Psalm 99: 1-9 (links validated on 2/5/25a)

In the 1960s John Lennon of The Beatles got himself into a whole lot of hot water when he observed to a reporter one day that The Beatles were more popular than Jesus. The backlash from Christians around the world was swift and brutal. In the United States in particular large gatherings of Christian young people were shown on the nightly news as they threw Beatles record albums onto blazing bonfires even as they brandished signs saying “Jesus Christ Died For You, John Lennon.” Lennon eventually offered somewhat of an apology, noting that he was not saying The Beatles were better than Jesus but just that it was a fact that in England at least, more young people were into The Beatles than they were into the organized church. Lennon thought he was just stating a fact. “If I’d said The Beatles were bigger than television, I might have gotten away with it” Lennon said in frustration. But Lennon was in touch with something we Christians know to be true. The world pays attention to celebrities, to political power players, to the rich and influential, to the centers of might and strength in Washington D.C or Ottawa or Moscow or London. Those people and those places are more obviously important than the Christian church or the Jesus at the center of the Gospel. At least that’s what a lot of people think if they look only on the glitzy surface of life in this world. But we followers of Christ Jesus the Lord believe we are in touch with the truest source of cosmic might and majesty and we proclaim it every time we gather to worship at the feet of our King of kings and Lord of lords.

I will give credit to my former CEP writing colleague Stan Mast for giving me this idea from a Psalm 99 commentary he wrote some years back. But many of us recall that in April 2024 parts of the U.S. saw a total eclipse of the sun and in many other parts of the country (including mine) a partial eclipse was on view. I attended the event on the campus of Calvin University with several hundred students, faculty and staff gathered on the Commons Lawn and we all had the same thing on: eclipse glasses. Not my best picture ever since I could not see well enough through the glasses to see if my phone was in the right position for this selfie (hence the look of concentration!). But that was the point of those glasses: they needed to be so dark that the only thing you could see through them was the sun as it went through the phases of being steadily obscured by the moon. Looking directly at it without the eye wear could seriously damage your eyes. As Stan Mast noted, we also cannot stare at the glory of God the King in Psalm 99 or the transfigured Christ from the gospels without risk of being undone by the spectacle. But we can safely see God’s glory through the lens of Jesus Christ or as John put it in the opening of his Gospel, no one had ever seen God so the Son of God came down here and explained God to us.

I recently read The Help, by Kathryn Stockett. Perhaps you've seen the movie. It's set in Jackson, Mississippi and focuses on the role of domestic servants who serve wealthy families in the Old South. It's based on a unique plot: A daughter of a plantation family in the 50s wants to be a writer. She grew up being cared for by an older black woman named Constantine, who served as the family's maid for many years. In many ways, Constantine was her surrogate mother. So, she gets the idea of interviewing maids like Constantine and telling their stories of what it's like to raise white children – all the way from changing diapers … to potty training … to learning to read and write … to developing table manners … to going off to college and getting married … only to see them become young adults employing maids of their own. Potentially, the same child you raised could grow up to be your boss. She puts the interviews together in a book, and it becomes the talk of the town. But it turns out to be more than an exposé – it turns out to be a wakeup call and part of the larger catalyst for putting an end to segregation in the Old South, with its separate-but-equal inequities...