sermon

Sermon-Proper 28C-Nov. 18, 2007
The Cloud of Unknowing, "O God, our great companion, lead us ever more deeply into the mystery of your life and ours, that we may be faithful interpreters of Life to each other, through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen."
A tourist stood close to the edge of the Grand Canyon, when he lost his footing and plunged over the cliff. On the way down he desperately caught hold of a scrubby bush growing out of a crack in the rocks. Filled with terror, he called out to heaven, “Is there anyone up there?” A calm powerful voice came out of the sky, “Yes, there is.” The panicked man screamed, “Can you help me?” The voice replied, “Yes, I can help you. Do you believe?” “Yes, yes,” the man answered, “I do believe!” “Do you have faith?” The voice asked. “Yes, yes,” the man emphatically answered, “I do, I do have faith!” The voice said, “Well, in that case, simply let loose of the bush and I will save you.” There was a long pause, and the man finally said, “Is there anyone else up there?”
We’re in the last two weeks of the church year and at this time every year all the lessons turn to the end times, the apocalypse. In this reading Jesus has the disciples look at the great Jerusalem Temple standing in front of them. The first temple was built by king Solomon in 950BC and lasted 400 years. It was destroyed. The second temple was built about 520 BC and lasted almost 500 years. It was destroyed. The one that Jesus and the disciples were standing in front of had been built by Herod the Great and took 46 years to finish. It lasted 90 years, was leveled by the Romans, and was the last great temple built by the Jews. Today the western or wailing wall is the remnant of that temple. And Jesus predicts that it will fall (it did 35 years after Jesus’ death). Jesus says that to the people it will feel like the end of the world when it’s destroyed-as it would be. But it won’t be the end of the world. It will feel like it did at the end of the previous temples. Terrible, frightening, overwhelming. But it won’t be the end of the world.
Paul Tillich, the great 20th century theologian, once wrote that there are 3 fundamental things that all humans crave: security, certainty, and perfection-and that we spend all of our lives trying to satisfy these longings.
To the Jews the temples were security, certainty, and perfection-but they didn’t last. Each generation in Israel kept looking for another voice when the previous one gave out. Temples, no matter how wonderful, beautiful, or solid could not last. And the Jews felt betrayed by their God.
The literature that we hear today and the next few weeks about the end of the world warned Jesus’ followers to expect that times would be hard and dangerous. And they were. So many people died for their faith, people believed that all Christians would be erased from the earth.
There is an even greater threat to us here in 21st century America, it’s the good times, the comfortable times, the ease that endangers our faith even more. We don’t fall off cliffs, we don’t hang on to spindly little branches, there’s no real danger or threat. Faith just seems so irrelevant, so unnecessary.
We keep trying to convince folks that faith and God are necessary, vital and important-and they say, “yeah, but I have things I have to do.”
Sacrifice and suffering increased the number of Christians, wealth and comfort are constantly lessening our numbers.
The great Bishop Fulton Sheen once said that “nothing is more beautiful than the way Jesus is always trying to prepare his disciples for defeat.” They kept expecting victory, he kept talking to them about faith. So when apparent failure finally arrived and he died-about a week after this morning’s gospel, they still seemed shocked and unprepared. For us today, faith is that thing we turn to when there is no other way, when all of our resources are useless. Or as the doctors told Fr. Mulcahy on M*A*S*H one episode, “we still think we can save this one Father, we don’t need you yet.” Faith is what you turn to when you’ve run out of ways that you can think of. That’s our attitude. Jesus kept saying, “you will always run out of ways to save yourself”. But we keep discovering new ways to try.
We work so hard, so long, so cleverly trying to find ways to get ourselves out of life alive. There are so many temples, so many times we just ask, “isn’t there someone else up there”. We want to find someone who is better than God at all this. And it’s hard. It’s tough realizing that we seem to fail so often, that our faith is so feeble, our belief so shallow.
Faith isn’t that “thing” we turn to only when all other resources run dry. That is the mistake we make all the time. Faith, responding to God’s intervention in our lives, is what drives everything else.
There is a wonderful movie out on DVD called, “Amazing Grace”. It’s the story of William Wilberforce, a politician and Anglican Christian in the late 1700s. He becomes a member of parliament at age 21, becomes a Christian at 25. All of a sudden, thanks to the power of other Christians, he is convicted of the evil of the slave trade and Britain’s role in perpetuating it. For 20 years he fights introducing bill and bill to have it abolished-only to fail. Finally he succeeds in abolition, but only after he is convinced that he had failed-and that nothing would ever change. His mentor through much of his spiritual struggle was Anglican priest by the name of John Newton. Newton had been a slave ship captain, until he came to Christ and realized that he was involved in evil. At one point in his ministry Newton wrote a song, that he never gave a title to, that goes like this:
Amazing grace, how sweet the soundThat sav’d a wretch like me!I once was lost, but now am found,Was blind, but now I see.
Wilberforce and Newton, two men who seemed defeated, led worthless lives, became passionate Christians, were still convinced that they had accomplished NOTHING, and are now celebrated as saints and inspirations.
By your endurance you will gain your souls. There are a thousand other voices “up there” promising that they can rescue us. All promising security, certainty, and perfection. And we listen to them because we crave these things so much.
“nothing is more beautiful than the way Jesus is always trying to prepare his disciples for defeat.” Nothing is more frustrating than the disciples disappointment at the crucifixion. Nothing is sadder than our turn to faith only after we run out of other voices that try to give us what we need.
Nothing is greater than a God who stands with us and for us even after our seeming apocalypse, our apparent defeat. By your endurance you will gain your souls. Amen.
At 82, John Newton said, "My memory is nearly gone, but I remember two things, that I am a great sinner, and that Christ is a great Saviour."
Luke 21:5-19
21:5 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said,
21:6 "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down."
21:7 They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?"
21:8 And he said, "Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, 'I am he!' and, 'The time is near!' Do not go after them.
21:9 "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."
21:10 Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
21:11 there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
21:12 "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.
21:13 This will give you an opportunity to testify.
21:14 So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance;
21:15 for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.
21:16 You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.
21:17 You will be hated by all because of my name.
21:18 But not a hair of your head will perish.
21:19 By your endurance you will gain your souls.