November 25, 2007 Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost and
Reign of Christ Sunday
First Congregational Church in Thetford, Vermont, UCC
Revelation 21:1-7, 22:1-5; Luke 21:5-36
The disciples heard Jesus talking about the end-time, a time of great
upheaval when the existing order would be thrown down and the realm of God
established in its place. The first thing the disciples wanted to know was,
“When?” Today many people read the book of Revelation or the gospels’
apocalyptic chapters and they, too, ask, “When?” Some go to great effort to
predict exactly when and how the Biblical prophecies of the end-time will be
fulfilled.
Jesus, on the other hand, did not do that. He did not tell us precisely when
or how the end-time would come. But he did tell us how we should prepare for it
and live through it.
As a result, his teaching is far more useful than those who predict exact
times and circumstances for the end of the world. The way Jesus approaches the
end-time can be applied to any kind of catastrophe we face. It can be applied to
the slow-motion cataclysm of global climate change. It can be applied to an
empire spiraling into moral and material decline. It can be applied when we are on
any kind of sinking ship, literal or figurative. It can be applied to any individual
life that is losing a job or a beloved relationship or that is facing its own end.
Jesus offers us some simple advice for those times. When you see signs
that the end is at hand, do not weigh down your heart with fear but raise your
head, hope in God, be especially alert, be ready for divine intervention. Prepare to
stand and act with God because God is about to do a new thing. Jesus is saying to
be on the lookout for the advent of Emmanuel, which means God with us. When
things look their worst, Emmanuel will come to ransom captive Israel.
Jesus is preaching out of the wisdom of ancient Israel. Time and again they
had seen the end of the world as they knew it—enslaved in Egypt, carried off
captive to Babylon, invaded by empires, the land laid waste, the temple destroyed.
Time after time the prophets arose in warning that the end-time was upon them,
that God was about to intervene, that they needed to repent, return to God’s ways
and be ready for whatever God would ask them to do. Time after time God did act
and redemption did come. The Jews by Jesus’ day had come to expect it. The
question was, when? How long must they wait?
There is no timeline, no road map, no detailed guide through the end-times,
because God is about to do a new thing. The only preparation is to make
ourselves as fit as we can to see or hear what God is doing, and to stand on God’s
side and do what God asks of us. End-times are moments of opportunity for
miracles. They are opportunities for heroism. They are opportunities for
establishing the ways of God’s realm in our lives and in the world around us far
more rapidly and effectively that during ordinary times. But we need to be patient.
We need to be ready. We need to be in practice.
One of the great modern parables of this is the story of the four chaplains
on the transport ship during World War II. One was Jewish, one Catholic and two
were Protestant, one of whom had served in the Timothy Frost church in Thetford
Center before the war. They had become friends at the chaplain training program
at Harvard. They and nine hundred soldiers were making the dangerous journey
through the frigid North Atlantic to Greenland, facing not only the threat of
iceburgs, but worse, of German submarines. They were hours away from safety
when two torpedoes hit the ship, in the middle of the night. The ship began to sink
rapidly. Panic and chaos threatened to destroy all chance of escape. But the
chaplains were ready. They worked to calm the younger men down and get them
to the lifeboats as quickly as possible.
Once on deck the chaplains began handing out life-vests to those who had
lost theirs in the confusion. They handed out all there were, and then each took off
their own vest and gave it away. Soldiers looked back as the ship was going down
and saw the chaplains standing together at the rail, praying and singing.
Today there are memorials to the four chaplains all over the country like the
one in Thetford Center. People find their story moving because of their courage
and sacrifice, because when they confronted that end-time, they acted out of love
for others rather than out of fear for themselves. They also acted out of faith. In
that split second after the torpedoes hit them they had to decide whether they
believed in God or not. Did they believe enough to leave family and life behind?
It may not have been a conscious decision. All their preparation, their readiness
for that moment may have decided for them. But they clearly did decide on some
level against the impulse for fearful self-preservation. They decided that God
could be trusted to guide them to do the right thing, and to lead them along the
sacred way through the end to whatever good would come.
Today we face many kinds of end-times, many for sinking of ships. Last
Sunday’s Valley News had a front page headline that said, “Urgent Climate
Warning.” This is an end-time we all face together. The United Nations
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the organization that shared the
Nobel Peace Prize with Al Gore this year. Their most recent report warns of
massive species extinctions—up to 70% of all species—and human suffering on a
scale never seen before. But it also offers a variety of ways in which the worst of
the losses and afflictions could be avoided, if we act now.
The problem is that we are not acting now. The world, most notably our
own American society, continues to burn carbon gases at a rate that will insure the
worst. We each will be counted responsible for the suffering that is coming. The
end-time will be because of us, unless we respond now in a way that redeems
ourselves and redeems the earth.
In today’s passage from Luke Jesus talked about the signs of the end that
would come, including nation rising against nation, and distress among nations
caused by the roaring of the sea waves. He said, “People will faint from fear and
foreboding of what is coming upon the world.” He said, “When these things begin
to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing
near.” And he advised us, “Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down
with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life…Be alert at all
times.” And pray for strength.
If we apply this teaching to climate change, we can see the signs of the end-
time he is talking about, including distress at rising sea levels as violent waves
threaten to destroy the habitations and coastline investments of hundreds of
millions of people. We can foresee nation rising against nation as drought, famine
and plague make them desperate for what they need to survive. We can foresee
that sooner or later, fear and foreboding will create the kind of panic that threw the
four chaplains’ ship into chaos, threatening to take everyone down.
Jesus says that while others may fear, we should hope, for these signs mean
that our redemption is drawing near. The word redemption is loaded from a
theological and Christological viewpoint. It is right up there with the question
“Have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?” setting off our defenses
against televangelists preaching salvation. As the Reverend William Sloane
Coffin said, “The chief religious question is not, ‘What must I do to be saved?’ but
rather, ‘What must we all do to save the earth?’”
It is better to think of redemption from a more practical perspective than its
evangelistic context. Think of it as taking cans to be recycled at a redemption
center. The word redeem comes from a Latin root meaning to buy or take back, or
to ransom or rescue.
The threat of an end-time brings with it the hope of redemption, a
restoration to an original goodness, but one that is bought at a price. God pays a
price, but we do, too. We see the price God pays in the love and sacrifice of Jesus.
Our price is that we need to resist the temptation to escape the fear or pain of the
end-times by mind-numbing drugs or distracting pleasures or paralyzing anxiety.
We need to pay the price of mindfulness and prayer, increasing our focus on God,
watching and listening for indications of how we can work with God’s redeeming
action. We need to make the sacrifice of increasing our time spent on spiritual
practice and spiritual community, giving up time from our other activities. Then
we will be ready and awake to see what other forms of love and sacrifice God may
ask of us.
Part of that will probably entail standing against the powers that be in this
world. Jesus said in Luke that as the end-times approach, “they will arrest you and
persecute you” for what you do in my name. They will do this because the new
thing that God will move us to do will go directly against the old thing that has
brought on the end-time—like the greed and lust for comfort or power that have
kept us hooked on burning oil. Those who try to change a system that others
profit from or enjoy can expect to suffer attack.
As Christians facing a world of climate change, knowing that the signs
have appeared foretelling a catastrophic end to life as we know it, we need to
prepare ourselves with intensified spiritual practice and formation so that we can
have the strength and the courage and the vision to work on God’s side for the
love of God and neighbor.
Meanwhile, many of us are concerned about other kinds of end times,
public and private. Some of the threats to our personal lives are so devastating
that we have nothing to spare for global or national ones. The same wisdom that
Jesus taught applies to all situations. Do no be afraid. Do not let your heart be
weighed down with self-concern or worry. Lift you head. God is about to do a
new thing. Your redemption is drawing near. Listen and watch, and the Holy
Spirit will show you what to do and give you the power to do it. Then whatever
end may come, it will be a beginning as well, the Alpha and Omega in one.
Face your end-times in this way and, like the four chaplains, you will be a
redeeming force on a sinking ship. You will be a light that shines in the darkness.
Every time that light shines, Christ reigns in that place and the realm of God is
seen on earth, and the end is redeemed by the birth of greater love.
Let us pray, listening for the Holy Spirit, opening our hearts to understand
what Christ would have us do to help bring redemption to the end-time that
concerns us most. What new thing is God about to do? How can you work with
God to bring it about?
Let us pray in silence…..
Sermon 11/25/2007