November 17, 2019

23rd Sunday After Pentecost
Malachi 4:1-2
Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
 grace and peace to you
from the one who offers hope in the midst of chaos. Amen
 
In the calendar of the church year
we are nearing the end,
next week we will observe the festival of the Reign of Christ
 and the church calendar will click over into a new year.
 
And as we’ve been approaching the end of the year
 our readings have also been dealing with the end. 
 
 whether we call it the end of the world
or the end of life as we know it
or even judgement day,
this is a topic which we humans are fascinated with,
 
 look at all the depictions we see in movies and literature,
where something catastrophic has happened
 and what happens next is imagined.
 
 Whether it is hunger games or zombies
or differently ordered societies
we keep coming back to what have been named apocalypses,
and however they are told
 they have an element of fear running through them,
they are to be avoided.
 
Now the name apocalypse or apocalyptic
 comes from a genre of writing
that is found in several places in the Bible
 and while these writings do tend to come up with some odd images
 their purpose is the exact opposite of fear,
 they, in all their weirdness
are intended to offer comfort and hope
 for people in the midst of situations that may feel like the end.
 
Apocalypse after all
just means revelation,
 these messages are meant to reveal hope to the oppressed,
 whether it was Jews in exile or facing the loss of the temple
 or Christians living in secret in Rome
or people facing the loss of the way things have always been
and that’s what our apocalyptic texts for today do for us,
 they point to hope.
 
The hope that God is in control of the end,
 whatever that happens to look like
and with God in control
the people of God will be okay.
 
 Now as good as that news is,
it does leave a question for us humans,
what is our role?
 
 We like to control our surroundings
and we have just been told
 that it is out of our control,
 so we wonder, what are we to do? 
and each of our texts for today offers insight to that question as well.
 
Malachi is short and to the point
with an image of evildoers burning up,
which, if you have been oppressed by the evildoers
is good news,
 
hope is found in the promise of justice for the oppressed
and God continues
 “for you who revere my name the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” 
 
 God will bring the justice,
the role of humans is to revere God’s name
 
and this sounds good until we start to think
 of all the times when we have not done that,
when we have forgotten God’s name,
the times when we have been evildoers
 and we start to get worried again
 
But that’s where our Psalm comes in,
 a song of celebration at the victory of God,
  
once again the promise is that judgement is God’s work
and the hope is found in how God will judge,
 “O Lord, you have made known your victory, you have revealed your righteousness in the sight of the nations. You remember your steadfast love and faithfulness to the house of Israel...The Lord will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity”
 
Judgement is God’s work
 and God will judge out of steadfast love and faithfulness,
this is not some impartial deity
but one who loves us,
 
one who loves us so much
 that God became human and died for us,
and so joined to Christ in our baptisms,
 when God judges us
 what God sees
is not all the times we’ve messed up,
but Christ,
 the perfect one who has already forgiven us.
 
God’s got it all taken care of,
and so what is our role?
Our role is to sing praises to God,
 to shout with joy,
to sing to the lord,
 to make joyful noises on trumpets and tambourines
 joining with the sounds of creation that also praise God.
 
God’s got it under control
 and our role is to revere God’s name and praise God.
Sounds pretty easy so far
 but having lived in the reality of the world
we know that’s not the full story,
 which is where Jesus in our gospel for today comes in
as he anticipates the difficulties in store for his followers before the end.
 
The conversation starts out innocently enough
with some followers marveling at the temple,
it is the grandest building they have ever seen,
 it is the home of God, look at it!
 And Jesus tells them that one day the temple will be destroyed. 
  
Now it’s important to note
that the temple in Luke
 is seen as a good place,
 
 it is the place of worship,
Jesus teaches there all the time,
 he tries to clean it up,
 he stayed there debating when he was 12,
the disciples go back after the resurrection and worship there.
 The temple is the center of religious life,
Jesus is pro-temple,
 so why would he be saying it will be destroyed?
 
 Because Jesus knows that in between now
and the end which God has taken care of
 living a life of faith will be difficult
 and that even good centers of faith will be destroyed
 
and he warns his followers
not to focus on the wrong thing.
 the life of faith while aided by places like the temple
 is not defined by
it rather the promise that there is another way of living
apart from the values of the world,
a way of living where all are valued and cared for,
 a way of peace where death does not have the last say,
 
 and when bad things happen to good places
 the role of the followers is to testify to this promise and vision of God.
 
Don’t get caught up in fear
 trying to predict when these bad things will happen
 Jesus tells his followers,
 don’t look at the strife in the world
 as signs for something more than what they are,
a reflection of the brokenness of this world,
 
instead you are to cling to the promise of God
 and tell others of that promise.
I promise to be there with you Jesus says
 to take care of you,
in the end not a hair of your head will perish,
 remember God’s got it under control.
And I think Jesus is speaking directly to all of us with this conversation.
We are living in a time where our temple is coming down,
the institution of the church as we’ve known it,
 is being dismantled before our eyes
 
even if we haven’t named it as such
 we’ve felt the effects,
fewer people finding value in participating in a life of faith
and the changes in society that support that
 people being scheduled to work on Sunday mornings,
youth activities scheduled then as well
things are not going the way they used to.
 
And I think despite Jesus’ warning
 we’ve gotten caught focusing on the walls coming down
when really our role is to testify,
 to testify to a life different from the kind valued by the world,
 to live out that life to the best of our ability
and most of all to trust God’s promise of salvation and redemption.
 
And yes that will mean change from how things always were,
 there will be grief
and a time where we don’t quite know where that next center of faith will be,
 
we will experiment and fail
but as long as we continue to hope in God
 and testify to that hope
faith will continue,
 and while it might be tempting to just give up on the testifying
and rest only in the hope,
 that’s not what God wants for us either.
 
That’s why Paul had to write to the Thessalonians,
some of the community decided that their sole focus
 was to be waiting on the day of the Lord,
and since that was coming soon
they didn’t need to do anything in this life,
especially if they had some resources stored up.
 
 That’s not how this works Paul writes,
 yes we’re living in hope of the day of the Lord
but we still have to attend to this life
that we’re living now
and that includes meaningful occupation and contribution to the community,
 “do not be weary in doing what is right” Paul admonishes them
 
And yet sometimes we do grow weary,
 weary of waiting,
of testifying to a world that doesn’t seem to hear,
 of singing praises with a hurting creation
of revering the name of God even,
 
 and that’s when Jesus brings us to the table
with the saints of all times and places,
forgives and feeds us
with his body and blood
and sends us out no longer weary
renewed in hope
 to praise God and testify,
sharing the good news of God with a weary world. 
 
God has claimed us,
nothing, not even the brokenness of the world
 can change that
and so we set our hope on God,
we praise and we persist
knowing that in the end
God’s got it under control. Amen