26th Sunday after Pentecost ---- 17 November 2013

Malachi 4:1-2a

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Luke 21:5-19

By your endurance you will gain your souls.

• This passage used to scare the life out of me. I'd hear this in church on Sunday and wonder what it meant and how I fit in. As you can imagine, I was a rather impressionable kid and readings like this would stick with me for a long time. Talk of wars, earthquakes, famine, plagues, and signs in the sky could be very upsetting to me. Add to that a melancholy personality and a dash of Irish guilt and shame and you have quite a stew into which to stir Jesus' words on the end of the world.
• Today these words don't scare me quite so much. Maybe I've grown up some; I hope so. Not to say that these are not sharp words and that they are not easy to listen to.
• Jesus responds to his disciples admiration of the Temple in Jerusalem by saying all will be thrown down. Within 50 years of this discussion, the Temple would be destroyed by the Roman legions that had laid siege to the city during what became known as the Jewish-Roman War. Since Luke is writing after this event, the horror of the siege and the sack of Jerusalem is used to illustrate the coming persecution of the Christian Church and the continuing troubles of the world.
• Jesus tells his disciples that many will claim to be his return or to know of it. They are not to bother with such tales. Paul's letter to the Thessalonians reminds them that some among them are afraid that they have missed the Lord's return or are looking forward to it in idleness and mischief. Paul uses a term we know as “busybodies”, a term that means “unruly” or “out of ranks”. It is a term borrowed from the armies of the day, and it refers to a soldier who is out of formation and making a mess of the whole group.
• With this in mind, the words of Jesus have be misinterpreted in such a way that many have quit their jobs, left their families, and run to the hills to await the return of Jesus in the belief that the return was imminent. This happened a few years ago, you'll recall, when a preacher predicted Jesus' return to the point of giving the exact time to the minute. People gave up their fortunes and gave them to the preacher. Radio and TV ads were taken out, trucks were plastered with the message, and when the day came, nothing happened. It seems Jesus words hold quite true in our own day: Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, "I am he!' and, "The time is near!”
• Beyond this, we know the further truth of what Jesus said. We know persecution exists, a number of us through first hand experience. Our faith is presently an object of ridicule in various books and through a number of television personalities. Scandals continue to trouble the Church throughout the world. And the future is unclear – as it always has been.
• These fearful words might upset us. We might wonder how they could not upset us. If we were left to our own devices, we would be constantly upset. Indeed, we would be without hope. We're generally simple people without much earthly power and status... the sort of people who get crushed when the world rolls along.
• Thanks be to God, our hope is not in ourselves! Our hope is in God. As Psalm 121 says “Our help comes from the Lord... who made heaven and earth.” {“Unsere Hilfe stehet im Namen des Herrn, der Himmel und Erde gemacht hat.”}
• And with this, we recall that being a disciple of Christ does not make us immune to suffering and pain. It does not shield us from all that life might bring. What being a disciple does do is change our definition of the value of suffering and of life. Despite death, despite suffering, and despite fear, our help comes from the Lord.
• Faith sees us through whatever may come. We all know that almost anything may happen to us in this life. It is faith that assures us that our God stands with us no matter what may come. So we hold fast to God in faith and we hold fast to each other in love.
• There is a short saying that carries a lot of this meaning. It is distinctly Christian and quite comforting in that, even while admitting insecurity.
• It is a quote from Martin Luther and it is quite relevant to the issue at hand.                              “I know not the way God leads me, but well do I know my Guide.” 
• A more modern variation of this is:                                                                                                 “I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow.”

You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.