“Ready or Not” – Sermon on Nov 17, 2013
November 17, 2013
Scripture: Luke 21: 5-19
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he 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: Ready or Not
by Rev. Doreen Oughton
So let me place this passage in the context of where Jesus is on his earthly journey. He is in the last week of his life. He has had his ride into Jerusalem on the back of the colt that had never before been ridden. And as he rode into the city, as his admirers spread their cloaks on the road and his followers shouted out in joyful praise, Jesus wept. He wept over the coming destruction of the city. “If only you had recognized the things that make for peace,” he lamented. He foretold of enemies surrounding them, of the people being crushed. He enters the Temple and drives out the money changers. He is on a tear. He goes to the Temple every day, and every day he inflames the chief priests and scribes and religious leaders. They are increasingly desperate to arrest him, to have him put to death, but they are afraid because the people love him. They don’t want to make a martyr of him. And so they try to trap him. They try to get him to blaspheme, they ask him trick question about paying taxes, they ask about the resurrection which they don’t even believe in. He responds with parables about the tenants of the vineyard who first kill the vineyard owner’s servants and messengers, and then finally kill the vineyard owner’s son. He warns that the vineyard owner will come, and the murderous tenants will pay for their actions. Jesus cautions his followers to beware of the religious who pray loudly and seek seats of honor in the marketplace all the while devouring widows’ houses. He points out the poor widow giving her 2 mites, everything she has, while the others make a big fuss of giving out of their abundance. Jesus is sickenedd by what he sees going on in the Temple.
So when he hears people praising it’s beauty and grandeur, what honor is given to God in the adornments, Jesus puts it out there – not one stone will be left upon another. I wonder how he feels about that. I read recently that the Sandy Hook Elementary School has been razed. I wonder if the Temple became something like that to Jesus – a place that was created for something good – teaching children in one case, honoring God and gathering God’s people together in the other – but became something loaded with emotion – pain, loss, evil, suffering. You knock down the building, that physical reminder of the pain, but the pain is still there. The buildings aren’t guilty of anything, and yet they symbolize so much. Jesus lamented over the impending destruction of Jerusalem, but he is not weeping as he talks about the Temple coming down.
I don’t know what his tone is as he speaks to his disciples, but his words are words of hope and encouragement. Bad things are coming, he tells them, but it does not mean it is the end. Not only will there be wars and famine and plagues and earthquakes, but they, his followers, will be arrested. And not only that, they will be betrayed by their families, they will be hated. I don’t know…. I think I might have left at that point. I think I might have said I really like the loaves and fishes, the walking on water, the words of love. But this stuff is not what I signed on for. But Luke says the people were getting up early to go to the Temple to hear him preach. He must have been some preacher.
Jesus says these things are coming, but I wonder if they haven’t already been going on. Certainly all this had taken place by the time Luke wrote this gospel. Luke’s audience are within a generation or two of the destruction of the Temple in Rome, of the warring nations, of the arrests and persecution of the Jesus followers. What if the people Luke was talking to, and the people Jesus was talking to already knew, already experienced lots of bad stuff. I mean, the stuff he talks about has been going on forever, hasn’t it – war and disease, earthquakes and floods, betrayals and persecution. These things do not mark the end, they just mark another point in the endless cycle of destruction and suffering and war. And it doesn’t have to be this way.
God is creating a new thing. God has already created a new heaven and a new earth, and it is there just waiting for us to enter it. It is not part of that endless cycle of destruction and suffering and war. It is through it, it is on the other side of it. It transcends it. We might die to these physical bodies before we get there, but we don’t have to. It is a place where not a hair on our heads perish, a place where we gain our souls. And the hope and encouragement Jesus offers sounds impossibly naïve. Use these hardships as an opportunity to testify. To testify to what is not spelled out, but I would think it would be to testify about the way, the way of Jesus, the way of kindom living where the lowly are lifted up and the lofty are brought down, where there is a place at the table for everyone. Jesus tells them to make up their minds not to plan a defense, for he will give them words and wisdom that cannot be contradicted, and they will be okay, even if they are killed, they will be okay. And still they stayed.
How does this message sound to you? Can you hear the spirit of Jesus in it? Churches are closing. The buildings may not be coming down, but they are emptying out. We may not be getting arrested or put to death for being Christian, not in this country anyway, though certainly in other places in the world. No, we are being killed off by indifference, by the distractions of cultural idols – wealth, comfort, self-sufficiency, consumerism. Certainly we can look at the world and see nation rising against nation, people hating their brothers and sisters near and far, famine, earthquakes, disease. Bad times are coming. Bad times are here. And Jesus says don’t prepare a defense. Don’t keep the cycle going. Don’t let fear drive you. Look for an opportunity to do things differently – to enter the new earth, to testify to the way not only with your words, but with your life. Testify with a life of non-violence, of non-judgment, of sacrificial love. Jesus will tell you how. Jesus will show you how. No need to plan your defense. God’s children have been blessed. God has already answered our prayers. Make up your mind, and enter the kindom. May it be so.
