O, To Be Less Distracted in Good Times and Bad

O, To Be Less Distracted in

Good Times and Bad 

Old Testament: Isaiah 65:17-25 

Gospel: Luke 21:5-19 

The end of the world is coming! Jesus has predicted it, and I believe it! We are also warned, there will be tough times before it arrives. 

It does seem like we go through cycles, where things are relatively calm and we are generally comfortable, and then we pass through a cycle of anxiety. When the general population is anxious, we have an increasing number of preachers proclaiming the end is near, often even predicting a given date. 

I believe that one day, one of these characters is going to be right, and likely very surprised. I also believe, there is wisdom in living as if the end were near. Not that we should stop being prepared to live a long and useful life, but we should express our care for those we love on a regular basis. We should live as if our days are numbered, and go ahead and do those things that are important. 

This is part of the reason that I will be taking a tour of the Holy Land in January. The opportunity presented itself - to take a tour lead by a Mennonite pastor I respect. He has connections to several peace organizations on both the Palestinian and Israeli side of the current divide. I will be able to see the historic and revered places of the scriptures, and get real insight into the conflict of the present. 

I am a creature of habit, and a child of the culture. Through education and reading, I do my best to try to keep some wider perspective. The little bit of traveling I have done, helps me to see a bigger picture. I expect that my January trip will add a lot to my worldview. 

The scriptures also add to my worldview. Knowing the world will come to an end at some point, helps to move me to actually do things now, while I can, and while I am interested. Martha and I both went back to school in 1996, earning our bachelor degrees, and setting the stage for this entirely different life we live now 20 years later. Great things are possible, when we make a decision, set a course, and then begin. 

The scholars tell us that the book we know as Isaiah, is most likely a composition in three parts, with three different people in the title role, played out over several generations. First Isaiah called for repentance, as the warriors from Babylon drew a bead on Jerusalem. Second Isaiah, promised that God is faithful through the generations, during the 70 years of Exile. 

Third Isaiah, who we are reading today, offers words of encouragement for the returning Jews. They are in a mess. The city and social structure are in tatters. There is widespread poverty. The surrounding tribes are taking great joy in raiding the fledgling community and tearing down whatever small progress is being made. The prophet offers a view of the future, that is beyond what the people can even imagine from where they are. 

My experience is just like that. 8 years ago the economy was a disaster. The newspapers were filled with the headlines documenting wave upon wave of mortgage defaults and repossessions. Home values were a fraction of what the mortgages were written for. The predictions of the future were awful. Gasoline prices hovered around $4 per gallon. There was no way to see things turning around. 

When times are good, we need a voice to call us to repent of our sins and remember that God is good. When times are bad, we need a voice to lift us up, and give us hope for better days to come. We need to remember that God is faithful through not only economic cycles, but through generations. 

Herod the Great was a man with a huge ego and was quite the builder. He built magnificent palaces for himself around the countryside. As a way of coopting the cooperation of the Temple authorities, he rebuilt the Temple of Jerusalem on a grand scale, over a period of decades. The Temple they rebuilt after the Exile was a low budget affair. It was constructed for function and not prestige and glamour. It was Herod’s Temple that the disciples were praising to Jesus. 

Jesus did not take the bait. He does not condemn the marriage of convenience between the Temple and the local authorities. But Jesus does not celebrate the Temple either. Instead, he predicts that one day it will all be a pile of rubble, again. 

Tradition tells us to consider that Jesus was actually talking about a different Temple that would be destroyed. This passage is only one Chapter in Luke’s gospel away from his arrest, this passage is read as if it were a prediction of the passion and death of Jesus. 

This is at the heart of the complexity of being a Christian. We claim to be followers of one who was martyred because his focus on goodness and God exceeded the imagination of both the religious and local authorities. We claim to be devoted to accepting the values that focus on the eternal nature of our relationship with that faithful God, and be less enamored and distracted by the here and now. Less distracted in good times and in bad. 

As I watch with sharper interest the news items about violence in the area of the Holy Land, knowing that I will be there soon, I get increasingly concerned about, what little of a positive nature I can contribute to their unrest, as a pilgrim on a journey. 

As we make our peace with the presidential election of 2016, we might also feel like there is little constructive we can offer in the big scheme of things. So let me speak to that. 

The President is one person, and the complex relationships we call the federal government, comprises thousands of people. The power and control exerted by one person is limited, even if you are the President-elect. 

We are political and spiritual actors living in a finite time and space. We have our own sphere of influence. We listen to the word from scriptures, and know that: no matter how glorious the Temple of the present may seem, everything that is made by humans will eventually turn to dust; and our spirits - that are made out of the divine stuff of eternity - and our relationship with the God of Creation - who is without bounds of time or space - that relationship will be all that matters. 

So we live each day with all of the integrity we can manage. We continue to influence those within our sphere of influence to care for the poor, protect the alien, show compassion to our neighbors near and far. The days of sloganeering are behind us, and our common future lies ahead. 

You and I will make decisions about how to be our best selves. We will make choices today, about the life we intend to live tomorrow. We will turn to our God in prayer and in study, and seek the way forward. 

It is easy to become distraught when things do not go as we planned. It is easier still, to believe that a slim political victory is a mandate to restructure the entire social order in a dramatic new way. Let us pray for our selves and our families, that we may enjoy health. Let us pray that the voice of God calling us to love our neighbor and love our enemy, is heard and respected through the land. Let us thank God for the blessing of being alive in times of change, when the future is being made, and we have the power to influence that change. Amen.