This week’s sermon for November 16/17, 2019 is on Luke 21:5-19 and 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13.
I want to start the sermon today with a little icebreaker. Turn to your neighbor and tell them your favorite food item to eat for dessert.
I love icebreakers, those questions you ask to break the tension.
I know some people hate them because they make you talk to other people, but I think icebreaker questions are great. They let you both learn something about the people around you, and also share something about yourself.
Too often, people ask the same couple of questions when you’re meeting someone else. Where are you from? What do you do for work? How are you doing today? Those are fine, but icebreaker questions can be so much more fun!
What superpower would you like to have? What’s your favorite sandwich and why? If you could add anyone to Mount Rushmore, who would it be and why?
Today’s gospel reading suggests a new icebreaker question: What would you do if you knew the world was going to end? If you knew everything in the world that you care about or rely on were about to be destroyed, how would you live differently?
Maybe that’s a little heavy of a question for sparking conversation as an icebreaker. But basically, that’s what Jesus says in this reading.
For the last several chapters of Luke’s Gospel, Jesus and his disciples have been slowly making their way towards Jerusalem, Israel’s capitol. Now, finally, they’ve made it. Standing outside the temple in the heart of the city, some of the disciples are observing how beautiful the building is, what a magnificent place it is.
Jesus notices them chatting about the temple, and he says, “All of this will be destroyed. Not one stone will be left upon another.”
That’s a shocking statement. First, you need to realize the temple is huge. This picture is a 50 to 1 scale model. I read a devotion this week that said, “According to historical records, even the smallest blocks used to build the walls of the Jerusalem temple weighed two to three tons each; the largest foundation stones could be over 67 feet long, more than 18 feet wide, and 15 feet high! The stones were so enormous that they didn’t need any mortar to hold them in place. No wonder it was considered one of the great buildings of the ancient world.”
Physically, it’s just hard to imagine this great building being destroyed.
But more than just how big and solid it is, remember that in the Jewish understanding of the world at that time, the temple is God’s house. This is the place where God dwells on earth. This building is the center of the universe.
What would it mean for the temple to be destroyed? First, it would have to mean either an unimaginably huge natural disaster, or an enemy army destroying the capitol city. But more than that, it would mean the total disruption of everything the people of Israel rely on.
What does it say about God’s power if God’s home can be destroyed? What is there to rely on if not God?
If everything you relied on was about to be destroyed, what would you do?
The disciples have some questions. “When will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?” How long do we have?
Historically, it turns out they have about 35 more years before the fulfillment of Jesus’ prophecy. In AD 70, in the midst of a Judean rebellion against Rome, the Roman army besieged the city of Jerusalem from April 14 to August 30, and they did in fact destroy the temple. You can go see what’s left of it today. That’s what’s known as the western wall (or the wailing wall) in Jerusalem.
But Jesus’ prophecy is about more than the historical, literal destruction of a particular building. That’s just a small piece of what’s to come. There will be many more trials and disasters to come in the course of history. Before history comes to an end when Jesus returns, there will be earthquakes, wars, famines, and much more. There will be false teachers, and there will be persecutions.
And in the midst of those persecutions and disasters and trials, verse 13 tells us, there will be opportunities for us as Christians to testify. Which brings up the question, when everything is falling apart, when the world around us is falling into chaos, what is our testimony? What will we say about God?
All these apocalyptic warnings from Jesus are not intended as a guide to the future. They’re actually about how we should live today as God’s people.
What you would do if you knew the world was going to end? That should be an easy question to answer, because we do know the world is going to end. Maybe it’ll be tomorrow, or maybe in five years, or maybe in five million years.
We don’t know, and that’s ok, because when doesn’t really matter anyway. All we can control is how we live now. To quote Gandalf from Lord of the Rings, “All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” We know what we’re supposed to do in the time we have.
It’s at the end of the epistle reading from 2 Thessalonians. “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.” Remember what Jesus identified as the greatest commandments. Love the Lord your God with all that you are, and love your neighbor as yourself.
Love God, and show your love for God by loving people. Instead of sitting around in idleness waiting for the world to end, do not be weary in doing what is right.
There are many things that can distract us from doing what we’re supposed to do. There are the nations rising against nation that Jesus speaks of. There are the famines and plagues. There are the political pundits eager to explain how the other side is doing their best to end reality as we know it.
But there are also much more common, mundane obstacles. There are personal tragedies, sicknesses, deaths in the family. We live in a time and place where we are not facing organized persecution, yet so often, we still avoid talking about faith. When family comes to visit, do you avoid bringing them to worship because you don’t want to offend them?
Even wealth and success can be distractions as we spend our time and resources and eventually our lives working for things that are temporary. What are the things you choose to put ahead of coming to church? What in your life gets in the way of faith?
As Christians, we need to gather for worship week after week to be reminded and encouraged and sent out again. We need to be encouraged so we don’t become weary in doing what is right.
As you reflect this week on Jesus’ apocalyptic warnings about the world falling apart, consider, if everything you know in life were about to fall apart, what would you do? How would you live? How do you use your time? When you are given opportunities to testify about your faith, what is your testimony?
At the end of this lesson, after all these scary warnings, Jesus tells us, in the midst of everything falling apart, “Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.” The Holy Spirit will give the words to say when opportunities come up. The good news is that ultimately, all of this is up to God, and as the disciples will learn when the temple is eventually destroyed, God is still faithful. God is not contained in a building made by human hands. Not even a tomb can hold God.
When it feels like the world is ending, when it feels like everything is falling apart, be at peace. Hold on to the promise that God is present, and God is faithful. The end of the world is good news, because it means Jesus’ glorious return. But in the meantime, let us not grow weary in doing what is right. Amen