November 3, 2019 All Saints Sunday Luke 21:5-38

The gospel reading sounds strange and foreign to our ears.  We are not persecuted for our faith.  We do not live in the immanent fear of destruction, or the end of the world.  Many people, even non-Christians, will accept Jesus as a great moral teacher.  But they are apt to just disregard verses like these as bizarre pieces of the past.

            The verses start with some people speaking about the beauty and grandeur of the temple in Jerusalem.  Indeed by all accounts it was a magnificent structure, especially after the Herod family spent fortunes of money over decades expanding and beautifying the courtyards surrounding the temple proper.  But Jesus says that all will be thrown down.  Indeed, about 40 years later the Romans did destroy Jerusalem and the temple.  The only things that survived, and still exist today, were deep under the ruble.

            Some critics seeking to disregard the significance of Jesus’ predictions point out that Luke’s gospel was written after the temple was destroyed.  They then say that the historical Jesus never really made these predictions.  They were written later, pretending to be older.  They have some evidence for reaching this conclusion.  However, Luke’s primary source – the Gospel of Mark – also contains these teachings.  And there is plenty to suggest it was written while the temple was still standing.  Thus the predictions were indeed made before the events occurred.

            Luke’s original readers found themselves living in an ‘in between times’.  The destruction of Jerusalem was a recent event, which Jesus had predicted.  Persecutions were happening, which Jesus also predicted.  But there was a lot Jesus predicted that had not yet happened.  So, they saw where their lives fit.  And they expected the end of the world to happen very soon.

            We need to be honest that pretty much all of the writings in the New Testament thought the end of the world would happen soon; certainly not thinking twenty centuries would go by with Jesus not coming!

            Many people will use that as an excuse to deny the authenticity of the Bible’s teachings, and dismiss any claims Christianity could have on a person’s life.

            Have you ever watched or listened to a TED talk?  TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, and Design.  TED is a nonprofit that began in the ‘80’s with the purpose of spreading ideas.  Inspiring speakers and thinkers share their well-crafted ideas in a short, something like 15 minute, talk.  They’re online.  National Public Radio has a program devoted to them.

            I dislike most of them.  A supposed expert talking about something for 15 minutes is oversimplifying in the extreme.  And, almost all of them are from a secularist perspective.  While they have some religious leaders, most of them will do anything but recognize religious beliefs as valid.

            A TED Talk called “Does Money Make You Mean?” was recently pointed out to me, and I watched it.  Now from our Christian perspective we know the answer right off the bat.  Of course it does!  Jesus talked about money more than any other topic.  Just a couple weeks ago we had him saying you cannot serve both God and wealth.  Nevertheless Paul Piff, the speaker, shared some experiments about what happens to people as their wealth goes up. 

As their wealth goes up things like compassion and empathy go down.  Their self-interest and sense of entitlement go up.  He says, “Wealthier individuals are more likely to moralize greed being good and that the pursuit of self-interest is favorable and moral.”  Again, that shouldn’t surprise us.  Wealthier people not only give a lower percentage of their income, but often outright less than poorer people.  Often the donations of wealthy people come with strings attached, like naming rights or influence.

And typical of all too many TED talks, the answers have a humanist agenda.  Here’s an excerpt from the transcript.  Piff says, “In one study, we had people watch a brief video, just 46 seconds long, about childhood poverty that served as a reminder of the needs of others in the world around them. And after watching that, we looked at how willing people were to offer up their own time to a stranger presented to them in the lab, who was in distress. After watching this video, an hour later, rich people became just as generous of their own time to help out this other person, a stranger, as someone who's poor, suggesting that these differences are not innate or categorical, but are so malleable to slight changes in people's values, and little nudges of compassion and bumps of empathy. “

Nice idea, but wrong; at least I think so.  Jesus would say that the difference are indeed innate and categorical.  What do we humans do the moment we have power and possessions?  We think they are ours.  We leverage them.  We look to them for protection and we work to protect them.  Jesus said, “Where your treasure is there your heart will be also.” (Matthew 6:21)

I think the beginnings of his premise are correct – more wealth does tend to make people more mean, but the solutions he offers later are misguided.  I suggest it makes perfect sense that people of means will want to reject Jesus’ teachings.  They want to depend upon themselves, not God.  And when you do that you begin to become your own moral compass.

One of the inescapable facts about life is that it ends in death.  Commentator R. Alan Culpepper notes, “For those who have no faith and no knowledge of God, death stands as the final denial of life.  All that we may attempt or do is eventually swept away by time.”  (New Interpreter’s Commentary, Volume 9, Pg. 410)

In the Old Testament apocryphal work called Wisdom of Solomon we find this in Chapter 2:

‘Short and sorrowful is our life,and there is no remedy when a life comes to its end,and no one has been known to return from Hades.For we were born by mere chance,and hereafter we shall be as though we had never been,for the breath in our nostrils is smoke,and reason is a spark kindled by the beating of our hearts;when it is extinguished, the body will turn to ashes,and the spirit will dissolve like empty air.Our name will be forgotten in time,and no one will remember our works;our life will pass away like the traces of a cloud,and be scattered like mistthat is chased by the rays of the sunand overcome by its heat.For our allotted time is the passing of a shadow,and there is no return from our death,because it is sealed up and no one turns back.”

I’d like to hear a TED talk about that undeniable truth sometime!

Here on All Saints Sunday we remember those who have died in the last year.  Their memory is fresh in our minds.  In time that will change.  And even if we remember them perfectly, in time we will die too.  Eventually no one will remember.  That’s a depressing way to live!

The Bible teaches us that beyond the end of life, and in today’s gospel reading – the end of time, stands the Lord.  Those who live under Jesus’ lordship can live expectantly, filling each moment with meaningful activity. 

Every moment is an opportunity to contribute to God’s kingdom.  If you are rich and focused on your Lord you will not be greedy.  And if you are poor and focused on God you will not be lacking for capacity to serve.

For those who have died, and for us who have yet to take that journey, the end of life and the end of time holds no terror for us.  God’s love is bigger and stronger than any force in this world, bigger and stronger than death, even bigger and stronger than time itself.

Jesus said of the end, “Stand up, raise your heads, because your redemption has drawn near.” (21:28)

No matter how foreign and strange our gospel reading may seem, these words of Jesus underly it.  I love the art on the cover of our bulletin.  It is an artistic depiction of the risen Christ.  You can see that in him reside all the seasons, the sun, moon, and stars, and much more.  Christ is all and in all.  And so we can say as the cover of our bulletins say, “Even at the grave we make our song, Alleluia, Alleluia, Alleluia.”