A reading from the second book of Chronicles (36:14-16, 19-23)
All the leaders of Judah, the priests and the people too, added infidelity to infidelity, by all the shameful practices of the nations and by defiling the Temple of the Lord which he himself had consecrated in Jerusalem. The Lord, God of their ancestors, continually sent word to them through his messengers because he felt compassion for his people and his Dwelling, but they mocked the messengers of God, they despised his words, they laughed at his prophets, until the Lord’s wrath with his people became so fierce that there was no remedy.
The king of Babylon burned down the Temple of God, demolished the walls of Jerusalem, burned all its palaces to the ground and destroyed everything of value in it. And those who had escaped the sword he deported to Babylon, where they were slaves to him and his descendants until the rise of the kingdom of Persia, to fulfil the Lord’s prophecy in the mouth of Jeremiah: Until the country has paid off its Sabbaths, it will lie fallow for all the days of its desolation – to complete seventy years.
In the first year of Cyrus king of Persia – to fulfil the word of the Lord in the mouth of Jeremiah – the Lord roused the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia to send an announcement throughout his kingdom and also in writing, saying, ‘Cyrus king of Persia says this, “The Lord, the God of Heaven, has given me all the kingdoms of the earth and has appointed me to build him a Temple in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Whoever there is among you of all his people, may the Lord his God be with him! Let him go up!” ’
This reading, from the final verses of the second book of Chronicles, looks back at the disaster of the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar in 587 BC, and the exile in Babylon, which ended in 538 BC. These events are attributed to the ‘wrath’ of God at the disobedience of Israel, though they can clearly be seen as the result of poor decisions by kings of Judah and the aggressive policies of the Babylonians. Kings and priests have disregarded the voices of the prophets. Persistent refusal of the people to heed the word of God, described by Jeremiah and Ezekiel, has led to the experience of God apparently forsaking his people. But God has new plans for new life. Through the Persian king Cyrus, a man of great vision and enlightened policies, God brings about the return to the land of Israel, and a new era in the history of Israel will begin.
Psalm 137 (136) The desolation of being deported to a pagan land, of destruction of all one holds dear and precious, is vividly expressed in this psalm of longing for the return to Sion.
A reading from the letter of St Paul to the Ephesians (2:4-10)
God, being rich in mercy, through the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead by our sins, brought us to life in Christ – it is through grace that you have been saved – and raised us up with him and seated us with him in heaven, in Christ Jesus, so that for ages to come he might show the overflowing richness of his grace in his kindness towards us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, but is the gift of God, not by works, so that nobody may boast. We are what he made us, created in Christ Jesus for the good works which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.
Though we were dead through sin God has raised us to new life in Christ ‘through grace’. We are promised a place ‘in heaven’. This grace will overflow ‘for ages to come’. The fundamental teaching of Paul, that salvation comes not from anything we might do but as a grace of God through faith, is clearly stated. Christians are thus ‘created in Christ Jesus’ for good works. The passage is dominated by threefold use of the word ‘grace’ (charis), the free giving of God, by which we are drawn into new life, and by the repeated use of the phrase ‘in Christ Jesus’.
A reading from the holy gospel according to John (3:14-21)
Jesus said to Nicodemus:
As Moses lifted up the snake in the desert,
so must the Son of man be lifted up
so that everyone who believes in him
may have eternal life.
For God loved the world so much
that he gave his only-begotten Son,
so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.
For God sent his Son into the world
not to judge the world,
but so that the world might be saved through him.
One who believes in him will not be judged;
but whoever does not believe is judged already,
for not believing in the name of God’s only-begotten Son.
And the judgement is this:
that the light has come into the world
and people loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil.
And indeed, everybody who does wrong
hates the light and does not come to the light,
so that such actions may not be examined.
But whoever does the truth comes to the light,
so that it may be clearly seen
that this person’s works have been done in God.’
This important text is part of the dialogue of Jesus with the Pharisee Nicodemus, who came to Jesus by night. Later in the gospel Nicodemus will assist with the burial of Jesus (John 19). Jesus refers to the plague of serpents suffered by Israel in the desert (Numbers 21). Like the serpent in the desert he will be ‘lifted up’ to give life. That ‘God so loved the world that he gave his only-begotten Son’, and that we are saved by faith in him, gives great consolation to Christians. It is not God who judges us, for we judge ourselves by welcoming the light and living by it. ‘Doing the truth’ is equivalent to walking in the light.
How do we keep the light shining in the darkness of history?
For an appreciation of the love of God, and God’s light around us, we pray.