Audio Recording
My Grandmother on my father’s side had some family stories
to tell. One of them was that we were
descended from Mad King Ludwig, the last king of some kingdom somewhere in
Germany. His castle was the one that the
Disney castle was fashioned after. This story
was passed down from Grandma’s mother’s side of the family as their name was
Ludwig. The story went that Mad King
Ludwig was such a crazy king that his people deposed him. He had seven sons who fled the country and
one of them settled in Rockbridge County, Virginia near the little town of
Fairfield and is buried in an unmarked grave in the Ludwig family cemetery on a
plot of land that was at one time the Ludwig family farm. This Ludwig would have been Grandma’s great
or great-great-grandfather. This would
have been in the early to mid-1800’s.
I had no reason to doubt this family story. After all, I have actually been to the little
cemetery and seen the grave of one Charles Ludwig who was her great-uncle after
whom my great-uncle, Uncle Charlie, was named.
As far as family folklore goes, that’s enough evidence to prove even the
existence of Bigfoot. But, about ten
years ago I shared this story in a public setting to an audience of a couple of
hundred people. Afterwards, a man came
up and told me I might want to check my details because it was entirely likely
that Mad King Ludwig didn’t have any children and gave me a knowing look to
assure me that the details of the true story were going to be interesting.
Well, that was the first time that it had ever
occurred to me that I could go online and research this bit of family
trivia. The Disney castle is indeed
patterned after Castle Neuschwanstein which was built by King Ludwig II, the
last king of Bavaria also known as “Mad King Ludwig”. He was reclusive and quite eccentric, an
extravagant lover of architectural projects and the theater. He was the patron of Richard Wagner. In 1870 after the Franco-Prussian War he signed
away Bavaria helping to solidify the German Empire to be ruled by Wilhelm I. In 1864 at age eighteen he took the throne,
but he did not care for being king. He
blew through the family wealth by building some remarkable castles and
theatres, and through patronage of artists and playwrights, and by giving
extravagant gifts to people of the countryside who were hospitable to him. He almost got married, but called it off and
according to his diaries Ludwig II was gay; so no children. As far as being “mad” goes, on June 10th
of 1886 the Bavarian government had him declared insane and deposed him largely
because of his spending and unwillingness to be involved in government. Three days later he was found dead; likely
murdered at age forty. Those closest to
him said he was indeed eccentric but not insane. The Bavarian people loved him and did not
seek to oust him. The insanity charges
and deposition were a total government fabrication.
So as far as my grandmother’s family story goes,
Ludwig II had no children and he was not “Mad”…so much for claims to royal
decent. I guess I’ll just have to accept
that Grandma’s Ludwig background wasn’t a royal soap opera after all, but rather
just the product of normal immigration from Germany to the US of people fleeing
the Prussian wars in the 1860-70’s.
Humbling indeed. I guess I won’t
be darting off to Germany claiming rights to the “real” Disney Castle. Well, I may not be a
great-great-great-great-great-or maybe one more great grandson of the last king
of Bavaria. But, Paul can offer me/us
some consolation: forget claims to royalty we are adopted children of God and he’s
apportioned to us an inheritance in the Kingdom of God. Let’s check that story out.
Here in Ephesians Paul wants to reveal a secret about
those who are in Christ, a mystery he wants to make known to us, a revelation
of a plan that God has had since way back before Creation. The skeleton in our closet is God’s
pre-Creation purpose for us in Christ.
It’s a true story and it may be a bit different than the story you’ve
heard. It’s the story of how God because
of his good and pleasing nature has poured his good pleasure, his grace, his
favour upon his Creation just so everything in it can come together and say,
“Ah, this is really good. You have blessed us in Jesus, your Beloved, with
every spiritual blessing in and under heaven.
Praise you God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Admittedly Paul’s language is a bit lofty as
he tells our story. So, how does the
story go?
It was God’s plan from before Creation that in the
fullness of time God the Son would become a human, Jesus of Nazareth, and in
him God would gather all things, unify all things, all things in heaven and all
things on earth. Before he laid the
foundation of the world he chose us, each of us who are in Christ to be holy
and blameless before him. Paul continues
that it has been God’s plan since before Creation to adopt us as his very own
children with all the rights of sonship (which was the highest status children
could have in the Roman world. Even you
children of God in Christ who are daughters, you have all the rights of sonship).
We in Christ are holy and blameless before God
because Jesus has delivered us from slavery to darkness, liberated us from it,
bought us with the price of his own blood.
According to God’s good will and pleasure, it is by God’s gracious
favour through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ that we have been saved. By means of his death on the cross Jesus like
the scapegoat on the Old Testament Day of Atonement has born our sin off into
the wilderness of death where it is utterly destroyed. We need no longer bear guilt and shame for
past sins. We in Christ have been saved
by Jesus faithfulness. Now, it is our
turn to be faithful. We who are in
Christ must become faithful in him or to him by fulfilling our purpose to be
the praise of God’s glorious grace.
Paul goes on to say that according to God’s glorious
and gracious plan, the plan he made before Creation, he has also allotted us in
Christ an inheritance that we will receive at the fullness of time when we are
raised as Jesus was raised. Until then,
we in Christ have been sealed with the royal seal of the Holy Spirit. God has given us an allotment of his very
self from our inheritance as a downpayment.
The Holy Spirit works in us transforming us to be holy and
blameless. He equips us for our share in
Jesus ministry, which is his rule as the Lord of the Kingdom of God and over
all Creation.
This story is the truth about us in Christ. In Christ means that we are organically
united to Jesus so that we participate in his new resurrected and ascended
humanity. It’s like saying we share his
DNA. For now we are being transformed
little by little, yet more and more as we go about living as a faithful
community of faithful disciples of Jesus Christ. Prayerfully and with the Scriptures in hand
we together strive to be faithful with the result that our lives become the
praise of God’s glorious grace. The Holy
Spirit is the proof to us that the story of our adoption and inheritance in
Christ is true and the transformation he works in us as we go about being
faithful (and even when we are unfaithful) is the proof to the world that this
story of God’s gracious plan for his creation is the truth. We are not children of wrath. We are children of adoption in Christ, the
recipients of God’s good will and pleasure and he’s had that plan since
forever. That’s the straight story of us. So, get on with it. Amen.
