I could have been born in Ukraine, and so could you. We could have been the mother with small children taking refuge in a subway station, her husband gone to fight. We could be the elderly in the bombed apartment, the care facility, alone and scared with support and food failing. We could be… The willful evil of Vladimir Putin and his regime is having innumerable consequences for the world. One effect should be on us American pastors, how we preach. From theologian N.T. Wright:
“The picture of Jesus as the coming judge is the central feature of another absolutely vital and nonnegotiable Christian belief: that there will indeed be a judgment in which the creator God will set the world right once and for all. The word judgment carries negative overtones for a good many people in our liberal and postliberal world. We need to remind ourselves that throughout the Bible, not least in the Psalms, God’s coming judgment is a good thing, something to be celebrated, longed for, yearned over. It causes people to shout for joy and the trees of the field to clap their hands (Psalm 98:8). In a world of systematic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression, the thought that there might come a day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and weak are given their due is the best news there can be. Faced with a world in rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wickedness, a good God must be a God of judgment.” (Surprised by Hope, 117).
“No creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Hebrews 3:13). Where do you and I shelter as God’s judgment invades this world? In His Son Jesus. A student asked yesterday if I would somehow bring Ukraine into Sunday’s sermon. Absolutely. Don’t just tell us that we are sinners. Yes, of course, but show us examples, as Putin is right now. Let this be an object lesson, just as children’s messages have objects. Comfort us with the coming day when God will set all things right. We are scared children. “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God” (Isaiah 40:1).
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