Albert D. Mosley - "A New World Order" (November 4, 2001)

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-	But the saints of the most high God	0:10
	will receive the kingdom	0:14
	and will possess it forever.	0:17
	Yes, forever and ever.	0:20
	Today is All Saints' Sunday,	0:25
	a day when we as Christians recall	0:28
	the faithfulness of past generations	0:31
	and acknowledge the heritage we receive from them.	0:34
	This is a day when we express our appreciation	0:39
	for the lives of the countless men and women,	0:41
	known and unknown, who face the hostile forces of this world	0:44
	People of faith who in the face of evil, oppression,	0:50
	and subjugation remained faithful	0:56
	and stood as a testament of what it means to follow God,	0:59
	regardless of what was happening to and around them.	1:04
	We remember the saints,	1:09
	and not necessarily because they lived	1:11
	good and/or clean lives,	1:13
	but rather because of their steadfastness for God	1:16
	in the face of evil.	1:20
	We remember the saints and through this remembrance,	1:22
	we are able to forge a connection in the body of Christ	1:27
	that transcends the limitations of time and space.	1:31
	Saints, some of whom lived hundreds of years ago	1:36
	in other parts of the world,	1:40
	but whose testimonies provide many of us	1:42
	with the encouragement we need	1:46
	in our present day struggles against evil.	1:48
	That's what this day is all about.	1:52
	That's what this celebration is all about.	1:54
	In the midst of this celebration	1:59
	the Lectionary cycle recommends these passages	2:01
	from Daniel and from Luke's gospel.	2:03
	Some may not be able to see	2:06
	the connection between the two.	2:08
	But both of these passages have quite a bit to say to us,	2:10
	the faithful, the holy ones, the saints of God.	2:14
	They both offer us a glimpse into a different world,	2:20
	a world where things are not always as they seem.	2:24
	A world where what appears is not always the case.	2:28
	This is a world where things	2:33
	are turned upside down, inside out.	2:34
	This is a world where there is an ultimate judgment	2:39
	and in that ultimate judgment, good will triumph over evil.	2:43
	But it's not that simple.	2:48
	There is far more to it than the defeat of evil by good.	2:52
	Both of today's scripture lessons seem	2:57
	to suggest a cosmic upheaval,	2:59
	an ushering in of a new kingdom, a new world order.	3:02
	Daniel in his apocalyptic vision of four beasts	3:08
	and Jesus in His radical pronouncements	3:10
	of blessings and cursings reveal to us	3:13
	a different way to view the world.	3:17
	Daniel especially with his notions of a final judgment day	3:20
	of the resurrection of the dead,	3:25
	and of a kingdom of God	3:27
	in which the saints take their rightful place.	3:30
	Daniel shows us a radically different way to approach life.	3:32
	That's what apocalyptic literature usually does.	3:37
	And for that reason, most people are wary	3:41
	of the Bible's apocalyptic elements.	3:44
	Daniel, Revelation, Mark 13,	3:47
	and other apocalyptic texts	3:52
	are often passed over because they bring to the forefront	3:54
	issues that most of us are not willing to grapple with.	3:57
	Not only that, but these texts are also vulnerable	4:01
	to serious gross misinterpretations.	4:04
	Think for example of the tragic episodes	4:08
	involving Jim Jones of Jonestown	4:10
	and David Koresh of the Branch Davidian compound in Texas,	4:13
	both of whom placed an enormous emphasis	4:17
	on books like Daniel.	4:19
	In spite of the possible misinterpretations	4:24
	and misunderstandings that could arise	4:26
	from passages like the one read today,	4:29
	I think it is still worth our time to examine this vision	4:32
	so that we might understand	4:37
	what this New World Order will look like.	4:39
	The words in this book were addressed	4:43
	to a group of believers	4:45
	who were experiencing grave persecution.	4:45
	The first and second books	4:49
	of the Maccabees make it quite clear	4:50
	that Daniel was written during the Hellenistic Age	4:53
	which was a time of great suffering for many men and women	4:56
	who wished to remain faithful to God.	5:00
	This was a time of crisis for believers.	5:03
	They were forbidden from praying to God.	5:06
	They were living in a time where faithfulness	5:09
	and devotion to God ran contrary	5:11
	to faithfulness and devotion to the king,	5:14
	or to society, or to cultural standards.	5:16
	Sounds a lot like now.	5:21
	As I stated in a sermon two weeks ago,	5:24
	at this present moment in the life of our nation,	5:26
	faithfulness and devotion to God	5:30
	can run contrary to faithfulness and devotion to nation.	5:33
	The only difference between now and when Daniel was	5:39
	addressing his audience is that most of us are not punished	5:41
	for our faithfulness and our devotion.	5:45
	If we were, I daresay there would be	5:48
	little punishment to start with	5:51
	because for so many, there is so little faithfulness	5:53
	and so little devotion.	5:57
	But most of us do experience on almost a daily basis	6:00
	the conflict that exists between the values of our faith	6:05
	and what this post-modern world values	6:09
	and considers important.	6:11
	Daniel speaks to this persecuted group of believers	6:14
	and tries to assure them	6:16
	that God has ultimate control of the affairs of their lives,	6:17
	in spite of much evidence that suggested the contrary.	6:22
	Chapter seven starts with a vision	6:28
	in which four great beasts provide	6:29
	an allegory of history.	6:31
	These beasts represent the four great kingdoms	6:34
	with which Daniel was concerned,	6:36
	the Babylonians, the Medes, the Persians, and the Greeks.	6:38
	Daniel's vision then includes a judgment	6:43
	of each of these beasts, each of these kingdoms.	6:45
	These beasts, these kingdoms, are judged before God	6:49
	because they have terrorized the community of faith.	6:54
	After the judgment of the kingdoms	6:58
	there is a transfer of the heavenly judgment to Earth,	6:59
	through one who is like a human being.	7:02
	This transcendent agent of God relies on the power	7:06
	of the Ancient One according to Daniel.	7:10
	And with that power establishes the rule of God.	7:13
	In this vision of Daniel, the great beast,	7:19
	the great kingdoms of the world are destroyed.	7:21
	Even the fourth great beast of the Greek kingdom,	7:25
	with its numerous horns representing Alexander the Great	7:29
	and other rulers that followed him.	7:32
	Daniel's vision is concluded and interpreted	7:35
	to mean that this new kingship of God,	7:37
	this New World Order of God will be established	7:41
	and will never be destroyed.	7:45
	And those who have been faithful to God	7:48
	even in the midst of horrible persecution,	7:51
	will exercise authority in this coming kingdom of God.	7:54
	The holy ones, the saints of God,	7:58
	will be God's triumphant agents	8:02
	when evil is overthrown	8:05
	and God's righteous rule is set in place.	8:06
	Daniel wants to communicate to the people of God,	8:10
	to those who are suffering great trials and tribulations,	8:12
	a divine revelation concerning the course and end of history	8:15
	History will end with the reign of God in justice.	8:21
	God will put an end to the worldly enemy,	8:26
	and will establish a kingdom in which the faithful	8:28
	will take their rightful place.	8:30
	For those holy ones, for those saints,	8:34
	who are a part of Daniel's audience,	8:37
	he wanted to say to them that the present crisis	8:39
	will not last forever.	8:42
	And that even though it will most likely	8:44
	not be solved by human forces,	8:46
	one day God will intervene,	8:49
	and will act on behalf of those	8:51
	who remain steadfast in their faithfulness.	8:53
	To some, this might sound like pie in the sky theology.	8:58
	In fact Paul Hanson in his The Dawn of Apocalyptic	9:02
	notes that apocalyptic literature like Daniel	9:06
	is often viewed as a flight	9:08
	into the timeless repose of myth.	9:10
	Some view these dreams,	9:14
	these visions of a cosmic overthrow of evil by God	9:15
	as a passive and resigned way	9:19
	that only allows oppression to continue.	9:20
	Daniel's vision in particular describes how	9:24
	the heavenly battle against chaos will be won,	9:27
	and that the results of this victory	9:31
	will influence earthly communities.	9:32
	Where is the action on our part, one might ask.	9:35
	This view of apocalyptic writings gives credence	9:41
	to Karl Marx's notion that religion	9:43
	is an opiate to salve the wounds of political dominance,	9:46
	rather than actually causing its followers	9:49
	to engage in resistance or some other action	9:51
	to change matters.	9:54
	But I don't see it that way.	9:57
	And I trust you don't either.	9:59
	In my mind, the dreamers of apocalyptic visions,	10:01
	people like Daniel, people like Mark,	10:04
	people like John, people like Mother Teresa,	10:06
	people like Martin Luther King, Jr., and others	10:10
	are visionaries of a New World Order.	10:14
	They are visionaries of a world	10:17
	where there is economic justice and opportunity for all.	10:18
	They are visionaries of a world where women	10:23
	and others who've been persecuted have a voice.	10:25
	They're visionaries of a world	10:29
	where the status quo is challenged.	10:30
	They are visionaries and their vision is	10:33
	inspired by a God who liberates	10:36
	and who sets free those who are oppressed.	10:39
	Apocalyptic literature draws deep	10:44
	from the hopes and passions of the people	10:46
	especially people who are in dire conditions.	10:48
	Apocalyptic literature like the book of Daniel	10:52
	speaks to the failure of established kingdoms.	10:54
	And it opens the way to new possibilities.	10:58
	It accomplishes this by prying open	11:02
	the sealed doors of tradition,	11:04
	and imagining possibilities beyond the realities	11:06
	dictated by the Old World Order.	11:09
	It also accomplishes this by encouraging the holy ones,	11:13
	the saints of God to guide their lives	11:17
	by no other star than a trustworthy God,	11:21
	Who promises to never leave or forsake.	11:24
	This is exactly what happens	11:29
	not only in the passage from Daniel,	11:30
	but also in the passage from Luke's Gospel.	11:32
	Jesus in the gospel lesson for today	11:36
	offers an upsetting list of blessings and woes.	11:38
	He in a manner very similar to the vision that Daniel had	11:43
	offers an alternative way of viewing the world.	11:46
	Jesus speaks of the will and work of God	11:50
	to overturn life and situations as we have come to know them	11:53
	Blessed, says Jesus, are the poor.	11:58
	Blessed are the hungry.	12:01
	Blessed are the grieving.	12:04
	Blessed are the excluded.	12:06
	Hardly people we would count as blessed.	12:09
	He doesn't stop there.	12:14
	Jesus goes on to pronounce a series of woes or curses	12:14
	on those who find themselves	12:19
	on the opposite side of the fence,	12:20
	the rich, the full, the happy, and the well-thought-of	12:23
	are in for a surprise in this New World Order.	12:29
	They, much like the four beastly kingdoms	12:33
	in Daniel's vision, will be toppled.	12:35
	This is not anything strange coming	12:39
	from Jesus or from the Gospels.	12:40
	Earlier in Luke, Mary, singing praises to God,	12:43
	acknowledged that God has put	12:46
	the mighty down from their thrones	12:47
	and has elevated the lowly.	12:50
	This same God has filled the hungry with good things,	12:53
	and has sent the rich away empty.	12:56
	The point here in Luke and in Daniel is	13:01
	that those who prosper under	13:02
	the present structures of human life,	13:04
	those who are self-satisfied and at ease	13:06
	with the way things are,	13:08
	those who benefit and are honored by the system,	13:10
	they are the ones to be pitied.	13:14
	Woe to the great beastly kingdoms of Daniel's vision	13:17
	and woe to those whose current situation	13:21
	looks to an outsider to be fortunate.	13:23
	Woe to them because their ultimate life	13:27
	is quite the contrary.	13:30
	God's kingdom, God's reign,	13:34
	the New World Order is a kingdom in which the holy ones,	13:37
	the saints of God, swim against the stream.	13:43
	It is a kingdom in which poverty, hunger,	13:48
	sorrow, and oppression are not a part of God's purposes.	13:50
	It is a kingdom in which the law of the land	13:55
	is counter to the accepted culture	13:57
	and the accepted way of viewing life.	13:59
	Is this good news or bad news?	14:03
	Much of it depends upon where you stand	14:07
	when you hear the news.	14:09
	Are you by way of your life representative	14:11
	of the four beastly kingdoms?	14:14
	Are you included among those whom Jesus pronounces	14:17
	the series of woes upon?	14:20
	If you are, then you are set to wonder	14:23
	about your place in this New World Order.	14:25
	Will Willimon, in a sermon he preached here last year,	14:29
	said that it's not so much that God	14:32
	punishes people who are rich, people who are content,	14:34
	people who are well-fixed,	14:37
	rather it's that God's kingdom values	14:40
	certain ways of life and not others.	14:42
	For some, Daniel's vision of a toppling	14:47
	of evil earthly dominions	14:50
	and Jesus' pronouncement of a subversive way of life	14:52
	are almost like a foreign language.	14:56
	Some have become so accustomed	14:59
	to making the gospel fit with the prevailing culture,	15:01
	that these lessons remind us that there can be	15:04
	no easy truths with the culture.	15:07
	There are sharp demands of life in this New World Order.	15:11
	The saints of the Most High, the holy ones,	15:15
	and even some of us,	15:19
	especially those of us who have been baptized	15:20
	and who have been set apart,	15:22
	we understand the sharp demands of life	15:24
	in this New World Order.	15:27
	Thanks be to God for the witnesses of His saints.	15:31
	Thanks be to God that we are surrounded	15:35
	by so great a cloud of witnesses.	15:37
	Thanks be to God for a New World Order	15:41
	where all of God's saints,	15:44
	those of ages past and those in this very congregation	15:45
	are able to live a life that is informed	15:50
	not by society's rules, but by the gospel of Jesus Christ.	15:52
	Thanks be to God. Amen.	15:59

Item Info

Title:

Albert D. Mosley - "A New World Order" (November 4, 2001)

Description:

Sermon start time: 00:10. Sermon end time: 16:02.
Apocalyptic texts give us a vision for a new world order that upsets the injustice of our current world (Abstract created by Duke Divinity School staff.)
Key quotation: “God’s kingdom, God’s reign, is a kingdom in which…poverty, hunger, sorrow, and oppression are not a part of God’s purposes. It is a kingdom in which the law of the land is counter to the accepted culture, and the accepted way of viewing life. Is this good news or bad news? Much of it depends on where you stand when you hear the news.” 13:48-14:10

Permalink:

https://idn.duke.edu/ark:/87924/r42r3pb5k

Date:

November 4, 2001

Speaker:

Mosley, Albert D.

Biblical Book:

Luke

Chapter and Verse:

Luke 6:20-26

Subject:

Contributor:

Duke University. Chapel

Identifier:

UA.17.01.0003 CS-1092
ref10341_g1m
uachapelsermaud
duke:321188
dcrau001736
ark:/87924/r42r3pb5k
d00d6bec-f315-4ac1-b5a7-d57d09b498db

Digital Collection:

Duke Chapel Recordings

Source Collection:

Duke University Chapel recordings

Language:

English

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United States
North Carolina
Durham (N.C.)

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Provenance:

The Duke University Chapel Recordings were transferred to the Duke University Archives beginning in 1970.

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Limited Re-Use

CC BY-NC 4.0

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This recording may contain 3rd party materials, such as music or readings that are therefore not covered by the Creative Commons license indicated here. For more information see https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/research/citations-and-permissions.

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