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.
No comments:
Post a Comment