“What In The World?”
Isaiah 65:17-25; Luke 21:5-19
Rev Tiare L. Mathison, Pastor & Soul-Tender
3 years ago I preached a sermon called “What In The World Is God Doing?”. On these same passages, following the Lectionary.
I’m borrowing the title again today, for it seems to me a very legitimate question. What in the world?
With eyes on the election and our democracy precarious …what in the world?
With eyes on Ukraine…Ethiopia…China…The Philippines…
With eyes on climate change and its attendant harm…
With eyes on Ingraham High School, where a 14 year old killed a 16 year old, his accomplice, a 15 year old, described by his parents “…a good kid, he’s never been in trouble before…”
With eyes on your joys and your woes…
With eyes on the future…what in the world?
We totter, the ground beneath our feet shakes with near constant threat and sometimes dread. Our prayers of loud lament: What are You doing Lord? Where are You? Can You not see what’s going on? Do You not care? (Pause)
The temple was a gorgeous affair. King Herod started it in 19 BCE. He doubled the size of the Temple Mount. Taxes were charged continuously to pay for the remodel. There were colonnades, like long porches, for people to gather: for speeches, money exchanges; even one for the Gentiles to enjoy. Work continued after the first Herod died, all the way through to Herod Aggripa, the one who asks Jesus, “What is truth?” Right before he condemns him to death.
The uprisings of the Jews, angry at Roman occupation, begins. This leads to the total destruction of the temple in 70 CE. Herod’s collaboration with Rome did not protect his investment after all. Josephus, a historian of the first century CE, wrote that Rome plundered the temple, taking its paintings, menorahs, sacred books and paraded them throughout Rome for a whole year. They burned everything else to the ground. God’s Holy Mountain, Jerusalem, destroyed.
What In The World?
BARA. Only God speaks this word: I am about to create…
Well, hurry up! We say. We are dying down here!
It strikes me that Isaiah proclaims and Jesus completes, in His ministry, His death and His resurrection, a mapping of a topography that creates an ‘alternate world’ as my dear son, Isaac, says. ‘Church is the place where we are reminded that there is something more than meets the eye.’ ‘vision not visibility’. Bono says. Music that takes us into another realm of reality. The way, the truth and the life of living as sisters and brothers in Christ.
Yet we live in a world so stripped of mystery - our imaginations degraded by our technologies. We can create alternative worlds on our devices but not with each other. We can join the meta universe but we cannot figure out how to feed, shelter, clothe and educate in our own communities.
At session on Tuesday night, we had a good discussion about who WPC is; how we are a bulwark against the secular world view that maintains nothing is transcendent, everything is transactional. Daniel quoted Peter Berger, a religion sociologist of the early 20th century: quote: “When the sky is not full of angels then first the astronomer arrives, later the astronauts.”unquote The manifold witness to God’s great faithfulness, mercy and love gets tucked away in the attic of our lives, as the powers and principalities press in: hurry up and take what you want before someone else does. Hurry up.
What In The World?
I find Jesus’ teaching here to be quite prescient;
imposters deceive the faithful
War rages continuously
Natural disasters rampant
He says, ‘this will give you an opportunity to testify’. 2,000 years later, here we are. When you experience disaster, betrayal, and loss, hold on, you will be given the words to speak, the witness to make, the faith to sing. I ask,
Do we even want to?
Its not like we can sign up for a quick course of testimony 101; learn the techniques of speaking the faith by living a purpose driven life; buy my book and video series, listen to my podcast, I’ll show you how to do it. Rather, our mumbling words come as gifts from Jesus Christ, who knows the troubles
we’re in.
As the temple walls fall, we say glory.
John Updike, a well-known novelist in the 20th century, says this: quote:
“I call myself a Christian by defining ‘a Christian’ as a ‘person willing to profess the Apostles Creed” I profess it (which does not mean I understand it, or fill its every syllable with the breath of sainthood), I profess it because I know of no other combination of words that gives such life, that so seeks the crux.” Unquote
Remember? I believe in God the father Almighty…
What In The World?
I think we cast off the notion of persecution too quickly, calling it archaic, old-fashion, not of our day. Granted, we are not faced with lions in the coliseum, or the tortured deaths of martyrs in a pagan land far away. Rather there is demand that we produce the evidence, on our own, for the presence of the Almighty in our midst. As if we were the creators of our own faith. And when we stumble in our testimonies, we blame ourselves.
There is a pitched battle for our souls, and your practice of faithful living makes you a target! This is what Jesus is saying. When you bear My Name out there, you will be ridiculed, dismissed, patted on the head, resisted, judged, ignored. But don’t give up! It’s part of the slow work of God, BARA, creating a new heaven and a new earth.
This is what God is doing in the world. Making it new. We think its a finite place we live in; we’re stuck: history goes on and on and on. It’s always going to be like this, nothing's ever going to change.
The prophets speak a word of hope, point to the power and expansive creation that is the wonder of God. At the heart of our faith is a Creator who made things new in Genesis 1; continues to make things new in Isaiah's world; breaks into this world as a baby and then a Savior; is still making things new here right now today. For everyone. Vision, not visibility, right?
Jerusalem is the world of welcome and peace. The world we long for, catch glimpses once in a while, hope and pray for every day. Especially for our children and grand children.
For all. Even the ones who turn away from following the great command to love God, love neighbor and pursue justice. Isaiah says, yes, it’s true you all blew it to follow after little gods you made on your own. You deserve the judgment of God.
But you know what?
God's judgment is never the final word. Mercy is. Look at the cross. Really, look at the cross.
The promise of a new way through forgiveness is the last word. This promise generates its own vision Jesus says, where life is long and joy is experienced across the boundaries of race, class, gender, sexual identities, economies, power differentials, whatever hierarchy you have to put up with right now. Energy flows through our worlds, spirit movement to make things new.
What in the world is God doing? God tries to get us to experience the flow of new life. It is a combination of open hearts and open minds and open hands. The difficulty of course is if we can't measure it, see it, define it, present it in a tangible way, is it really happening? Our intellectual curiosity is stymied by the intangible, we struggle to generate a framework for the creative power of Jesus at work in the world. These are the limits of our thinking, whereby we must allow our imaginations to come to the fore. What In The World? Amen