A sermon preached Nov 14, 2010 at Southminster Presbyterian Church, Boise, Idaho
Isa 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth;
the former things shall not be remembered
or come to mind.
But be glad and rejoice forever
in what I am creating;
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy,
and its people as a delight.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
for one who dies at a hundred years will be considered a youth,
and one who falls short of a hundred will be considered accursed.
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not build and another inhabit;
they shall not plant and another eat;
for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the LORD—
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent—its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
Luke 21:1-19
He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury;
he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, “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.”
They asked him, “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”
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.
“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.”
Then he said to them, “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.
“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.
This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. 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.”
We have two very different texts today. The beautiful promise from Isaiah of God’s new heaven and new earth—where children will grow up in peace and health and wholeness to live long and productive lives. A world where their labor will bear fruit for the benefit of their families and their communities—not just be something to be stolen by the powers that carted them off to exile.
This vision seems in contrast to Jesus’ description about the destruction of the temple—where false prophets will rise in God’s name, where nation will rise against nation, where great earthquakes, famines, and plagues shall trouble the people.
Which one seems easier to understand in our world today?
But maybe they aren’t so different, really. After spending time with both of these texts the past few weeks, I found them both to be hopeful.
Let’s start with the Isaiah text. If you were here last week, I preached from Haggai, where he was encouraging the Israelites, recently home from exile, to rebuild the Temple. And this text from Isaiah dates from the same time frame, shortly after the Persians have sent the Israelites home.
People who know about loss, dislocation, and destruction are being offered a beautiful message of reconstruction.
“They shall build houses and inhabit them. They shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.”
You don’t need to say those verses to people whose lives have been stable. You say those words to people who aren’t sure where they are going to sleep tomorrow, to people who have been relocated so many times that they aren’t even sure where the rest of their friends and family are.
This new creation is also, if you notice, a new community. Animals who never spent time together before, will be hanging out together now. An understanding of community that we’ve never seen before—where the wolf, instead of eating the lamb, will eat together with the lamb. Where the lion, instead of eating the ox, will eat the ox’s straw with the ox. How would our communities be different if we were intentional about sharing a meal with the people we are sure are out to get us?
I take great hope that if lambs can invite wolves over to join them for dinner, then we can figure that out too. For all of the comfort of Isaiah’s message, it isn’t necessarily easy. God doesn’t promise them, “the Idaho Vandal will eat dinner with the Vandal and the BSU fan will have other BSU fans over for brunch.”
I kid, a little.
But the point remains.
Your vision of heaven shouldn’t involve you only spending time with the people you want to see.
And in this vision of new heaven and new earth the lions remain lions and the lambs remain lambs. But somehow they come together, so this passage should give us faith that God has a vision for how we, in our individual particularities, can live together in love, no matter how diverse or different we are.
And it is important to remember that we are to seek this new creation NOW. This isn’t something for which we just look around at the world around us and then say, “this place is a mess. I’m waiting for God to come and fix it”.
God has given us this vision and we are to go about making it so. We are to seek justice so that children will be able to live long and healthy lives. While we are relatively safe and comfortable here this morning, 22,000 children will die today around the world.
22,000.
You can see a “world clock” at this link to get another view of what’s happening around our planet.
Many of those deaths happen because children do not have access to clean drinking water. Because they do not receive routine immunizations.
Because they had the misfortune of being born in a warzone.
Because they happen to be living in a tent city in post-earthquake Haiti when Cholera came to town.
I will rejoice in Jerusalem,
and delight in my people;
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days.
Maybe we can’t save all 22,000 kids each day. But what could we do to make Isaiah’s vision come true in this community and around the world?
Whatever we do, we are called to bring this vision of the world to people who need to hear it and know it.
A young woman who went to Whitworth College and volunteered with the youth at the church where I grew up in Spokane, founded an organization after she graduated from college. Blood:Water Mission was started because some people tried to help alleviate the affects of HIV and AIDS in Subsaharan Africa. Here is some information from their website:
Since its launch, Blood:Water Mission has raised millions of dollars from individuals seeking to make a difference. We have partnered with more than 800 communities in Africa, providing life-saving water and health needs for over 500,000 people. Along the way the 1000 Wells Project has expanded wholistically to include a variety of clean water solutions and sanitation and hygiene training, as well as funding health clinics, community health workers, and support groups, which help in the prevention, treatment, care and support of communities affected by AIDS. We are beginning to incorporate HIV/AIDS-specific programming alongside ongoing water programming in 2009 and onwards.
This woman was 22 when she and others founded this organization. So, what are you going to do to bring about God’s vision of a New Creation?
We are near the end of our liturgical calendar, which is the calendar of the church. Today is actually the last day in what they call “Ordinary Time”. Next week, we will look at the Reign of Christ. And then, on the Sunday after thanksgiving, we begin a new liturgical year with the beginning of Advent.
And the last day in Ordinary Time each year gives us versions of this text from Luke—where Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple. The poorly behaved part of me wonders if they include this text here just so you won’t feel too cozy and comfortable as you head into Advent, or so pastors will feel uncomfortable.
But I’m sure that’s not it.
I think Luke’s destruction of the Temple story is a continuation of Isaiah, in some ways.
Isaiah’s theme of justice for all is shown in some relief at the beginning of Luke’s story. Before he talks about the Temple, Jesus and his disciples appear to be sitting in front of it, watching people bring their contributions.
“He looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury;
he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins.
He said, “Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more than all of them; for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on.”
But then he talks about the Temple. “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.”
Jesus and his buddies are hanging out by the treasury at the temple, watching people bring their donations. The rich people give out of their abundance. The poor widow gives her two pennies. This passage is often preached as praising the widow for giving so generously out of her poverty, but I’m not sure that is what Jesus is commenting on.
He doesn’t criticize the rich people for their generous sums. But he doesn’t actually praise the poor widow, either. What he observes is that her gift is larger than everyone else’s because she has just given away the money she needed to live on. The “truly I tell you” is one of Jesus’ trademark “pay attention” comments. But he isn’t talking to the widow. He’s talking to the disciples. He’s talking to us.
“Truly I tell you, you have set up a system here at this temple that is ridiculous. You require sacrifices from people that allow the rich people to feel holier than the rest of the world and force the poor widow to go hungry. Do you think this is the sacrifice my Father wants?!”
This system at the Temple is NOT going to bring about the New Creation, with justice for all.
He isn’t saying we shouldn’t give out of our abundance or out of our scarcity, but he is saying that when we give, it shouldn’t be so we can put gold leaf on the walls.
We should give so that we can make sure the poor widow doesn’t only have two pennies. Our giving should be about making peoples lives better.
The text goes on to describe the hardships that the people of God will face. War, famine, earthquakes, persecution.
Sign me up!
This is another one of those passages where Jesus’ PR people were standing there behind him, hanging their heads. “This will never work, Jesus. Nobody wants to sign up for this!”
But I hear hope in this story. These things will give you an opportunity to testify, to witness, to God’s presence in your lives.
“But not a hair of your head will perish.
By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
I have heard some of your testimonies. While we are good at praising God for the good days, when we talk about our faith journeys, it is often the trials that we mention as having brought us to a deeper understanding of God’s love.
I do not think that God causes the difficult things in our lives just so we’ll say nice things about God. But I do think that in the midst of the things that happen to us, God wants us to remember that NONE of it is beyond God’s presence or God’s redemptive powers. Remember the song from the meditation this morning?
We pour out our miseries,
God just hears a melody.
Beautiful the mess we are,
the honest cries of breaking hearts,
are better than a hallelujah.
Friends, we are called to pour out our miseries. To testify to the pain and brokenness in the world. To testify to the grace and the presence of God in the midst of it all.
And the other thing to remember about the Temple passages in the Gospels is that while the story takes place during Jesus life and ministry, by the time the story is written down and read by his followers, some time has past. By the time early Christians are reading this story, the Temple has already fallen. While they are reading about Jesus in front of the Temple, they are looking at a pile of rubble.
And Jesus wants them to know that this isn’t the end.
God isn’t limited to a building.
God became flesh and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.
No matter the trials we face in this life, God has experienced it too, in the person of Jesus of Nazareth.
As we leave “ordinary time” and enter into a new liturgical season of Advent, where we’ll prepare for the birth of God’s own son, remember the uncomfortable-ness of these texts.
Remember that God’s New Heaven and New Earth began with the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth.
When it seems that the world is falling apart around us, we, as followers of Christ are called to proclaim that God is still in charge.
Temples will fall.
Earthquakes will happen.
People will die.
Yet, through it all, Jesus Christ lives.
Some people think the resurrection matters so that we can get to heaven. I think the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the conquering of human death and pain, matters so we can live NOW, in the midst of the trials of the world, seeking to proclaim God’s NEW Heaven and NEW earth!
And I think that proclaiming God’s presence to a broken world in need of hope is better than a hallelujah sometimes.