God's Word For Today

Reflection on the Fourth Sunday of Lent (Mar. 26)

By Carole Brennan

The readings for this Sunday:
2 Chronicles 36:14-16, 19-23
Psalms 137:1-6
Ephesians 2:4-10
John 3:14-21

The full text of the readings can be found here.

The Word of the Lord has been translated into our language, but not into our times. Let's look at the first reading today from the second Book of Chronicles and give it an updated perspective.

In those days all the princes (present administration) practiced all the abominations and polluted the Lord's temple (our earth).

Early and often did God send messengers to them (James Hansen of NASA, Philip Clapp of the National Environmental Trust, Bill Budd of the Antarctic Research Center, the EPA, Ralph Cicerone of the National Academy of Science, Richard Piltz of the Federal Science Program), but they mocked the messengers (gave tax breaks to buyers of SUV's), despised God's warnings (joked about global warming), and scoffed at his prophets (White House heavily edited all material pertaining to global warming, often deliberately changing information) until the anger of God against them was so inflamed that there was no remedy (in ten years the effects of global warming will become unstoppable - Hansen).

They burnt the house of God and destroyed all its precious objects (wetlands, loggerhead turtles, red mullets, caribou, forests, coastlines - to name a few).

Thus said the king (all of us, if we care), "All the earth the God of heaven has given to us and charged us to build him a house (a clean and renewed earth). Whoever, therefore, among you belongs to any part of God's people, go up, and may God be with you!"

Do we belong to "any part of God's people"? Are we willing to "go up"? Ten years is not too far away. But "unstoppable" lasts forever. We are the stewards of the land. What will we bequeath our children?