Sisters and brothers in Christ,
Today’s Gospel, today’s good news is for the tired believers.
It’s for those of us who are a little bit, and especially for those of us who are very tired, and frightened about what the future holds. (If that’s not you, say a prayer of thanksgiving, and come stand with those who are tired and afraid.) This is a text for those who look around and see a world that has abandoned the teachings of Jesus and the prophets. The text I just read, said “you will be hated by all because of my name.” Maybe that’s true for Christians today in some places, but mostly in our culture, I think the contemporary version of this is not that we will be hatred but rather just treated with apathy or ignorance or misinterpretation, which in some ways is worse. If you’re hated, then at least your argument has got traction, it’s getting under someone’s skin. But if you’re ignored, well then you don’t even have a place [“benign”]. Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate, it’s apathy.”
Do you ever feel totally insignificant or ignored? Without a place, a voice? Not even given the affirmation of a counter-argument. Just brushed off – perhaps by the culture, perhaps by our leaders and law makers, always by the weather, perhaps by the church, perhaps by your family or friends? “You will be irrelevant because of my name,” Jesus might say to us today. (If that’s not you...)
Today’s Gospel message is for the tired followers of Jesus among us…feeling unimportant and hopeless…like our work and our words are in vain, and the ship is going down. “Why bother? What’s the point? Who cares?”
This Gospel is for those of us who can feel ourselves being sucked into all that apathy, ignorance and misinterpretation flying all around us, like a hurricane.
It’s easy to just give ourselves to those Category 5, gale-force, hurricane winds of this culture—“take care of yourself, it’s all about you, cover your assets, [whispering] they are not your problem, protect yourself, security, security, personal security, draw your circle of family tight and neat, don’t worry about anyone else but you and yours…’cause the ship is going down.” Watch for those subtexts in all the holiday ads that are already well on their way in our culture…these messages whipping by us like wind...and sometimes much more impactful than that.
I grew up on the Gulf Coast and, like many of you, have been in a few hurricanes. I’ve got this image in my head this week of “Christians in a hurricane” when I look at this text:
Christians in a hurricane, can you imagine? Christians, like any creature, would seek cover during a hurricane. But then, as they wait for the storm to pass, they toil away together in a safe place—maybe a basement of a church, maybe its a community center or someone’s home. They would be together and working away during the storm … knitting, quilting, assembling packets, cooking, planning their strategy for reaching out very soon, assisting one another with words of comfort, bandages, hugs and long conversations. Maybe even laughter and games as the trees bend and branches fall outside. Can you envision it? Small teams would even venture out into the storm to gather in those who could not find shelter. They would risk their lives for a stranger. And when they returned with a cold, wet, lost child or an elderly adult, all would be greeted at the door and ushered in with blankets and bowls of tomato soup and plates of grilled cheese. And a cot with a pillow. Can you see it, in your mind’s eye?
The hurricane pounds, and the Christians wait and work. And then a time would come for worship. They would gather in a dark place underground. No electricity, but that doesn’t matter. They’d pray and sing anyway. They’d read scripture by candlelight – they’d hardly have to look for passages about earlier believers riding out storms, lights shining in darkness, life overcoming death, peace in times of chaos...because they’d already know them by heart. And they’d hang on every word from that Holy Book. And then they’d eat — Christians in a hurricane – they’d break and eat the body of life, the blood of forgiveness, Christ would fill them – and they would be satisfied…with all physical evidence to the contrary.
Today’s text is about hunkering down together. Patiently working. Lovingly watching . Thoughtfully reaching out. Faithfully hoping. Christians in a hurricane.
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The Gospel of Luke is written by the same author as the book of Acts. And commentaries reminded us that this text, especially the bits about the hardship that’s coming—the imprisonment, the ridicule, the persecution—is of course a foreshadowing of exactly what happens in Acts.
One of these events in the book of Acts: there’s a story of Paul traveling by sea with his comrades and they are terrified because they’re caught in a storm...but Paul speaks to them:
“I urge you now to keep up your courage, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship…'Do not be afraid…God has granted safety to all those who are sailing with you.' So keep up your courage.” (Acts 27:22-25)
“The ship is going down, and you’ll be OK,” Jesus says to his disciples. Jesus is unimpressed in this text by the temple, by the building, by the ship. Bricks and stones and fancy cargo, will all go down.
But you will be OK. In one sentence, Jesus says, “you will be betrayed and some even put to death,” and in the very next, “but not a hair on year head will perish.” Malachi: “The sun of righteousness shall rise, with healing in its wings.” Psalmist: “Sorrow spends the night, but...”
This is a text about hunkering down, faithfully enduring. “By your endurance you will gain your [souls],” Jesus says. psuche—mind, sanity, calmness. Our Buddhist sisters and brothers teach: “Chop wood, carry water.” Paul’s letter to the Thessalonians: “Do not weary in doing what is right.” Hunker down: chop wood, carry water, wash, bake, stitch, weed. One of the great quotes attributed to Martin Luther: “If I knew the world would end tomorrow, I’d plant an apple tree today.”
Hunkering down, sisters and brothers in Christ, patiently doing what is right. And we do it, not alone, we endure with all tangible evidence to the contrary, we endure in the glorious company of all the saints—who we celebrated a few weeks ago and each time we gather—we endure together and we endure with Christ. To the tired followers of Jesus, hear his words again. “My peace be with you,” he says, even as nation rises against nation, even as nation rises against itself, earthquakes from within and without, hurricanes pounding, Christians don’t deny the realities. They ground themselves in an even deeper reality: Christ’s peace is present, enfleshed and moving among us—that peace never leaves us.
And because of that peace of Christ, which passes all human understanding, everything turns, everything changes, and we are filled anew...to love and share and trust and live.
Thanks be to God. AMEN.
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