23rd Sunday After Pentecost

 Luke 21:5-19, 2 Thess 3:6-13

This is the last Sunday of Ordinary time.  The very last Green Sunday of the year, we are drawing to a close our time of walking alongside Luke through his challenging world-changing teaching.  And so Luke, of course has to finish with a bang.  He is not letting us go easy is he?  Instead he goes out with one last big teaching for us about what it really means to follow Jesus in difficult times.  And once again it feels oddly timely even if it is also really ominous.

Because today Luke tells us a story about how the world is coming to an end.  But not really.  In our gospel from Luke today, Jesus flips the traditional apocalyptic discourse on its head and talks about how the world is not actually coming to an end.  No matter how much it might feel like it to his followers. 

It starts with the disciples feeling good about themselves, admiring the beauty of the temple that the Jewish people, maybe some of the disciples themselves had built with their own hands as a dwelling place of God.  And then Jesus is suddenly like naw I’m going to break all this.  And he meant it. 

For you see, by the time that Luke finally sat down to pen his Gospel and Paul set out to send his second letter over to the church in Thessalonica that we also heard today the world was a fundamentally different place, then when Jesus first said these words. Right about this time, there was a wave of apocalyptic fervor that swept through the whole of the civilized world.  They all really thought that the world was coming to an end.

And for good reason.  In Israel, as a result of the great Jewish revolt, the magnificent newly completed Jerusalem temple from our story, the sign of God’s presence on earth, set to stand for 1000 years was utterly destroyed.  Meanwhile, continued uprisings and rebellions throughout the region lead to persecution and instability.  Elsewhere in the empire, there was a massive volcanic eruption at Pompei that wiped out whole cities and brought on strange weather and drought and famine in Greece and across the Mediterranean.  Much of the city of Rome burned to the ground and a terrifying new plague was sweeping through the empire.  Surely these must have been signs that the world was coming to an end, that civilization was failing or that God was abandoning them.

And haven’t we all had those moments where we feel like the world is coming to an end?  I mean the news right now is certainly not helping.  This is indeed a precarious moment for this county and many who dwell within it.  But even beyond that, it doesn’t always take always take global events to make us feel like our own world is coming to an end.  A three word medical diagnosis, the death or illness of a loved one, the loss of a job or the end of a relationship can create just a strong of a sense of fear and loss as a major news event.

Yet Jesus comes to us in these disorienting times with words of comfort.  “The end is not yet.”  Yes, there will be wars and earthquakes and plagues and disasters, and trials and persecutions and even death.  But these are not signs that the world is coming to an end or that God is punishing or abandoning us.

These trials large and small are an inevitable part of life, they are a part of the suffering that sin has brought into the world, a suffering that Jesus entered into fully and freely.  Suffering happens, nations rise and fall, institutions come and go, people are born and die, change happens and sometimes it is very painful.

And Jesus knows this.  He is right there suffering alongside humanity.  The life of faith is not about whether or not we will suffer or face challenges but how we respond to them.  And how we care for one another when these challenges arise.  For in that we do truly have a choice.

A choice illustrated by Paul’s letter to the church in Thessalonica.  The church there was having a very hard time.  They had recently become the targets of a great persecution.  And when this happened, it seems like the church split into 2 groups, those who despaired, quit working, hoarded resources and waited to see if someone else would fix it, and those who responded the way that Paul had instructed them in his first letter, by working hard, caring for one another and staying firm in prayer no matter what happens.

And this is a message that remains as relevant as ever, even in our own times.  Because Paul exhorts us as Christians, whenever our community or those among us become imperiled, whenever we face the inevitable trials and dangers of life, to choose the better path, to join in, bear one another’s burdens and share the work of the kingdom.  Because in the church in Thessalonica, just like in the gospel of Luke and for us today, the world is not coming to an end, no matter how much it feels like it.  And so therefore neither is our obligation to care for our brothers and sisters and to love our neighbor as ourselves.

And in the end, these times of difficulty are often actually opportunities to go deeper and reach new ground in our faith.  For Jesus promises his disciples and all of us that in times of trouble no matter how extreme, all we need do is listen for Jesus, and he will give us what we need.

And so we cling in the end to the very last line of the Gospel. “But not a hair of your head will perish.” Not one of you will be lost.  We worship a God of death and resurrection.  Who enters into our suffering and loss.  Who walks alongside us in times of trouble and tribulation.  Who joins us even in death.  And who bring us into new life.

Strong faith and membership in a Christian community doesn’t guarantee that you will not face trials and tribulations, in fact in certain ways it invites them, but it does guarantee that you will never face them alone.  Jesus promises that he will give you the words and wisdom to face any opponent and that he can and will create faith and hope even where there seems to be no chance.

For no matter how bad it gets, the world is not coming to an end, and even when it does end, it will only be to make room for the glorious reign of Christ.  Amen.