[Jesus] looked up and
saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury;
he also saw a poor
widow put in two small copper coins. He said,
"Truly I tell you, this poor widow has put in more
than all of them; for all of them have contributed out
of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put
in all she had to live on." Luke 21:5-19
When some were speaking
about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful
stones and gifts dedicated to God, [Jesus] said,
"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."
They asked him,
Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign
that this is about to take place?"
And he said,
"Beware that 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."
"When you hear of
wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these
things must take place first, but the end will follow
immediately." Then he said to them, "Nation
will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom;
there will be great earthquakes, and in various places
famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents
and great signs from heaven."
"But before all
this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you;
they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and
you will be brought before kings and governors because
of my name. This will give you an opportunity to
testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your
defense in advance; for I will give you words of wisdom
that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or
contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and
brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put
some of you to death. You will be hated by all because
of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By
your endurance you will gain your souls."
The Gospel of the Lord.
Enduring the Tials of Life
Today's Gospel text is
very complex in what it has to say to us. It seems that
we are living in a very complex time, especially when it
comes to speaking about enduring the storms and trials
that life brings, let alone just keeping the bills paid,
food on our tables and the kids in school. Today I
included the story of the "Widow's Mite"
because I have found that there is a connection to be
made between her selfless giving and our need to ENDURE
the trials of life, as Jesus is saying in the text.
Notice that the widow did not make a very generous
offering:
In financial terms --
in fact, she barely gave a penny, just two lepta (half
pennies). Yet Jesus notices her offering. Jesus has seen
beyond the worth of the two copper coins, he sees her
motivation, he notices her abandonment -- in giving
herself to God. She was moved to give from her heart,
she has offered herself, by entrusting her bodily needs
to God . . . and in this action she obtains Jesus'
compliment, "She has given more than all of
them."
(Keep her actions and
motivations in your thoughts as we go on).
A few weeks ago I had
lunch and conversation with a group of Gettysburg
College students. I posed the following question for
them, "So how's it going? I mean, how are you guys
doing in light of things that have taken place over the
last two months? How are you coping with the emotions of
the day?"
The students were
thoughtful for a few moments, and then very responsive
to the question(s). One girl began by saying, "I am
not doing very well with my academic work this semester,
but its OK, I am concentrating more on the people and
relationships that are important in my life, this is a
time when the grades don't matter as much as the friends
I have." Another girl said that there was a general
feeling of uncertainty for her, and some of the guys in
the group said that they felt depressed -- "It's
hard to focus on our studies when we don't know what
tomorrow will bring." Another one of the students
felt that she needed to live by the motto,"Carpe
Diem", seizing every moment to the fullest.
The reason I had asked
these students "how things were going" related
to a conversation I had with my brother the night
before, when he told me about the family of a man who
had recently committed suicide. . . (my brother and his
wife were helping the family in their grief). I had also
talked with my brother about the difficulty in
understanding the mood swings of teenagers and their
reactions to the troubled days we are experiencing . . .
.
The recent violence and
tragedy around us -- have forced us all to think about
the deeper things of life.
It has been a time to
reprioritize our schedules and activities and maybe,
like the college students, we find ourselves thinking
less about careers or studies or sports and more about
family, friendships, and the importance of our
communities -- not to mention the fellowship of our
church body . . . and a closer walk with God. Last
Sunday I was speaking with the Second Year Confirmation
students, who, by the way, are a great group of young
people!! We were speaking about what its like to talk
with God. And I posed the question to these students,
"How many of you talk to yourself?" We all
raised our hands -- then we discussed how it is that --
what we call "talking to ourselves", can be
one of the forms we use to talk with God. (That is,
unless you talk back to yourself!!) Nevertheless, most
of us have been carrying on this conversation with God
since we were children, others of us have entered into
the conscious conversation with God in more recent Days.
But our conversation is justified! (In good times and in
bad)
In the midst of life,
even in the best of times we can take comfort in knowing
that we're not "going it alone in this world."
God is present!
Sometimes the
tumultuous times of life jar us away from our
complacency and we are drawn into the conversation with
God, somewhat reluctantly. We are led to speak words not
of our own choosing, but from our need to be understood
by Another.
In a recent series of
essays entitled, "Thoughts in the Presence of
Fear", Wendell Berry, a rural philosopher, a poet,
and a theologian wrote that, "The complexity of our
present trouble suggests as never before that we need to
change our present concept of education. Education is
not properly an industry, and its proper use is not to
serve industries, neither by job-training nor by
industry-subsidized research. It's proper use is to
enable citizens to live lives that are economically,
politically, socially, and culturally responsible. This
cannot be done by gathering or "accessing"
what we now call "information" - which is to
say, 'facts without context and therefore without
priority.' [No] A proper education enables young people
to put their lives in order, which means knowing what
things are more important than other things; it means
putting first things first."
Luke's Gospel takes us
back to a different time in history when men and women
of the early church contemplated the meaning of the
events that were transpiring around them. Like us today,
they had much to be "talking to themselves
about" and they had many reasons to be reassessing
their priorities, hanging a little closer to friends and
family and drawing closer with their brothers and
sisters in Christ--these were desperate times. . . .
For the people of
Luke's day had also seen a great building fall and a
religious and political-symbol brutally reduced to
rubble. . . . It was the Temple at Jerusalem,. . . also
known as Herod's Temple, which was destroyed in 70 C.E.
Jesus word's spoken to
us from the Gospel this morning are a haunting reminder
of that tumultuous and violent event. The words of
warning that Jesus delivers to his disciples serve to
further convey the danger of those times for Christians
and Jews alike. They were threatened by Emperor Nero's
insane violence --- that could and would be executed by
Rome's legions as well as the political and religious
persecutions -- indeed the Christians and the Jews were
accused of atheism, as they would not participate in the
Roman system of worship. Indeed the times were perilous
and Luke knows that the prophecy was fulfilled:
"Not one stone [would be] left upon another"
The Temple was destroyed!
Today we hear the
disciples asking Jesus again, "when will these
things take place? What will be the sign of their
coming? And what kind of society will we be left to live
in or will we be left to "live out" our faith
in?
Our experience is that
these things have always taken place, though we have not
always recognized them. The journey we take through this
life (like the journey to the cross) is to endure in
Christ our Lord. We are to remain in the faith and to
live consistently through the epic events of human
history. Our task is to give witness to the Love of
Christ and his peaceable Kingdom. We trust that Jesus is
leading us and that Jesus will give us the words to say
when the trials come.
Perhaps it is in the
moments of "talking to ourselves" that Jesus
is giving us the words to say -- or that he is giving us
encouragement to go on and speak the words of truth and
justice when necessary.
Christians are called
to serve Christ in the world today, and not to wait on
God to swoop down from heaven and carry us away into
paradise. Not that we are abandoned to misery in this
life, but that, in Christ we are victorious over death
and we have life when we live freely in Him, --
"the devil is defeated," as Luther would say.
Neither the Temple's fall nor natural disasters, nor the
raging of the nations should sway us from our course of
faith, but (instead) we ENDURE.
The original Greek word
used for "endure" is UPOMONE Which means:
Patient endurance (of persecution; of hardships; of
tribulations and suffering). UPOMONE is not a passive
patience, but an active waiting. The enduring is
possible because of the association with the name of
Jesus . . . Our endurance is exemplified in the way that
we live and act toward others in the world. Everything
about the Upomone way of living expresses the fact that
"Following Jesus always exposes us to adversity and
hardship."
Our enduring can be
viewed as a type of giving to God, and this brings us a
remembrance of the Widow's offering. The connection is
more clear when we examine the word Luke uses at the end
of the reading, KTESOSTHE: "By enduring you will
Ktesosthe* (gain) your souls." *To get, gain;
procure; To be the cause or occasion of purchasing; to
preserve or save. Ktesosthe refers to the type of gain,
that might be made by a trade of something of great
worth, like gold. In this reference we can see that by
the practice of our endurance we will ktesosthe (gain)
our souls. Our souls are kept as we endure just like
Jesus' admiration of the Widow lady's self giving
demeanor.
Tumultuous times bring
about reformation of our spirituality-- we do not ask
for nor do we look forward to catastrophes . . . but
always we seek security and normalcy in our living.
Through adversity, which is never a good of itself, we
are drawn closer to God. We are compelled to think on
the greater things of the spirit. Adversities cause us
to reconsider the importance of life and living with
others in a finite environment. When I recently spoke
with my Mother and Father about this sermon, Mom shared
with me that she noticed how much more friendly and
talkative people seemed to be at the local grocery
store. Someone commented, "What nice oranges you
have in your basket," and a conversation was begun
(where before no one would have given the time or
attention). The conversations went on about a grandson
who was in the Naval Academy, a daughter-in-law who's
parents lived in the Queens neighborhood tragically
brought into the news this past week. "People just
seem to appreciate one another more since this
happened," Mom said. ("I just wish the drivers
on the roads would capture this sentiment.")
God can transform times
of trials into times of human grace and goodness. The
best that we have to offer might be like the
"Widow's mite." Yet we give of ourselves, it
could be a generous financial contribution or it might
be a handshake or a kind word to a neighbor who is down
and out. But we endure and we offer ourselves for God's
service -- In these acts of faith we are gaining our
souls, we become a soulful people, a people with the
heart of God bringing our gifts of love to the world.
Out of the chaos we seek God's help and we look for
guidance. We look to the One who "remembers his
mercy and faithfulness to his people." We look to
and listen for our Church, guided by Christ, to bring us
comfort and clarity to the tangled situations of life.
To accomplish ministry
takes patience, long-suffering and endurance, and this
is what the Gospel calls us to when Jesus says that
"By your UPOMONE (by your endurance) you will gain
your souls." We can exercise our soulfulness in
these difficult days by remaining dutifully in Christ --
like the Widow was dutiful in her sacrifice to God.
In the Name of our Lord
we are a people who hope for his peace to break forth
and in the Name of Christ we will Endure whatever trials
that may befall us. Amen
May the peace of God,
which surpasses all of our human understanding, fill us
both now and forevermore.
Amen