Not What It Seems – sermon on November 29, 2015
Luke 21: 25-36 Jesus said, “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, there will be distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”
Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation may not pass away until all things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life, and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Sermon: Not What It Seems by Reverend Doreen Oughton
Before I became a minister, I worked at an out-patient substance abuse clinic, for a unit called “intervention services.” This meant I worked with people who were there by court order, who, if they didn’t come, would likely end up in jail. Now most people would think that being arrested for drug or alcohol-related reasons was a really bad break, maybe a sign that the universe was against them. But my colleagues and I believed that in many cases it was the universe, or God, working for them. Because when people are caught up in getting high, they often miss the signs that are so clear to others – that things have gotten really bad, that their use has gone way beyond recreational. Being forced to stop under threat of jail time, combined with a chance to learn more about addiction and receive support, well, that might just save a person’s life.
I thought of this as I read this week’s gospel passage. The discussion takes place in Jerusalem, after Jesus has ridden in on a donkey to proclaim the coming of a new kind of kingdom. He has been teaching in the temple for a few days, and when some spoke of the nobility of the Temple, Jesus prophesizes that the Temple will fall. The disciples ask when this will be, and what signs to look for that it is about to happen. And boy, what an answer they got. Jesus doesn’t say exactly when, but he says what to look for – weird happenings in the celestial bodies, and confusion and distress among nations among other things. Many translations have Jesus saying it will certainly happen before that generation passes away, but one scholar suggests it is more tentative – translating it as it may happen before this generation passes away. Almost like, “really, this is going to happen, it could happen any time – maybe even before this generation passes.” (We are all going to leave this earthly plain, and you never know when. Could happen today, or next week, or in 50 years.)
Whenever these signs start showing up, many people will be terrified, he says. They will faint with fear and foreboding. But, he says, don’t you faint with fear, you can keep your head up, keep your wits about you – redemption is near. What looks terrifying and awful to people who don’t know any better, you can see as an intervention – a chance to break free from a path of pain and destruction that has escaped notice for far too long. Sometimes things have to get worse before they get better.
I am not a good housekeeper, Things have to get pretty bad before I pay attention and finally clean, OR if company is coming, I look around with new eyes, seeing the mess that has begun to accumulate. I think this tendency can apply in other ways for people, that it is hard to see things getting bad until they are REALLY bad, or until we look from the perspective of someone else.
- Difficulty for addicts in seeing the wreckage of their life even with court intervention, and we judge them sometimes. But what wreckage are we missing in our own lives?
- Toddlers are washing up dead on beaches as persecuted people try to escape to a place they can be reasonably safe; and here we get all worked up about someone saying Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas or vice versa. What are we missing?
- Young men of color are being incarcerated, beaten and killed at a ridiculously disproportionate rate and with a ridiculously low bar of provocation, and there is an uproar over the color of a coffee cup at Starbucks. What are we missing?
- Our nation faces challenges on so many levels – domestic and global economy, foreign policy, education, poverty, health care, the environment; and the coverage of the political campaigns focus on ridicule and gotcha games. What are we missing?
How bad do things have to get before we pay attention? Maybe, like with my house-cleaning, we can try to look with new eyes because we know that Jesus is coming. Perhaps this is what Jesus is saying when he urges his followers, including us, to be on guard, to make sure we are not distracted by things that don’t really matter, to make sure we don’t get into escapism, whether with alcohol or drugs, or Hollywood gossip, or shopping and material accumulation. Perhaps we can trust that God is at work without doing a spiritual by-pass, without glossing over all the suffering and injustice around us.
- Tricky to hold this tension – spiritual and physical. Physical, what we experience in our body, mind and emotions – suffering, judge as good/bad – gives us information, but is incomplete and even false.
- Spiritual selves, part connected with God and all else, eternal, having a human experience. Most true thing about us. In that realm, all is well, perfect.
- Jesus appeals to both aspects – when things look bad, pay attention, open your heart to it, but trust also that this is redemption, this is Jesus coming again.
- Don’t know what it means that Jesus is coming again. Maybe not “the Son of man coming on a cloud for all to see. Maybe just Jesus coming through us. Mr. Roger’s quote.
Jesus talks about praying for strength to escape all these things that will take place, but he also says that “these things” will come upon all who live on the face of the earth. What kind of strength does he mean, and how will it help us escape?
- Strength of heart to let ourselves see, feel and respond.
- Strength of faith to know that God is at work. Saved from judgment by not judging, but seeing the divine in all – the addict, the messy housekeeper, the Syrian refugees and those who would keep them out, Barack Obama and Donald Trump, in the oil executives and the climate scientists.
- It is a strength we would be hard pressed to find on our own. But God has made a promise, so let’s trust in that and be on the lookout. Jesus is coming, again, and again, and again. May it be so.
