“Let the sea thunder, and all that it holds,
the world and all who live in it.
Let the rivers clap their hands,
and the mountains shout for joy
at the Lord’s approach, for He is coming
to judge the earth…” --Psalm 98:7-9
What fascinates and delights me about this psalm is the excitement of the earth at the approach of God’s judgment. This feel counter-intuitive. So often we are reminded, even exhorted to fear God’s wrath and beware His judgment which will –we are assured-- fall upon us like a thief in the night.
Recently I have been reading Jeremiah and the early chapters are all about the corruption of Israel and the coming of God’s justice; it is all warnings and woe with no hint of joy at His approach. And the key question, it occurs to me is this:
“But when the end comes,
what will you do?” –Jeremiah 5:31b
Will you clap your hands and shout for joy, or will you flee to the hills, grind your teeth, wail in fear and curse the very earth in dread and desperation. It seems to me a question of the utmost importance. For how we respond will reflect our heart and our hope—our true desire—perhaps even our fate.
If I clap for joy it doesn’t mean I have lived a blameless life or that I have ben faultless in my choices or actions, not even that I am not one of those corrupt officials the prophet cries out against. But, it will reveal that even in the midst of my corruption what I really long for is the glory of God, that I am so glad that His justice is coming to put an end to even my own sin. The frustration and horrors of my own weakness and my own choices, my own selfishness and the frailty of my own flesh have overwhelmed me, but now God is coming to judge the earth and put an end to the nightmare I have made of my own life—the nightmare I could not escape on my own—and so I will clap with joy and sing out in gladness at the coming of the Lord –even from the depths of my sin—for I knew what I did was wrong, but could not stop myself on my own.
Is that a possible outcome, Oh Lord?
I hope so.
It seems to me, in some sense, that I see a glimpse of this in the fate of the “good thief.”
Now, how would you—Mr. Sutter—connect this to today’s Gospel: the parable of the laborers in the vineyard?
Is it possible that how they received their pay was the actual lesson of today’s Gospel? The first laborers, who worked the longest, receive their just pay (God’s justice) with resentment, focusing not on what they themselves deserve but on what others have received. Is that not itself a kind of Hell? To see only what others have received and see only in that an unfairness, a cause of misery regardless of what you yourself have been given? It is Hell to always be looking with envy and bitterness at the blessings of another, and never see the grace given us, blinded by resentment to the blessing (and mercy) that has been generously bestowed upon us. That ingratitude, not God's wrath, is the true spark of Hell's miserable, endless flame.
Sometimes it still surprises me, how much more than dreams my life can be.
Note:
It seems undeniably true that writing is how I think and that I don’t really know what I think until I write it.
Thank You, Lord
let Your grace
rain over me
keep me safe
from temptation
and far from the quiet sin
of envy.
