Proper 28

Preparation

         Please begin by reading Luke 21:5-19 in your Bible. If you do not have one at hand, we have provided that text for you at the end of this reflection.

Reflection--Waiting

   I have some strong points, or at least I hope that I do, but patience is not always one of them.   But patience is at the heart of this week’s lesson from Jesus.  It is a theme that fits as we draw still closer to the end of one church year and begin to think about the next one that is rapidly approaching.  For the new church year will start, as always, with the celebration of Advent.  And Advent is a time of preparing our hearts not only to remember the first time that Jesus came, in the manger in Bethlehem, but also to anticipate the time that he will come again to defeat evil in the world and put things right.  

As much as any time in history, things desperately need to be put right.  Every day brings fresh images of chaos and suffering.  We see bodies torn by war and suicide bombings.  There have been innocent school children slaughtered by those who have the twisted notion that this somehow promotes God’s will.  We see peaceful villages destroyed and their people become homeless, or worse, just because the people who lived in them were not of the “right” tribe or belief.  Thousands starve daily in a world where food is abundant.  We see nature destroyed in the interest of greed.  We see people spewing hatred for others whose only “crime” is that they are not exactly like them. 

In such times it is all too easy to give in to despair.  “Where are you God?” we cry.  “How can this be?  How can such suffering be allowed to continue?”

And yet Jesus warns us that such times are inevitable.  "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.  … 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.”

The ancient struggle between good and evil grinds on.  Early Christians could read the signs.  They lived to see the temple at Jerusalem destroyed, just as Jesus said it would.  They also lived to see the terrible Roman persecution of Christians Jesus’ words foreshadowed.  But where are the signs for us who live in that great middle ground of history between Jesus’ first arrival on earth long ago and his future return?  What are we to do?  How are we to hold on?

It is a difficult problem.  And we are warned against those, like some of the modern televangelists, who offer too-easy answers.  “"Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!'  Do not go after them.”

I have no such easy answers.  For in the end the only thing to cling to is faith.  God’s time is not my time.  I must simply trust that God is working things out as the days march on.  And somehow I know that is true.  For if I allow myself to look beyond the great evil and suffering, God lets me have a glimpse of the many places where love wins out in ways small and great.  

I come again to those magnificent words from last week’s passage from Job.  “I know that my Redeemer lives, and that in the end will stand upon the earth.  And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God; I myself will see God with my own eyes – I, and not another.   How my heart yearns within me!”

I do not understand the why of it, but there is that promise.  “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

revclay

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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.” 

They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”  And he said, “Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and, ‘The time is near!’  Do not go after them. 

“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.” [NRSV]