Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries, 15 August 2021, by Captain Michael Ramsay
The earth is on fire. Rena and Tim’s son’s family and some
friends of Mary Anne and others are in and around Vernon. There is a massive
fire burning between Vernon and Kamloops (more than 557 km2 have been on fire
there at one time this week alone). Susan, Sarah-Grace, Heather and I were just
up there during our furlough. We saw helicopters carrying buckets almost every
day, dropping chemicals on the ground (while the water bombers sit quietly by
the Lake here). Roads were blocked due to the fire.
There were places we couldn’t go. We checked the news every
day to see if we would need to be evacuated (like we needed to flee while on
our previous holiday; when the plague of coronavirus hit the world, we
scrambled to try to get safely home). This recent trip we stayed in Salmon Arm
for a week.
There was smoke everywhere. We went kayaking, as well as
tourist-ing: sometimes you couldn’t even see across the lake it was so smoky
and the sun was a strange orange-y-red ball of fire, itself covered by the haze
of the smoke. It looked like the heavens were on fire - just like the earth.
The earth is on fire. We just finished the Olympics. All
around Athens is on fire. The home of the original Olympics is on fire.
California is on fire. Australia is on fire. BC is on fire. Lytton burned to
the ground. I have some great memories around Lytton. I have gone there with
great friends. I have met close friends on trips there. More than once we went white-water
rafting there. We have camped there. We have played paintball there. When I was
a young adult, maybe about the ages of my oldest two daughters, I had a lot of
fun making memories there. Now Lytton itself is just a memory. It has been
burned to the ground.
There is talk about global warming and talk of climate
change. Some climate scientists and others are saying that this is the
consequence of our sin of not taking care of the earth – which was one of the
very first commands God gave humanity (Gen 1:26-28). The earth is right now
cursed because of our sin (Gen 3:17). Many are calling for us to repent of our
sins and to take care of the earth.
The earth was first cursed because of the sins of Adam and
Eve and they fled Eden. The earth was later cursed (different word in Hebrew)
with a flood because of the sins of humanity leading up to the time of Noah.
God created the earth from water, through water; and then, Genesis 6-9, it was
drowned in water and destroyed by water.[1]
2 Peter 3 tells of a time when the heavens and the earth
will both be on fire and the earth will be destroyed by fire. Today the earth
is on fire. The fire that is consuming the earth at the present time may not be
the ultimate fire or even the penultimate fire. It should ultimately however be
a reminder of warnings of 2 Peter 3, Genesis 6-9, and so much more.
Peter tells us that there are scoffers and mockers; people
who just do what they want with no mind to others. Peter (2:3) says that they
follow their own evil desires. How many of us in our world today are scoffers
and mockers; people who just do what they want with no mind to others? How many
of us are following our own desires and scoffing; denying, ignoring God,
others, and our responsibilities or pretending that we can do nothing? How many
of us are ignoring the warning of the burning fires?
The environmental aspect of this passage cannot be ignored.
As Genesis (15) and Leviticus (25) tell us, if humanity declines its
responsibility to tend for the earth, we will be removed from it just as Adam
and Eve, the Amorites and the Israelites were (cf. 2 Chronicles 36:20-21). [2] We cannot ignore God’s commission to care for
the earth and expect the earth to be cared for all at the same time.
There is more. Peter knows that every day since the
resurrection of the Christ is the last days. Peter was in the last days. We are
in the last days. Peter warns us that the end is coming soon– today’s fires
should be a reminder of that – and Peter explains how he hopes we will respond
to this warning.
Peter exhorts us to, 2 Peter 1:5-8, make every effort to
supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with
self-control, and self-control with perseverance or steadfastness, and
steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with kinship or brotherly
affection, and brotherly affection with love. For when these qualities are in
our lives, we will not be ineffective and we will fulfil our responsibilities
to God, our neighbour, the earth, and our world.
Peter warns us that there will always be temptations,
Chapter 2, to sensuality, greed, much more - and even blasphemy. Peter warns us
that even when we get free, the many terrible things in our lives that
interfere with our wholeness, holiness, happiness and peace; they will try to
grab us and pull us back to misery and enslavement.
Even just judging by Facebook and other social media, some
of us here have probably struggled with hate in one form or another: either of
a person, a political party, an idea, a movement, a pet peeve, or something
else. Judging even just by Facebook and other social media, the sins of
self-righteous anger, un-forgiveness, and hatred are reaching out like smoke
from a fire to choke the life and love out of many people. Greed and
self-indulgence also try pull us away from peace, healing, holiness, and
wholeness as well. Sin can be like an addiction: just when we think we are free
of it, it reaches out to try to pull us into a self-destruction that is
accompanied by as much collateral damage as possible. When we are captured by a
sin that we had previously escaped, Peter says, Chapter 2:22, we are like a sow
which, having just been washed clean, heads directly to the pig sty – rejecting
that cleansing that is so freely offered and so effectively applied.
But this letter that we call 2 Peter isn’t a lecture telling
us that we must be good and we mustn’t be bad. That will come.[3] This letter is a promise. This letter
promises that we can be delivered from the things that are trying to separate
us from our peace and our sanity. This letter tells us that we can be delivered
from our addictions, self-righteousness, self-indulgence, and greed. We can be
restored to wholeness and holiness and God will not give up on us until we all
have had our chance. [4] God is patient. He is perseverance
personified.
If there is some sin or addiction trying to drag your life
away from you, don’t give up. Keep keeping on. God wants you to succeed and to
be free from it. He is patient with you (3:9). He does not wish that any of us
should perish in our struggles. He desires that we should all turn away from
and be free of that which is trying to destroy us.
God won’t destroy the earth by fire prematurely. Just like
the Amorites were given four hundred years grace before He eventually removed
them from His land; and just like the Israelites were given the same warnings
in the same land, generation after generation, before He eventually removed
them from His land; and just like the people of Noah’s generation were not
removed from the land until every inclination of their heart was only towards
evil all the time, so too in these last times. When everything else had been
done, God finally cleansed the earth with floodwaters. [5] Only when
everything else has been done, will He cleanse the earth with fire. The Lord is
not slow in bringing this concluding fire and resulting renewal. He will give
us every opportunity to be free of all that tries to enslave us before He
scrunches up, like a paper, this world of sin that tries to ensnare us, and
tosses it in the bin, into the fireplace. God will not end any of our time here
before we have all the time and every opportunity to experience the freedom
that only comes from serving God. He doesn’t want any of us to miss out on His
peace, His love and forgiveness.
Peter encourages all of us. As sure as the fires are burning
across our world today, people are perishing in many ways – help them. People
are struggling with many things – help them.
When the world does eventually get so bad that there is
nothing left in it but only evil inclinations all the time and God does cleanse
it with fire, He promises that even then He will create the world anew: new
heavens and a new earth. He promises that in these new heavens and on this new
earth there will be no more sorrow, no more sickness, no more suffering, and no
more death (Rev 24:4). This is something to look forward to - but don’t worry.
The Lord is not being slow in bringing these new heavens and the new earth; He
loves us all so much that He wants to make sure that everyone who wants to be
present in the new heavens and on the new earth, He wants to make sure that
everyone who desires to be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and
forgiveness can and will be a part of His eternal kingdom of love and
forgiveness. All the same, He is not slow to come. He is coming soon.
It is to this end that I really encourage each of us today:
if you know someone who is struggling, reach out to them. If you see someone
who is suffering, reach out to them. If you are struggling, as it is possible,
reach out to someone; if you are suffering, reach out to the Lord. For as we
come to Lord and as we bring each other to the Lord, He will transform us,
making each of us anew, even before He makes the whole world anew, so that even
now - in the midst of the very real challenges of our lives - we can start to live
new whole, holy and peaceful lives that will continue on in love and peace for
now and eternity - even unto the new heavens and the new earth.
Let us pray.
[1] Doug Oss and Thomas R. Schreiner, 2 Peter3:4-6, in ESV Study
Bible (Wheaton, Illinois: Good News Publishers, 2008), 2422.
[2] Captain Michael Ramsay, The Nipawin Journal, "What is
My Responsibility to the Environment?" (September 2008) Available on-line:
http://sheepspeak.com/sasknews.htm#environment And cf. Laird Harris, The
Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Leviticus/Exposition of
Leviticus/IX. Laws of Land Use (25:1-55), Book Version: 4.0.2
[3] Tokunboh Adeyemo, Africa
Bible Commentary, (Nairobi, Kenya: Word Alive Publishers, 2010), 1554: By
the Yoruba of Western Nigeria, “Faith is regarded as a gift that brings
salvation. But accepting this gift has consequences...We do not receive faith
without it taking something away from us. It will take away sorcery, idolatry,
adultery, witchcraft, and the like.”
[4] Cf. Duane F. Watson, 2 Peter, (NIB XII: Abingdon Press:
Nashville, 1998), p. 353
[5] The story of Noah demonstrates God’s ability and desire to deliver
the righteous even in the most extreme circumstances. Cf. Pheme Perkins, First and Second Peter, James, and Jude,
(Interpretation: Louisville, Kentucky, USA: John Knox Press, 1995), 183.
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