Malachi 4.1-2a

23^rd Sunday a. Pentecost (Proper 28) | Mal 4.1-2a;Ps 98;2Thess 3.6-13;Lk 21.5-19 | Richard O. Johnson |

⁵ And while some were speaking of the temple, how it was adorned with noble stones and offerings, he said, ⁶ “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.” ⁷ And they asked him, “Teacher, when will these things be, and what will be the sign when these things are about to take place?” ⁸ 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. ⁹ 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.”

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 pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven. ¹² 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. ¹³ This will be your opportunity to bear witness. ¹⁴ Settle it therefore in your minds not to meditate beforehand how to answer, ¹⁵ for I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and relatives and friends, and some of you they will put to death. ¹⁷ You will be hated by all for my name’s sake. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your lives. (Luke 21.5-19 ESV)

As we approach the end of the church year, our Scripture lessons seem to turn a bit dark. Here in Luke 21, we have some verses which scholars sometimes describe as “apocalyptic.” We usually think of that word as meaning some great disaster or cataclysm, but the word itself means “uncovered” or “unveiled.” The Biblical sense of it is that something hidden has now been revealed.

And so here we have the disciples, who have just entered Jerusalem. Perhaps it is the first time these rustic fishermen have been to the big city, and they are very impressed. “What noble stones!” they marvel. Jesus replies, “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.” In other words, he tells them that what appears here to be reality—the mammoth buildings, made of stones—this is really nothing in the true scheme of things. The stones will be toppled. He is suggesting to them that reality is something different, something they cannot see. He is pulling the veil back and showing them truth.

The presence of Christ

In the late 1940s, communism was tightening its iron grip on the nations and peoples of central and Eastern Europe. In Poland, the communists made it a priority to deny religion. Poland was a devoutly Christian nation, and the government understood that if they were to succeed, they would need to untie the Polish people from those Christian moorings.

One strategy, devised in 1949 and carried out over the next few years, was the construction of Nowa Huta, a model city. The name means “New Foundry”; the city was built near the huge Lenin Steelworks, on the edge of Krakow, Poland’s intellectual and cultural capital. Nowa Huta was to be a worker’s city— massive apartments, the amenities of modern life. But there was to be no church. This would be a secular city, standing in sharp contrast to the medieval religious heritage represented by Krakow.

In 1958, a young priest named Karol Wojtyla was named auxiliary bishop of Krakow. He began a practice that he would continue for several years. Each Christmas Eve, he would go to the city of Nowa Huta and preside at mass, celebrated in an open field. Thousands of workers would leave their apartments—described by one commentator as “human filing cabinets”—and stand in the bitter December cold to worship the Child of Bethlehem and to receive the Body and Blood of Christ. There would be no church building in Nowa Huta; but Wojtyla would bring Christ there.

By his defiant action, Wojtyla—whom the world would later know as Pope John Paul II—presented an alternative reality to those workers, a reality which said that the huge cement buildings in which they lived, the giant factories in which they toiled, those things were not the truth. The truth—that they were creatures of God, beloved men and women for whom Christ came and for whom Christ died—was something that could not be seen in the massive buildings or the oppressive regime that built them, but it could be seen only in the bread and the wine, in the Scripture and song, of which they partook in that open field on that cold night. That alternative reality took root and took hold of the Nowa Huta workers. It is surely no mere coincidence that the Lenin Steelworks became the center of the Solidarity resistance movement which, two decades later, sparked the toppling of the communist regime in Poland.

Alternative reality

And here we are, in a very different time and place. This is not first century Palestine, and it is not twentieth century Poland. What is reality for us? Are we, like the disciples, impressed by the mighty stones of how things appear to be? Or do we see that alternative reality?

A few years ago there was a controversy about the Abercrombie and Fitch catalog. Abercrombie and Fitch, for those of you unfamiliar with it, is a clothing store which at that time marketed particularly to teenagers. Back in those days their catalog was filled with page after page of beautiful young people with very little clothing anywhere in sight. It included articles encouraging kids to look at college primarily as an opportunity for sexual promiscuity. It was frankly appalling in what taught about sexuality. In recent years, that company has thankfully stopped its sexually charged advertising, and yet you don’t have to look very far to find similarly provocative ads elsewhere. They pop up on Facebook, on streaming services, in the movies—just about everywhere. And it goes much beyond just advertisements. Parents today have to think about protecting our children from omnipresent pornography or from online sexual enticements.

But there is another reality, one that is hard to discern in the world because it is often hidden. It is the reality of love and integrity and morality, the reality of ourselves and our bodies as a gift to be given in love to one another in the commitment of marriage. Do we see it? Do we uncover that reality to our children? Do we live in a way that reflects that reality, rather than the massive stones of sensuality and promiscuity and so-called freedom?

I read this week that last year in the United States, charitable giving increased, in spite of—or maybe because of—the pandemic. Experts expect, though, that there will be a significant decline this year. There are lots of explanations for that expectation, of course; serious inflation, political uncertainty, an problematic situations across the world. People are concerned for their future, and one way they respond is to cut back their giving. That’s reality.

Or is it? There is another reality, you see, one often hidden from the experts and the analysts, one that we also sometimes miss if we have our eyes fixed on the massive stones of fear and self-interest. It is the reality, as the Psalmist says, that “God has done marvelous things,” that he “remembers his mercy and faithfulness.” When that reality is clear to you, you do not hesitate “to give and give, and give again, what God hath given thee; to spend thyself nor count the cost; to serve right gloriously the God who gave all worlds that are, and all that are to be.”

“Look at those stones!”—stones of fear, stones of oppression, stones of self-interest, stones of complacence, stones of apathy. But they are not real. They will all be thrown down. Here, in this community, around this table, we fix our eyes on an alternative reality. And when we see it, we are resolved not to “be weary in doing what is right”; for we know that those who see it, those who live it, are the ones who will see “the sun of righteousness rise, with healing in its wings.”

Pastor Richard O. Johnson

Webster, NY

roj@nccn.net