Year C
Malachi 4:1-2a
Psalm 98
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Third Edition)\u2026 the word eschatology first appeared in English in the 19th century\u2026 and it refers to the doctrine of last things\u2026 that is\u2026 the ultimate destiny of both the individual soul\u2026 and the whole created order\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And the word apocalypse brings to mind images of devastating events\u2026 which themselves may cause the end of all things\u2026 like in one of those movies when an asteroid as big as Manhattan is heading straight for Manhattan\u2026 but according to Elizabeth Dias\u2026 who writes for The New York Times\u2026 the original word in Greek \u2014 apokalypsis<\/em> \u2014 simply means an unveiling\u2026 an uncovering\u2026 and nothing more\u2026 it’s like how we bring a negative connotation to the Sanskrit word karma\u2026 as in bad karma\u2026 when the word itself simply means action<\/em>\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n In the article Ms. Diaz wrote\u2026 she cites Jacqueline Hidalgo\u2026 who’s the Chair of Religion at Williams College\u2026 who herself wrote that apocalypse\u2026 “helps us see something that was hidden before\u2026 but the story of apocalypse is an old one\u2026 one of the oldest humans tell\u2026 in ancient religious traditions beyond Christianity \u2014 including Judaism, Islam and Buddhism \u2014 it’s a common narrative that arises in moments of social and political crisis\u2026 as people try to process unprecedented or shocking events\u2026”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yet\u2026 for a variety of reasons\u2026 many of us are drawn to such events\u2026 in an article posted last year on the Psychology Today website\u2026 this impulse was described as\u2026 that feeling of not wanting to look\u2026 but not being able to look away from something that is threatening or horrific\u2026 and I just recently heard this tendency we have described as doom scrolling\u2026 as we scroll on our computers from one depressing meme\u2026 or comment\u2026 or news story\u2026 to another\u2026 and like the disciples\u2026 we too wonder when this apocalypse will happen\u2026 and what signs we ought to be on the lookout for\u2026 so we can somehow be more prepared for it\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Pastor Martin Billmeier writes that he remembers back in the 1970s when there were a lot of TV evangelists who were predicting that the end of the world was right around the corner\u2026 they held up things like homosexuality… and the women’s rights movement\u2026 as signs that evil days were upon us\u2026 and that a day of reckoning was near\u2026 and any who didn’t believe as they did were among the evil and arrogant who needed to repent\u2026 or be burned to stubble on the Last Day\u2026 <\/p>\n\n\n\n Now almost all of us took an Earth Sciences class in eighth or ninth grade\u2026 and in the geology section\u2026 we learned about plate tectonics\u2026 continental plates which float and drift above the mantle\u2026 and which get stuck at their edges because of friction\u2026 and when the enormous pressure along one edge becomes too much to hold\u2026 that tension is released\u2026 sometimes at first\u2026 in little tremors\u2026 but which often foreshadow earthquakes like the one in San Francisco in 1906\u2026 in which upwards of 3,000 people died\u2026 and by the way\u2026 the last time an earthquake was recorded in Michigan was this past July 11\u2026 in the southeast corner of the state\u2026 a mild 2.2 on the Richter scale…<\/p>\n\n\n\n The prophet Malachi was angry at those priests who were not being faithful to God’s Word\u2026 at priests who were not speaking God’s truth to God’s people\u2026 and he was angry at a people who spoke against God\u2026 they saw that the wicked were prospering\u2026 that good things were happening to bad people\u2026 and they questioned serving God at all since it did not profit them to do so\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n These days\u2026 some of God’s people push back at their pastors when they do speak God’s Word\u2026 may even call it persecution\u2026 for example\u2026 a bakery owner who feels pressured to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple may feel persecuted\u2026 and that same couple who’s denied service may also feel persecuted\u2026 they may all be coming to that conclusion from completely divergent points of view\u2026 that’s why it’s helpful to use Richard Hooker’s three-legged stool as we adjust our understanding of how God’s Word informs the many issues we currently face\u2026 that is\u2026 we need to look at the dynamic relationship between scripture\u2026 tradition\u2026 and reason\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n But God is like\u2026 You can do what you want\u2026 it’s why I’ve given you free will\u2026 just remember that everything you do\u2026 that which manifests my Word\u2026 and that which doesn’t\u2026 has consequences<\/em>\u2026 and some of us who strive to embody God’s Word will be hurt by those who don’t\u2026 and those who seem to mock God’s Word will appear to get away with it\u2026<\/em> but as Galatians 6:7 says\u2026 do not fool yourself\u2026 God is not mocked\u2026 for you reap whatever you sow<\/em>\u2026 and that YOU\u2026 applies at least as much to nations\u2026 as it does to individuals\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tracy Hartman\u2026 from Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond\u2026 writes\u2026 it’s likely that Malachi was written after the Babylonian Exile\u2026 a difficult time in Israel’s history\u2026 the Second Temple had been completed\u2026 but messianic hopes had not been fulfilled\u2026 and worshipping YHWH\u2026 which should have been the unifying center of the community\u2026 and could have been a source of life and hope\u2026 deteriorated into rote and meaningless duty\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Malachi’s goal\u2026 was to win the people back to God\u2026 this morning’s passage is the sixth and final exchange between the prophet and the people\u2026 and it served to call the doubters and evildoers to repentance\u2026 and to comfort those who had lived righteously\u2026 but Malachi is clear that while that day is coming\u2026 it had not yet arrived\u2026 and there is no promise that the people will see a change in their present circumstances\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n Likewise\u2026 Jesus says that there will be many signs before all of this occurs\u2026 and Pastor Patrick Wilson\u2026 of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church explains that theologically\u2026 Luke intends to distinguish the end time of all things from particular historical events\u2026 the Temple may have come to an end… but that is not the end… peace will come to an end and be swallowed by war\u2026 but war is not the way the world ends\u2026 security will end\u2026 shaken in earthquakes\u2026 but fear and uncertainty are not the end either\u2026 people will try to mimic Jesus and misuse his name\u2026 attempting to prophesy as he did\u2026 but the world does not end with truth’s impersonators\u2026 Jesus affirms that even those things which seem immutable and permanent\u2026 are in fact transitory\u2026 and remember\u2026 in all three of the Synoptics\u2026 Jesus says that heaven and earth will pass away\u2026 but his words will not pass away\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n I believe that there are not only physical earthquakes\u2026 but spiritual earthquakes too\u2026 stresses which build up when there’s friction between our ways\u2026 and God’s ways\u2026 friction between our willfulness and God’s will-for-us\u2026 and that energy is transferred into the physical realm\u2026 and the divisiveness we experience is not God’s punishment\u2026 but is the collective result of our collective free will\u2026 and the choices we make\u2026 which includes the free will decision for someone to say they’ll only accept the outcome of an election if they win\u2026 or their decision to offer up a concession speech as soon as they don’t\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when Jesus said\u2026 not one stone will be left upon another… all will be thrown down<\/em>\u2026 I think not only about the actual destruction of the Temple\u2026 the physical expression of a spiritual earthquake\u2026 but the destruction in Ukraine\u2026 also a spiritual earthquake\u2026 and in this week’s election\u2026 there was a kind of apocalypse\u2026 an unexpected unveiling of sorts\u2026 I pray\u2026 as we all do\u2026 that God’s will for us in heaven\u2026 and in this time and place\u2026 be done\u2026 that the stones of democracy remain intact\u2026 and that\u2026 as Jesus says\u2026 we’ll have many opportunities to testify\u2026 and by our endurance\u2026 we will gain our souls\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Year C Malachi 4:1-2a Psalm 98 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19May the words of my mouth O God\u2026 speak your truth\u2026 According to The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Third Edition)\u2026 the word eschatology first appeared in English in the 19th century\u2026 and it refers to the doctrine of last things\u2026 that is\u2026 the ultimate destiny of both the individual soul\u2026 and the whole created order\u2026 And the word apocalypse brings to mind images of devastating events\u2026 which themselves may cause the end of all things\u2026 like in one of those movies when an asteroid as big as Manhattan is heading straight for Manhattan\u2026 but according to Elizabeth Dias\u2026 who writes for The New York Times\u2026 the original word in Greek \u2014 apokalypsis \u2014 simply means an unveiling\u2026 an uncovering\u2026 and nothing more\u2026 it’s like how we bring a negative connotation to the Sanskrit word karma\u2026 as in bad karma\u2026 when the word itself simply means action\u2026 In the article Ms. Diaz wrote\u2026 she cites Jacqueline Hidalgo\u2026 who’s the Chair of Religion at Williams College\u2026 who herself wrote that apocalypse\u2026 “helps us see something that was hidden before\u2026 but the story of apocalypse is an old one\u2026 one of the oldest humans tell\u2026 in ancient religious traditions beyond Christianity \u2014 including Judaism, Islam and Buddhism \u2014 it’s a common narrative that arises in moments of social and political crisis\u2026 as people try to process unprecedented or shocking events\u2026” And yet\u2026 for a variety of reasons\u2026 many of us are drawn to such events\u2026 in an article posted last year on the Psychology Today website\u2026 this impulse was described as\u2026 that feeling of not wanting to look\u2026 but not being able to look away from something that is threatening or horrific\u2026 and I just recently heard this tendency we have described as doom scrolling\u2026 as we scroll on our computers from one depressing meme\u2026 or comment\u2026 or news story\u2026 to another\u2026 and like the disciples\u2026 we too wonder when this apocalypse will happen\u2026 and what signs we ought to be on the lookout for\u2026 so we can somehow be more prepared for it\u2026 Pastor Martin Billmeier writes that he remembers back in the 1970s when there were a lot of TV evangelists who were predicting that the end of the world was right around the corner\u2026 they held up things like homosexuality… and the women’s rights movement\u2026 as signs that evil days were upon us\u2026 and that a day of reckoning was near\u2026 and any who didn’t believe as they did were among the evil and arrogant who needed to repent\u2026 or be burned to stubble on the Last Day\u2026 Now almost all of us took an Earth Sciences class in eighth or ninth grade\u2026 and in the geology section\u2026 we learned about plate tectonics\u2026 continental plates which float and drift above the mantle\u2026 and which get stuck at their edges because of friction\u2026 and when the enormous pressure along one edge becomes too much to hold\u2026 that tension is released\u2026 sometimes at first\u2026 in little tremors\u2026 but which often foreshadow earthquakes like the one in San Francisco in 1906\u2026 in which upwards of 3,000 people died\u2026 and by the way\u2026 the last time an earthquake was recorded in Michigan was this past July 11\u2026 in the southeast corner of the state\u2026 a mild 2.2 on the Richter scale… The prophet Malachi was angry at those priests who were not being faithful to God’s Word\u2026 at priests who were not speaking God’s truth to God’s people\u2026 and he was angry at a people who spoke against God\u2026 they saw that the wicked were prospering\u2026 that good things were happening to bad people\u2026 and they questioned serving God at all since it did not profit them to do so\u2026 These days\u2026 some of God’s people push back at their pastors when they do speak God’s Word\u2026 may even call it persecution\u2026 for example\u2026 a bakery owner who feels pressured to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple may feel persecuted\u2026 and that same couple who’s denied service may also feel persecuted\u2026 they may all be coming to that conclusion from completely divergent points of view\u2026 that’s why it’s helpful to use Richard Hooker’s three-legged stool as we adjust our understanding of how God’s Word informs the many issues we currently face\u2026 that is\u2026 we need to look at the dynamic relationship between scripture\u2026 tradition\u2026 and reason\u2026 But God is like\u2026 You can do what you want\u2026 it’s why I’ve given you free will\u2026 just remember that everything you do\u2026 that which manifests my Word\u2026 and that which doesn’t\u2026 has consequences\u2026 and some of us who strive to embody God’s Word will be hurt by those who don’t\u2026 and those who seem to mock God’s Word will appear to get away with it\u2026 but as Galatians 6:7 says\u2026 do not fool yourself\u2026 God is not mocked\u2026 for you reap whatever you sow\u2026 and that YOU\u2026 applies at least as much to nations\u2026 as it does to individuals\u2026 Tracy Hartman\u2026 from Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond\u2026 writes\u2026 it’s likely that Malachi was written after the Babylonian Exile\u2026 a difficult time in Israel’s history\u2026 the Second Temple had been completed\u2026 but messianic hopes had not been fulfilled\u2026 and worshipping YHWH\u2026 which should have been the unifying center of the community\u2026 and could have been a source of life and hope\u2026 deteriorated into rote and meaningless duty\u2026 Malachi’s goal\u2026 was to win the people back to God\u2026 this morning’s passage is the sixth and final exchange between the prophet and the people\u2026 and it served to call the doubters and evildoers to repentance\u2026 and to comfort those who had lived righteously\u2026 but Malachi is clear that while that day is coming\u2026 it had not yet arrived\u2026 and there is no promise that the people will see a change in their present circumstances\u2026 Likewise\u2026 Jesus says that there will be many signs before all of this occurs\u2026 and Pastor Patrick Wilson\u2026 of Williamsburg Presbyterian Church explains that theologically\u2026 Luke 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