It’s All Tumbling Down!
We have this morning such huge contrasts – this gorgeous vision from Isaiah – “I am about to create new heaven and new earth, the former things will not come to mind but be glad and rejoice forever in what I am creating!”…
And then Psalm 98, “Sing to the Lord for he has done marvelous things. Let the seas make a noise!” Remember, at Christmas we sing Joy to the World? It’s is based in this Psalm – and it wasn’t originally written as a Christmas carol but as a response to this Psalm – Sing to the Lord a new song! Joy! In righteousness shall he judge the peoples with equity.
And then we come to the gospel…destruction!
And it is all of a piece. Because we don’t get to that joy and this new heaven and earth without going through some real chaos. Some real destruction. Jesus points to the temple of which they are all so gaga – you are not looking at the heart of this. The heart of this is rotten. It has been built on self-aggrandizing pride, and it will all come tumbling down.
So – he says, when you see all the chaos that unfolds as a consequence of rulers not doing what the scripture enjoins them to do – to care for the widows and orphans and welcome the stranger – but when you see them instead massing more and more power and wealth to themselves, there are natural consequences to that. And the consequences to that is that these structures come tumbling down, they cannot stand.
This temple that they are looking at was built by Herod, a Roman collaborator, and it is dedicated to God, but it is built with Herod at the center, not the people and not God. It is a glittering golden ballroom if you will. A kind of “make Israel great again” project.
Friends, there is such a through line between then and now…you can just connect the dots… and Jesus says, “it’s going to all come tumbling down.
These rulers that care only for themselves, these massive building projects that do not have the people in mind, but only the pride of the ones at the top, and then people say, “look! Look! How big and beautiful all of this is!” But Jesus says, “it won’t stand. It will tumble and there will be massive displacement and disorder as a result. But human pride, wars, insurrections, plagues, famines – these have happened repeatedly throughout human history, before Jesus’ time, during Jesus’ time, after Jesus’ time, our time.
So the framing that Jesus gives us when we see all the chaos and disorder that follow in the wake of human pride is to see all of this as an opportunity to witness, an opportunity to continue doing the good work that we have been given to do – feed the hungry, house the homeless, visit the sick and those in prison and those in need. Welcome the stranger. Keep doing those things. Keep doing those things. Keep your eye on the ball.
And when they haul you before the magistrates, because of your good works, don’t worry. I’ll give you what to say. You just stand firm, my flock, he says to those disciples and to all of us who come after.
Don’t be weary in doing what is right, as our letter from 2nd Thessalonians tells us. Don’t get weary. Keep doing what I have called you to do.
Now let’s turn to that 2nd letter to the Thessalonians – because it has been used in ways that are not helpful – particularly this line that has been plucked out of context and used against people like SNAP recipients and others. “Those who are not willing to work should not eat.”
So I want to talk about this for a minute. Because what has been happening with some of those to whom this letter is addressed is that they are in fact doing what Jesus warns against – They are saying, “the end is near! Wars! Famines! Chaos! All the signs of the end are happening! The rapture is here! And they are going around being busybodies instead of quietly doing their work. I know that’s a pejorative term, but Paul is pointing out that all this buzzing around spreading rumors and conspiracy thinking is not a faithful response to whatever is historically happening
And he says – no – just go do your work. Don’t get weary in just doing what is right.
He did not write this for 21st century United States to say that anyone who doesn’t or can’t work is not going to receive any benefits. So let’s just be scripturally clear — have scriptural integrity.
The key line for us, the through line for us is, don’t be weary. In good times and in bad times – just keep the scriptural traditions of attending to the needs of the poor and the stranger. We are in a particularly challenging time – but we see Christians in our own times standing firm, regardless of what stones are thrown, or what politically motivated arrests are made.
I want to lift up two current letters to the church – one is from the Roman Catholic Bishops and one is from our own Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, U.S.A.
The Roman bishops write:
“To the clergy, religious, lay faithful, and all people of good will engaged in acts of solidarity with migrants and refugees, even at your own peril, (remember Jesus said, “don’t worry when they call you before the magistrates. They did it to me. They will do it to you.”) we commend you and encourage others to undertake similar manifestations of Christ’s love for those in need. We must all resist the temptation to apathy and instead with courage and hope act to truly live out Christ’s love that transcends borders.”
It’s a beautiful statement. And it’s a challenging statement. And our own Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe follows suit when he writes to the American church:
“We did not seek this predicament, but God calls us to place the most vulnerable and marginalized at the center of our common life, and we must follow that command regardless of the dictates of any political party or earthly power. We are now being faced with a series of choices between the demands of the federal government and the teachings of Jesus, and that is no choice at all.
This is not the same kind of patriotism that has guided our Episcopal Church U.S.A., since its founding in 1785, but this July Fourth, it may be the most faithful service we can render — both to the country we love and the God we serve.”
These are leading lights in the faithful body of Christians in our time and I wanted to bring them to you because they are so in line with our gospel reading and all the rest of our scripture today – we shout for joy in God’s creating a new heaven and new earth – but we go through the way of the cross, the Via Dolorosa, the way of sorrows, the way of stones and rulers tumbling down.”
This is the next to last Sunday in the gospel of Luke. We’ve been in the gospel of Luke for the past year. Next Sunday will be the Feast of Christ the King. We are at the end of this gospel. November 30th will be the 1st Sunday of Advent, when we begin a year-long pilgrimage through the Gospel of Matthew.
So this is the end of the gospel of Luke with Jesus pointing towards these systems that are going to come crashing down, and it’s going to get bad. Really bad. This is the last thing he preaches before being arrested and crucified.
And because we are wrapping up this gospel, this is the final piece, I want to just take us back to the beginning of Luke, Luke Chapter 1, in which Mary says virtually the same thing as Jesus. Remember, Jesus was raised by a very revolutionary kind of mom.
Remember she has been overshadowed by the Holy Spirit. She is in danger because she is pregnant and not yet married. She goes to the hill country to take refuge with Elizabeth, who is also pregnant, with John, Jesus’ cousin. And when Elizabeth sees Mary, she says, “The babe in my womb leaps for joy because of the Savior you are carrying in your womb! Blessed are you among women!”
And Mary responds by praising God who has remembered the lowly estate of her and her people. This is a portion of her song – and just tell me if it doesn’t sound like what Jesus says years later.
“My soul magnifies the Lord
Because he has remembered his people
He has scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts.
He has brought down the rulers
And lifted up the humble.
He has filled the hungry with good things
But the rich he has sent away empty away.”
That’s the beginning of the gospel – and now at the end we hear this good news of God’s new heaven and new earth, through the lens of the cross.
We don’t get to go magically from here to there. We get there through the Valley of the shadow of death – but we don’t go alone. We walk it with each other. We walk it with that great communion of saints we celebrated in early November. We walk it with the faithful of every generation. We walk through the way of the cross, to the new heaven and new earth, where the seas clap their hands and the hills ring out with joy.
Thanks be to God!
