Day 1434 - What is really going on?

A sermon at First Presbyterian Church, Spring City, TN November 13, 2016.

The title for this sermon was inspired by Fred Craddock’s commentary on the passage in Luke, page 243, where he suggests this passage addresses what is going on behind and beyond history, even behind and beyond the last Presidential election.

Reading 1: Isaiah 65: 17-25

Reading 2: Luke 21:5-19

Matthew, Mark and Luke are called the synoptic gospels because they contain similar accounts of the good news, unlike John that is a remarkably different gospel. The synoptic gospels do not contain all of the same parables and events but many common events. The common events may not fall in the same chronology or timeframe, and may not be in all three gospels. When we do come upon an account like this one that is repeated in all three, we ought to look at the passage carefully because through prayer and discernment guided by the Holy Spirit that inspired them, the authors all concluded the passage must carry some high importance to the good news.

Luke may remind you of some the old full of fire and brimstone sermons you may have hear in your youth, or even lately. What this passage might cause you to do, however, is ask, “What is really going on?”  Let’s find out.

We are listening to apocalyptic writing that is usually about the “end times.” Two other apocalyptic books in the Bible are Daniel and the Revelation of John of Patmos.

We are reasonably certain that Matthew, Mark and Luke were written between roughly the year 70 the early 100’s. These were the times during and shortly after Nero’s persecution after Rome burned and the Jewish Revolt that ended in the destruction of the temple. I have already mentioned these were dark and dangerous times when the existence of the community of believers was threatened on many fronts.

Apocalyptic writing is common to many religions and denominations that have a sense of being under a real or perceived threat. Daniel is a veiled diatribe against Alexander the Great and his heirs that subjected Jews to horrifying persecution. The Revelation of John is a veiled diatribe against Rome, written in a time of persecution of Christians. The Dead Sea Scrolls were written by an apocalyptic community of Jews called Essenes in the same time as the Jewish revolt.  Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Islam have an apocalyptic world view. Jim Jones and his followers and the “Branch Dividian” sect , a splinter group from the Seventh Day Adventists, many of whom died in the Waco Texas incident are examples of more heretical or extreme apocalyptic threads. Remember the end of the world talk in the run up to the year 2000? Some televangelist preachers predict doom today.

Apocalyptic thought can be a dangerous rabbit hole for a Christian because it encourages an inward focus, a circling of the wagons mindset, opposed to one outwardly focused on the Christian life that we are called to live in the world - a world the Apostle Paul describes as at war with faith.

If you think about it, it is during times of distress and persecution over religious belief that a passage looking forward to the end of time appeals to the faithful heart. But as usual, there is far more to these verses of Luke than the apocalyptic comments that first meets the eye.

Commentaries have noted this passage is among the most difficult to understand. There are as many interpretations as people who have read them. You may think I’m repeating myself because we talked about these questions last week. Two questions - I would actually call them laments - loom in the minds of the reader of this passage and in Matthew and Mark: Where is the Kingdom of Heaven and when will the Son of Man return. Jesus has a consistent reply to these laments.

The passage starts with two verses that sound like a prediction of the future and end with assurance for us. The first two verses say:

⁵When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶“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 accept that Jesus gave this message, these are his words, but how are we to manage them? (1) Jesus could have spoken these words to predict his own crucifixion and resurrection. (2) He could be predicting the coming oppression of Rome and destruction of the Temple. (3) He could be offering a general observation on the fleeting and precarious nature of life on earth, or (4) perhaps the three gospel writers who composed this account after the destruction of the Temple harmonized the words of Jesus so the passage retained a connection to history as well as a spiritual or theological current underneath history. I lean towards the latter, because it helps me appreciate the rest of the verses. Let’s see how. (or if I can)

Next, the crowd (not just the disciples) question Jesus about when this will happen and get a thoroughly confusing reply. :

Does this sound familiar? Do you recall the questions about the Kingdom of Heaven and return of the Son of Man we talked about a few weeks ago? Jesus said then that we will only know the time of the Son of Man has come when it happens. Now Jesus is amplifying those comments, saying, “Yes terrible things will come (Jim Jones, people saying it's the end of the world and so on) but do not confuse or be misled by those things going on in the normal course of the world with what is really going on. We just has a Presidential election and isn’t this really the question on many people’s minds, “what is really going on?

Jesus gets more personal and direct as he begins to answer that question for us:

Paraphrasing, he says, “You will be arrested and persecuted, tried, hated betrayed even by family because you believe in me, but it will be an opportunity to testify.” The assurance in verses 13-15 is “don’t worry about getting ready for it, I will give you words and wisdom for a strong defense.”

If there was ever a “good news/bad news” message, this one is it. But let me ask you, how many of us have experienced people giving us a hard time because of what we hold as principles of our faith, have hesitated to voice our belief because we were uncertain of how it would be received? Have you ever experienced a mean spirited comment, or nasty posts on your Facebook page or blog, or even a veiled threat, for your belief.

Yet, in the greater scheme of things very few experience the persecution the early Christians faced.  This is not to say bad things do not happen to Christians. We all know about the Bible study group in South Carolina that took a young troubled man under their wing only to have him shoot and kill a number of them.

Bad things happen.

Think about the time that Luke wrote his gospel. Jerusalem was destroyed. Paul had already carried the good news into the Mediterranean, written his epistles to his new congregations and lived through angry accusations by Jews and Gentiles. He had been jailed and tried, beaten with rods and run out of town, and had probably already been executed in Rome by the emperor.  Do you remember Peter in a courtyard denying the accusation he is one of the followers of Jesus? The reality of it is that being a Christian is not always a walk in the rose garden. That more than anything emphasizes how important - and difficult - it is to share our grace, not judgment, with others. Let God do the judging.

The most perplexing and difficult part of this passage is the last two verses:

“Not a hair on your head will perish?” “By your endurance you will gain your souls?” What did Paul think about this as he was beaten, or as he was being executed?? What about Stephen in Acts who was stoned to death for his Christian faith by his fellow Jews?? What did people think back in 2013 when most of their friends walked out of this congregation because they objected to an interpretation of belief? This verse is troubling because it seems to conflict with experience, “not a hair will perish and by endurance we gain our souls…”

It is a difficult passage. However, Maybe Jesus intended it that way, to make us ask, “What is really going on?”

So, step back and consider these thoughts, if you will.  I said apocalyptic thought is a dangerous rabbit hole for a Christian because it encourages an inward focus that can lead to a loss of hope, and even confidence in God rather than being “in the world.”

Paul said we should be in the world not of the world. He said the “world of flesh” is at war with faith. In his language world of flesh does not mean sensual desires and temptations. The world of flesh is the entire fabric of our existence that child psychologists and neuroscientists say we learn by the time we are 3 y.o. The things we attach value, family, car, bicycle, job, all our likes and dislikes, our sense of morality are shaped before we are able to realize it. Some morality seems obvious such as feeding the hungry and helping the sick, but inside our self, there is always a conflict. Hardly any of us have avoided being greedy or indifferent about something. If you have changed your ideas about the morality or sense of justice about some things, you are showing how pervasive this world flesh is.

A lot of folks probably think the apocalypse is particularly relevant five days after our Presidential election. Some see this election as the only hope against a decaying world where their future is swirling around the sink drain descending into the sewer. As many, or maybe more see an affirmation of values they feel are repugnant, treating women as objects, fearing strangers and foreigners, having no restraint against lying or cheating business clients. Others are revolted by winner and loser as morally questionable people. The irony is many very good people hold each of these apocalyptic views wondering what is going on. This election magnifies the danger of apocalyptic thinking. It focusses us on the material things we may lose, or a stand against family and friends that invites social reprisal we may be forced to take. Frankly, all those feelings are going on in my own extended family.

This is my thought... We do not like to admit it but politics is essentially about power and protecting personal needs. We can point to many great positive accomplishments of our democratic republic, such as ending slavery, defeating Nazism, taking care of our elderly with social security and so on, but an honest look sees our feet of clay. A lot of damage has been done in the name of Christianity and freedom. Catholics and Protestants have killed each other over faith in the most brutal ways, rivaling anything ISIS has done. America sent Jews arriving at our harbors who escaped persecution in Germany back to the death camps in Germany during WWII. We defend the just things we have done but our detractors will point to unjust things done in good faith. If this election shows anything clearly, it is the deep seated divide in our country over economy, over race, and at its core over the values that define faith and justice... We are deceiving ourselves not to realize we all have feet of clay… It is easy to see why we are so infatuated with political stances that seem to point to end times - we look at the world and worry them than about what is really going on.

Have we overlooked the one important, life-giving message from the mouth of Jesus about what is really going on? Do you remember when the Sadducees confronted Jesus over the question of resurrection of a woman who had been married seven brothers under the Law?  Jesus reproached them and said, you have not read scripture, God is God of the living. God is God of the living.

We want to focus on the end time and the joy we will experience in his Kingdom. We longingly sing the old hymns, “In that great getting up morning” and, “When we all get to heaven.” They are beautiful hymns with a romantic sweetness that blinds us to the world outside are at times are a welcome diversion from all the painful things going on in the world. BUT God is the God of the living. …  This old world is where we live now, isn’t it? Sooner or later in God’s time the end of days will come, either after the prescribed number of our days, or those of this old world when the fulfillment of the Kingdom occurs.

The forces in the world whether good or evil will have their say and fight on until the end when they are overwhelmed by the Kingdom of God. “God is God of the living” is a message and promise about taking heart and enduring to the end.

Remember in Genesis 12, Abraham was called by God to leave his land and be a sojourner, a wandering stranger in other lands where he fathered Israel.  Later in 1 Samuel 8, the Israelites rejected the Lord and demanded a king through Samuel. The Lord granted them their wish warning them how unpleasant their worldly king will be: he will take you sons to fight wars, your daughters as his concubines, cooks and bakers, the best of your crops for the people who run his court, your fields and best of your livestock for himself, and you will be his slaves. Finally, the Lord reconciled with his creation, coming to earth in human form bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to walk the earth humbly with us as the ultimate sojourner, dying and rising to home.

Our Lord is the true King who calls us to be citizens of his Kingdom not the world’s. We are sojourners in this world living the life Jesus called us to live, to love God and neighbor all the while being building blocks for that Kingdom to come. We know that whatever becomes of today, not a hair on our head will be harmed because there is a home and we will return to it.

Maybe, that is really what is going on.

Amen