November 13, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
2 Thess. 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
Faith through Adversity
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
On Tuesday mornings I enjoy chapel with the Rachel’s Place day care children. One of the songs we all enjoy is “The Wise Man Built His House upon the Rock.” We make our hands into fists and pound our fists one on the other during the first verse:
The wise man built his house upon the rock
and the rain came a-tumbling down.
The rain comes down and the floods go up, but the wise man’s house stands firm.
Then in the second verse we pound a fist against our flat palm. This time when the rains fall down and the floods come up, the foolish man’s house goes “splat!” We all enjoy the splat.
The final verse of the song encourages us to build our house on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is our solid rock. In him we stand firm through all peril.
In our gospel today, Jesus and his disciples are walking through the temple mount area in Jerusalem. As they walked, they marveled at the edifice before them.
The temple was a spectacular site to see. Still today you can see some of the remarkably huge stones that form the base support for the mount. They’re nothing short of eye-popping. How did they move them? Even today it’s truly a marvel. It must have been even more awesome in Jesus’ day.
The temple they spoke of was the one built by Herod the Great. The original temple, built by King Solomon, had been destroyed when Babylon conquered Jerusalem. When the Israelites returned after their Babylonian captivity, they built a new temple on the ruins. But it was a sorry substitute for the original.
By the time King Herod took power, that rebuilt temple was looking worse for the wear. Herod had big plans. He built a massive base and then placed the new temple on top of it. The ancient historian Josephus describes the holy area. The pinnacle of the temple mount loomed as tall as a 15-story building. The temple itself was covered in plates of gold. When the sun shone on it, you had to avert your eyes because of its brilliance.
This is what the disciples are marveling at. But they could not have anticipated Jesus’ reply: “The days will come when not one stone will be left upon another. All of it will be thrown down.”
How on earth could such a massive and impressive structure come to ruin? It boggled their minds. But that’s exactly what happened when the Roman armies conquered Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. Today, not one remnant of the temple building remains. Within the first generation of the young Christian church, Jesus’ prophecy had come true.
Jesus’ disciples are unnerved. They want to know when these dreadful things will occur. Jesus’ answer is even more disturbing. Jesus details a list as long as your arm of catastrophic woes:
• Wars
• Insurrections
• Earthquakes
• Famines
• Plagues
• Dreadful portents from heaven
• Persecution
• Prison captivity
• Betrayal
• Execution
• Being universally despised
So much can go wrong. And sadly, many of them sound painfully familiar to us: Wars, Insurrection, Pandemic Plagues.
So what do we make of such things? It might feel like the end is near. When the whole world seems to be falling apart, what do we do? Our two readings today offer guidance on what to do and what not to do.
In the reading from Thessalonians, Paul addresses congregation members who anticipate that Jesus will soon return and the world will come to an end. Consequently, they’ve stopped working. They sit around waiting for the end.
And I get this. When I go through times of stress, when it feels like the sky is about to fall down, it’s tempting to curl up on the couch and binge watch episodes of Treehouse Masters. And in a way, we all face the end times. The end of a dream, a devastating diagnosis, an empty nest, the end of a career.
Father John Kavanaugh reflected: “Each day is the last. Each time is the end time. Each human being faces the end of the world in the span of a life, whether it reach eight minutes or eighty years. The world, its opportunities and losses, passes away for us each night. Every sunset announces a closing of a day that will never come again…And each generation, like each death and every day, witnesses the signs of the end times.”
Facing endings can draw us into a stupor, we become paralyzed. But Paul instructs us to reject this temptation. Keep on being involved, he says. Keep on participating, remain engaged in the world.
Martin Luther made a similar comment. When asked what he would do if he knew the world was coming to an end, he responded that he would plant an apple tree.
The point is this: even when the sky is falling, we continue to be called into action; we’re commissioned to be Christ’s servants actively at work in this world. Even in times of crisis, especially in times of crisis, our faith compels us to be agents of grace through our words and actions.
In our reading from Luke, Jesus advises us to step forward in faith, not in fear. “So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance,” he says.
Our English translation says “minds.” “Make up your minds.” But the word in Greek is actually “heart.” The heart represents our entire inner self. It’s the seat of our being. It’s our will, our inclination. Jesus is saying, “Set your heart on this. Set it now to align yourself with faith, not with fear.”
How will you live your life, he’s asking. Will you circle the wagons and hunker down? Will you face the dangers of tomorrow with defensiveness and timidity? Or will you trust that I am with you always, to the end of the age?
Mercifully, we have a savior who set his heart on faith and not on fear. As he entered Jerusalem, he knew his own violent destiny was at hand. But he didn’t remain hidden away in the upper room. He stepped into the Garden where his opponents waited for him. In faith he stood before his accusers and made no defense. In faith he carried his cross to Golgotha and was nailed upon it. Through it all, he remained true to his ultimate mission, to be the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. In faith, his dying lips uttered, “Father, into your hands I commend my spirit.”
Jesus set his heart on his divine mission. And by HIS endurance, WE have gained our souls.
Jesus is the solid rock upon which our faith is built. In turbulent times, when the way before us seems replete with danger, we set our hearts on him in faith. We know that he is the light of God, the light no darkness can overcome. And in his light we move forward in faith.
