Sermon for November 13

Pentecost 26C- Nov. 13

Luke 21:5-19

            Not too long ago I was driving in the traffic mess that is I-77 in Columbia when I saw a bumper sticker that expressed my frustration perfectly: FORGET WORLD PEACE; VISUALIZE USING YOUR TURN SIGNAL!

            “There you go,” I thought to myself. Forget the big stuff, like “Visualizing World Peace,” that’s too much, & too hard, & too unlikely to even contemplate. But I can visualize (& actualize) using my turn signal. Just do the little things that make life a little easier for everybody.

            “Who knows?” I thought, “Maybe if everybody in Columbia, & in SC & in “the south” & in the United States, etc. etc–would use their turn signals properly, it might be a real start toward World Peace. I know it would reduce my animosity toward my anonymous neighbors.

            When I read today’s Gospel lesson, I thought about that bumper sticker. In the midst of all that big talk about big doings, Jesus sprinkles hints that it’s really a matter of the simple behavior asked of us when such things inevitably happen.

            Many people get all excited about prophecy stuff in the Bible--all these dire predictions of awful things soon to come. Me? I think that with fractious politics, fighting in the Middle East, the falling apart of the ozone layer & global warming, healthcare debates, & on & on & on, we have plenty of things to worry about in the present without fretting over what some think are predictions in the Bible.

            One of the real problems we have is that all these things are so large & global & unmanageable; & we are so small, that our temptation is to throw up our hands in despair & bury our heads in the sand, hoping against hope that it all turns out alright.

            But it’s important to note carefully what Jesus says in today’s text: In verse 9 he says, “When you hear of wars & insurrections, don’t be terrified.” Verse 14: “So make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words & a wisdom.” Verse 18: “Not a hair of your head will perish.” (I’m really good with that one.) & verse 19: “By your endurance, you will gain your souls”

            We have a tendency to hear bad news in this this lesson; but these texts are really about good news, about the Gospel. Jesus isn’t preaching gloom & doom; Jesus is preaching reality. Jesus wasn’t predicting some far off day of ultimate battle; he was talking about the reality of life in Israel, which was an occupied country & had been buffeted about by war during its entire existence.

            Jesus’ words remind us of our call to a life of endurance, patience & faith in the midst of a world that is often difficult & confusing. We are called to a faith that looks above & beyond our personal circumstances to the promise of God to hold us & keep us safe forever. We must not forget about “World Peace,” but we must remember that we move toward world peace in little things, like remembering to use turn signals.

            In Everything I Needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert Fulghum tells the story of a medieval stonecutter who was working on a cathedral. An interested bystander saw the man working day after day carefully cutting & shaping & polishing one modest sized piece. Finally the watcher said to the cutter, “This stone must be very important. Is it a part of the baptismal font? Is it the base of the pulpit? Is it the front of the altar?’

            The cutter got up from his knees, wiped his hands, & led the man around the scaffolding, where he pointed out a very obscure corner of the building. “It goes there,” he said. The onlooker was astounded, “Really, you’re working so hard on something nobody will see?” The stonecutter smiled & said, “God will see it. We’re not building this cathedral for nobody; we’re building it for God.”

            Our Gospel lesson is a call to faithful living, to endurance, to hanging in through tough times, to having faith in the God who has faith in us. It’s about building our life into a house for God. And then we move from that to making our congregation a cathedral--a place for God, a place where God rules in every heart, where Christ’s love motivates all actions, where we remember it’s about God & not about us.

            And we then move into the world, carrying this ministry of cathedral building with us, building networks of connection in the world, networks that share God’s love with those who need it most--those stepped on by war, those persecuted by oppression, those rejected by society, those left wounded & bleeding outside on the doorstep of life.

            It is our call to do the little things that open the door so that they may come in & be received into the arms of God’s love. Amen.