EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 2.5 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and the deepening of my theological mind. This sermon originally took place on Nov. 17, 2019.
Well, wasn’t that an ominous gospel reading!
I don’t know if any of you look ahead to the week’s gospel test before you come to church here on Sundays, but as I studied this text this week, I thought to myself, “Now what do we do with that?”
Jesus’s words here … are a prime example of the Bible’s apocalyptic language, which you can find throughout the Old and New Testaments.
And, just in case you haven’t come across that term before, apocalyptic essentially means the end times. … When the existence of our time here on earth will end.
Because, after all, in this particular passage, that IS what Jesus is talking about. … The end times.
I’m sure that each of you is familiar with such end-times talk, as it's one of the facets of the scriptures that Hollywood loves to obsess about.
You can’t go one summer blockbuster movie season without a big budget doomsday action adventure starring one of the Hollywood A-listers. … All of them are just a variation of the theme of the end times.
And, you may remember, about 20 years ago, Christian fiction authors Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins were vaulted into the mainstream of the fiction world with their “Left Behind” book series. … Some of you may have even read them. They were very, very popular.
And every few years, you see a preacher somewhere make the news because he is convinced that he knows when the end time is. … He convinces his congregation that he has seen the signs and he knows when Jesus is coming back.
This is usually followed by some 24/7 media coverage, in addition to the usual snickering by those outside of Christianity … and inevitably by a massive letdown for the preacher and congregation when the predicted time passes without devastation.
Nonetheless, our fascination with the end times persist. … Because, naturally, for us as Christians, we know that the end times means the return of Jesus Christ … our savior. And who wouldn’t be excited about that!
So, I think it’s natural for us to be a bit obsessed by scripture passages such as the gospel today. … I think it’s easy to understand how such a passage can capture our imagination so easily.
But that doesn’t make it less frightening, does it?
So, just what do we do with it … and all the other apocalyptic texts in the Bible.
Well, first, I think we need to understand the place that apocalyptic literature had in the 1st century. … Remember, this was a very oralistic, storytelling culture at this point, and the scientific revolution that would sweep the world and help us to better understand this vastly complex and mysterious plant on which we live wouldn't take place for another 1,500 years or so.
So the people of the Middle East had, for thousands of years, developed a storytelling culture to explain the natural world around them.
And in a world that was so fraught with danger, this people developed stories that helped them make sense of many of the natural phenomena around them, especially the really bad things like earthquakes and plagues and wards.
In addition, part of making sense of the world had to do with explaining how it all would end. … Because, naturally, if there were a beginning to this world -- just take a quick peak back at Genesis -- well, then, it only made sense that there would be an end to the world as well, right?
Just like every other culture around the globe, the Jewish people wandering around the Middle East developed their own apocalyptic literature to help explain the end of the world. … I mean, just take a look at the book of Revelation, if you need a prime example of what I am talking about.
So, that is the first point about today’s scripture that is important to remember. … The Jews of the Middle East, developed apocalyptic stories to help them make sense of a world they really didn’t understand. … Just as every other culture of the same time period did.
The same way our Hollywood machine of today capitalizes on our fear of how this modern world will end, the storytellers of the 1st century Middle East did the same thing.
And for good reason: The apocalyptic stories gave the people some kind of explanation about the end of their world. And even though they might have been frightening stories, they were better than having no answers at all.
So, even if apocalyptic stories such as these were commonplace among the Jews, and were used for the purpose of helping them make sense of a really complex world, then what do we do with these stories today? … In 2019?
Well, despite our vastly improved scientific understanding of this natural world, it turns out that we still don’t have it all figured out. ... And there are many who would capitalize on such fear-mongering to further own careers, whether it be in the entertainment industry … or in the pulpit.
“So, OK,” you might be thinking to yourself, “What do we do with this kind of apocalyptic storytelling then? Especially being that Jesus, himself, uses it when he is taking with the disciples here?”
Well … I would suggest that we do with it what Jesus does with it in this particular passage. … I suggest we take it for the symbolism that it provided Jesus in the 1st century, the same as it does for us in the 21st century.
Jesus begins this particular lesson talking about the Jews’ beloved Temple, which was built hundreds of years before Jesus walked the earth. … And this thing was massive.
The stories in the Bible tell us that the blocks used to build it were so massive that mortar was unnecessary to hold it together. … Sheer weight was enough.
And so, in today’s gospel, when Jesus begins to tell his disciples that, yes, even one day that massive structure that seems indestructible will be gone, he is trying to capture their attention.
But, like we so often do even today, the disciples entirely miss Jesus’s point.
Instead of grasping that Jesus is trying to tell them that everything here is temporary, even their treasured temple, the disciples do what? … They beg to know when this destruction will happen?
“Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this about to take place?” … A perfectly natural human question, right?
But I can only imagine Jesus doing one of these … (face palm to the forehead!) … Because how many times have you wanted to do just that when you were trying to explain something to someone who just wasn’t getting it?
I imagine that this is exactly how Jesus is feeling in this moment. … I can picture him being like: “Well, yes, that will happen. … The temple will fall, as will all other early things will, but follow me here,” he would say. “Are you listening?” …
“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.”
Jesus is telling the disciples -- and us -- that instead of worrying about the “when,” which is so like our nature, that more importantly, when we feel that the end times are upon it, it is exactly the opportune time to testify.
So, instead of getting caught up in the act of identifying the signs of the end times, just practice our faith and so others how it carries us through.
“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified,” Jesus says in the gospel, “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 Jesus says it gets even worse: “(B)efore 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.”
And then he really pours it on: “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.”
Well, that’s not exactly a comforting thought for any of us who are believers, is it?
But the good news is that Jesus tells us to hold fast. … Be resolute in our faith. … Even to testify.
Because even when all the earthly things -- the Holy Temple included -- are crumbling around you, it gives you the opportunity to testify to others about your faith in Christ. To show the world your resolve because of your faith.
And what does Jesus -- and thus God -- promise us in return: “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
I don’t know about you, but after the week our family has had, I can tell you this message comes at a very good time.
Because the cornerstone all of us Brooks children have had in our lives for the past 65 years is showing that she is after all human, and her human body is failing her. … And this revelation to us is just as devastating as the revelation to Jesus’s disciples that their beloved temple would not stand forever either.
But where I take solace is Jesus’s reminder that this is our time to testify. … Even in the midst of this revelation that our mother -- our family temple -- will eventually succumb to this earthly world, this is the time that we all need to lean on this precious faith our mother has passed on to us for the past six decades and testify.
And in return, God promises that not a hair on our heads will perish, and that through our endurance we will gain our souls. … And today, of all days, I find that very comforting. …
That is the good news for this Sunday. … Amen.
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