Göttinger Predigten
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25th Sunday after Pentecost , 11/14/2010
Sermon on Luke 21:5-19, by Luke Bouman
Luke 21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, 6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." 7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" 8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them. 9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately." 10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven. 12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. 13 This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17 You will be hated by all because of my name. 18 But not a hair of your head will perish. 19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.
Beware!
Every time there is a natural disaster, the warnings from some religious folks hit the airwaves. The world's end is near, repent now before it is too late. Earthquakes in Haiti and Chilé, eruptions and tsunamis in Indonesia, floods, drought, wars; they come in waves, and they don't seem to end. Yet each one is the occasion for someone to say, "This is IT! This is the one that signals the end." Seriously?!? Pardon me if I don't get overly worked up, but I've heard it all before. I've seen what Jesus has to say. These things will take place (and always have) but the end doesn't come immediately. Other than compassion for the victims, what else is there to think about such things? The real danger lies elsewhere.
The comment that prompts Jesus to talk about the things of apocalyptic nightmares is about the beauty of the temple in Jerusalem. It was a grand building and part of an impressive complex of buildings. For the disciples, none of whom had traveled to Greece or Rome, it was likely the most impressive thing they had ever seen. It was a symbol of national identity and pride for the people of Judea. It was a sign of the presence of God with them.
Certainly today nations have not given up building impressive structures. In Chicago, just a short drive from where I live, there are impressive buildings, large and small. Some of the tallest buildings in the world rise as a witness to the power and wealth of our modern culture. Alongside them are museums, featuring magnificent "Greek Revival" style architecture, and housing even more impressive works of art and artifacts of history. Still further down the road are impressive worship structures that dot the landscape, not the least of which is the chapel on the campus of my hometown university. Each of these structures stands sentinel to the culture that made them. The buildings themselves proclaim that we are a strong and proud people. What would Jesus say to us?
Would Jesus look at our buildings and proclaim the same as he did in Jerusalem? Would he say that our structures will one day crumble down? Or was his word to Jerusalem a word of warning about their particular pride, one that foreshadowed the destruction that would come less than 50 years later? Would Jesus tell us that our pride, too, will one day be brought down? I think it is possible that he might. But even that is not the point.
Jesus is warning people to beware! The end doesn't come with the cataclysmic events assumed by some. Make no mistake, the cataclysm comes, but the end doesn't come with it. "Don't be deceived into jumping to conclusions," Jesus seems to say. The end is coming, but not that way. Of course, this answer leads us to more questions.
Be Ready
Jesus does make some promises, but the first one doesn't inspire much hope or confidence. "They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name." I have yet to see this kind of statement in a church advertisement or tract. In the name of full disclosure, should this at least appear in the fine print at the bottom? "Join our church so you can be arrested and persecuted."
What do we do? Bury our heads in the sand and pretend Jesus is talking to someone else? Arm ourselves, so that we can get them before they get us? Resign ourselves to the inevitable and sit around and wait for it to happen? At least we know that last idea is not appropriate, thanks to Paul's words to the Thessalonians (see today's second reading). I have no doubt about the other two, either, really, though they do seem popular in this day and age. How do we get ready, when we are not sure what to get ready for?
The first place to look is to Jesus. Does he warn of arrests and persecutions? He endures these and more for us. Do we think, through Jesus, that we will escape? His followers, those first disciples did not. They all, save one, suffered the same fate. I think it unlikely for us, too. Our temptations may not come from direct persecutions, but we are tempted no less. We are tempted to join with our culture that teaches us to save ourselves at the expense of others. We are tempted to think of the cost of discipleship as a price that we will pay only on Sunday. When I am honest I admit that I am just as tempted to collapse into resigned cynicism. These things are just as deadly to our very being as physical death.
How, in the midst of this do we bear witness? The Greek word that Jesus uses in this passage is "martyrion" from which we get our word, Martyr. A witness is a martyr. How do we witness with our whole lives in the face of pressure to conform or become cynical? I don't know the answer to that question. What I do know is that Jesus enters into this difficult space with us. Jesus, himself abandoned and betrayed so often, does not abandon us or betray us. Instead Jesus calls us, to give up our hope and reliance and pride in our buildings and our accomplishments and live our lives as witnesses.
Of course, this is only possible if we understand clearly who it is that we follow. It is only possible if we continue to be gathered and shaped, even in difficult times, into Jesus' cruciform Body in the world. The building structure is immaterial. The building process is the key. We witness, individually and in community as we are bound up in the mission of Christ. We witness as we, too, die to sin and are raised collectively to new life. God is not present in the buildings, but in Jesus himself.
We do, in fact always, stand on the precipice between what is and what is to come. God stands there with us, and in Jesus leaps into the abyss of death to emerge triumphant even over that grim reality. In the face of so great a gift, we follow, sometimes with a tentative baby step, sometimes with a bold leap. We lose our lives, but in that loss is the promise that we gain so much more, even our very souls.