The Last Word

It is either uncanny or providential how often the lectionary passages for each Sunday speak so directly to what is occurring in the life of our community, the current world situation, or both. Such was the case a few weeks ago, when the lectionary included the readings Malachi 3:14-4:2 and Luke 21:5-19.

I found real consolation in these scriptures. The previous several weeks had been difficult for us. We awakened in the morning afraid to turn on the news for fear of hearing a report of yet another invasion, military action, or crisis. We felt very close to the Christians in Nicaragua, who were very anxious about what seemed to be a threat of imminent invasion. Even now invasion seems to be a possibility at almost any time. We still feel frustration and anger, sorrow and fear.

In Luke, Jesus says that "the days will come" of trials and troubles, and of those who will try to lead us astray, even in his name. Jesus is speaking of false prophets. Then, of wars and tumults he says, "... do not be terrified; for this must first take place, but the end will not be at once."

Jesus encourages us to distinguish between the days of trial, trouble, tumult, and war, and what he refers to as the end or, in biblical language, the day of judgment. These days of trouble and violence and what the Bible calls the day of judgment are not the same.

Jesus reports the signs of the days of trial, and then he says we will be persecuted, sent to prison, and even put to death for his name's sake by the religious and political authorities. But Jesus says, "This will be a time for you to bear testimony." He will give us the words to say and promises "... not a hair of your head will perish."

In the beginning of November, I attended a retreat at Kirkridge, in Pennsylvania, that drew together 40 people from the Christian peace movement. William Stringfellow gave the morning Bible studies for the retreat. His reflections on the Psalms later helped clarify my thinking about these lectionary passages. He said, "It is the recognition of the immediacy of the reign of God in this world and this history which marks the biblical person and places him or her in conflict with the status quo, or against any prevailing order." He talked of how it is a regular practice of rulers and authorities to engage in pretense, and to be guilty of the offense of trying to be God, which is blasphemy.

Then he described our role as Christians and said, "We are called to be powerless in all the worldly power; this is not a noble undertaking, but simply to be who we are in a world where God rules." He went on, "The conspicuous credential of peacemakers, or biblical people, is their trust of the judgment of God, taking care not to diminish, belittle, or anticipate the substance or content of the word of God." We are called instead to "expose, rebuke, and admonish the rulers and thus to praise God."

We had a long conversation that first afternoon about Nicaragua and what we could do to forestall an invasion there. We were strategizing and sharing our fears and distress as well as the anxieties of our friends in Nicaragua. The next morning in the Bible study Stringfellow stood up and said, "I am old enough to scold you." He continued, "I am bothered by yesterday's conversation because it reflected a drastic omission: the resurrection." He noted that the victory of the word of God over death is already assured and that our modest task is simply to live in a way that reveals it. We do not have to triumph over death by our own efforts, inspiration, and strategy. He warned us against the trap, or the pretension, of believing that we had to defeat death all over again.

One line from Psalm 58 on which Stringfellow reflected was, for me, very consoling: "Surely there is a God who rules in the earth" (Psalm 58:11). That was the one thing I had almost completely lost sight of in the previous weeks.

The passage in Malachi is the same kind of scripture. It says that those who feared the Lord talked with each other, and the Lord listened and heard. I pictured our community sitting around talking to each other, wrestling with these times of trial together, while the Lord listened and heard. The passage says that a book of remembrance was written in the Lord's presence concerning those who feared him and honored his name. "They shall be mine, says the Lord of hosts, my special possession on the day when I act ... For behold, the day comes."

I do not think the world, especially the kind of world we have faced these last few weeks, is really deeply confronted when we respond out of fear and frustration, anger, or even sorrow—reactions which all easily lead to desperation. In all of these scriptures the consolation for me was that the days full of war, tumult, and violence are not the days which have the last word. As Stringfellow pointed out from the Psalms, there is a God who rules, and it is God who has the last word.

Malachi asserts that there will be a day of judgment when the rulers, the arrogant, the evildoers will be stubble; this day will burn them up so that not a root or a branch will be left to them. But for those who fear the Lord and for those who endure, that day of judgment will be a day of relief, of freedom, of joy. In the words of Malachi, "But for you who fear my name the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings. You shall go forth leaping like calves from the stall."

Jim Wallis is editor-in-chief of Sojourners magazine.