When Is It Time To Celebrate? -- Proverbs 24:17-18
Yes…we have departed from Revelation once again. The events of early this week have weighed heavily upon my heart, with mixed emotions running through my head and heart. After prayerful conversations with God, I felt that this was the message that must be shared. However, before you hear anything else, please hear this. I recognize and agree that Osama Bin Laden was the mastermind behind acts of unspeakable evil that took thousands and thousands of lives, and caused many folks in the United States and around the world to live in a state of fear. I also recognize that he was a man who had to be stopped. I am not going to address or debate the way in which he was stopped. I do recognize that the Navy SEALs who conducted the raid on the compound in Pakistan put their very lives on the line in an effort to put a stop to one that could be called in “mob-language,” a godfather of terrorism, so that we, in the United States, and people around the world might be able to breathe a little easier. Whether that is truly the outcome is yet to be seen. What concerns me the most from this past week’s events was the response to the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death.
It was almost like a scene out of The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy is greeted by Glenda, the good witch, and the people of Munchkinland, and the party breaks out because Dorothy’s house has landed on the evil Wicked Witch of East…however, instead of singing, “Ding Dong the Witch Is Dead,” folks gathered from New York City to California were singing, “Osama, Osama, Hey, Hey, Hey, Goodbye.” Parties were breaking out across the nation, and probably around the world.
Why did so many respond this way? Was it because, being only ten years removed from 9/11 the wounds are still fresh, and a lack of what we see as justice for the close to 3,000 folks that died as a result of the attacks on New York City and Washington, including the aborted attack that crashed in Pennsylvania? Is it because we have lost nearly 5,000 troops since Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom began? Is it because with continued high unemployment and a still struggling economy? Is it because we are still in shock at the loss of life and the destruction of nearly 600 tornados across the US in the month of April and the flooding currently wiping away homes, businesses and livelihoods? Are we simply looking for good news in the midst of a world seemingly consumed in darkness? Have we simply been looking for a reason to celebrate?
The problem is, my brothers and sisters, that the news that broke on Sunday were not cause for celebrating and partying, at least not for Christians. God’s Word makes it clear:
Proverbs 24:17-18, as we shared earlier, says: “Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and do not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them.” God says, through the wisdom of Solomon, that we are not suppose to be happy and party when our enemies fall.
The prophet Ezekiel pushes this notion even further and offers God’s explanation of why:
“Now you, mortal, say to the house of Israel, Thus you have said: “Our transgressions and our sins weigh upon us, and we waste away because of them; how then can we live?” Say to them, ‘As I live, says the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their ways and live; turn back, turn back from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?’ And you, mortal, say to your people, ‘The righteousness of the righteous shall not save them when they transgress; and as for the wickedness of the wicked, it shall not make them stumble when they turn from their wickedness; and the righteous shall not be able to live by their righteousness when they sin. Though I say to the righteous that they shall surely live, yet if they trust in their righteousness and commit iniquity, none of their righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in the iniquity that they have committed they shall die. Again, though I say to the wicked, “You shall surely die,” yet if they turn from their sin and do what is lawful and right—if the wicked restore the pledge, give back what they have taken by robbery, and walk in the statutes of life, committing no iniquity—they shall surely live, they shall not die. None of the sins that they have committed shall be remembered against them; they have done what is lawful and right, they shall surely live.’
Yet your people say, “The way of the Lord is not just,” when it is their own way that is not just. When the righteous turn from their righteousness, and commit iniquity, they shall die for it. And when the wicked turn from their wickedness, and do what is lawful and right, they shall live by it. Yet you say, “The way of the Lord is not just.” O house of Israel, I will judge all of you according to your ways!”[i]
Ezekiel tells us that God does not rejoice in the perishing of the wicked. God says his desire is that they repent of their wickedness and turn to Him. Remember the passage we read a few weeks ago from 2nd Peter that says, “The Lord is not slow about his promise, as some think of slowness, but is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all [and my brothers and sisters, God’s desire is not just about all of us, God’s desire is about all of humanity] to come to repentance.”[ii]
Think about the death and destruction of those in the Old Testament. We do not read of God and heaven rejoicing over the destruction of the evil. There is no festival after the world is flooded, only God’s promise not to do it again. There is no party after Sodom and Gomorrah fall. Some might argue that Moses and Miriam and the Hebrews sang a celebratory song after the Egyptians drowned in the Red Sea, but a colleague of mine pointed out that the Talmud (which is the collection of oral interpretations of the Torah—the Jewish Holy Scriptures) offers this story: the angels are asking God if they can join with the Hebrew people in the singing and celebration of their escape from slavery and the death of the Egyptian army to which God responds, “The works of my hands are drowning in the sea, and you wish to sing praises?”[iii]
Even as we move to the New Testament, we come across an encounter in Luke 10. Jesus had sent out seventy disciples to prepare towns for his arrival. He tells them to go into the towns and cure the sick and tell the people that, “‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’” We read at the return of the seventy: “The seventy returned with joy, saying, ‘Lord, in your name even the demons submit to us!’ he said to them, ‘I watched Satan fall from heaven like a flash of lightning. See, I have having you authority to tread on snakes and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice at this, that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”[iv]
Jesus seems to suggest that the casting out of demons, and even Satan’s fall from Heaven, is not something to be celebrated. Jesus seems to suggest that the consequences are something to be faced, but when they happen to the enemy, that it is almost as if it is something to be mourned, rather than celebrated.
“But preacher! The man orchestrated the death of all those people! He deserved to die!” Well, yes, he did…
Yet…so do we.
Paul reminds us in the letter to the Romans, “…all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…”[v] and that “…the wages of sin is death….” All have sinned, all have fallen short of who God designed us to be…bin Laden, Obama, Bush, Paul, you, me…and all of us deserve to die. The death of a sinner is not cause to celebrate…because that is a fate we all deserve. Paul knew about this…he knew he deserved death…I mean consider it…He was the bin Laden of the early church…he orchestrated, saw to, and even participated in the persecution, torture, and death of one follower of Christ after another. According to Paul, they deserved to die because they were blaspheming God by calling Jesus the Messiah. Yet after encountering Christ, Paul, as he tells Timothy, sees himself as, the foremost among sinners.[vi] Death and destruction, even of the enemy, is not a cause for celebration.
So, when is it time to celebrate?
Too often we get it backward…we celebrate the death of a terrorist or execution of a death row inmate…and scoff at the idea that a prisoner or some other “known sinner” has “found Christ.” Yet Proverbs warns us that when we do things this way, we run the risk of falling from God’s favor, remember how verse 18 finishes verse 17: “Do not rejoice when your enemies fall, and don not let your heart be glad when they stumble, or else the Lord will see it and be displeased, and turn away his anger from them.” It is almost like God says, “if you become like your enemies, stooping to their levels, then I’m going to figure you are no better than them, and if you mistreat them, why should I worry if they mistreat you.” Ezekiel backs that thought up when he suggests that if the wicked repent they will be declared righteous and if the righteous do wrong, then all of their good is not going to save them, they become wicked.
Jesus says, as we read moments ago, says, “…rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” This morning, earlier in our service, we experienced a time to celebrate. Earlier we participated in the baptism of Alice Elizabeth Porterfield. We took the water and we marked her as a member of the family of God. Our outward actions reflected the acknowledgment that God is already at work in her life…that God has poured out His grace upon her and claimed her as His own. In doing this, we welcomed her into the family that God has welcomed each of us into, and recognized that her name is written in God’s Book of Life. We celebrated both the reaffirmation of Jessica and Clint’s faith and their repentance from sin and desire to live under the grace and direction of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…and then we celebrated the congregation’s commitment to do the same. This is the time to celebrate…this is the time to sing joyous songs and rejoice in the grace of God at work in the life of one of His creation. In years to come, as Clint, Jessica, and all of us, keep our vows to raise Alice in the church and help her to grow in faith, she will confirm and take on for herself the vows made on her behalf…and it will be time to celebrate again.
Jesus makes this clear in the parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin, and the prodigal son when Jesus repeatedly tells the religious leaders, who are criticizing his eating with sinners, that “…there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents….”[vii]
The celebration is not for the death of a sinner…celebration is saved for the repentance of a sinner, celebration is saved for the welcoming of a new member into the family of God. We have to remember that every sinner…no matter how bad the things that he or she has done…no matter how bad the things we have done…is a sinner that Christ died for, a creation of God, that God desires would return to Him. When that sinner perishes without Christ, then there is a day of mourning, a soul lost, without hope of anything but eternal separation from God…but when a sinner repents…regardless of who it may be…that is when it is a day of celebration…a time for dancing and singing in the streets…or at least the pews…so now, today, it is a time to celebrate…
In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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