November 17, 2013
Luke 21:5-19
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
A
few weeks ago I received confirmation that my body is indeed falling apart.
A
physician’s assistant in Fargo showed me an X-ray of my right hand, pointing
specifically to the joint between the third and fourth bones in my thumb.
What’s
notable about that joint, I learned, is that there’s no longer anything inside
of it—the cartilage, the shock-absorbing cushion between those two bones is gone
for good. Bone on bone arthritis pain
will be my lot in life…
….and
although painkillers and a splint provide some relief…and steroid shots or even
surgery might help me down the line….the problem itself will not be fully healed
in this life.
The only cure
for what’s ailing me is the resurrection.
Other
parts of my body are also deteriorating, but I have visual proof of this one,
this tiny joint that makes my whole hand ache.
Not
that I have any business complaining…
Some
of you probably have bigger sources of pain.
In truth, we’re all falling apart….and not just us, either. This whole world and everything in it
is slowly being chipped away. Every person,
every creature, and everything made by human hands has a limited shelf
life. None of it will last forever.
That’s
the bracing truth Jesus names here in Luke 21.
Oohing and aahing at marvelous architecture and lavish decorations of
Jerusalem’s temple….Jesus’ friends weren’t expecting to hear his sober
assessment: “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.”
We
and everyone else—this entire old creation—none of it is going to last forever
in its present form.
Jesus’
hearers “got” that immediately. They
realized that Jesus was talking about the Day of the Lord, the grand climax
toward which all history is heading:
“‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is
about to take place?”
They
were intensely curious and so are we.
Who doesn’t wonder about the final future of this old world? Yes, we may live most of our days skirting
such big, momentous questions….but life has a way of hemming us in, grabbing
our attention, making us wonder.
Whether it’s a typhoon in the Philippines or the latest report on global
climate change or the incessant gridlock of our national government or the
personal prayer lists we keep—with an endless revolving door of loved ones in
stress or sickness or grief….we wonder how our lives and the life of this old
creation will conclude.
And
Jesus helps us with these questions in his gospel lesson from Luke 21.
Jesus
helps us by reminding us of things we easily forget…
· ….that it’s a
fool’s errand to speculate about the end of the world or to follow the latest
“prophet” who claims to have uncracked the secrets of God’s apocalyptic timetable…
· ….Jesus reminds
us to be patient as history moves toward its conclusion in familiar ways that
should not surprise or terrify us—that time will stretch out a while longer,
with wars and natural disasters and cosmic events that will take our breath
away and make us wonder….
· ….Jesus reminds
us that increasingly this faithless world will not feel like home to people of
faith like us…that we may even endure the sting of dis-respect or persecution,
simply because we stubbornly cling to the God who alone holds the future in his
hands.
Nothing is more surprising in this gospel lesson, though, than the way Jesus calls us to a deeper engagement with this dying world—an engagement that seems counter-intuitive.
Most
folks, when they contemplate how no one and nothing in this world lasts
forever….most folks are easily paralyzed by either abject fear or dark
depression. We want to avert our eyes,
turn our faces away, get lost in cocoons of distraction…
….but
Jesus, rather, calls us to step out and speak up, in the face of the
falling-apart-of-it-all: “This
will give you an opportunity to testify,” he contends—in the face of
the paralysis that is always seeking to overcome us, limited, bounded creatures
of space and time.
This
hope-engendering word from Jesus is consistent with the entire biblical witness
regarding the End-Times. As God’s dearly
beloved children, who know that whatever fate brings our way God will make sure
that “not
a hair of [our] head[s] will perish”….our awareness of the
passing-away-ness of everything earthly does not reduce us to apathy or
inaction.
Quite
the contrary! For we believe that in Jesus Christ we have
seen what God does with death, decay and destruction. We realize that God is in the “resurrection
business”…..that the passing-away of this old creation is the precursor, the
necessary pre-requisite for the New Creation that even now is being prepared
and beginning to dawn upon us.
So
we look at our faults and failings and falling-apart lives in the sheer
confidence that these are the very raw materials of the New Day, the New
Creation that God is laboring to bring forth, even today.
And
all of that has begun, decisively, in the oddest of places: on the garbage heap outside of Jerusalem
where everything old and sinful and mortal was nailed to the Cross of our Lord
Jesus Christ….where you and I and everyone else have been crucified with Christ
and buried with him through our Baptisms into death….so that just as Christ was
raised from the dead by the glory of the Father we too might walk in newness of
life! (Romans 6)
That,
that,
my dear friends is what allows us to be brutally honest about the End, the
conclusion of our lives and the culmination of all things. For we wait with eager anticipation for a
new heaven and a new earth!
And
we believe so firmly that God is accomplishing this New Thing, that we find
ourselves “leaning into” it even now.
We travel through this mortal life in the confidence that God will not
be finished with any of us until we are raised again with our Lord Jesus
Christ, when God makes all things new.
Jesus
does not advise his hearers in Luke 21 to hoard canned food, or stockpile a
stash of weapons, or dig a fallout shelter or do anything else to hunker down
in and cling to this old dying world and all its here-today-gone-tomorrow ways.
No,
Jesus calls us to step up and speak out—in word and deed—because we know how
the story ends and we know the One who alone holds the future in the palm of
his loving hands!
Friends,
the world is dying for this good news, this hopeful, alternative way of facing
the future.
Because,
when Jesus talks about the End of all things he draws our attention not to
mysterious timetables or speculation about disasters or fascination with
Armageddon-like battles…
When Jesus talks
about the End of all things he consistently directs our attention back to what
we are called to do now, today, before the End arrives.
The
best way to get ready for the End of all things is to be about the work God has
given us to do today: trusting God,
loving our neighbors, caring for the earth….bearing witness in word and deed to
the only One who knows what lies ahead, who holds the future.
Once
in colonial New England there was a total eclipse of the sun. This inexplicable cosmic event took place
while the colonial legislature was in session.
When the eclipse brought sudden, unexpected darkness over the land (in
the middle of the day!) a number of lawmakers panicked—and some moved that the
session adjourn.
But
then a legislator arose and said: “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the
world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools. And if it is the end of the world, I should
choose to be found doing my duty. I
move, sir, that candles be brought so that despite the darkness our work may
continue.”
If
the end is coming, where should you and I be found? Hunkered down in a fallout shelter,
hiding? High on a mountaintop dressed
in white ascension robes—waiting? Shut
up in a church building—praying?
Here’s
Jesus’ response: If the End is coming let
us be engaged in the world—witnessing to God’s loving lordship, in word and in
deed.
And
as we are about those tasks, we travel in God’s promise that it’s not really
our business as much as it’s God’s business in and through us. “So make up your minds not to prepare your
defense in advance,” Jesus concludes here in Luke 21,
“for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be
able to withstand or contradict.”
In
the name of Jesus. Amen.
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