Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost

Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost (C—Proper 28)

November 13, 2016

Text: Luke 21:5-28

            There is a great deal of uncertainty and angst in the world this morning.  A new man has come to power in Washington, and no one is quite sure what he will do.  Even those who voted for him may eye him with suspicion.  Some who opposed him are rioting in the streets of our cities, including Portland, right here in the Pacific Northwest.  We are a nation at war within and without.  The culture war between right and left has been deeply divisive.  On the world stage, we have been at war for the past 15 years against an enemy that is difficult to define, and therefore difficult to defeat, and we know not when or where they will strike next.  And there are other potential enemies on the horizon if we don’t tread carefully.  There is our unpleasantness with Syria, Libya, and Iran.  Our relations are strained with China, and now Russia, and of course there is always North Korea.  Wars and rumors of wars.  Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  That is the story of humanity.  Natural disasters also occur with great frequency.  Hurricane Matthew recently wrought tremendous destruction in Haiti.  Hurricanes with names like Katrina, Hugo, and Andrew brought devastation to our own shores.  Earthquakes in various places have leveled cities and unleashed tsunamis that washed away great populations.  Famines, pestilences, and terrors are the stuff of the evening news.  Christians around the world are persecuted and martyred for the Name of Jesus, and it is increasingly clear that it could happen right here at home.  And this is to say nothing of the storms that rage in your own heart and soul.  What is a Christian to do with all of this?  How do we reconcile this with our theology?  How do we reconcile this with our faith in an almighty God who is good and who loves us?

            Jesus told us these things would happen.  His prophecy in our Holy Gospel is fulfilled before your very eyes.  And our Lord tells us how we are to regard these things.  They are signs that the End is near.  Jesus is coming back.  He is coming back visibly to judge the living and the dead.  He is coming with His angels on a cloud, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him.  He will raise all the dead in their bodies, believers and unbelievers alike, and then He will judge.  To those who believed in Him He will give everlasting life in a new heavens and a new earth in the eternal, joyous presence of our great God and Father.  But those who did not believe in Him He will send to the lake of fire prepared for the devil and his demons.  Needless to say, this is an occasion for which we ought to be prepared.  And the signs, the reminders, are written right into history.  Every trial, every tribulation, every cause for anxiety and uncertainty, every natural disaster, and every man-made catastrophe, is a sign.  The End is near.  The time of grace is coming to a close.  It is a call to every man, woman, and child: Repent.  Turn from your unbelief and sin.  Turn to God.  Believe the good news.  Jesus is your Savior, and He wants you for Himself.  He has purchased you with His own blood, and He is risen from the dead.  Believe in Him, be baptized into Him, and you will be saved. 

            Of course, we know not that day or hour when the Lord will return.  He has not revealed it to us for a reason.  If we knew, what do you suppose we would do with that information?  “Oh, the Lord isn’t coming back in my lifetime, so I don’t need to be prepared!”  Or, “the Lord is coming back next week, so I’ll quit my job and neglect the needs of my neighbor and sit on my hands and wait.”  Neither option is good.  St. Peter had to deal with the former opinion when he wrote, “They will say, ‘Where is the promise of his coming?  For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation’… But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day” (2 Peter 3:4, 8; ESV).  St. Paul had to deal with the latter opinion among the Thessalonians in our Epistle this morning.  Some had the impression that the Lord’s coming would happen in a matter of days or weeks.  As a result, they ceased being productive.  They quit their jobs.  They sat on their hands.  They no longer contributed to the life of the community.  So St. Paul writes his famous and stern command, “If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat” (2 Thess. 3:10).  Paul is not against charity for the poor and those unable to work.  Far from it.  He spent his life collecting alms for the poor in Jerusalem who were suffering famine.  His point is, those who can work, should, and all the more as they see the Day approaching.  Get up and get busy, dear Christians.  For now is the time to love and serve your neighbor in the Name of Jesus.  Whether the Lord is coming tomorrow or a thousand years from tomorrow, God has given you NOW as a gift, that you may be a gift to your neighbor.  NOW is not a time to sit on your hands.  NOW is a time to work and to serve and to love and to pray.  And NOW is a time to confess Christ to your neighbor and declare to him the good news of God’s love for him in Jesus.

            What are you to do when you see the signs all around you, the tremendous suffering, the uncertainty and the angst?  Repent!  That is why God has given these signs.  The Lord is coming.  Repent of your sins.  Confess them and receive the Absolution, the forgiveness of sins won by your Lord on the cross and pronounced to you in His Name by your pastor.  Then live in that joy.  Hear the Word at every opportunity, and feast on the body and blood of Jesus.  And then go do what you’ve been given to do.  The Christian need never panic when disaster strikes in the world.  We’ve been told this would happen, and we’ve been told what it means.  Jesus is coming.  So what are we to do?  Jesus says, “when these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:28).  All that Jesus did for you in His suffering and death and resurrection is about to pay off in His coming to deliver you from the death throes of this fallen creation.  All of the terror and disaster and war?  Jesus will deliver you out of it in the End.  It may be through your death.  It may be through His appearing in the clouds.  But these things cannot harm you.  For you belong to Jesus.  And He’s coming to get you and bring you to Himself.  Straighten up.  Raise your head.  Rejoice!  Very soon you will see the One in whom you have believed. 

            In the meantime, knowing what is about to happen, you still get up every morning, make the sign of the holy cross, and get busy doing what you’ve been given to do.  Be a father, mother, son, or daughter.  Go to work.  Go to school.  Go to your kid’s soccer game.  Care for your family and friends and neighbors, and provide for their needs, because those are the people God has placed in your life for you to love and serve.  Pray.  Confess.  Get yourself and your family to Church.  Support the Lord’s mission.  Give to charity.  If Jesus comes tomorrow, or even if He doesn’t, you’ve been given this to do today.  You do it in faith that the Lord is coming, and you do it in the Name of Jesus who loves and provides for your neighbor in the meantime through your hands and your vocations.

            And what of the events in the world, the signs that point to the End?  Your neighbor needs you in those.  Because there is real suffering, and real uncertainty, and real angst.  And the only answer is Jesus.  The only answer to this fallen world is Jesus Christ who redeemed it in His death and will restore it in His coming again.  That is what an almighty God who is good and loves us does about our suffering in this world.  He comes in the flesh and He dies for it.  And He rises again on the Third Day and comes back in the End to restore His creation for all eternity.  If your guy won the election this past week, congratulations.  If your guy, or gal as the case may be, did not win, my condolences.  But remember this, beloved: Neither Donald Trump, nor Hillary Clinton, nor for that matter Gary Johnson or Evan McMullan or Darrell Castle or any of the other candidates for office… none of them are the Savior.  Only Jesus Christ is the Savior.  And He is risen from the dead.  Jesus is on His throne at the right hand of the Father, and it is Jesus who rules all things for the good of His people.  Jesus is coming back to deliver you from all that afflicts you.  On that Day, every eye will see Him: “they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud with power and great glory” (v. 27).  You will see Him with your very eyes.  And what will you do?  You will not panic.  You will not be afraid.  You will straighten up and lift up your head.  Why?  Because your redemption is drawing near.  In the Name of the Father, and of the Son (+), and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.