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26. Sunday after Pentecost, 11/17/2013
Sermon on Luke 21:5-19, by Pari R. Bailey
5When 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." 7They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" 8And 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." 10Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; 11there 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. 13This will give you an opportunity to testify. 14So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; 15for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 16You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. 17You will be hated by all because of my name. 18But not a hair of your head will perish. 19By your endurance you will gain your souls.
Remember the Millennium? And how everybody was afraid that as the year turned from 1999 to 2000, all sorts of bad things would happen? Computer crashes! Massive infrastructure shut-downs! Whole cities without basic services or electricity!
The most fearful people bought generators and dried foods, gas masks and duct tape. They transferred all their money out of the banks and took their children out of school. Others just made sure they had enough water in the house to last a couple days. Some Christians were convinced that Christ would come again. They pointed to great signs and dreadful portents: earthquakes, famines, wars. They interpreted scripture passages like this one today from Luke to mean that the end was here. So on December 31, 1999, they waited for the computers to crash, and life as they knew it to end.
Except nothing happened. We all woke up on January 1, 2000 and it was fine. Nothing to be afraid of, and as a nation, we look back a little sheepishly on the hype and the fear.
But then came 9/11. And the tsunami in SE Asia and Hurricane Katrina. Shoe bombers and CIA wiretapping. The war in Iraq. Financial collapse, the housing boom busted, a dark recession. Devastating earthquakes, continuing war. More people saying the world would end on a specific date, this time in the year 2011. It didn't, and we went on with war, natural disasters, government shutdowns more revelation of inappropriate behaviors by everyone from the NSA to the mayor of Toronto.
We live in tumultuous times. It's become easy to exploit this fear to a variety of political and religious ends-we see that happen in various elections, and the way that politicians are polarized to the point of an inability to work together. Attack ads seem to say vote for my opponent and you're practically voting for the devil. Partisan politics say Support a position different from mine and you're the worst person possible. Or Come to a different conclusion from me, and there's no way we can get along. Add to this latest news of financial mismanagement, foreign policy troubles, scandals in the Church, sports stars behaving badly, amoral celebrities-all of it serves to further destabilize us, to remind us how different life is now from how it was when...whenever it was back then that life was better. The 50s? The 70s? When the churches and the schools were full and everybody knew their neighbors?
People wonder what to tell their kids, how to answer the questions of the grandkids. People wonder who will answer their OWN questions! Is it better just to shut off the news and pretend we're all fine? If it doesn't affect us directly here in our town, can't we just ignore it? Uncertainty leads to doubt. Doubt leads to fear. Fear leads to mistrust. Mistrust leads to apathy or anger: take your pick.
And lest you think I'm talking about things in the wider community and country, you know I'm not. Even in the church, there is struggle. In our congregations, there is division over many things. Christians in other parts of the world routinely suffer and die for the faith. Here, nobody has been put to death yet, but plenty of people are sick to their soul, and suddenly betrayal by parents, brothers, relatives and friends seems not just something for 1st century Christians, but for us as well.
In the midst of the mess, comes Jesus. Here is the news that we and the rest of the world desperately need. Jesus says, do not be terrified when you hear of these things. Do not fear what is to come. In the middle of the fear, and the doubt and the uncertainty, the death and the mess-I am with you, Jesus says. Even to the end of the age. Do not be worried. Do not be anxious over the rumors and the fear. When you hear of bad things, do not be scared-the future is mine, says the Lord. Instead, stand and deliver. Give an account of the hope that is in you. By your words and your actions, love those who hate you. Bless those who persecute you. Show the love of Christ toward those with whom you disagree. Do not play dirty politics-the Church is not the world, nor do we depend on sound bites, attack ads and caricatures. Follow the Master, and love how he loved. Confess your own sins. Turn the rest over to God.
Even in the midst of fear and uncertainty. Even-or especially--in the midst of suffering, death, war, persecution, evil served up every night on the evening news; in the midst of the conflicts in our congregation and in neighboring churches, in the midst of economic fear, in the midst of worry about your families and friends and children--in the midst of all this, we don't fear the future, because we know that all of history, all time is heading toward God. We don't fear the unknown evil that lies ahead because we know who is in charge: God. You and I do not know what the future will bring, but we know who holds it: God. We can live confidently and boldly today in these bad times, because everything is in God's hands.
We are not responsible for making the future come out right-that's God's job. We are not responsible for fixing the mess in the ELCA and the lingering issues in our congregation and town. That's for Jesus to redeem and the Holy Spirit to heal. But our witness is desperately needed in a world that has lost its religious and moral footing, a world that does not know whose the future is, a world that is terrified of itself. Even in a denomination that is at odds with itself and does not know which way is up. We cannot sit back and rely on those who have gone before us, we cannot be complacent as we have been. We speak the truth in love, and we reach out to this hurting and lost world, this mixed up and muddled denomination. In our community here, inside these walls and outside them, there are so many people who need to hear what we know-people who need the message that Jesus is Lord. Lord of our world, of our lives and families. Of this congregation.
Jesus spoke truly-the day is coming when everything we know will be thrown down. The end is near. But we cannot sit back and rely on other voices and other witnesses, we cannot trust in great houses of worship, or cultural religious legacies passed down from parents to children. This is for you! You are being trained in your bodies and souls for spiritual endurance, as Paul says, not living in idleness, waiting for someone else to do it, but preparing for the coming of the Lord. The day of the Lord is coming, and for those who revere God's name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in his wings.
The future belongs to God. No matter what happens on earth, by your endurance you will gain life in him. For those who trust in the Lord and wait for his coming with calm purpose and steadfast witness, not a hair of their head will perish. Amen. Come soon, Lord Jesus.