The Grapes of Wrath and Forgiveness

What is the purpose of the passages in the Bible that talk about God's wrath? It isn't to scare you, but wake you up to the dangers of ignoring God!

“It’s in your tone.” My tone, what does that mean? We were discussing some heavy issues, and the conversation had, indeed, turned toward the heart of the matter. I guess my voice and facial expression began to match the seriousness of my words, and she noticed it right away. That’s when the “tone” comment surfaced. My “tone” had changed to match the seriousness of the topic.

It is absolutely amazing to me to consider all the ways we communicate with each other. The fact is communication is so very nuanced and complicated that to ignore all the non-verbal communication clues we humans use is to miss the vast majority of our communication with each other. That’s why writing is both powerful and limited. You can’t “see” my “tone” in an email or a post on a blog. I have to make up for those missing pieces of information with words, punctuation, and other writing devices.

Look at our lesson today in Joel 3:12-21. BIG HINT – When we start switching to Old Testament Lessons, Great Lent is near!

Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehosh’aphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about.

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

And the Lord roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.

“So you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall never again pass through it.

“And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Shittim.

“Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations. I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

Joel declares that God has decreed that the wickedness of the nations surrounding Israel has come to the season of harvest, and He will thrust in the “sickle” to harvest the grapes of wrath He has stored up for this day of reckoning.

The words are poetic, and the language is expressive and forceful. The message is serious because it is meant to sober up the evildoers and to comfort those whom these evildoers have oppressed. The missive of the prophet is meant to shake up the status quo and to remind both the oppressor and the oppressed that a Day of Reckoning, while it may appear a long way off, is actually right here and now it’s time to account for your deeds with no place to hide!

No wonder the Church gives us this reading as we approach Forgiveness Sunday and the beginning of our season of repentance in Great Lent.

This is because, dear ones, just as the nations of Joel’s day had a reckoning for their mistreatment and oppression of the people of Israel, we, too, will have a day of reckoning when those who have oppressed us and those whom we have oppressed will face the impartial Judge of the Universe and the “crooked places will be made straight.”

The Orthodox Faith and the disciplines of the Faith, like Great Lent, are all about reorienting us toward reality. But not just any reality; God’s Reality. Which turns out to be the only reality that counts! But we spend too much of our lives gripped in the delusions of the temporary, so much so that it takes some pretty terrifying wake-up call that God, in His love for us, uses to get our attention in a world where it is all too easy to stay asleep to His wisdom. All the disciplines, especially the power of Forgiveness, confront us with our need for forgiveness and our need to forgive!

St. Christina of Persia was born in 6th century Persia when Christianity was still being persecuted in that part of the world. She was born of noble birth and was expected to marry a nobleman and continue the traditions of her Zorastrian religion. But Christina was taught the Christian faith by some local beielvers and she converted to Christ. When the time of her arranged mariage came, she refused to consumate the mariage and she was tortured unmercifully being beaten wirh rods. She sustained such severe injuries that she died of her beating. She is remembered as a virgin martyr for Christ.

Today, how do you think you’ll do on that Day? If everyone whom you’ve ever hurt, offended, or mistreated is, on that Day, going to be defended and your selfishness displayed for all to see by God’s impartial revelation, how do you think you’ll do? Perhaps the wisest course of action is to begin the path of repentance now and start asking for forgiveness, start mending relationships, and start the process of healing within yourself and with others BEFORE you are forced through this process in an instant by standing before the awesome Judgement Seat of Christ. In other words, be Orthodox on Purpose!

P.S. Your lamb Christina calls out to You, O Jesus, in a loud voice: “I love You, my Bridegroom, and in seeking You I endure suffering. In Baptism I was crucified so that I might reign in You, and I died so that I might live with You. Accept me as a pure sacrifice, for I have offered myself in love.” Through her prayers, save our souls, since You are merciful.