A sermon for November 17th 2019 on apocolypse, revelation and how Martin Luther King still has something to say...

The Gospel - Luke 21:5-19

When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ⁶ "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down." ⁷

They asked him, "Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?" ⁸ And he said, "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. ⁹ "When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately."

¹⁰ Then he said to them, "Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; ¹¹ there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

¹² "But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. ¹³ This will give you an opportunity to testify.

¹⁴ So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; ¹⁵ for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.

¹⁷ You will be hated by all because of my name. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ By your endurance you will gain your souls.

 

Sermon for Sunday 17^th November 2019

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in your sight, my lord, my rock and my redeemer. Amen. 

Have you ever been so sure of your understanding of something, that to change your mind would seem impossible, and yet, today, your views have changed completely? Changing our minds is a revelation.

As I thought about revelations I’ve experienced, I realised I’ve changed my mind on quite a few topics…

For example, when I was a child in the ‘70’s there was a TV programme called, “The black and white minstrel show,” which was acceptable to some people, and at the time, my biggest issue, was that the music just wasn’t my cup of tea. 

It was otherwise, innocuous enough, yet today, a programme with white men dancing and singing with their faces blacked up would, of course, be offensive and outrageous.

The cultural landscape we see around us changes very quickly and it’s hard to keep up. Society’s general acceptance of other cultures, gender types, races and nationalities has broadened so much in the last generation it has been truly remarkable, but it can be challenging as well as exciting.

Revelations; I remember once, seeing Concorde flying overhead, yet this vision of the future has gone.

I remember watching the first space shuttle take off in 1981, on TV at primary school, yet that too has gone.

I remember playing games on our family computer, a BBC B, 30 odd years ago, loading them up using a tape player, listening to it screeching and whining away, thinking, the future has arrived, and it’s amazing, yet now, my mobile phone has more games and memory than even a 10 year old desktop computer can hold.

The world changes. And while our faith remains the same, our understanding of faith in today’s world sometimes, but not always, needs to adapt.

These changes are a revelation.

So with that idea of revelation in mind and with all that’s been going in the world recently; wild fires in Australia and North America, floods all over the UK, increasing global sea temperatures, the rise of fascism in the guise of Trump, nationalism in Brexit, and now, with our second general election in three years, I thought I would lighten the mood by talking about the apocalypse.

Where did that come from - I hear you ask?

Well, today’s Gospel reading is what is described as being part of Jesus’ apocalyptic teachings. The destruction of the temple, which Jesus talks about and which he and the disciples had just left, seemed impossible.

It had taken 20 years to build, finished around the year of Jesus’ birth, and it was vast it occupied a platform twice as large as the Roman Forum and four times as large as the Athenian Acropolis.  

The stones were as big as a bus, and were covered with so much gold leaf so that you could hurt your eyes looking at them on a bright day. The Wailing Wall in Jerusalem is all that remains of the temple today.

Jesus’ words read as a prophecy, a prophecy which was fulfilled because the temple did fall in 70 AD but Luke’s Gospel was written around 85 AD, which makes Jesus’ words more of a reflection than a prediction, but I’m not sure this matters too much, the temporary nature of human achievements is part of the revelatory message.

In any case, talking about the destruction of the temple, sounds apocalyptic, but what does apocalypse actually mean?

If you’re like me, and you may not be, your cultural references for “apocalypse” probably include superhero movies, vacant-eyed zombies, the Day of the Triffids, the War of the Worlds, interplanetary warfare, or a nuclear winter.

However, the word apocalypse is from Ancient Greek and it means, revelation, which is where the Book of Revelation gets its name.

So really, while language today uses the word apocalypse to talk about mass destruction, it wasn’t originally about destruction at all, but about a revealing, a disclosure of something secret and hidden. 

To experience an apocalypse is to experience fresh sight, an honest disclosure or an accurate revelation.  It is to apprehend reality as we’ve never apprehended it before, like one of those bright summer mornings when the air is so clear, even distant hills seem perfectly clear.

The result of a revelation can be a vision of wondrous beauty.

This is true in the book of revelation at the end of the Bible, a letter to the seven churches of the time and is a prophecy for all who are struggling with oppression and persecution, telling believers that despite all the trials and suffering to come,

Jesus will come again, not waging war, but bringing a new heaven and a new earth, all of this is told with amazing sights like angelic hosts, dragons and fantastical, beautiful beasts.

So, this revelation, this apocalypse of hope for these troubled churches was like tasting the freshest spring water directly from the source.

In the Gospel today, Jesus is revealing to the disciples an apocalyptic vision. He invites them to look beyond the grandeur of the temple and recognize that God won’t be hidden behind the walls of a temple.

Especially this temple which represented something rotten and corrupt, it was the centre of Jewish religious life in Israel, but it had been built by Herod the Great, a Roman trying to be a Jewish leader, so it represented collaboration in the highest levels of Jewish temple life.

It’s little wonder the high priests were so annoyed about Jesus, when he was denouncing their lovely new temple.

So how does this understanding help us? Well Jesus is clear at the end of passage, “… not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” so this is a passage grounded in hope of eternal life.

This is a message which occurs many times in the bible, that we are always called to trust God amid hardship and persecution.

Of course, like many writers, Luke gets carried away with tales of destruction, but at the end, despite all the struggles endured, Jesus is very clear, not a hair of your head will perish and with endurance your souls will be gained.

The hope Jesus testifies about in this passage, is not a denial of the struggles, pain and agony, which can be a part of human life, as well our hopes, joy, dreams and love.

So, is endurance the key? As St Paul says in the letter to the Thessalonians, “do not grow weary of doing good.” I wonder if this is a revelation to embrace, that we are still living in that time of endurance, where we must never tire of doing good?

This was one of traditions Paul passed down to the church, when he says, “When we were with you, we worked night and day, labouring and toiling. We didn't want to burden anyone. So, follow our example, don't get discouraged, and keep doing good."

Endurance in faith, doesn’t sound like heaven on earth today, but, it doesn’t always feel like endurance, because remaining faithful to God can be joyful.

Good works happen all the time, Children in Need, the other night is an example and I imagine we’ve all received or given, ‘good works,’ with no expectation of reward and these acts are revelations and glimpses of heaven

So, let’s endure in faith, and yes, life is full of challenges, and they can be awful but we will never be abandoned by God, God is joyful when we are, God celebrates with us, God weeps when we despair.

So, let’s be open to apocalypse, to revelation. Let’s look for God in what’s going on around us, let’s look for new revelations and new ways of seeing the world around us.

This is the last time I preach, before the general election, and I won’t say who I think you might vote for, after all, Jesus isn’t standing for election, I would say please vote and that faith does have a place in politics, and if we can, let’s try to vote in a way which reflects our faith in God, in Jesus Christ and in the Holy Spirit. Faith makes an impression on every single aspect of our lives, so it is right that faith can and should be in all the decisions we make.

So, let’s use the wisdom granted by God, to seek truth, to speak truth to power, to break away from the way we have seen the world before, to listen to the person we don’t like with fresh ears, to look for truth and revelation and where God and the Spirit are leading us, instead of voting the same way we always have, fully accepting than none of the candidates are perfect.

Just as I finished writing this, I came across some words from Martin Luther King, which feel just as relevant today as they were in 1956…

“This is a tense period through which we are passing, this period of transition and there is a need all over the nation for leaders to carry on.
Leaders who can somehow sympathize with and calm us and at the same time have a positive quality. We have got to have leaders of this sort who will stand by courageously and yet not run off with emotion.

We need leaders not in love with money but in love with justice. Not in love with publicity but in love with humanity.

Leaders who can subject their particular egos to the pressing urgencies of the great cause of freedom.

God give us leaders. A time like this demands great leaders. Leaders whom the fog of life cannot chill, whom the lust of office cannot buy.
Leaders who have honour, leaders who will not lie. Leaders who will stand before a pagan god and damn his treacherous flattery.”[1]

None of our leaders are perfect, but perhaps those closest to this ideal may be who we could seek out.

It’s possible that by listening for truth, by being true to faith and the love of Christ, we may experience revelation, in our lives and in the lives of those we love and live with.

Amen.

Preached at St George, Cam at 9.30am and St Cyr, Stincombe at 6pm, Evensong.

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[1] https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/birth-new-age-address-delivered-11-august-1956-fiftieth-anniversary-alpha-phi#fn7