PENTECOST 24

May my words and my thoughts be acceptable to you, O Lord, my refuge and my redeemer. (Psalm 19:14)

SEASON: PENTECOST 24
PROPER: 28C
PLACE: St. John's Parish, Kingsville
DATE: November 18,2001

TEXT: Luke 21:5-19 – 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 plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven . . . . . . . . But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

ISSUE: The passage tells of Jesus’ prediction of the destruction of the Temple in troubled times. His prophecy is authenticated in 70 A.D. when in fact the Temple is destroyed along with Jerusalem. The Romans and their own families persecute many of the disciples. The message calls for an awareness of difficult times to come, but to live in hope by faith. God will save his own people.
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As we approach the end of the church year in these last days of the Pentecost season, the Sunday Lectionary calls for the readings of some of the apocalyptic sections of both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. The apocalyptic scriptures usually deal with times of great disaster or the prediction of them, as if the world were coming to an end.
In the passage from Luke we have Jesus’ prophecy of a coming apocalyptic age: Beware that you are not led astray for there will be false prophets arise in the name of God. There will be wars and nations will rise against nation. It will be a time of terrorization, along with earthquakes, plagues and famines in some places. It will also be a time of betrayal by relatives and friends, because of the acceptance of Jesus. Not a pretty picture!
When Luke was writing this section of his Gospel account, the people who would first read it, knew quite well what Luke was talking about in his Gospel. They also knew that what Jesus had prophesied some fifty years prior had to a large extent come true. Their generation had come through very difficult times. The Temple, which had an extraordinary beauty, and which was quite large, had in fact been destroyed and nothing but its crumbled foundations remained. The city of Jerusalem had been destroyed as well by the Romans. A few daring but ill-advised insurrectionists had taken on the Roman conquerors and were met with overwhelming powers and destruction. Nations had risen up against nation. It is not unusual for the war to bring with it famine and sickness, or plague. Smoke and dust block out the heavens. The very foundations of the existence of the people are shaken, as if being in an earthquake.
The early followers of The Way of Jesus had also been persecuted. The Romans persecuted them for their new found faith and worship. Only the Jews had been exempt to worship as they desired, simply because the Romans knew they could not change the Jewish insistence up its worship of Yahweh and no man emperor. Christians who had left Judaism were persecuted if they did not pay homage to the Roman Emperor. Furthermore, early Christians were persecuted and rejected by their immediate families for their acceptance of Jesus. At the same time, when the Jewish community was being persecuted and devastated by the Romans, they were more likely to cling tightly to their Jewish Faith and reject any changes in a time of such anxiety and uncertainty. Hence you have an apocalyptic age. It is an age of the battle between good and evil. There is often a need for Superman, or Spiderman, or some extraordinary figure of power and of bringing hope to the world.
Notice that in this passage what the ultimate message is. Stand fast. Endure. Keep your faith. By your endurance you will gain your souls. For Luke and his community the message is to know Jesus and see in him their extraordinary hope. He’s the prophet, the power, and the one close to God revealing the truth. He’s the man of God upon who depends the new age that is to come, and becomes seen as the hope of Israel by the early church.
Various times in history, we have seen an apocalyptic age, which reveals the struggle between good and evil. We are experiencing one now in lieu of the infamous September 11th event. Airplanes fell from the sky. The temples, certainly symbols of American economic faith, were destroyed. Those beautiful alabaster towers plummeted to the ground. The smoke, ash, and dust blotted out the sun on one beautiful day. The repercussions make nations and people rise up against one another in war. The ongoing threat of nuclear and biological warfare is very much with us. The battle between good and evil is very much with us. The earthquake of human anxiety and uncertainty of the present threatens morality and ethics, routine forms of justice and civil rights. Our very symbols of power and financial stability are tumbled. Are the foundations of our very existence being threatened? I think so. Where do we turn? Curiously, some folk immediately think we need to rebuild the Trade Centers just as they were. We should get out the stars and stripes and continue to wave our imperialistic banners on high. Maybe not? Maybe we need to return to God in quietness and thoughtfulness. Maybe we need to endure in a faith that gives us of hope of resurrection to something new, to the Kingdom that is in the likeness of God. Maybe the time for recognizing what is really important in the sight of God has come. Maybe we are on the verge of a new era of hope for the world. From the time of the Towers of Babel in the Genesis story, God has never been very impressed with human pride and the need to usurp the powers of God. Apocalyptic moments are occasion for the revelation of something new, grand, and of God. They tell us that the world needs salvation. Our enduring faith tells us of the presence of God in Jesus Christ as the way, the truth, and the life. It is Christ alone who leads and knows the way in to the Kingdom of God, and into a new age of hope. The interesting thing about apocalyptic events in the Christian perspective is that the enduring faithful will survive in hope and faithfulness.
Presently we struggle with routing out what we believe to be the evil terrorists. But there is another step, which is the rebuilding and the rethinking of a world that leads to suspicion and hatred and seems to virtually enforce its destruction. The world is never at peace when there are people who are not treated with dignity. There can never be peace and hope when there is poverty in the world somewhere. There can be no peace or hope when there is hunger. There can be no peace in the world when there is more interest in material economic concerns than in raising the poor, the afflicted, the oppressed. There can be no hope for a world that eliminates its need for the God of love.
There must be more dialogue between peoples and nations. We must be more acutely aware of how we look to the world as Christian people and not as warmongers. We need to be ready to fly a banner that is not merely red, white, and blue, but a banner that symbolizes world hope, and affection for the goodness of the nations of the world, and our commitment to a greater understanding of a world of nations that belong to God.
Right now we are in the midst of the struggle for an end of violence and injustice. Unfortunately we are still fighting the evil, and the dust of the destruction has not yet settled and the sunshine is still clouded by the storms of war. But our hope lies in our faith and trust, that the battle shall be won by God, and the Christ who died for the sins of all the world will reclaim his world in peace, and the demons themselves will be converted and seek to enter the Kingdom