God Among us

 

SERMON

Luke 21:5-19

Sunday, Nov. 13, 2022

 

Unbelievably I am now in my sixth year here at St. Simon’s. My time with you has passed by in a complete flash. Truly, I do not know where the time has gone and sadly along with time disappeared, many memories have been tucked away in the rush of dealing with the present. However, today’s gospel reading from Luke has caused me to retrieve many of those memories and to reflect on our six years together. In doing so, I am amazed at how much has happened in the life of our church family since my first trip to this altar on October 1, 2017.

Major events, like the Craft Fair and the Rummage Sale, have ended. Many, too many, beloved friends have died. Covid 19 terrified us all and closed our doors for months on end. Hurricane Sally pushed water into and through our entire building, leading to a year of disruption and repairs. And, finally many dear friends have moved away or are unable physically to join us as we gather.

I think that you will all agree – that’s a lot. A lot of trauma and grief for anyone, and certainly a lot for a church congregation struggling to maintain a solid vertical connection to God. Staying in touch with God is not always easy when life is beset by challenge after challenge. Obstacles to faith and hope.

And yet, my friends, despite these turbulent seas we are emerging as a body of Christ in faith and in hope that we will resume our energy and our focus as disciples of Christ. Already the servant work in our congregation and in our community has blossomed. We bring comfort and nourishment to the children at Elliott Point School. We share our congregational meals with the residents of One Hopeful Place and partner with other congregations in feeding the many homeless sheltered there on nights when the temperature dips below forty degrees. We partnered with Gregg Chapel to prepare two truckloads of hurricane supplies to send to the Port Charlotte area just a matter of days after hurricane Ian. Several weeks ago we collected 51 bags of non-perishable food items for our local food pantry Sharing and Caring in what will now be a quarterly Brown Bag Ministry. We are preparing to embark on a Blessing Bags ministry through which basic hygiene items with be regularly distributed to the over 475 homeless schoolchildren in Okaloosa County. And we have joyously resumed our potluck feasts on holidays and as a natural extension of special services. Our kitchen is back in full swing; the flower guild is more creative than ever, and the altar guild has polished every nook and cranny in the sacristy and will begin refurbishing some of our sacred items such as the Processional Cross.

My friends, I do believe that we have re-established our vertical relationship with God. We are answering his call to serve in peace through love, faith, and hope.

All this good work has not come about without, as I mentioned earlier, plowing through turbulent seas. Seas of angry, frustrated, and despairing words, and paralyzing moods of depression, anger, and a deep grief over the loss of precious time and the deaths of dear friends. But much like the sea captain in the hymn Amazing Grace: 

“The Lord has promised good to me, his word my hope secures; he will my shield and portion be as long as life endures. Through many dangers, toils, and snares I have already come; ‘tis grace that brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” 

St. Simon’s has overcome, and with God’s grace will continue to do so for many years to come.

Now you might ask what about Luke’s story of Jesus describing in distressing detail a future of bloody, death-filled times and the destruction of the temple is relevant to us sitting here 2000 years after the fact.

Think back. As you may remember, Jesus’ predictions in this story are based the disciples’ adoration of the magnificent Herodian temple in Jerusalem. A temple built by a Roman leader and a temple in which Roman Gods were worshipped along with the God of the Israelites. A temple that was ultimately a symbol of Rome’s oppressive power over the people of Israel.  Jesus warns his disciples that temporal symbols of wealth and power that might seem quite attractive in the here and now will ultimately fail and die away. He predicts that, “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”

The disciples, appropriately alarmed, frightened for their lives I would imagine, ask Jesus when and how they will know that this horrific situation is about to occur. Rather than providing a direct answer to these questions, Jesus responds with the directive, “Beware you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’ and ‘The time is near!’ Do not go after them.” 

Jesus understands that in the time of destruction, chaos, and fear the disciples – just like any normal person, you and I included – will lose focus and grasp on to any promise of comfort and safety that they might come across. He warns them – do not lose your focus by being drawn to those who act like god, but who are truly deceivers seeking power to rule; to be a “would be” god. Stick with me, follow me, have faith in me, and I will lead you to the true God. The God of love, of hope and of salvation.

A little later in this same passage he warns the disciples that there will be additional dangers that they must face. Wars, insurrections, nation rising against nation, kingdoms against kingdoms, great earthquakes, dreadful portents or threats, and more. All times and situations in which one’s trust in God can be shaken, and in many cases, all faith lost. All times in which alternative leaders seeking power and control can intrude themselves into our lives gaining our trust and compounding evil upon evil.

Jesus goes on to describe scenarios in which the disciples will be detained, arrested, questioned, even put to death. Times in which they will have to testify to their allegiance to God, not to the power of the Roman Empire. Scary stuff. But then, Jesus offers comfort saying, “…I will give you words of wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” In other words, despite the turbulent seas, the tragedy, the loss of life, the horrific times of war and insurrection, natural disaster, betrayal by family members, and more we are to proceed in faith and courage understanding that “…not a hair on our head will perish. By our endurance we will gain our souls.”

“By our endurance we will gain our souls.”

Today’s gospel story is so relevant to our modern times. There is not one situation that Jesus describes which is not present in our world today. Insurrection and war in the Ukraine, in various African nations, in Syria, and throughout the Mideast rage without cease. Threats of nuclear warfare are now in every headline. Massive natural events such as earthquakes and hurricanes have caused the destruction of entire communities. As of May 2022, 100 million individuals were forcibly displaced worldwide. Propelled by the war in Ukraine and other deadly conflicts this data accounts for an increase of 10.7 million people displaced from the end of the previous year.

Child hunger affects millions of children worldwide, many of them living right here in the Florida Panhandle, and Covid is still with us stealthily spreading throughout our communities each and every day.

These are times in which Jesus tells us it is imperative to… “Follow me and not a hair on your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”

This, my friends, brings me back to St. Simon’s – the community of St. Simon’s – and our corporate life together as we face a chaotic world filled with tragic events and strive to keep our vertical relationship with God. This is a challenge that faces us daily. One that we must meet together as we gather each week in communal worship and as we go into the world to seek and serve Christ.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer is just one of the many theologians who insists that we can only know God through communal worship. Bonhoeffer believed that we can only know God through God’s actions. And we can only make sense of God’s actions through worship because it is in worship that we are invited into the mystery of knowing God as the subject of our life together. We know God through adoring God together. 

It is in our church community that we find the presence of God among us and working with us. It is in our church community that we hear God’s call and find God’s presence. Our communal worship life together is essential to meeting the challenge of turbulent seas and chaotic lives.

As St. Simon’s emerges from the ashes of the Covid 19 era of isolation, I sense that the St. Simon’s community recognizes what Bonhoeffer taught. We know God through adoring God together. We know God’s will for us through our communal life of worship– because of St. Simon’s. And, perhaps most importantly we want to share our God through servant works with the rest of our community.

My friends, we possess something most precious to share with the world. Together, let us offer it to others.

I close with a brief quote from Bonhoeffer’s early work The Cost of Discipleship:

“The path of discipleship is narrow, and it is fatally easy to miss one’s way and stray from the path, even after years of discipleship…On either side of the path deep chasms yawn…The way is unutterably hard…if we are afraid for ourselves all the time it is an impossible way. But if we behold Jesus Christ going on before step by step, we shall not go astray…For he is himself the way, the narrow way…He, and he alone, is our journey’s end…The narrow way is bound to be right.”