Give us Grace

“Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….”

Does God still send messengers to “prepare the way for our salvation?” Do we even need salvation? If so, from what? Today’s Scripture readings give us vivid portraits of those sent to the ancient Hebrews and to Jesus’ followers, of those sent to proclaim God’s justice, God’s promises, and God’s consolation. What do we hear in these readings?

In our reading from the middle of the book ascribed to the prophet Isaiah, we hear words of judgment and consolation spoken in the sixth century BC to the exiles from Jerusalem, just as their exile in Babylonia was about to end. Writing to a dispirited people longing for return and restoration, the prophet alludes to the sins that caused their exile and reminds them of their frailty as human beings. But the prophet has more to say: he also reminds them, and by extension us, that God will strengthen them, and that God will provide the means for their return to Jerusalem. Best of all, the prophet invites the people to trust in God. He reiterates God’s promises to them and assures them that God’s love for them – and for all people – will endure forever.

Our psalm, especially in the verses we don’t say, i.e., verses three through seven, echoes the prophet’s message. Questioning God’s deep and justified anger with God’s people, the psalmist offers the hope that God will restore both the people and the land. Using vivid images of a restored creation, the psalmist offers a vision of God’s Shalom, a state so much more than “peace,” a way of life in which humanity and all creation live in harmony and in accordance with God’s will.

The writer of the second letter attributed to the apostle Peter echoes the messages of the prophet and the psalmist. However, instead of Isaiah, the writer draws on the message of the prophet Malachi, the last of the Hebrew prophets. In today’s selection from Second Peter, we especially hear echoes of the opening verses of Malachi 3: “See, I am sending my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple. The messenger of the covenant in whom you delight—indeed, he is coming, says the Lord of hosts. But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears?” Reminding us that the Lord’s return is certain, but that we can never know when it will occur, the writer of Second Peter suggests how we are to live while we look forward to that day: we are to both wait patiently on God, trusting in God’s promise, and at the same time work actively to bring God’s day nearer.

Does our reading from the Gospel according to Mark fit with these readings emphasizing the prophetic messages? Without fanfare, without a genealogy, without a story of a miraculous birth, the evangelist here begins by announcing “the good news of Jesus Christ.” However, the evangelist bids us prepare ourselves to hear that good news by reflecting again on the prophetic message, spoken here by John the Baptizer. Make no mistake: the preaching of John the Baptizer – as Jesus’s preaching will also be -- is clearly grounded in the prophetic tradition of the Hebrew Bible. The evangelist doesn’t quote exactly the text from Isaiah that we just heard, but rather conflates it with phrases from both Exodus and Malachi. Even so, the message is clear. To prepare for Jesus’ coming, John calls the people to self-examination, reflection, and confession. And notice: John doesn’t call only isolated individuals to repentance but an entire community. And the community responds: “And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.” Again the message is clear. While John is not worthy to untie Jesus’ sandals, it is only when people have heeded John’s message, have faced God’s judgment, and have turned their lives around that they can be ready to receive Jesus and his gifts.

“Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….” The message is clear: our collect and the readings from Scripture urge us to heed the warnings of the prophets and examine ourselves, so that we may be ready to receive God’s salvation and restoration. Is that ancient message relevant to us twenty-first century people? From what do we need to be saved, and to what do we need to be restored? As soon as you turn on your radio or TV, or open your newspaper, smart phone, or tablet, you know the answer to that question. Our world is just as violent and unstable as the world of the Jerusalem exiles or the hearers of the preaching of John the Baptizer. We are mired in what feels like an endless war in Afghanistan, terrorists kill journalists, aid workers, and teachers, deadly viruses devastate Africa, this country still deals with a history of racial injustice despite years of struggle, and we still have the poor very much with us – in our county, our country, and the world.

Sin clearly abounds in our world. And yet, the beautiful verses from our psalm, especially the psalmist’s promise that “truth will spring up from the earth and righteousness shall look down from heaven,” forcefully reminds me of the deep sin of which we twenty-first century humans are personally and collectively guilty: our trashing of creation. In our insatiable demand for energy produced by the burning of fossil fuels, our extractive economies have truly raped the earth. Strip mines, mountain-top removal, the Alberta tar sands, prime agricultural land destroyed in Guatemala and Nigeria, fracking operations in North Dakota threatening water systems: where will it end? And worst of all, as virtually every atmospheric scientist tells us, we are raising the temperature of the earth by releasing carbon into the air when we mine and burn fossil fuels. Make no mistake. Climate change is real. By the end of this century, many of our national parks will be unrecognizable or even non-existent, as glaciers disappear, coral reefs dry up, animals are forced out of their native habitats, and hurricanes tear away our coasts – all because of global warming.

My brothers and sisters, this is not God’s design for us and for our “big blue marble.” If God is angry with us, it is surely because of the way we have treated God’s creation. Our total disregard of the consequences for the earth of our behavior is the state from which we desperately need salvation – if there is even to be a planet to which Jesus might eventually return! As contemporary theologians remind us, we are not separate from nature, but rather part of a web of creation that includes the entire cosmos. And we have been part of that web since the beginning of creation. Did you know that scientists tell us there are no new atoms, only the same atoms undergoing continual changes of state. All of us have bits of stardust in us! And, if we share atoms with plants, and animals, and water, and air, then we are called to live harmoniously within that web of creation. In the end, we cannot “conquer” nature, we can only be its steward and guardian.

At this point, perhaps we should all get up, go over to the Ohio River, and confess our sins against the earth. Isaiah, Malachi, Psalmist, John the Baptizer, where are you? If Scripture convicts us of our sins, perhaps Scripture also gives us hope, hope that God will fulfill God’s promises, and restore God’s creation. And what are we to do in the meantime? We are to heed the warnings of the prophets among us, and forsake our sins. In our day, those prophets will probably not arrive wearing camel skins and eating locusts and honey. They may be scientists politicians, or community activists, whose warnings about the fate of the earth, most especially about climate change, we can actively heed. Right at this very moment, world leaders are gathered at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in Lima, Peru, to address all the behaviors that have contributed to climate change, and to craft strategies that will enable nations to cooperate in scaling back some of the worst changes. Pray that these discussions may bear fruit and urge your elected officials to support their agreements. Closer to home, educate yourself about the plans to build an injection well in Racine, in Meigs County, for water used in fracking, and a receiving dock in Portland, also in Meigs County, for the purpose of receiving out-of-state fracking wastes and dumping them in Meigs, Vinton, and Athens counties. Learn about what these developments will mean for our watersheds. Join with others and learn how we may decrease our reliance on fossil fuels and increase our use of sustainable energy sources.

“Merciful God, who sent your messengers the prophets to preach repentance and prepare the way for our salvation: Give us grace to heed their warnings and forsake our sins, that we may greet with joy the coming of Jesus Christ our Redeemer….” May God indeed give us grace to heed the warnings of prophets both ancient and contemporary, change our ways, and learn to treasure the creation that is God’s enduring gift to us.