Do not be weary in doing what is right
There’s apparently a courthouse in Ohio where raindrops that fall on the north side of the building go into Lake Ontario and the Gulf of St. Lawrence, while those falling on the south side go into the Mississippi River and Gulf of Mexico.
At precisely the point of the peak of the roof, just a gentle puff of wind can determine the destiny of many raindrops. Which way the wind blows will make a difference of more than 2,000 miles as to their final destination.
It’s a sometimes worrying thought that the decisions and choices we make can have a massive influence on us day by day and even perhaps into eternity…
There’s a cemetery with a grave which reads, “Pause my friend, as you walk by. As you are now, so once was I and as I am now so you will be. Prepare my friend, to follow me.”
To this rather challenging inscription a visitor added:
“To follow you is not my intent until I know which way you went !”
Life is all about choices – and today’s readings really do challenge us to think about our relationship with God…
There are warnings about what we might call the end times, times when the world as we know it will be no more. Week by week in our creeds we talk of Jesus coming back – later in this service we will say the words in the Nicene Creed, “He will come again in glory to judge…”
But what do we make of those words ? In times gone by and in some places today the words have been used to preach fairly threatening doom filled sermons, “repent or go to hell”…
And when we look at the readings today we might well think they contain a lot of bad news, a lot of worries about judgement and about getting our decisions right… or wrong. As a nation we like bad news, we like a bit of gloom, it sells newspapers, it makes news headlines on the television – good news is so often buried and so often when people talk of God as a judge he is portrayed as some keen executioner, rather than as the loving, compassionate, grace and mercy filled Father, but that is the nature of God and the message we are called to share…
The readings today offer challenges, challenges to us and challenges in how we relay to others a message about hope and love and peace and joy…
The reading from Malachi (4:1-2a) was written about 400 years before the birth of Jesus. Malachi literally means ‘My Messenger’ and it’s not clear whether Malachi was an actual person or whether this was written by someone as a message, but that doesn’t matter hugely…
The words were written to urge people to be ready for a time when the Saviour would come – this was the last book written in what we call the Old Testament and it seemed to many that the voice of God fell silent afterwards until Jesus came…
This silence was a period of preparation and it was an appeal for people to change their ways – the Temple in Jerusalem had been rebuilt following the exile, the religious authorities had been re-established, but things had gone stale and become corrupt – what was being practised was much more about a formal religion rather than any sort of relationship with God…
People, perhaps including the religious leaders, were cynical and disillusioned and the message of Malachi was a call to get back to what was important.
And what a call it was – in our short reading this morning we are told about the day coming when those who have turned against God will be condemned forever, but for those who know and love God the “sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings”… And that sun of righteousness 400 years later would be the Son of God, Jesus, who lived, died and rose again to life offering hope, peace and transformation to a world that was, and often still is, struggling…
In his 2nd letter to the Thessalonians (3:6-13) Paul urges the readers to ‘not be weary in doing what is right’ and this continues the theme of making choices… Soon we’ll be faced with a general election and we’ll make choices, pretty difficult choices it seems’ ! But day by day God has empowered us to make choices and decisions about how we live, about how we care for ourselves and others and our world and about how we live in relationship with God…
‘Do not be weary in doing what is right’ wrote Paul, and his life reflected one of transformation – a committed opponent of Christ had become perhaps his greatest evangelist knowing and living out the words of the psalm (98), ‘Sing unto the Lord a new song for he has done marvellous things’…
When we proclaim our faith, when we think about choices we make, we never do it alone but rather with God alongside us, and sometimes we will choose to ignore his presence, but we can’t imagine he doesn’t know and doesn’t see – God wouldn’t be God if he didn’t and so we make choices and the choices are seen by others and by God…
And the consequences of our choices are considered again in our gospel reading (Luke 21:5-19). When we talk of gloom filled sermons this offers massive possibilities. This is the stuff of real pulpit thumping, fear mongering, threats… And for centuries and centuries right back to the early church, people have offered predictions about the end times when God would come again to claim and judge his world…
Many of the writings of the early church were written with this expectation that Jesus would be back soon but it hasn’t happened and the truth is, we don’t know when it will happen!
And what’s more we don’t need to worry about it if we are living in the right way now because the end of that reading reminds us of God’s eternal protection for his people…
We often, as I said earlier, concentrate on the bad news and many preachers have preached this message of repent or die forever very powerfully, but the other side of the same coin is to recognise that God is gracious, merciful and loving, God is just and seeking to enjoy eternal relationships with every person in creation…
God is concerned for our future but he is also concerned for the present, and so he calls us to live for him, to seek out and never be weary in doing the things that are right, to enjoy the relationships that he puts around us, to share his gospel which is good news not just for the select people who frequent his churches, but which offers good news for everyone…
We can choose a doom filled message. We can live our lives making judgements about others, we can hide away in church and moan about the terrible things going on outside, but I don’t think any of us believe that is what God wants – in the gospel according to John (10:10) Jesus says, ‘I have come that people may life and have it to the full’…
Some will choose to spend their time preaching about heaven and hell. Some will live in fear of the choices they make day by day fearful of their future but God calls us to be different, to live in the present, ‘to sing a new song to the Lord’ day by day, to know his transformation, to celebrate his peace, sense his love and live confidently to share those things with others. AMEN
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