Isaiah 65:17-25
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
As a girl, I occasionally watched the original “Let’s Make a Deal,” with Monty Hall. I haven’t seen any of the more recent spin offs. Memories of the show popped into my head as I was considering this week’s sermon. On a day when our collect commends “all holy Scripture” to us for our learning, I was not excited about preaching on any of the lessons. Between the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah, the epistle from second Thessalonians and Luke’s gospel I felt like the contestants randomly picked Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3.
And I might ask you, for your sermon today would you like Door #1, Door #2 or Door #3? On the game show, the contestants don’t know, of course, what’s hidden behind the doors. We have equally little control over the readings that are presented to us by the lectionary on a given Sunday. A lot of thought has gone into the development of the lectionary, however. And I have said before, and would say again even today, one of the great strengths of a set lectionary is that it forces us to deal with passages in Scripture we might rather avoid. So let’s look behind each of the doors.
Behind door #1 we have a reading from what is often called Third Isaiah. The Biblical book we call Isaiah is a compilation of several writers. It’s a glorious image of new heavens and a new earth: Jerusalem (!) a joy with no more weeping. No more infant mortality or premature death. No more hunger. No more hurtfulness or destruction. And the wolf and the lamb will feed together. Glorious, yes, but about a realistic as me winning the grand prize on a game show. How can I preach this vision when it is so far from the reality of the world we live in?
Behind door #2 is a doozy of a stewardship sermon. Maybe it’s a good thing the vestry did not specifically charge me with a stewardship sermon this year. This isn’t one I’d really like to preach. Writing to the Christians in Thessalonica, Paul is very critical of people whom he calls idle busybodies. And to the Christian community, he says: “keep away from believers who are living in idleness and not according to the tradition that they received from us.” In this passage, Paul is not talking about withholding government entitlements, although some have interpreted it that way. He’s talking about people who don’t pledge… The context is the common life and mission of the Christian community. Paul is talking about folks who do not offer their talents and the fruits of their labor for the support and mission of the Christian community.
Moving on to door #3. This passage from Luke’s gospel is meant to be reassuring. People are worried about the end times. And Luke offers Jesus’ words of assurance. You don’t need to worry about the end of time. Before it comes there will be wars and insurrections, great earthquakes, famines and plagues, and dreadful portents from heaven. Don’t worry. Before the end times, you will be arrested and persecuted and betrayed by your family… Don’t worry.
We’ve got one more week of this before Advent!
So which sermon would you like? Door #1, door #2, or door #3?
On a day when the collect does encourage us to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest Holy Scripture, let’s spend a little more time with each lesson.
There is a theme. The future determines how we live in the present. That’s hard to put into practice, but it’s the Christian perspective. God’s hope for us, God’s promise to us affects how we live today. We are sustained and motivated, in the present, not by what we have been, but by what we can become.
In reading on these passages I learned something that helps with the Isaiah passage. It is a hymn exalting the temple rather than strict prophecy. One commentator writes: “The motifs in the text are ones found in other ancient Near Eastern texts that exalted temples. Temples were viewed as the residence of the deity; in other words, built metaphors that symbolized their belief that their god was in their midst. Temple hymns viewed the earthly temple as a derivative of the deity’s true residence in heaven.” Worshiping in the temple, people encounter the heavenly vision. Within worship they see and experience God’s desire for God’s people and for creation.
So, looking again at Isaiah, people know that when they are working to reduce hunger and infant mortality, they are doing God’s work, they are helping God’s desire come to fruition.
The wolf and the lamb may never feed together in the natural world around us, but whenever we work for reconciliation between people for whom enmity has become a seemingly inevitable way of life, we are working for the fulfillment of God’s desire, bringing wolf and lamb together. I can think of quite a few examples of people in our contemporary world for whom enmity has become a way of life:
- Israeli and Palestinian.
- Al Qaida and American.
- (This is not a joke.) Tea party and liberal democrat.
- Rival gangs in Chicago.
- Estrangements within some families.
Moving on to Second Thessalonians. We don’t really know who the idle busybodies were or why they were disrupting and/or not contributing to the mission of the Christian community. Maybe they thought the end was near and assumed there was no need to tend to the present. Paul is very clear: the end is not an excuse for idleness; it is motivation to greater intensity. An awareness of the future end or fulfillment of time should encourage Christians to take more seriously the Christian life and community. If the future on our horizon is not about juggling this week’s calendar or the stresses of the holiday, but rather is about the second coming… well all of a sudden the Christian life and supporting and living that life within the Christian community shoots up quite a few notches on the priority scale. And the thing is, for us today, making the Christian life and support of the Christian community higher priorities will help with all of those other things.
And Jesus in Luke’s Gospel simply says, persevere. Perseverance is a Christian virtue. The Gospel was written after the fall of the temple in a time of trial for the early Christians. What Jesus predicts in Luke has already happened. Jesus says: I have not abandoned you. Persevere. “By your endurance you will gain your souls.” At least for me, this phrase does not mean that by enduring we will earn salvation. It is based in the presence. As we endure, we will grow our souls. Endurance nurtures and strengthens the soul. But a vision and promise of God’s future kingdom helps motivate endurance.
These weeks at the end of the church year have the potential to powerfully inspire us. They urge us to look forward, and to live in ways that bring God’s future into the present. That’s really what living faithfully is all about. To be sustained and motivated, in the present, not by what we have been, but by what we can become.
