Judgement on Arrogance and Oppression⁸

The Lord sent a word against Jacob,    and it fell on Israel;⁹ and all the people knew it—    Ephraim and the inhabitants of Samaria—    but in pride and arrogance of heart they said:¹⁰ ‘The bricks have fallen,    but we will build with dressed stones;the sycomores have been cut down,    but we will put cedars in their place.’¹¹ So the Lord raised adversaries ^* against them,    and stirred up their enemies,¹² the Arameans in the east and the Philistines in the west,    and they devoured Israel with open mouth.
For all this, his anger has not turned away;    his hand is stretched out still.
¹³ The people did not turn to him who struck them,    or seek the Lord of hosts.
¹⁴ So the Lord cut off from Israel head and tail,    palm branch and reed in one day—
¹⁵ elders and dignitaries are the head,    and prophets who teach lies are the tail;
¹⁶ for those who led this people led them astray,    and those who were led by them were left in confusion.
¹⁷ That is why the Lord did not have pity on^* their young people,    or compassion on their orphans and widows;
for everyone was godless and an evildoer,    and every mouth spoke folly.
For all this, his anger has not turned away;    his hand is stretched out still.

This is a magnificent denunciation of the idolatry and injustice of Israel but it rests on two beliefs:

1. That the Lord has direct control of historical events

2. That the Lord punishes evil societies.

random particles

You wonder how this prophet felt when he saw evil societies apparently flourishing, while more  just societies were in trouble. Certainly I do not believe either of the propositions above. I see no signs that God controls the events of history-indeed if I believed this  I would refuse to worship the God responsible for say, the 20th century. Nor do I think, looking at contemporary societies, that God blesses the good and punishes the evil. There may be some evidence that just societies are happier than unjust but that only remains true if the unjust ones don’t conquer them.

“The rain it raineth every day

upon the just and unjust fella;

but more upon the just because

the unjust ‘s got the just’s umbrella.”

Am I saying God exercises no control over history and that there’s no connection at all between justice and happiness? Well of course the Creator has brought the universe into being and established its limits. God’s spirit has “persuaded” the worlds to evolve and life to develop, with the aim of giving birth to the “children of God” who will live in freedom and joy; and the One Child of God has lived a human life and died a human death to model the love of God for the life he has made. But the answer to my question still is, no DIRECT control and no DIRECT connection. That is to say, I believe God has allowed such freedom to his worlds that even God cannot predict the next motions of the sub-particles of an atom. Randomness is one of difficult blessings of God. Yes, I did write that. Randomness is one of the difficult blessings of God. No one has ever celebrated this blessing in a hymn, but it might be worth trying.

Mark 1:1-8

The Proclamation of John the Baptist

1The beginning of the good news^* of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.^*

2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah,^*
‘See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you,^*    who will prepare your way;
³ the voice of one crying out in the wilderness:    “Prepare the way of the Lord,    make his paths straight” ’,
⁴John the baptizer appeared^* in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.⁵And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.⁶Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.⁷He proclaimed, ‘The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals.⁸I have baptized you with^* water; but he will baptize you with^* the Holy Spirit.’

good news of victory: VE day London 1945

Something entirely new comes to expressionin this passage. It’s called “good news” meaning the news brought by a messenger of victory in battle. The prophets of Israel had taken this term from warfare and made it into a name for God’s goodness revealed by the prophet. Under the pressure of events, they had located the good news in the future, just over the horizon of history, in the “day of the Lord.” Mark’s gospel begins with the blunt assertion that the good news has arrived in the world through the life of Jesus Messiah, called the Son of God. God’s victory has been won and now the gospel writer comes running with the message. God’s Child is here! With his arrival all symbols of God’s presence, such as baptismal water are done away with. He will immerse people in the very life of God.

I always feel a surge of excitement when I come again to the beginning of this extraordinary gospel. If you have time over the Christmas season, take a rest from tinsel and even from babies and angels, and pluge into Mark’s story of the life of God on earth.