[Mcgregorpage] McGregorPage #583, Pentecost 25, 11/18/07

[rmcgregoralbq at aol.com]

Pentecost 25 – November 18, 2007


Isaiah 12:1-6; 65:17-25
Isaiah 12 or Psalm 118
2 Thessalonians 3:6 13
Luke 21:5 19

Our Day And The Lord's Day

Isaiah is excited about it.  The Psalmist is excited about it.  But, 
Jesus says not to get excited about it, at least not yet.  And, Paul 
says you can't live on it.  God's vindication of the righteous is 
dependent on two things, there being anyone righteous and God coming to 
separate them from the rest.  Paul is concerned about believers that 
are so absorbed by God's imminent coming that they neglect 
righteousness.  Jesus seems concerned that the disciples will be so 
weary of God's not coming that they will lose track of righteousness.

Is it only the righteous who can rejoice at God's coming?  The Psalmist 
seems to says so, “There are glad songs of victory in the tents of the 
righteous…” (Psalm 118:15) Open to me the gates of righteousness, that 
I may enter through them and give thanks to the LORD. (Psalm 118:19) 
But, in Psalm 98 he goes on to say that everyone and everything will 
rejoice at his coming. "Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the 
earth..."  (Psalm 98:4)  In addition to Israel, the creation will 
rejoice, "Let the sea roar, and all that fills it..." but, in addition 
to Israel too, the rest of humanity will rejoice, "the world and those 
who live in it."  (Psalm 98:7)  It challenges the imagination to see 
everyone rejoicing, not just the sheep but also the goats.

"You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and 
friends; and they will put some of you to death," Jesus says.  (Luke 
21:16)   Can you see them rejoicing when God comes to set things right, 
these friends and relatives?  Can you see the arrogant and the evildoer 
rejoicing in the fire? "Hooray, the very thing we needed."  Perhaps the 
coming of God so absorbs our attention that even the evil can't help 
but rejoice in what they see, God's righteousness being more 
captivating than their punishment.  Wasn't Job, in all his misery, 
satisfied by the mere presence of God.

God's righteousness is so beautiful that we are rapt by it if we pursue 
it and awed by it if we flee it.  So, the return of the Lord is rapture 
to us and awe to everyone.  But, the return of the Lord is not for us 
or about us.  It is about God.  It is for God.  We try to make it a 
function of our own behavior when we propose to bring God down either 
by the extravagance of our good or our evil.  It is not the return of 
the Lord that is for us but rather the delay.  "This will give you an 
opportunity to testify," Jesus says.  (Luke 21:13)  Every day the end 
is forestalled is another day we have to bear witness to the 
resurrection, another day the world has to turn and believe.  The delay 
is for us.  The return is for God.  This is our day; that will be the 
Lord's day.


May these thoughts strengthen you.

An Open Letter to Fellow Pastors
>From Roland McGregor, United Methodist Pastor
(an e-mail service)

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