An acceptable year
Tens of millions of Christians in this country love the Book of Revelation and what they think it tells them about the end of the world. But one verse you’ll probably not hear them talk about. It’s in chapter 11 of Revelation (verse 18).
Then the seventh angel sounded; and there were loud voices in heaven…. 18 And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.”
Let me condense that Verse 18 to highlight only the part that concerns me today: And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time …. to destroy those who destroy the earth.
Much of what the NT teaches is habitually ignored by the majority of Christians. It seems as if many Christians want to see God destroy and condemn. And yet they ignore this verse in Revelation. Because they don’t care about the earth? Because they are eager for Christ to return and take them to heaven and let the earth go to hell, so to speak? And so they have no problem with governments and corporations that destroy the environment fo the sake of profit. Perhaps they should read Revelation a little more carefully and see what Revelation says about corporations and governments that trade lives and the life of the planet for profit. Chapter 18 of Revelation judges the merchants and the luxuries they sell, and because they are in alliance with Babylon, the great symbol of destructive government.
Did you hear the Epistle and Gospel readings today? They are not judgmental. They are full of hope and vision. They mark the mission of the church, and so they are read every year at the start of the ecclesiastical year. Listen again.
Today’s reading from Paul’s letter to Timothy:
This is good, and it is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
Today’s Gospel reading tells us of the day when Jesus first appeared in public as the Jesus we know. He goes to synagogue and starts reading from the Book of Isaiah:
He opened the book and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” And he closed the book, and gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. And he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.”
Dear friends, that is our mission also: to preach and bring good news to those who need to hear it, which is everyone, and proclaim this and every year as a year of the Lord. When the Ecumenical Patriarchate decided 30 years ago to make Sept 1st also a day of prayers for the environment it made perfect sense and fit the message of hope that this day brings. A special Vespers service was composed for the protection of the environment and we will read some of the prayers from that Vespers at the end of today’s Liturgy.
Images of divine creation
At every baptism service we repeat the words Paul wrote to Timothy: “Blessed is God who desires that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.” We are not here to judge each other or to judge anyone! We are here to have the same desire that God has, that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. And coming to that knowledge means also that care for the earth and all life will guide our mission.
In his letter to the Romans, Paul wrote the following:
For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed… the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.
Our freedom and salvation are inseparable from the liberation and sanctification of creation. Let’s preach that message and let’s live it in order to make this year an “acceptable year” to the Lord. Let’s make our desire what God desires – that all should be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth. Can people who are searching find the truth among us? That is the challenge this day poses to us as we begin another ecclesiastical year – the challenge to make it an “acceptable year of the Lord.”