23rd Sunday after Pentecost, 11/17/2019

Sermon on Luke 21:5-19, by Carl Voges

The Passage

And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he (Jesus) said, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when there will not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down.” And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” And he said, “See that you are not led astray. For many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is at hand!’ Do not go after them. And when you hear of wars and tumults, do not be terrified, for these things must first take place, but the end will not be at once.”

Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake. This will be your opportunity to bear witness. Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and sisters and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives.” [English Standard Version]

“Now we command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us.” [2 Thessalonians 3.6]

In the Name of Christ + Jesus our Lord

As the Lord’s baptized people make their way through the realities of this world’s life, they often find themselves out-of-synch with those realities. This occurs because it is an instinct of the world’s life to get us on the same footing and in the same direction. This tends to cause the Lord’s people to alertness because that instinct actually separates people even more by creating the clashes between them while heightening their strongly held attitudes. The Lord’s people also become more alert while dealing with the world’s realities because they recognize it is his Life from the Scriptures and Sacraments that is actually dominating and driving their own.

The realities of the world’s life often are attractive and compelling. But they end up being cruel and devastating because they tear up and discard the lives of its people. They draw us into an unhealthy absorption with ourselves and then leave us jumpy, irritable and anxious. They acquaint us with the gods who promise security and meaning but then settle us in shakiness and loneliness. From the perspective of our Baptisms into the

Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, the world’s realities are actually the realities of hell, a reality totally separated from the Life of the Holy Trinity!

Thankfully, the Lord’s people encounter this passage from Luke’s Gospel today that strengthens them while extending the reality of his Life to those individuals trapped by the world’s life. We begin this encounter by observing that the most important reality in the Sunday Liturgy is that the Lord’s people gather in his presence so his Word can churn into their lives, breaking down the grip of the world’s life on them and restoring the saving grip he has on our lives from the day of our Baptisms.

Let us now turn our attention to the Gospel appointed for this day. While there are many bewildering details running through it, its basic message is this: The days will come when things are being thrown down, but the Lord’s people will emerge complete in him! Before unpacking this message, however, let’s remind ourselves of where the world is sitting today in relation to the saving, sustaining and creating actions of the Lord God.

First, while the world has always has its own life and its attention is always focused on itself, it had an entirely new Life break into it through Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection.

Second, since his Life broke in (between 30-35 AD), there have been daily clashes between that Life and the world’s life. Third, there is the approaching End-of-Time when the final clash will occur, separating the Lord’s Life from the world’s life, bringing both of them to completion in eternal death or eternal Life.

We are currently living in the second of these three realities, experiencing daily clashes between the Life given us at Baptism and the life given us at birth. These clashes are continually throwing things and people down, but the Lord’s baptized people, those struggling to remain faithful to him, understand they are being held together by him no matter how fierce and draining their circumstances are. Let’s keep these three realities in the background as we step into today’s Gospel.

It is helpful to notice that there are three sections to this passage from Luke: First is the approaching destruction of the Jerusalem temple; Second is Jesus’ call to alertness so we don’t lose sight of his Life; Third is Jesus’ strong words of encouragement to his followers. Remember, too, that Jesus has already entered Jerusalem on the Sunday we call Passion (or Palm), placing us in the first couple of days in Holy Week.

In the first section we see the approaching destruction of the Jerusalem temple. While people are commenting about the magnificence of temple, Jesus notes that the days of its destruction are approaching (this occurred about thirty-five years later). Hearing that, the people want to know the signs of this approach so they can anticipate its happening.

Reaching back to the Old Testament, the Jews always looked for signs to track what the Lord God may or may not be doing. This tendency was described by the apostle Paul in his letters to Corinthians. This tendency continues to surface today among people who

are connected or disconnected with the Church – we always want to know what the signs may be of approaching changes.

Jesus does not describe what the signs are (a refusal that continues today!), but he pushes on into a long section of this passage – calling us to alertness so we don’t lose sight of his Life. He cites the reasons for this alertness. People will surface, appearing to be his own, stating they are him or that his Father’s Time has arrived – Jesus warns us to not go after them! Such matters are all around us today.

We have denominations, and their people, all claiming to be the Lord’s authentic people. We have pastors displaying an overwhelming self-centeredness. We have parishioners

focusing exclusively on the personalities and accomplishments throughout the Church.

We have people in regional and national church offices trying to convince us they know the directions in which we are to head We have people yammering at us about the rapture and the millenium, yammering that is not really imbedded in the Scriptures, but is skillfully twisting its witness. We have people asserting that they, and they alone, know when the Father is going to unleash the End-of-Time. In this second section, Jesus is warning us to not go after such people.

When we hear of wars and revolts, we are not to be terrorized. These realities will surface (as they must!), but the End-of-Time will not rush up that quickly. Jesus goes on to describe those realities in more detail. There will be storms, there will be comets streaking through space, there will be eclipses, there will be the arrests and persecutions of his people.

While this last description may surprise us, remember the history of such arrests and persecutions. It first occurred in the clashes between the synagogues and churches (the killing of Stephen, the first deacon, was ordered by the Jewish authorities). The history spread to clashes with the Roman government (the killings of the apostles were ordered by the Roman authorities). The history continues openly today in middle Eastern countries. And it continues secretly today in cultures like our own (there are unrelenting attempts to make faith a purely private matter or to tie it to a popular understanding and desire).

Jesus goes on to state that his people will be handed over to synagogues and prisons.

They will be brought before kings and governors because their lives are centered in his.

This will give us the opportunity to testify (the Greek word used here is the one from which we get “martyr”; it means to witness, to point to, to describe). Our defense does not have to be prepared in advance. The Lord will give us the words and wisdom that no opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. Even immediate families, extended families and friends will expose and betray us. Some of us will suffer death for this testimony, just like the Church’s first martyrs. As the Lord’s people we will be hated because his Name was traced over our lives.

This last point reminds us that when the Lord God marks us as his daughters and sons, it angers the world because it can no longer claim or own them. Such newly-marked

people are not imbedded anymore in the world’s life, they are imbedded in the Life given them at Baptism! The point of this long second section is that the Lord’s Cross will dominate and undergird the lives of his people at every step of their way through this life.

The afflictions and torments they experience will be crushing, but they will not be rubbed out!

The third and final section of this reading is brief, but it is powerful. Jesus asserts that not a hair of our heads will perish! Jesus states that through the endurance given us by him we will totally be brought into his Life!

Let’s turn back now to the three realities mentioned before our journey through this passage. As the baptized people of the Lord God, we live between Jesus’ ascension and the End-of-Time. We daily experience the clashes between the life given us at birth and the Life given us at Baptism. These clashes include tormented minds, extended or sudden deaths, heavy hearts, disrupted relationships, faltering bodies, illnesses of mind and spirit.

These clashes are continually assaulting us. They result in people having no morals and no consciences. They result in people ignoring the Lord’s call to repent. They result in people waving off the Lord’s holy places of Baptism and the Scriptures, Forgiveness and the Eucharist.

May the Lord overwhelm us with his endurance during these clashes. May these clashes not move us to return to the life given us at birth by the world. Instead, may these clashes turn us (with renewed intensity) back to the Lord’s holy places, steadying and sustaining us with his grip on our lives. Remember what the Lord God is telling us today in this passage: The days will come when things are being thrown down, but the Lord’s people will emerge complete in him!

Now may the peace of the Lord God, which is beyond all understanding, keep our

hearts and minds through Christ + Jesus our Lord

Carl Voges

E-Mail: carl.voges4@icloud.com

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