There’s just something about the end of the world that makes it come up over and over again. Every summer, it seems, there’s at least one “blockbuster” end-of-the world disaster movie. And every November, in the church’s cycle of scripture, there’s at least one end-of-the-world gospel story. Like, for example, today. It’s one the special-effects crews would have a field day with.
The scene starts with the beauty and marvel of the Temple in Jerusalem – wonderful workmanship, and gorgeous decoration. But swiftly the emphasis shifts to destruction and calamity: not a stone of the building will be left on another; earthquakes and wars and insurrections and lawlessness and…. well, you’ve probably seen one of those movies.
Last week, Frank Samela called me to announce that certain parts of our very own buildings were auditioning for disaster: crumbling concrete, and a part of the rectory foundation ready for stone to slip from on top of stone.
Of course, the first question I asked him was, “When will this be? Should I be packing up the office?”
And Frank explained: Teams of workmen spent this last week tuckpointing at the rectory and repairing concrete in our driveway and stairs. (Yes, it is safe for you to move normally around the building)
When I asked, Frank didn’t tell me when; he told me what we were going to do about it.
And, in that, he’s more like Jesus than he probably realizes.
Everyone’s natural reaction to hearing Jesus announce that the Temple will be torn stone from stone is to ask When??
And Jesus never answers when. Instead, he describes what to do: how we are to respond to God, no matter when:
Do not follow false teachers.
Do not be terrified.
Make up your minds to testify to God, in the midst of disaster.
But don’t prepare your testimony in advance, because it is Jesus who will show you what to say.
Waiting for the end is not just for pessimists with a basement full of canned goods. It's the everyday task of Christian living. And there are better and worse ways to do it - we heard today Paul's worries about the Thessalonians' method of waiting: apparently another teacher has told them that in a world near the end, they should party like it's 1999. So he reminds them of the way Jesus teaches us to live:
Be faithful.
Be confident.
Above all be witnesses for God and the gospel, not by eloquence, but by listening for Christ.
Now, if you’re like most of the people I’ve been talking to lately, you don’t really have time for the world to end this November.
We’re busy.
But over the last couple thousand years of Christian life, it’s become clear that the end of the world comes in more than one way.
There are little apocalypses that surround us now.
Cancer. Job loss. Broken relationships in our families. Wars and earthquakes. Little apocalypses that end not the earth, but certainly life as we know it. Challenges that become disasters if they lead us to forget either who we are, or whose we are.
And neither Jesus, nor the economic pundits, nor the doctors, nor anyone else can tell us when they’ll come. But Jesus does, always, tell us what to do, and how to respond.
Be faithful.
Be confident in God.
and be ready to be witnesses for Christ.
Jesus doesn’t promise us the resources to survive unscathed,
but instead the resources to proclaim the gospel, to shine with God’s good news in the midst of the world’s biggest mess.
And whether the end of the world comes all at once, or in local apocalypses, over and over, you and I are who God chooses to testify to God’s good news.
I have been listening lately to the words of the gospel that Jesus has given to this particular community – to Calvary, in the middle of all the little apocalypses of illness and loss – and this is what I have heard:
In the heart of our identity is the good news of God’s compassion.
We are never more Calvary than when we are feeding and visiting one another in times of struggle.
Never more ourselves than when we pour out compassion in the form of mosquito nets to combat malaria, or school uniforms to help lift girls and boys out of chronic poverty.
Those actions are what Jesus gives us to say to a world that loses hope.
And God has given us two very powerful words that come up over and over again at Calvary: Thank you.
I hear Thanks-Giving in Vestry meetings, ordinary conversations, and Sunday School classes. Thanks to one another, and thanks to God for the abundance of God’s gifts, and for hearing our prayer. In fact, we’re building our budget for next year not on “here’s what we need,” but on “thank you very much!”
Those two words are what Jesus gives us to say to a world driven by fear and need.
And, at Calvary, we also know something about joy.
In prayer and in scripture, we are reminded that the time of God’s coming in final judgment is not just about earthquakes and disaster. It is also about healing and peace.
We are reminded of that today in the vision of the prophet Isaiah: God’s promise to create earth and heaven new, to vanish the burdens of error and violence and grief and greed that have scarred our relationships with God, with one another, and with all creation, and to renew God’s people in health and blessing, and especially joy.
When I hear that vision – even more than when I hear about earthquakes and crumbling stones – I can’t help but ask “when?”
How soon, God, will that new creation come?
But the answer is the same: not a timetable, but a guide.
Be faithful.
Be confident in God.
And above all, be ready to be a witness for God’s good news.
In the new creation, the token of that good news is our joy.
The radiant joy that God has in us shines through us, as God’s invitation to all the world.
In world ending disaster, in little, life-changing apocalypses, and in paradise, God calls on us as witnesses: Faithful, confident, and above all, hearing and sharing the good news that Jesus gives us, radiating joy.
We practice that here at Calvary, so that whenever the end of the world comes, in disaster or in new creation, we are already doing what God calls us to do.
God’s witnesses,
by compassion, and gratitude, and joy;
now, and whenever.
Amen.
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