Trinity XXII

As Christians are we simply satisfied with the world, with the way things are? No. Do we want things to be different? I hope so, yes. That’s good, as the prophet Malachi in our first reading this morning has a vision of the future, when the arrogant and evil doers will be like stubble in a furnace, ‘But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.’ (Malachi 4:2). This is a vision of a future where God is in control, and things will be put right, and at one level He already has. Christ is risen from the dead, the one who heals God’s people has risen. The time is both not yet, and now, a work in progress, and a reality. 

We have a part to play in it. We cannot just sit back and wait for God to sort everything out, we need to co-operate with God, and help to make the Kingdom a reality. Hence S. Paul’s advice to the Thessalonians, ‘As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good’ (2Thess 3:13). We’ve been trying and failing for nearly two thousand years. That’s what a work in progress is. It isn’t easy, and no one can fail to notice that the world around us is often rather hostile to who we are, and what we stand for. It is not easy to be a Christian, nor has it ever been, for that matter. 

We will be hated by all people for Christ’s name’s sake (Lk 21:17). Hate is a strong word, but as we are directly opposed to many in this world, it is not surprising. With hatred comes persecution, and we only have to look to China, North Korea, the Middle East, India, and Pakistan, to see it. Christians are being killed for believing in God who loves us, who died to save from our sins. To follow Christ is to walk the way of the Cross, to risk imprisonment, torture and death, for the love of His name. But ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved’ (Acts 4:12). Only Jesus can save us, we cannot save ourselves. We are called to bear witness to Him. 

Jews in the first century AD loved the Temple, it was the centre of their world, it was where they could be close to God, it was where sacrifices happened which took away their sins. But less than forty years after Jesus spoke this prophecy a Roman Army destroyed it. But as Christians we know that Jesus Christ is the new Temple, the place to meet God, the place of sacrifice. Destroy it in three days, and I will raise it up. Christ speaks of His body, and that is us: we are the Body of Christ. Churches are not buildings, they are groups of people who love Jesus, and each other. Jesus speaks of false Christs, who will lead people astray, and warns ‘ do not go after them’ (Lk 21:8). It is a temptation, especially when times are hard, when there are war and natural disasters. 

But we know that Our Lord Jesus Christ is victorious, he is the true worship of God. In Him we can have confidence. He gives us Himself, His Body and Blood, to nourish us and to heal us, and give us strength to prepare us for the trials we will face. Here in Britain it is more likely to be indifference than anything else. Indifference speaks of a hardness of heart, being deaf to the Good News of the Kingdom. At its root is Sin, our separation from God by our following our will, and not God’s. We think we know better, and do what we want to do, rather than letting God work through us. The human condition hasn’t actually changed since the Garden of Eden. We continue to make the same mistakes over and over again. There is, however, a way out of this. God in Christ deals with the problem of our sin on the Cross, where He offers himself as a sacrificial victim to atone for all the sins of humanity. It’s what Christ was born for, as the angel says to Joseph, ‘She will bear a son, and you are to name him Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.’ (Mt 1:21) The name Jesus (Hebrew Yeshua) means ‘God saves’ and He does. This is what we believe as Christians, where we put our trust, our hope, in a God who loves us and saves us, the same God who inspired the prophecies of Malachi, which look forward to Christ. 

That same Christ who heals us and sustains us will be with us in our trials, and whereas our family and friends may prove false to us, we can have confidence that Christ will never let us down. He’s been through this. Through the gift of the Holy Spirit we are strengthened to bear witness to Him. For the same Christ who died for us, and rose again, who ascended into heaven, will come again to judge us and all the world. It sounds scary and intimidating, and at one level it is, and it should be. It matters; hence our urgency in proclaiming the Kingdom of God. But the one who will judge us, is the same one who died to set us free, the God who loves us, who heals us, and restores us. A God of love and mercy, risen with healing in his wings. Let us come to Him, be healed by Him, nourished with His Body and Blood and strengthened to proclaim Him in word and deed, so that the world may come to believe and sing the praises of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, to whom be ascribed as is most right and just all might, majesty, glory, dominion, and power, now and forever. Amen.