Lost
Hope
November
17 / 2013 Luke 21:5-19 and
Isaiah 65:17-25
The new reports this week have been riveting – what
with the behaviour of the Toronto mayor and the devastation of the Philippines,
in the wake of the typhoon – the pictures emerging from there are bleak and sad
and depressing. It is hard to find hope
in situations like that – Mayor Ford seems to be in a hopeless situation – you
think that there is nothing more that he can do to damage his reputation farther
– but he seems to be able to find new lows to sink to. And yet – on Friday the afternoon news report
was able to move away from the salacious antics of the mayor and focus on some
of the work that the Toronto city council has accomplishes over the past week –
they passed a unanimous motion to continue with their bike share program, and
buy more bikes and create more bike share stations, they presented a financial
plan to fund the renovation, upkeep and general maintenance of their social
housing in the city – there is hope and the city is rising above its mayor’s
behaviour and doing the business it needs to do. And half way around the world there is hope
in the Philippines’ as well as countries from all over the world come together
to support and bring aid to the devastated area. More and more planes filled with food and
water and helping hands arrive and begin the very difficult task of rebuilding
and restoring and returning the people to their homes – hope is returning in
the midst of the devastation – hope, so fragile and yet so strong.
Have you ever lost hope...found yourself in a place
that was hopeless or lived through a time of despair. I have - that’s why you end a marriage
because you can’t find any hope in a relationship anymore. A divorce is about hopelessness.
Have you ever face the doctor’s words that told you
that you or your beloved have a terminal illness, or a chronic illness, or a
life changing illness?
Have you ever dreamed a dreamed, and worked hard to
obtain that dream yet in spite of all your hard work, in spite of all of your
effort, in spite of everything – you fail and the hope of your dream dies.
Or the small things
·
Have you ever bought a lottery ticket and
now won?
·
Have you ever hoped for it not to rain on a
special day and it did?
·
Have you ever reached your hand into the
mailbox hoping of for a cheque and pulled out a bill instead?
·
How about when your children where born –
did you hope for a boy and get a girl or hope for a girl and get a boy?
Hope is a strange thing – a fragile thing – and when
you read bible messages like the one from Luke this morning – the hope gets
lost in the imagery and destructive images Jesus uses to talk to the people
about hope. And yet this morning message
is chocked full of hope – it is all about the hope.
Jesus has been in the temple for a while now, he is at
the end of his ministry, and this particular passage is placed just prior to
the final events in Jesus life that leads to the cross. Chapter 22 begins with the chief priests
seeking ways in which to silence Jesus – it is passages such as the one we
heard this morning that are threatening the religious authorities of Jesus day
so that they wish to stop the messages even to the point of death. Stepping out of the Jerusalem situation with
our two thousand year old lens to look back at this story it seems a bit
extreme – that the words of this itinerate preacher, could cause such
discomfort, such unease that death was the solution. Jesus words in the temple were not
blasphemous – nor were they rude or belligerent or even disrespectful – no –
Jesus words were hopeful – hopeful words that caused the people who heard them
to begin to see things in a different way, and start to question the power and
structures and political forces of that time – hopeful words started the people
questioning roles of woman and treatment of the poor, and where God was in the
world and were God wasn’t – and who could speak for God, and who ultimately had
authority. Words of hope that were
beginning to get traction – words of hope that where causing questions – making
people uncomfortable and ultimately so threatening the power structures of
Jesus time that death was the method of silence.
Today’s reading finds Jesus words of hope in the midst
of apocalyptic images – images of the end time – when the structures of the
world topple to the ground – and this temple that Jesus is in at the moment
these words are spoken – is a really good example of God’s power surpassing
human power – that even huge, enormous, beautiful glorious buildings – are
destructible. This temple, Herod’s
temple – was admittedly one impressive building. It is the third temple built on this site: “Luke and Jesus (and every conceivable
ancient audience) knew that the beauty of the Temple was a matter fraught with
tension and contradiction. The Temple was stunning. The Temple was huge. Paula
Fredriksen notes that the outer court could hold 400,000 people, and further
notes that, at festival times, it frequently held crowds nearly that large. The
Temple was overwhelming, as befits the building that honors the God who alone
is God.
And the Temple was beautiful because Herod, that Roman
stooge who styled himself as King of the Jews, had spent massive amounts of
money making it beautiful. Herod, that vicious and brutal despot known as much
for his private slaughter of his family members as for his acts of public
largesse, had built up the Temple so that it would rival pagan temples built up
by rival rulers. Faithful Jews knew the Temple testified to God’s unique
majesty. They also knew that the beautification project was meant to bring
glory to Herod, that grandson of converts whom the rabbis refused to
acknowledge as Jewish. Nobody that brutal, that barbaric, that pagan, can
belong to the family of the faithful.
Jesus’ words, therefore, about the leveling of the
Temple, not one stone on another, would have had a double bite. On the one
hand, that leveling (even at the hands of Rome) would remove the Herodian blot
from the holy city. On the other hand, the Temple was the Temple, and not even
Herod’s pagan corruption could change that.”[1]
And these large stones and big beautiful ramparts and
walkways – that seemed impossible that they could ever be over turned and yet
sixteen years after completion – they were – never to be raised again – or at
least to this time almost two thousand years later. Cause that’s how it is with human things,
they don’t last.
These are end time images – apocalyptic - the end of the temple, and all it stands
for, the end of society, the end of world as they knew it.
Barbara Brown Taylor writes: Maybe you already know that the world
“apocalypse” means revelations as in that moment when you are looking at
something you have looked at half your life and suddenly you see it for the
first time, whether it is the sun coming up through the trees like an
iridescent peach or the sorrow in your neighbours’s eyes or your own face
looking back at you in the mirror.
Revelation is the moment when you can see through , see into, see beyond
what is going on to what is really
going on- not because your are some kind of genius but because God decided to
let you, and you happened to be paying attention at the time.”[2]
Jesus apocalyptic message of hope – of something new,
of something different, of something God in the midst of the end. Close to the end of the epic journey of Frodo
and Sam as written in Lord of the Rings, Frodo the hobbit has reached the place
of hopelessness – has come to the end of his line and wants to stop – he says:
Frodo: I can't do this, Sam.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
Sam: I know. It's all wrong. By rights we shouldn't even be here. But we are. It's like in the great stories, Mr. Frodo. The ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger, they were. And sometimes you didn't want to know the end. Because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end, it's only a passing thing, this shadow. Even darkness must pass. A new day will come. And when the sun shines it will shine out the clearer. Those were the stories that stayed with you. That meant something, even if you were too small to understand why. But I think, Mr. Frodo, I do understand. I know now. Folk in those stories had lots of chances of turning back, only they Frodo: What are we holding onto, Sam?
Sam: That there's some good in this world, Mr. Frodo... and it's worth fighting for.
There is good in this world –and that is worth fighting
for – that is what keeps you going with the going gets tough – that is where
hope is – when all the world looks bleak and doomed – where everything around
you seems to be falling apart – when it seems as it is ended and it is over –
it is not – because this is just the place that God gets in and something
shifts and out of the bleakness, out of the darkness, out of the hopelessness –
the light returns.
I see a new heaven, I see a new earth ...writes Isaiah
– something new is on the horizon – it is a pretty impressive claim for Isaiah
to make – the world has not been all that wonderful of late for the people of
God – they had been conquered by the Babylonians, forced from their homes and
places of business, and their land, the Babylonians were in turn conquered by
the Persians – and the people of God were then freed to go back – to go back to
Jerusalem, to rebuild what they once had, to build homes and re-establish
business and to restore what was left of the temple to its former glory. It is in the midst of this rebuilding that the
hopeful images of Isaiah are written – speaking of the world as God would have it,
telling of time that the Kingdom comes and God’s will is done
·
Delighting people
·
Children living a full and rich life
·
People living to ripe old ages
·
Being able to reap what you plant and eat what
you sow
·
Living in home
·
And the lion and the lamb will lie down together
– symbolizing peace and justice and hope
Hope – the people live in hope – God’s hope – God’s kingdom.
There is good in this world, and it is worth fighting for,
when it seems as it is ended and it is over – it is not – because this is just
the place that God gets in and something shifts and out of the bleakness, out
of the darkness, out of the hopelessness – the light returns. To live this kingdom life – is to see the hope,
to share the joy and to know that God is with us – we are never alone.
[1] http://www.workingpreacher.org/preaching.aspx?commentary_id=1853
[2]
Barbara Brown Taylor: Apocalyptic Figs
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