Luke 21:5-19 Malachi
4:1-2a
2 Thessalonians 3:5-13
When
I worked at Hospice, we had a saying you may have heard, “People die the way
the live.” If people were bossy in their life, they were often found
ordering everyone around on their death bed. If they were warm and
kind, they were the same as they were dying. If they were anxious,
they were often anxious about death. And if they were chill, they
often died peacefully.
When
we face difficulties in life, we all react in different ways depending on how
we were raised and our life experiences and sometimes our genetics and body
chemistry. Some people panic at the slightest thing, and some people
can’t be phased by anything. Some people tighten their control, and
other people give it to God. I think all of us would say, that our
Christian faith has helped us to accept some hardships and difficulties and not
to panic at any little warning or difficulty. We have a community at
Trinity, for one thing that helps us through hard times, forgives us, loves us,
helps us, and hopefully occasionally corrects us. And we have a
bigger story of God’s plans for building the Kingdom of God here on earth, a
more just, peaceful, loving world where everyone belongs and everyone’s gifts
are needed.
Today’s
readings might sound like a lot of bad news. Since we’re coming up
the end of the church year, the readings are getting more
intense. As we talk about the end of the year, we also consider
other endings: The end of the temple, the end of our own church buildings, wars
which end many lives, the ends of kingdoms and nations and empires,
earthquakes, famines, and plagues, natural disasters, persecutions, arrests,
betrayals, and even the end of friendships and family relationships.
The
readings don’t stop with all this bad news, though. They seem to say
there is a bigger picture and something more. The Gospel starts with
a cheerful comment, “Look at the beautiful temple!” But Jesus points
out this is temporary. It is nice, but it doesn’t
last. Then he goes on with a lot of what sounds like bad
news. Then at the very last he finishes with the real good news, “By
your endurance you will gain your souls.” There is something to be
gained that is permanent and matters and worthwhile. There is good
news!
In
the reading from Malachi, too, it’s a lot of bad news. “The day is
coming, burning, people will be stubble, burned up, without roots or
branches.” Bad, bad news. And then good news, “But, the
sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its
wings.” Whoa! There is a bigger picture, a longer journey
through pain and suffering and death, and the story goes on and because of our
relationship with God we know new life, and hope, and something lasting and
truly beautiful.
All
this bad news might also be seen as good news. That nations fall and
temples are destroyed and people are arrested, isn’t all bad
news. It is good news to any who have been oppressed by the nation,
who were kept in poverty because of that nation, who were required to jump
through impossible hoops. That a religious institution should fall
would be good news for those who were told by a twisted religion that they were
to blame for their illness and poverty, for those who were kept in ignorance of
the power structure so they could never challenge it or understand and share in
religion’s true liberating power. It isn’t that people want wars and
famines and earthquakes and crumbling nations and people to die, but since
these things do happen, can God make something new out of that, and give a
fresh start, give life to all the people instead of a few?
That
was the situation for Luke’s audience. They watched their temple
looted and burned. They watched wars and insurrections take the lives
of good and bad people. They had been betrayed and handed over by
family members. But they knew this was not the end of the
story.
The
good news for this morning is that God has a way of taking what we would call
an ending and making new life out of it. This is death and
resurrection. This is the story of the liberation of the slaves in
Egypt and bringing them through the wilderness to new life. This is
the story of Noah and the flood and the new life that flourished after with a
fresh start, not only for all people, plants, and animals, but with God
promising never to do that again. This is the story of the woman at
the well who was snubbed by everyone in town, and how when it seemed her life
was meaningless and hopeless, she met Jesus who told her everything she had
ever done.
Earthquakes—not
the end! War-- not the end! Betrayal---
not the end! Wildfires-- not the end! Nations falling-- not
the end! Government shutdowns-- not the end! Church roof leaks-- not the end! Death-- not
the end!
We
have God, the Trinity, which cannot be killed. This Gospel says that
people will cry out that it’s the end and they will say they have the
answers. Don’t listen to that. That makes more anxiety
and makes people do things in anxiety that are not the will of God. Some
people have misused this story to justify genocide in Gaza, to justify sending
arms that maim and kill, thinking God wants war. On the contrary, God is with those who are
suffering and urging everyone to lay down their arms in the city of peace,
Jerusalem, and indeed this whole world. Instead
of moving toward violence and anxiety, stay calm, and remember the God of new
life. Remember all the stories of God bringing the people through
crisis after crisis in the Bible. God is still doing that today. Be
calm and speak out on behalf of justice to bring good news to the suffering.
SNAP
benefits cut—not the end! We will pack
boxes for neighbors in need.
Veterans losing hope—not the end!
We provide places of support where people can meet and work through
their trauma.
Youth drawn in by online pornography—not the end! We give them opportunities to build community
together and find power to change society for the better.
There is grace and hope in our
Savior Jesus and we have the chance to practice that grace with ourselves and
our neighbors every day.
Late to a meeting-- not the end! Forgot
someone’s name-- not the end!
Had
a disagreement with a friend-- not the end! Lost my temper
with my kid-- not the end! The candles dripped wax all over the altar
cloth-- not the end!
Knowing these things are not the end, we are bold to proclaim the good
news and embody justice in our actions.
Even
divorce and terrible illness, pain, kids who have wandered from the church or
made one bad decision after the other, family members not speaking to each
other—it’s still not the end! God is on this painful journey with us
and there is still more of this journey to go. It’s not the end of
the story that God is still writing.
God
has written the end of that story and in that story all creation in heaven and
on earth are gathered together and united, nothing can separate us from the
love of God in Christ Jesus, all tears will be dried, all prodigal sons will
coming running home to dad, all the prison doors will spring open.
It
is wonderful to build beautiful places of worship and welcome and to use God’s
gifts to repair stained glass, as long as we remember that isn’t the point to
benefit mostly ourselves. God requires that we use the gifts that
God has let us borrow for a little while, to relieve the suffering of the
little people, the hurting people, the invisible people, the despised. I
do think you’ve got a good handle on that, Trinity, and I’m excited to enter
this time with you, that is in some ways an ending, the old year passing by,
all the endings, griefs and losses, all the hurts you’ve experienced here and
at other congregations, and looking at all of them and saying, that is not the
end. There is new life, there is hope, let’s see what good God is
doing, freeing, forgiving, loving, and forming into community.
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