Sermons from Mission Hills UCC San Diego, California Rev. Dr. David Bahr [email protected] November 13, 2022 “All the Good You Can” Malachi 4: 1-2 –Common English Bible Look, the day is coming, burning like an oven. All the arrogant ones and all those doing evil will become straw. The coming day will burn them, says the Lord of heavenly forces, leaving them neither root nor branch. 2 But the sun of righteousness will rise on those revering my name; healing will be in its wings so that you will go forth and jump about like calves in the stall. Cheerful way to begin, right?! “The day is coming when all the arrogant ones and all those doing evil will become straw.” Would you like to hear an even more cheerful translation? “The day is coming when all the arrogant people who do evil things will be burned up like wood for the stove, burned to a crisp, nothing left but scorched earth and ash.” Luke 21 isn’t much happier. Nations fighting each other. People trying to deceive you. Wars and rebellions, terrifying sights and great signs in the sky… In other words, times that are deeply unsettling. Texts like these are uncomfortable. They’re like a family member we’d like to hide in the closet to avoid embarrassing visitors. Uncomfortable, that is, unless you are living under an existential threat of survival; then these words from Malachi might deliver comfort. As rockets rain down on your city in Ukraine, perhaps no words could be more hopeful. As you sit in jail in Myanmar for your pro-democracy activities, hearing what will come for your tormentors may give you the encouragement you need for one more day. But as a philosophy for life, nothing could be more hopeless, especially in a world that too conveniently divides people into us and them. The emotional satisfaction of proclaiming that the arrogant ones will become crispy is only temporary. It might get us through the night, but what do we do in the morning? Religious texts like these take us back thousands of years – through wars and famines and plagues and persecution. In many ways it’s reassuring to know that there’s nothing new under the sun. We may have vastly different worldviews and interpret the times differently, but to remember that there are bullies in every age who create fear and division gives us perspective. To remember, the truth is, tyrants and despots arise and can be put down. The Bible is clear that inequalities against the many are created and sustained for the few in every generation and so Jesus knew what we are facing. And what did the pioneer and perfecter of our faith teach? But first, perhaps it would be helpful to know what Malachi was talking about 500 years before Jesus. What were the problems in his day?
Again, religious texts remind us there are bullies in every age that create fear, division, and inequalities. Malachi offered one answer which can be hopeful, for a moment. Satisfying, temporarily. But that’s not the world I want to live in. It’s not the message we need in a world as divided and polarized as ours. Jesus offered a different kind of prophetic message in his time and for all times: love your enemies, and pray for those who inflict pain. Jesus doesn’t deny that there are bullies and tyrants and evil-doers in the world, but what do we do with them? Steve Garnaas-Holmes offers a challenge. And you might agree, a really hard one. What do you think? The more monstrous a person’s evil, the more evil their monsters, the more unable they are to overcome them. They need you. Pray for their redemption. If you want peace in the world If you want justice for all the oppressed For the abused and enslaved and trafficked, Then, most of all, you want the redemption of all wrongdoers. God’s great justice is not revenge. That’s too cheap, too human, too small. No, God’s justice is actual harmony and fullness of life for everybody. Not payback, that endless loop, But transformation (which is harder). Pray for the bad guys, Even the tyrants and torturers, that with love God will wrench them out of their hell And deliver us all.[1] Malachi’s last word wasn’t about evil people but the promise that the sun of righteousness will rise, bringing healing in its wings. A time so joyful you can picture it just like young calves frisky and frolicking. It’s a calling. Fire and brimstone is not the answer to God’s justice. Justice is not revenge, it’s repair. In deeply unsettling and anxious times like ours, our invitation is to repair the breach. How? What can individuals like you and me do? I love the simple, practical words of John Wesley, the founder of Methodism. He answers how this way: Do all the good you can By all the means you can In all the ways you can In all the places you can At all the times you can To all the people you can As long as ever you can. If anything should be a personal creed, that’s it. And if anything could be a good mission statement for a church, that’s it.
And how much better it is to do all the good you can with a religious community by your side, on your side. I thank God for this community of faith, this church, because, I can, through you.
Because God can. And God does. As our stewardship theme says, “from bread and cup to faith and giving,” God provides and replenishes daily so that together we will Do all the good we can By all the means we can In all the ways we can In all the places we can At all the times we can To all the people we can As long as ever we can. [1] www.unfoldinglight.net
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