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This week I ran across a quote from a magazine article that is right on. "It is a gloomy moment in the history of our country. Not in the lifetime of most [people] has there been so much grave and deep apprehension; never has the future seemed so incalculable as at this time. The domestic economic situation is in chaos. Our dollar is weak throughout the world. Prices are so high as to be utterly impossible. The political cauldron seethes and bubbles with uncertainty. It is a solemn moment.... No [one] can see the end."Now was that in this week's issue of Time or was it Newsweek? Well, no...actually those words were first published in Harper's Weekly in October 1857. I guess the "good news" is that bad news isn't really new at all! It's certainly clear from today's Scripture reading that bad things happen in every age. And the kinds of things that happen throughout the ages are astoundingly similar.
Listen to some of these words again: "The day will come when one stone won't be left on top of another – everything will be torn down." (World Trade Center!) "...wars and insurrections...nation will rise against nation, and empire against empire." (Seen the news lately?) "There will be great earthquakes, plagues and famine in various places..." (Ever seen the news?) "...and in the sky there will be frightening omens..." (American Airlines, Flight 587).
These particular words, of course, didn't actually reference these contemporary events we're familiar with. In today's passage, Jesus is describing what many have called "the end times." But in order to understand this reading from the Gospel according to St. Luke, we need to consider a couple of things. We need to know when Jesus spoke these words. And we need to know when Luke wrote the Gospel account in which Jesus spoke these words.
Jesus spoke these words of warning about widespread destruction and persecution around the year 30 A.D. He said that the temple in Jerusalem, with all its beauty and adornment, would be so utterly destroyed that not one stone would be left upon another. Then he spoke about wars, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, about great earthquakes, famines and plagues, and dreadful signs from heaven.
For the people listening to him, this was hard to imagine. Of course, they knew very well how harsh the occupying Roman government could be, and they knew that sometimes nations waged bitter war against each other. But the total destruction of the temple in Jerusalem was hard for them to visualize. After all, the temple was well-constructed, and the stones in it were much too large to be torn down easily by even the strongest of warriors.
But forty years later what Jesus warned would happen actually came to pass. In 70 A.D. not only the temple but the city of Jerusalem was destroyed.
In his account of the conquest of Jerusalem by the Romans, 1st century Jewish historian Josephus described it this way: "The roar of the flames streaming far and wide mingled with the groans of the falling victims; and, owing to the height of the hill and the mass of the burning pile, one would have thought the whole city was ablaze... With the cries on the hill were blended the multitude in the city below; and now many who were emaciated and tongue-tied from starvation, when they beheld the sanctuary on fire, gathered strength once more for lamentations and wailing.... Yet more awful than the uproar were the sufferings." (Funny...that sounds a lot like recent accounts in Time or Newsweek, too.)
So it is that when Jesus spoke the words recorded in today's Gospel, none of those things had yet occurred. But when Luke wrote those words down, some forty or fifty years later, all the things Jesus had said had actually happened in full measure. Moreover, by then the persecution of Christians had begun. People were under great threat merely for being Christians. They were arrested and tortured and put to death, as wave after wave of terrorism issued forth from mad emperors like Nero. (Or was it Osama?)
For the people in Jesus' time, the response to what he said was to wonder what they should do when all this would happen. For the people in Luke's time, the response was to wonder what they should do now that all this had actually happened. For us, today, reading Luke's version of Jesus' words, the response may be to wonder if we, finally, of all throughout history, are not the ones who are experiencing the terrifying "beginning of the end." Well, whatever the case...Jesus answered the question for people in his time, for people in Luke's time and for all of us. He said three things that we would do well to remember.
First, he said, don't be led astray. Many people have fallen into that trap. They've listened to a Jim Jones or a David Koresch and lost their lives in ways that God has nothing to do with. Some people -- no one here, I'm sure (!) -- have bought into the dream that cosmetic surgery or the right stock portfolio or the latest fashions in clothes, cars, or computers would fulfill their lives. It might even be fair to say that some of us have been led astray in our lives, believing that the Gospel of God's love is not meant for everyone or even that we should deny our sexuality as a good gift from God.
With so many conflicting messages coming at us all the time, how do we know God's will in our lives? How do we ferret out the truth? Well, each of us must begin to find the truth by listening to the whisper of the Spirit in the heart. God still speaks to each of us, and if we are quiet and open, God's truth will be revealed to us.
Then, in order to test what we believe God has laid upon our hearts, we need to look at the results of our beliefs...for God's truth will not result in confusion and pain, but rather in peace and joy. The fruit of the Spirit in our lives – love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control – those things help us know the truth...the truth that sets us free. Jesus warned: don't be led astray by all the people and distractions of the world that will not bring you peace.
The second thing Jesus said was not to be terrified. That seems easier said than done at a time when sudden, unexpected disaster can, literally, fall on us from the sky or arrive on our desks in the mail. The normal human response to the state of our world today is to be scared to death. But when we're scared to death, that's when we're most likely to act irrationally and on impulse. Fear can easily stampede us into foolish action. We start doing stupid things.
"Don't let that happen to you," Jesus said, in essence. "If you let fear control your life, then you're not letting God control it. You're placing your emotions ahead of God, and that is an act of un-faith-fulness."
Take a coin out of your pocket and look at it for a minute. Any kind of coin will do. Now what do you see there behind George Washington's head...over Abe Lincoln's hair...under Roosevelt's chin...or in front of Jefferson's nose? No, not E pluribus Unum. If you look closely, you'll find the words, "In God We Trust." What a wonderful, handy, constant reminder, especially for us as Christians. In God we must trust. Even when the worst happens, we must remember that God is absolutely and utterly reliable in life and in death.
It's amazing to me that, still today, there are many preachers – some of those false prophets Jesus warned against – who base their whole ministry on trying to frighten people about what is happening in the world or about what may happen. By their own preaching they condemn themselves, according to what Jesus said in today's Gospel. The horror of terrorism and war and natural disasters should not be an occasion to scare people but rather an opportunity to assure them that God is still in charge and that God is looking after us in every circumstance of life.
I mean the third thing Jesus said was to bear witness to Him and to His Gospel in whatever situation we find ourselves. Whether we're oppressed or persecuted, attacked or held captive, we are to use our times of hardship to speak Good News and to demonstrate the power of faith to the world.
We may think we don't know how to do that...or that we don't have strength enough to do that...or that we're too inadequate to do that. But we'd be wrong! Didn't He promise: "I will give you words and wisdom...." The knowledge, the strength, the capability we need to witness to Christ with our lives...with our response to hardships...in the face of disaster...comes to us from Christ! "There is strength in the name of the Lord; there is power in the name of the Lord; there is hope in the name of the Lord!"
There are a lot of frightening things happening in our world. There are painful and difficult things happening in many of our lives. But things haven't really changed much in 2000 years. We still know that the temples of today are the sand piles of tomorrow. Disasters will come and go...wars and rumors of wars, earthquakes, famines and plagues. Today's news is yesterday's news...and still none of it can ever eclipse or undo the eternal Good News.
I don't know if any of you have seen the movie "K-Pax" – but there's a scene toward the end when a patient in a psychiatric hospital asks Kevin Spacey's character, who claims to be from outer space, for some kind of special assignment. The supposed spaceman looks gently at the man and says, "Your assignment is...stay here – and be ready for anything."
Whatever disasters or traumas or problems may come, because of Jesus Christ we can stay here...for however long we're here...and truly be ready for anything – because ultimately, whatever the news is, we know how this story is going to end! Amen.
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