Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost

Luke 21:5-19 

I don’t know why, but I was surprised when I went to the grocery store last week and there were candy canes and Christmas decorations. Halloween was two weeks ago and seemingly overnight, while the trick or treaters were sprawled on the living room floors at home, trading for their favorite sweets,

the stores got ready for Christmas,

bypassing the whole month of November,

when the focus is on gratitude and giving thanks for the abundant life we have.

So, in today’s gospel, when I heard Jesus admonish his followers, “Beware that you are not led astray” I heard a warning, urging us not to get swept up in worldly distractions. Don’t get distracted by the bright lights, the tinsel and the ornaments; they’re beautiful and festive, but they are not our focus.  

Let’s remember where we are in Luke’s gospel. In the previous chapter, the religious leaders questioned Jesus’ authority and Jesus responded, calling out the teachers who “devour widows’ houses” (20:47).  

This chapter began with a scene where we witnessed a widow offering “all she had to live on” (21:4) And then Jesus rebuffed the Sadducees when they tried to trap him with a question about the resurrection.

Jesus has been telling his followers how the systems and institutions are imperfect and demonstrating how they exploit some of their most vulnerable neighbors, and still, here, in today’s gospel, when the disciples and he are outside the temple, they are gushing about its rich façade and splendor, impressed by the temple’s grandeur and outward appearance.

And instead of echoing their praise,

Jesus tells them it’s all about to fall and be destroyed.

We can imagine their shock and surprise.

Their panic.

The urgency they may have felt to stop what now appeared inevitable. 

Just as Jesus’ announcement may have prompted panic and urgency in his audience, today’s news and headlines often carry a “drumbeat of finality” that appears to demand an immediate response.[i]

It’s not a new experience.

Twentieth century theologian and author Howard Thurman told a story about Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Truth that went back to the early 1850s.[ii]

Frederick Douglass was born into slavery around 1818 in Maryland. He escaped in 1838 and eventually made his way to New York. He became a famous orator, writer and statesman.[iii]

Born into slavery in 1797 as Isabella Bomfree, Truth’s freedom was bought in 1827. By the early 1830s, she participated in the religious revivals that were sweeping the state and became a charismatic speaker. In 1843, she declared that the Spirit called on her to preach the truth, renaming herself Sojourner Truth.[iv]

A year after the Fugitive Slave Act of 1850 had emboldened slave catchers and abolitionists were filled with despair, Douglass addressed an antislavery meeting. He delivered a bleak and somber assessment and wondered aloud whether there was any hope left for justice. It was at this point that Sojourner Truth, sitting in the audience rose and called out,

“Frederick, is God gone?”[v]

I believe that, like Sojourner Truth in her question to Frederick Douglass, Jesus is calling us back to the center,

helping us focus on God’s kingdom among us,

on what God is doing in the world with us and through us.

Our world is hurting.

There are real problems that should concern us and that as Christians we are called to respond to with compassion and love.

But we do not despair.

Lutheran pastor Kendra Mohn writes,

There is really no such thing as getting through unscathed. The question is how people of faith are to respond, and where we find our refuge.[vi]

In his essay titled “Every Day is not the Last Day”, pastor and executive director of The Ministry Collaborative, Mark Ramsey asks the question we wrestle with in tumultuous times:

How do faith communities hold both urgency and patience, responding to real crises without succumbing to perpetual crisis mode?[vii]

Jesus says that the temple’s destruction and all that will come before and after, will give the people “an opportunity to testify.” (v. 15) The word “testimony” means telling what we have seen.

It is bearing witness to our experience.

And before we can express our doubts about our eloquence or whether our words will matter, Jesus also says,

“I will give you words and a wisdom” (v. 16)

In these circumstances, our testimony will be inspired or given to us by God.

Remember that Luke’s gospel was written after the actual fall of the temple, so rather than hearing these words as harbingers of what is coming, Jesus is saying these things to help us understand what has happened, to make meaning of things that seem to defy reason and understanding.

Wesleyan minister Patrick Oden writes:

The destruction was not evidence of God’s rejection and disfavor. Rather, it was the fulfillment of God’s plan… What might bring terror should result instead in trust: Jesus said these things would happen.[viii]

That is Good News!

Martin Luther is often quoted as saying, “Even if I knew the world were going to end tomorrow, I would still plant an apple tree today.” Although the words haven’t been found in his writings or those of his peers, they nonetheless bear witness to the hopefulness that endures in our faith.

Ramsey, again, encourages us to “[act] with steady confidence that tomorrow is coming, and it will need faithful people who built wisely today.”[ix]

I wonder, how God might be inviting you to hope, beyond what your eyes see?

How will you give testimony or bear witness to God’s transforming presence and love in your life?

Even as we recognize challenges in our congregation, community and world, we also have opportunities to respond with compassion and love.

To have a holy imagination for what God is doing in our lives and through our words and actions.

And to sustain our hope because even when the news is bad, or things feel like they are falling apart,

God’s steadfast love for us will not go away.

Thanks be to God.

[i] Mark Ramsey, The Ministry Collective.

[ii] ibid

[iii] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Douglass

[iv] https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/sojourner-truth

[v] Ramsey, ibid.

[vi] Kendra A. Mohn, workingpreacher.org

[vii] Ramsey, ibid.

[viii] Patrick Oden. Connections: A Lectionary Commentary Series. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2019.

[ix] Ramsey, ibid.

Vigésimo Segundo Domingo despues de Pentecostés

I first preached this sermon in Spanish; the English translation is below.

Lucas 20:27-38

Oremos… Que las palabras de mi boca y las meditaciones de nuestros corazones sean agradables a tus ojos, Señor, nuestra fortaleza y nuestro redentor. Amén.

Leyendo el evangelio de hoy, tan pronto después de la temporada de Halloween, con casas embrujadas y sustos, me dan ganas de gritar:

“¡Es una trampa!”,

para advertir a Jesús que se aleje de los saduceos.

Los saduceos eran líderes religiosos que se aferraban a la Torá —los primeros cinco libros de la Biblia— y no creían en la resurrección. Sin embargo, aquí le preguntan a Jesús sobre la resurrección.

No están haciendo preguntas porque quieran aprender de él; en realidad, le preguntan para tenderle una trampa y que diga algo con lo que puedan contradecirlo y desacreditarlo.

Cuando Martín Lutero escribió su catecismo, solía presentar una idea y luego preguntaba: “¿Qué significa esto?”. Eso es lo que hace Jesús aquí. Básicamente les dice a los saduceos: “Muy bien, si quieren hablar de la resurrección, esto es lo que significa”.

Jesús no cae en su trampa. En cambio, utiliza una historia del Éxodo,

de la Torá,

de las Escrituras que los saduceos afirman como autoridad.

Jesús les recuerda que cuando Moisés se encontró con la zarza ardiente, oyó la voz de Dios, y Dios dijo: “Yo soy el Dios de tu padre, el Dios de Abraham, el Dios de Isaac y el Dios de Jacob” (Éxodo 3:6). En el evangelio, Jesús argumenta que Dios no habría incluido a Abraham, Isaac y Jacob, todos muertos, a menos que estuvieran vivos para Dios (Stoffregen). Nuestra lectura termina con Jesús diciendo: “Él no es Dios de muertos, sino de vivos, porque para él todos viven” (20:38).

La promesa de la resurrección es que resucitaremos a una nueva vida en Cristo después de la muerte. Será una plenitud de vida que no podemos comprender con términos o ideas terrenales, lo cual es una de las razones por las que la pregunta que le hicieron a Jesús es tan absurda.

Al leer el Evangelio tan pronto después del fin de semana pasado, con motivo del Día de Todos los Santos, el Día de los Fieles Difuntos y el Día de los Muertos, soy muy consciente del vínculo especial que existe entre nuestras vidas y las de nuestros seres queridos que nos precedieron. Estos vínculos especiales son aquellos lugares donde podemos reconocer con mayor facilidad lo sagrado en nuestras vidas. A veces son lugares físicos, como la comunidad de Iona en Escocia, o un laberinto de oración. Pero creo que otras veces son momentos, lugares en el tiempo, como hoy, que celebramos el bautizo de Isael Andrés Solano.

Hoy estamos reunidos con todos los santos, incluyendo a su abuela Ana y a su bisabuelo Salatiel.

Esa es una de las imágenes que más valor del Día de los Muertos: que los santos de todos los tiempos anteriores están reunidos con nosotros. Juntos celebramos el don de la fe que Isael recibe de Dios, y nos regocijamos de que su fe, sembrada por sus antepasados, crezca aquí en nuestra comunidad, con sus padres, padrinos, familia, amigos y la Iglesia.

Al hacer promesas a Isael, a Josué y a Lilliana, reafirmamos nuestro compromiso de ser una comunidad que da vida, donde la fe está viva y se manifiesta en el amor.

¡Gracias a Dios!

Luke 20:27-38

Reading today’s gospel so soon after “spooky season” with haunted houses and scary tricks, I want to scream, “It’s a trap!”,

to warn Jesus away from the Sadducees.

The Sadducees were religious leaders who adhered to the Torah – the first five books of the Bible – and did not believe in the resurrection. And yet, here, they ask Jesus a question about the resurrection.

They aren’t asking questions because they want to learn from him; instead, they are asking trying to trap Jesus into saying something so they can disagree with him and discredit him.

When Martin Luther wrote his catechism, he would introduce an idea and then he would ask, “What does this mean?” That’s what Jesus does here. Basically he says to the Sadducees, “Okay, if you want to talk about the resurrection, this is what it means.”

Jesus doesn’t fall into their trap. Instead, he uses a story from Exodus,

from the Torah,

from the Scripture the Sadducees affirm.

Jesus reminds them that when Moses encountered the burning bush, he heard God speak, and God said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” (Exodus 3:6) In the gospel, Jesus argues that God wouldn’t have included Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, all of whom had died, unless they were alive to God. (Stoffregen) Our reading ends with Jesus saying, “he is God not of the dead but of the living, for to him all of them are alive.” (20:38)

The resurrection promise is that we will be raised to new life in Christ after death. It will be a fullness of life that we cannot understand in earthly terms or ideas, which is one of the reasons why the question asked of Jesus is so absurd.

Reading the gospel so soon after last weekend’s All Saints Day, All Souls Day and Día de los Muertos, I am keenly aware of the “thin place” between our lives and the beloved people who lived before us. Thin places are those places where we can more readily recognize the holy in our lives. Sometimes they are physical places, like the community of Iona in Scotland, or a prayer labyrinth. But I think other times they are moments, places in time, like today, when we are celebrating the baptism of Isael Andres Solano.

Today, we are gathered with all the saints, including his grandmother Ana and his great-grandfather Salatiel. That is one of the images I cherish from Día de los Muertos; that the saints from all the times before us are gathered with us. Together we celebrate the gift of faith that Isael is receiving from God, and we rejoice that his faith, planted by his ancestors, will be nurtured here in our community, with his parents, godparents, family and friends and the church.

As we make promises to Isael and to Josue and Lilliana, we are affirming our commitment to be a life-giving community where faith is alive and active in love.

Thanks be to God.