17 November 2013

“Rescuing Scripture from its despisers, once again”
Luke 21:5-19 / Malachi 4:1-2a
OT 33 C
17 November 2013


Wars, insurrections … nation rising against nation, kingdom against kingdom … earthquakes in various places, famines and plagues … dreadful portents and signs from heaven.
Jesus’ words of long ago … or CNN’s “Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer?”

I hope our Lord God will do something against the (Muslims) for his name’s sake, not for the sake of our government. All things in Scripture have now been fulfilled. Only Daniel chapter 12 remains. Daniel and the Revelation of St. John fit together well. I think Rome is the holy place between two seas. There sits the pope in the temple of God. But if the Muslims go there everything is ruined. There is nothing left but the day of judgment. Then the world will come to its end.

Hmn. Are you hearing or reading words like these in various places … talk of end times?
In my first call as pastor, in Appalachian Northwest Pennsylvania, there was a farmer named Lavier Hummel who was keenly interested in the End Times. Once, early in my time there, after worship – he took me aside and asked me, “You ever watch Jack Van Impe?”
“Uh – no,” I replied.
“Well, you really ought to,” Lavier said. “That Jack Van Impe, he really knows how to interpret the Bible – he points out how close we are in prophecy to the End Times.”
So – chagrined … understanding that Lavier meant that his wet-behind-the-ears preacher needed a lesson - I went home and watched Jack Van Impe.
Have you ever seen Jack? I just tuned in last week, once again, to see how he’s doing. Now over 80 years old, Jack Van Impe is still on one of the Evangelical channels, DayStar if I’m not mistaken. His show is set up like a network news broadcast, with Jack; his beautiful wife Rexella; and the announcer guy who sells transcripts of the show and other things to support Jack Van Impe Ministries … Jack and Rexella are seated behind what looks like a news anchor desk.
How each show goes, is that beautiful blonde Rexella (who is actually close to 80, but through the magic of television and other wizardry looks no more than 45) … Rexella finds headlines, stories and pictures from the news that are disturbing, like wars, murders, insurrections, political intrigue, and the like. In a breathy voice she reads each one off while they flash on the screen … “Islamic extremists continue to plan attacks around the world … superstorms kill tens of thousands … new flu threatens millions,” … and then, just as breathlessly, she turns to Jack, with the words, “What does the Bible have to say about all this, Jack?”
Now that’s Jack’s cue to shine. At a blistering pace that would put the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Pope both to shame, Jack non-stop skips through the Bible, linking snippets of the Old and New Testaments together … “this is Biblical prophecy coming to pass, isn’t it wonderful???” … a passage here, a passage there, Genesis linked to 2nd Timothy to Luke to Isaiah to the Affordable Care Act to Miley Cyrus to JESUS IS COMING BACK TOMORROW!
Well, perhaps not quite like that, but you get the idea.
I probably shouldn’t be so hard on Jack, and beautiful Rexella, because the “End Time Guessing Game” is a favorite of many … not just televangelists. C’mon, admit it, most of us have wondered, especially lately, with earthquakes, floods, storms, wars, threats of global pandemics … if we’re nudging closer to “The End.”
It might be an entertaining parlor game, but it’s a pretty unsatisfying one. Because the problem is … what makes us so sure that we’re right about such things, when others before us … people who have been just as faithful, just as subject to crises, both real and imagined … thought they were living in the End Times too?
That quote I read at the beginning of the sermon … wasn’t from Jack Van Impe. Or any other TV preacher, or national political figure. Those are the words of … Martin Luther, in the 1530s – nearly five hundred years ago.
Oops.
Even the apostles wondered to Jesus, when The End would come. And this was before the event of the Cross: Jesus’ crucifixion, suffering, death and resurrection.

Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?

When, and what. That’s the two main questions we always get into when we start talking “End Times” – When’s it going to happen, and what’s going to happen.
When’s it going to happen. So I can set my watch for it, put an alarm in my smartphone, get a wake up call. So I can get my hair done and be all pretty for Jesus. So I can wait until the last possible minute, and get my life in order. Millions of reasons. When.
And what’s going to happen. What will be the sign?
I always find it interesting that those most curious about the answer to the “what” question are the same ones who believe they’ll be beamed up and out of it before “it” happens … you know, that concept that’s not in the Bible but which has won the hearts and minds of millions, especially anyone who has read the “Left Behind” series of books … this is The Rapture. Beam me up Jesus, I am outta here … but as I’m going up, I’d like a little peek at how bad it’s going to be for all those poor saps who aren’t going to make it.
And so with this attitude and idea of The End comes a whole way of living for some believers that one current author, Chris Hedges, calls “American Fascism” … strong words, to be sure, but for those who are convinced that this rapture / tribulation / annihilation way of things is really going to be The End … well, it just can’t happen soon enough. Like kids in the back seat of the car, they want to get to that destination fast and don’t want to let anything or anyone around them distract them from their goal.
So concepts which the Bible does talk about … like Stewardship and Care for Creation… they go out the window … their word is let’s use it up now because Jesus is coming, and I won’t be here anyway.
Jesus’ last words to his disciples before his Passion, about care for the “Least of These,” the poor and powerless, that’s off the map … they say Jesus is coming, so let them take care of themselves.
Forget about Jesus being the Prince of Peace. America’s military struggles, whether in Bosnia, Sudan, Afghanistan or Iraq, now take on cosmic significance. It’s a “New Crusade,” their preachers cry, with Jesus and we, his Christian Soldiers, sent to annihilate the evil pagan heathen wherever he exists, bringing us closer and closer to that Final Battle.
And so, at the center of it all, stands a Jesus who is no redeeming God of love but rather a wrathful warrior … on the one hand, beaming his faithful off somewhere to a safe place, on the other, raising hell with the devil and his servants by blowing non- believers – read, those who don’t live or vote or believe like they do – off the earth.
Their “endurance,” by which they believe they will gain their souls … Jesus’ words, yes, from our Gospel reading … but twisted to their own ends … they believe them to mean being divisive, hate-filled, even violent towards anyone who disagrees with them.
We have made a tragic mistake by being “Lutheran nice” and “tolerant” of these despisers of the Scriptures. We’ve allowed people with the wrong word … not the Word of God, but another, evil word … to hijack Jesus in this country. Friends, this has got to stop. Right here, right now.
It stops, first, for us … when we stop getting all wrapped around the axle about those two questions the disciples asked Jesus, way back then.
When. What.
Don’t despise the Scripture. Read it. Read it and see that Jesus does not answer those questions.
Instead, he talks about Who.
Who. In Jesus’ first words of response – the who is who not to listen to, or watch, or follow.

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.

Who not to follow. Those who claim to be Messiah, deliverer, God – those people, those movements, those things that people put in the place of God, but whose actions are the exact opposite of Godliness. Not just Hitler, Charles Manson and David Koresh … the usual “rogues’ gallery” of Scripture’s despisers. But … other things, people, movements, products, that can rise up and take over that place of ultimacy in our lives that is reserved for God. Yes, this is a warning for us, not to follow those current despisers of Scripture who have hijacked Jesus. But that’s not all.
There’s plenty more out there that would gladly take Jesus’ place at the center of our lives.
Shopping. Sex. Drugs. Sports. Money. The list keeps on growing, with every year that passes.
That’s the negative who.
But Jesus also speaks positively as well.
Of another Who … who? YOU. You, Jesus says to his disciples … you, who must pay attention … don’t be alarmed, but endure.
Bad stuff will happen to you, disciples … Jesus says. And it did then … in the past, Jesus’ followers were persecuted, they suffered, they were killed. By the Romans. By their own people. In concentration camps.
Not in this country today, to be sure – at least, nothing like what Jesus lays out here – though more than a few of us have taken our lumps from zealous fundamentalists along the way. But certainly at the hands of dictators and totalitarian rulers in other places in the world … in Africa, in China, in the Mideast ... in those places, Christians continue to suffer physically.
But Jesus says, endure. The Spirit will give you words to say on my behalf, disciples; especially when you get into trouble. The One who watches over me will watch over you, disciples, and care for you. Endure.
Endure, disciples. Because I’ve already told you everything. There are no secrets here.
Who? Jesus says, You, disciples; you who follow me. If you’ve watched, if you’ve listened, you’ve seen everything there is to see.
There is no secret wisdom, no special caste of the elect, no private showing or trial group or selected test audience who will get a sneak preview or, better yet, “a little better than the average Christian” status bestowed on those who would get beamed up, away from all this so they can sit and watch the poor slobs left on earth go through the time of tribulation … no, Jesus says it’s all been out there from the beginning, everything you and I need for a faithful life which will help us endure in the face of everything he describes here.
The washing of baptism is public – and so is the promise Jesus gives … “your sins are forgiven.” The eating and drinking at his table is public – and so is the promise Jesus gives … “given and shed for you, for forgiveness, for healing, for life.” The community gathered around him is public – Jesus does nothing in secret; he preaches and proclaims God’s welcoming and favor and love; he heals and makes whole; he raises the dead; he suffers and dies on a cross in full public view – is buried in a public place – and when he is raised from the dead where does he go? Straight to his disciples, so everyone may know!
There are no secrets Jesus is keeping hidden, no Bible code, no tacked together Scripture formula for deducing the time, the day, the WHAT of The End.
You’ve seen it, you’ve received it; you’ve been washed and fed, welcomed and sent to live it.
So now … keep awake and watch.
Who? You, disciples.
When will all this be? I don’t know. Jesus doesn’t say. No one knows; neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.
Knowledge is power, they say, and here, it’s especially true … the disciples didn’t know … Martin Luther didn’t know … Jack Van Impe doesn’t know … the authors of “Left Behind” don’t know … and we don’t know.
So we need to endure. We are called to do just as Jesus charges us, in that final sentence of our text:

By your endurance you will gain your souls.

Endure, disciples. We have work to do while Jesus is away. We’ve been given the gift of time, time of life, lives of time, time to tell, time to show, in living that the Christian life, the life of a Christian, is not a big negative, not a big “no,” not coercion and criticism and condemnation … no, it’s about living like Jesus. Inviting, welcoming, standing up firmly for the Word of God which calls us into lives of service and care for our neighbor, care for each other.
We have work to do. Which will get us involved. So we had better receive all that God wants to give us to strengthen our faith, to be prepared, to be ready … we must gather in worship, AS OFTEN AS WE ARE PHYSICALLY ABLE … and outside of worship, we must hear and read and study and pray and discuss and live the Word …. watching things take place, being ready for The Day, trusting, assured, that when it comes, it is HE … Jesus … Jesus … God’s flesh and blood, real promise of light and life, healing and forgiveness, wholeness, peace, salvation for the whole world … Jesus is The End.
The Son of Righteousness … he will arise … for you, for me, for all the world … with healing, with LIFE, in his wings.
Thanks be to God.
Amen.