Creating a sermon for our gospel reading today was tough. Preaching on the return of Jesus and a violent supernatural end of the world does not seem to fit at all with the experience of our lives today. It sounds like hokey pre-scientific nonsense. Plus, how many people and groups have made predictions over the centuries. And the fact that we’re still here proves they were wrong!
Such teaching can also make our skin crawl, as that is not the core of the faith that we find the Spirit inspiring in us. When I drive to Lyons to work with the church there I go by a church along Route 31 whose sign out front usually has something to do with the end of the world. There’s often flames and dire warnings. Part of me wants to go there sometime just to see what it is like. I’d probably be offended and think it an embarrassment to Christianity.
So what do we do with these predictions of Jesus? How are they relevant to us?
First, let’s not just toss these predictions out as if they are remnants of the ignorant past. Indeed they are not. Jesus’ words spoke truthfully and powerfully in the world at that time, and they also do so today.
That takes us to the second thing, which is where I want to focus. The truth is that Jesus’ words do not ring true to our experience of life. For that we should be deeply thankful. For today’s sermon I want to remind us of just some of the numerous things we often take for granted, but are actually amazing blessings.
With the war in Ukraine it is pretty easy to us to appreciate peace. We do not live in a nation where there are foreign armies toting countless forms of weaponry traveling around. Our cities are not being attacked. Our industrial infrastructure is not being blown to bits.
Lest we forget the ongoing drug war in Mexico, there are also not large organized militant bands roaming our communities doing whatever they think is right to promote their own self- interest.
No one likes getting a parking ticket or a speeding ticket. No one likes when the code enforcement officer tells you that you can’t park a camper in your driveway, or that you can’t build the shed in your backyard that you want to build. And yet, we have a regulatory system that creates communities with a good standard of living.
I almost never hear people praising government regulations. People often complain about them getting in the way of development and profitability. I understand the complaints. But let’s also not forget the good.
When was the last time you went into a grocery store and questioned if the meat in the refrigerated display was safe to eat? When was the last time you ate at a restaurant and got food poisoning? Do you think twice about whether there is bacteria in your drinking water?
Thank government regulations for all of that!
Memorial Day is coming up. Canandaigua will have its Memorial Day parade return after being off for a couple years because of the pandemic. I will attend to support the high school band and the Boy Scout troop I lead. Crowds will be lining the streets sitting in chairs to watch the parade go buy. Every time there is a military group or a fire truck or something similar those seated will stand in respect and clap to show appreciation for the sacrifices made and the dangers faced. This is good. This is as it should be. These people deserve our respect and approval.
Yet while it would never happen, sometime I want there to be a parade which highlights the people who run the water treatment system. I want to highlight the people who keep the sewers clean and do wastewater treatment. I want to highlight the garbage collectors who take away all the dirty, smelly, and sometimes dangerous trash and get it someplace out of sight and out of mind. Perhaps we should add landfill workers to that parade too!
If you have had surgery and I have met with you before going in you know that I often say a prayer. It is easy to pray for the surgical team who will be operating on you. Indeed the surgeons, skilled nurses, anesthesiologist, and perhaps a whole team of support staff will be using their skills and expertise to get you back to a healthy place. They should be commended. And yet you know that I often include the hospital janitors in that prayer. I do it just to trip people up in their thoughts. After all, whenever you’re going in for surgery you’re going to be anxious about a good many things. But I also mean it. I don’t care how skilled a surgeon is, if there isn’t a sterile environment in which to do his or her work, the greatest surgeon isn’t worth much. It is the janitor whose work makes everything else possible. Your life is just as much in the hands of the janitor as it is the surgeon.
Speaking of medical things, when was the last time you went to the hospital and as a pain management they said, “Here’s a shot of whiskey and bite down on this bullet”? I hear all sorts of complaints about poor treatment, and mistakes, and mismanagement at every one of the hospitals around here. But I’ve never heard anything that bad!
I assume when you went to bed last night you did not have a serious fear that you wouldn’t live to see the morning. Thank the countless people who monitor the skies, the seas, and the land borders of our nation. They are on duty twenty-four hours and day three-hundred-sixty-five days a year watching for threats. When they do their job nothing happens. It is only when they make mistakes does anything take place that makes the news.
It would be cool if you turned on a news program and all they had to say was, “Nothing happened today. Thank you everyone for doing a perfect job!”
My one colleague and I are reading the book A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson. The author decides to hike the Appalachian Trail as a project and then write about it. The ensuing adventure is absolutely hilarious. No book has ever made me laugh so much. But he also includes many serious facts about things relevant to hiking. Things like being safe in bear territory, how the forests are managed, how to have appropriate equipment and maps and stuff. He also has some profound thoughts for those who take time to realize it. He begins Chapter 6 with:
“Distance changes utterly when you take the world on foot. A mile becomes a long way, two miles literally considerable, ten miles whopping, fifty miles at the very limits of conception. The world, you realize, is enormous in a way that only you and a small community of fellow hikers know. Planetary scale is your little secret.” (Page 100)
How would life be different if Rochester was a day’s journey on foot? How about a trip to Buffalo taking a week? How different would your world be?
I could go on and on but I’m pretty sure you get the point. Our world is vastly different than the reality Jesus preached to. It is vastly safer. Vastly more just. Vastly more comfortable.
Let’s make sure we are thankful and appreciative for it.
I don’t want to trivialize the real anxieties that many people face. I don’t want to minimize the real pain of a failing body and having no pain killer capable of creating comfort. I fully respect mental illnesses, abusive situations, and the many injustices that take place all around us all the time. All of that needs to be taken seriously. Yet as we honor the seriousness of the problems we do face, let’s not lose sight of how abundantly blessed we are.
America as a nation works incredibly well. There are many many plain things that people do that are the backbone of making it a great place to live.
I invite you too keep your eyes open to the many blessings that are often just a layer under what is visible. Rejoice and make use of these blessings, for they are blessings indeed, not rights. Be thankful to God that Luke 21 does not play a major role in your life. And make use of these blessings to share the good news of God’s grace. For all people in all times and in all places need to hear that.
No comments:
Post a Comment