Malachi 4:1-2a
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=malachi+4%3A1-2
Psalm 98
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=psalm+98
Luke 21:5-19
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=luke+21%3A5-19
"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 people will be arrested and persecuted, and people will come claiming to speak in the name of Jesus talking about the end of the world, and the great Temple in Jerusalem, the dwelling place of the Holy Name of God, beautiful in all its glory, will be levelled to the ground.
Well, aside from the last bit about the Temple, it sure sounds like Jesus is talking about our time, doesn’t it? We certainly live in a time that is full of wars and famines and plagues and false prophets. Everywhere we turn, we see disaster on the news, around the world. There are televangelists, book series, and made-for-TV movies that all focus on the approaching end of the world. We even experience disaster in our own lives - we watch our bank accounts growing smaller and smaller; our families growing farther and farther apart. We hear these words of Jesus, and we wonder if maybe they’re not right. Maybe the world really is coming to an end.
Well, the fracturing of our world into chaos is not new. It is not recent. The world has always been an unsettling, hope-destroying place full of wars, violence, death, and despair. Although we might like to reminisce about the good old days, we know that there really weren’t any good old days. Hindsight always erases the troubles and paints golden pictures of our youth, but the fact is that life is much the same as it has always been. This past week we marked Remembrance Day, a time when we remember the horror of World War I. Well, that was no golden age - that was a time as full of brutality as ours. And as we continue to go back through history, we see that there have always been wars and earthquakes and various dreadful portents. Five hundred years go, during Martin Luther’s time, Germany witnessed a horrifying peasant rebellion, and hundreds of thousands of people were killed, and Luther was convinced that his time was the end of the world. Almost two thousand years ago, a few decades after the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, during the time when the Gospel of Luke was written, people saw the war and disasters around them, they saw the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and they, too, were convinced the world was going to end.
And what is the natural reaction of them, and of us, and of all people who feel that their world is ending? What do we feel when faced with the news that tell us that the world outside our doorstep is one of chaos and lawlessness? Anxiety. Panic. Fear.
We feel fear. We fear the loss of our things, of our families, of our very lives. We fear, and in our fear, we seek safety. We try and prepare for what is to come. We listen to the latest gurus talk about "emergency preparedness." We put money away into a savings account to prepare for financial disaster. We reinforce the locks on our doors. We "prepare our defence in advance."
And what does Jesus have to say to all of that? Well, he tells us "not to prepare your defence in advance." He tells us not to go after those who would lead us astray with false advice. He tells us that yes, the world is fracturing, and yes, terrible things will happen, and he tells us not to put our trust in the things of this world, or in the leaders of this world. But what he says that’s most important for us, what he says that we should remember above everything else is this: Do not be terrified because not a hair of your head will perish. It’s a crazy thing to say in the midst of all that is going on - it flies in the face of all reason and evolutionary sense of preservation and all evidence we have that tells us otherwise, but Jesus says it anyway. Do not be terrified because not a hair of your head will perish.
So why did Jesus say that? Why did Luke write it down? How can we believe such an audacious claim? Because, for some reason, it seems that we do. Luther, in the midst of the end of world, decided to plant an apple tree for his children and future grandchildren to enjoy. We continue to get up in the morning, and make plans for the future, and do our best to make the world a better place. Why?
It is because we know that God is responding to the crises in the world in a way that is changing the world forever. Despite our ongoing attempts to drag it down, God is continuing the work of creation that God began so many uncountable years ago, and God is continuing to bring good things into the world. The prophet Malachi, whose words we heard this morning, said it so beautifully when he said that "the sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings." What an image we have been given - the sun, high and bright in the sky, bathing the land with warmth and healing and life. The work of God is not complete, it is ongoing and it is a work of life, not death. Of peace, not war. Of creation and preservation, not destruction.
It is a work that we have seen culminated in the death and resurrection of that other sun - the Son of God. You see, contained within the crucifixion and resurrection event of Jesus Christ, we see the redemption of the world. Jesus Christ was, as we say, the firstborn of God, the forerunner, the first to experience the resurrection out of the ashes of death, the first to receive new life in the Kingdom of God. And because we have seen in Jesus Christ that God can and does carry out this amazing work of creation, we can be assured that God can and does also carry out this amazing work among us.
So what does this new work look like? What does this new creation look like? Well, it is the embodiment of the resurrected Christ. What I mean is, it is a place where love overcomes hate, where love transforms prejudice and bigotry and hatred by loving the one who is prejudiced and bigoted and full of hate. It is a place where life is not overcome by death, where even though we may die, we know that it is not the end of us, because we know that there is new life in God. It is a place where peace ends war, where reconciliation and compassion and understanding bring an end to conflict, rather than violence and force. Most importantly, it is a place where there is nothing to fear, where anxiety and panic dissolve because the reasons for them have dissolved as well. It is, in short the Kingdom of God.
And how long do we have to wait for this new Kingdom of God to come? Well, interestingly enough, we find the answer in the Gospel of Luke. In Chapter 17, it says, "Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, "The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is! or There it is! For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you." You see, God’s new creative work has already been started in the resurrection, and it is continuing today. Although it is difficult to see, and although the events of the world might lead us to believe otherwise, God is continuing, right now, to work new life within the world and within you. We do not need to be terrified because there is nothing to fear. The sun of righteousness has indeed risen, and the healing of its wings is working over you right now.
And so we praise God, in the midst of the fractured chaos of the world, just as our Psalmist for today did. Witnesses to the new life that God is bringing to the world, we shout with joy to the Lord, we lift up our voices, rejoice, and sing. The rivers clap their hands, and the hills ring out with joy before the Lord and we "shout to the Lord a new song, for the Lord has done marvellous things." Thanks be to God. Amen.
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