us to put our lives into His hands, trusting that the Holy Spirit will lift us up and strengthen us as we trust God to supply the needs.
Amen