The Rev. Virginia W. Nagel
Ephphatha Parish of the Deaf
Episcopal Diocese of Central NY
The readings for today are very familiar to us. They could almost be lifted from the daily paper: Destruction and violence are all around me, and there is fighting and quarreling everywhere. The law is weak and useless, and justice is never done. Evil people get the better of the righteous, and so justice is perverted.
And what is God's answer to this?
God's answer is shocking. I'm going to let your worst enemies, the cruellest army there is, come and conquer you. I am doing this so that you will be punished for breaking my law and ignoring my commandments.
But, the prophet asks, how can a good God like you endure those terrible people? How can you let such horrible things happen to us?
And the Lord answers, Those who are evil will not survive, but those who are righteous will live because they are faithful to God.
The Bible shows us that again and again God has used people to punish or to help others.
When we, or our community or our nation, experiences a time of suffering, when it seems that society is falling apart and bad things are happening to good people, perhaps we should finally pay attention to the Bible and look at our own personal lives, and the way our culture lives, and see if perhaps we have been living in a way that brings on punishment through the events of the world around us. Are we ignoring the needs of the poor, those of minority groups, and the aged, the homeless, and the unemployed? Last week's Gospel about the rich man and the beggar, Lazarus, was certainly a wake-up call for us, and an introduction to today's readings. Perhaps we need to think a bit about these Scriptures, and take note, and make some changes in our lives and our society. We could begin by saying with the prophet Habakkuk, Lord, from the very beginning you have been and are God. You are my God, holy and eternal. I will watch and wait to see what the Lord will tell me...
The apostle Paul gives us, as well as Bishop Timothy, some useful advice. He reminds us to hold onto the deep love that brought us to faith in Christ in the first place. He reminds us that God's Spirit fills us with love, power and self-control, and warns us not to be ashamed to witness that Jesus is Lord.
Jesus has something to say about all this, too. He reminds us that we are God's servants. God is not our servant! When we obey God, it is not a big deal. We are doing only what is expected of us. Why, then, do we feel that we can call on God to fix everything that we have messed up by ignoring his laws? It is up to us to obey God...not up to God to obey us! If we would only stop and think, we could probably prevent much of the evil in the world. Let us try to be better servants of God, obedient, and make it our priority to obey him, in all things, instead of telling him what we want him to do for us. Amen.
