O Say Can You See? – sermon on November 13, 2016
Luke 21:5-19 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, Jesus said, “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. When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.”
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 before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
Sermon: O Say Can You See? by Rev. Doreen Oughton
Jesus is in the Temple, as he has been every day since arriving in Jerusalem for the Passover. Just prior to this exchange he was sitting out by the collections boxes watching the rich make their showy contributions and pointing out the poor widow dropping in her two mites, everything she has. Then some of his disciples start talking about the majestic stonework of the Temple, of the memorial decorations that are given for God. I wonder if their comments were connected to the collection boxes. Maybe they are saying, “well, it takes real money to keep a fabulous place like this going.” But Jesus doesn’t share this notion with them. He asserts that this beautiful Temple will come down, not one of these beautiful stones left on top of another. There will be war and insurrections, he says, and he tells them not to be afraid because it is not the end.
Now if I say, “Once upon a time…” what kind of literature do you expect to follow? How about if I say, “It was a dark and stormy night”? Or “There was an Old Man with a beard, Who said, ‘It is just as I feared!;”? In the time of Jesus, his words, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be earthquakes and famine and plagues” signaled a particular kind of literature as well. It is called Apocalyptic literature, and it uses disturbing images and languages to signal that hard times are coming, or have come. It is a means of preparing people, of encouraging them to shore up their faith and trust in God. So these words are not meant to be a specific forecast – notice it doesn’t say what nations will rise against what nations, nor what type of plague there will be. And certainly, in any age we can find some sort of war, insurrection, natural disaster, famine or plague.
Why does Jesus go there at this point? He talks about the widow giving everything she has, and then his disciples talk about the stonework. Hmm. I wonder if he was trying to lead the disciples to a certain understanding as he talked about the woman who gave everything, and their comments about the Temple inform him that they are not following. He had also been critical of the religious leaders who love their seats of honor and pretend to be pious in public, all the while cheating widows out of their property. He’s already driven out the people selling animals for sacrifice and said they were making this house of prayer a den of thieves. It sounds to me like he is pretty frustrated about what is going on at the Temple.
Why did Jesus come? Why did God take on human flesh and walk among us, experiencing hunger and thirst, joy and grief, limitation and even death? Was it to beautify the Temple? To encourage people to tithe so there could be more beautiful decorations dedicated to God? No. It was to call God’s people back to their convenant relationship with God, a covenant based on love and mercy, not on showy displays.
But it wasn’t an easy thing for God’s people to hear. They had no idea how far off they were from the covenant. They had no idea that worship in the Temple had devolved into worship of the Temple – the building, the sacrifices, the leaders, even the law. None of these things were God. In the best case, they ought to have been things that pointed people to God, helped them honor their covenant, but instead they replaced God. The people had lost their vision, or lost their sense of what God’s vision was for them. Even his disciples were all caught up in the beauty of the Temple, and were missing Jesus’ point and purpose.
Jesus wants to redirect their attention, because he knows that where and on what your gaze is fixed means everything. He wants them, and us, to see what he sees. Locking our eyes on what we know and are comfortable with means we miss the blessing, the gift, that God has in mind for us. When our jaws are dropping over all the gold the wealthy are pouring into the coffers, we miss the beautiful, truly sacrificial act of the widow. When we are in shock and despair over the destruction of our edifices, we miss the ways God seeks to heal the world through the name, the shem of Jesus. The word translated as “name” – as in “you will be persecuted because of my name” is the Hebrew shem, which refers to the essential reality of who someone is. So it is not his name, but his being, his way of being, his very essence, which is self-sacrificial love that will get people persecuted.
And Jesus warns his disciples that the personal persecutions will come first, before the apocalyptic events that signal a change (but not the end). He tells them they will be arrested and persecuted, handed over to synagogues and prisons, brought before kings and governors. And he is saying this within a few days of those very things happening to him. And doesn’t that shine a new light on the counsel he gives – don’t prepare a defense, instead, testify. Don’t worry about the words, he tells them, I will give you the words and wisdom. What do you think he means… testify? It’s not the legal term, to give your sworn statement to a court of law. No, he is talking about sharing the good news, even when arrested, even when persecuted, even in prisons. Testify to the mighty deeds of God.
Does Jesus do what he tells others to do? Certainly, he makes no defense. He barely participates in his so-called trial. Does Jesus testify in the face of his persecution? The Gospel of John gives us an accounting of Jesus’ last supper with his disciples, and he tells them over and over that the things that will happen are for God’s glory. In Matthew’s gospel, he tells them that he will not drink again from the cup until he drinks it anew with them in his father’s kingdom. In Luke’s gospel, he tells the criminal hanging on a cross beside him that they will be together in paradise. And even his cry, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me” may have been a cry of hope, not hopelessness. It is the first verse of Psalm 22, in which the psalmist sings at length about hardship, but comes around to praise and confidence in God’s power and goodness – how God listens to cries for help, how God rescues, how God’s righteousness will prevail.
Jesus was able to do it, to testify to God’s love and mercy even in the hardest of times. He had his eyes on the prize, he knew the truth that indeed God’s righteousness will prevail. He wants to direct our eyes there as well – away from the beautiful buildings, away from the showy grandeur of material wealth, away from those things that are temporary and towards the eternal. He want to direct our eyes to the things that we might want to turn away from – the person who is poor in money or morals but who gives anyway; the needs of people outside the doors of the beautiful buildings; the call of the Holy Spirit to live in the shem of Jesus. Not by invoking his name, but by embodying his way of living. Doing this is not likely to bring us material wealth or earthly comfort and security. I would even venture to say that if you have or are pursuing those things you are not living in the name of Jesus. Living in the name of Jesus should be discomfiting to those around you who embrace worldly values, should go against the grain of what so many lost souls have come to value – success, material wealth, comfort and security.
Jesus knew that hard times were coming for his disciples, and he had a plan for them on how to get through it, how to lean on their faith and trust in God. But how do you get the attention of people who are not facing such hard times? How do you direct someone’s gaze away from the institutions and the practices that were meant to guide us to God but instead keep us stuck in place? How can we begin to see what and who God sees, and care about what and who God cares about? There is a saying that Jesus came to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable. That saying used to bother me because I wondered why someone had to be afflicted, and I also believe that God wants good for us. But now I think I understand it a little better. I think when things are easy and smooth for us, when we are too comfortable, we drift away from our covenant with God, the relationship that brings us the truly good goodness God wants for us, not the shallow and temporary comforts this world has to offer. When things are hard, when we are afflicted, we are more open to seeing what little this world really has to offer.
One of my mentors used to say that spiritual growth means you get bigger problems. You used to worry about you would eat, but then you start to focus on what your neighbors would eat, and then about what people halfway across the world would eat; or drink, or about their safety or health or education. Perhaps that is a way to develop a vision – let yourself be challenged on a whole new level, find the struggle, the area that seems hopeless that you could enter into with Christ and testify to God’s power. Personal hardship – turn to God and testify. Trouble in the community – enter in with Christ and testify. A hopeless mess of a world – enter in with Christ and testify.
