The Two Martins Say Get To Work
This
is an outline of my sermon text for the 23rd Sunday after
Pentecost, on November 17, 2019. My focus was the Gospel lesson, Luke 21:5-19, and the Epistle lesson from 2Thessalonians 3:6-13. + pBRC
O sing to the Lord a new song, for God has done marvelous things.
The Lord has made known God’ victory;
God has revealed God’s vindication in the sight of the nations.
God has revealed God’s vindication in the sight of the nations.
God remembered their steadfast love and faithfulness.
All the earth has seen the victory of our God.
All the earth has seen the victory of our God.
Make a joyful noise to the Lord. (Psalm 98:1,2, 3,4)
· I want to start by dispelling an abuse of scripture in
one of today’s lessons.
o
We hear from the
second letter to the church in Thessalonica, Anyone unwilling to work should not eat.[1]
o
Some people and
politicians have used this to claim, “The Bible is against helping people who
won’t work.”
§ That is only true if you read this one sentence and
ignore the entire rest of the Bible.
§ The entire Bible, and especially the words of Jesus
repeatedly proclaim that God is on the side of the poor and impoverished, and
that we are called to take care of those whom society have held back and pushed
aside, the 5 L’s: the least, the last, the lost, the little ones and those who
have been left alone.
o
If you read the whole passage
you see that it refers to those who have stopped working, or doing anything, because
they are anticipating Christ’s return at any moment.
· When you’re facing a big change, it is hard to do the day to day
stuff that you soon won’t be doing anymore.
o
In high school and college,
senioritis shows up when students start to think more about post-graduation
activities than they do the things that will enable them to actually graduate.
· The disciples fall victim to that as well.
o
While they are in Jerusalem,
someone comments about the beauty and majesty of the Temple.
o
But Jesus tells them, “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.”[5]
§ The disciples immediately want
to know when, or how they will know when this is going to happen.
· Jesus tells them about some things that are to come,
but his telling is in two parts.
o
He tells them of
the things that will happen within their lifetimes, and what will happen to
them.
o
But Jesus also
tells them of the things that will happen between his ascension and his return.
· Jesus’ followers who heard his words in Jerusalem and
wondered what life would be without the Temple.
o
But Jesus’
followers who heard his words in Jerusalem from Luke’s telling of the Gospel
did not have to wonder what life would be without the Temple.
o
They were living
it because the Roman Army destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in the Summer of
70 C.E., about 35 years after Jesus said that not one stone will be left upon another.
§ But for those who first heard
Jesus’ words from Luke’s telling, the destruction of the Temple was an
historical event 10-15 years in the past.
§ Luke’s audience of believers
was mixture of Gentiles and former Jews. The latter were trying to deal with
the life after losing the centerpiece of their worshipping tradition.
o
They
had to live without the Temple and its unifying force.
§ They were alienated from the
remaining synagogues and shunned from the communities many had been a part of.
§ Jesus’ words warned them that
they would not find support from the church structure from which they were a
part.
· The Temple would not long be
standing.
· Those whom they worshipped with
would not be with them.
o
Many
would be rejected and ejected from their communities.
· They would face even worse. “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.”[6]
o
“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.”[7]
§ While his disciples were worried about what would
happen to let them know the Temple would be destroyed, Jesus told them that the
destruction of the Temple was the least of their worries.
· Because they follow Jesus, they will battle for their
lives.
· And Jesus tells them not to worry about that either.
o
“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 and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or
contradict.”[8]
o
Jesus tells them
that I will give you words to say.
o
Jesus tells them
that he will be with them no matter what.
§ While I haven’t been arrested or tried for Christ’s
name, or betrayed, I have been given words and wisdom.
§ There are many times that I stand up behind a pulpit
and the words I speak are not mine. They weren’t what I wrote. They weren’t
what I thought about or read.
· But often, they were words someone needed to hear.
· While I cannot predict the fate of the temples in
which we worship, I think it is a common understanding that we may not be long
continue to use all three of the current Covenant church buildings.
o
I do not know, or
have a preference for what the final situation looks like. But I know that just
our discussions of becoming Church
Together is changing the nature and structure of each church.
o
It is changing the nature of the ELCA churches here in Oklahoma City.
§ We’ve got three other churches working with us on the
Bedlam Food Drive. With one more Sunday to go, we have almost 1,000 pounds of
food that will go to help families in need.
§ We are coming together to worship together. On Tuesday
evening, the 26th, Lutherans and the friends they bring along from
across the Oklahoma City metro area will join to give thanks to God for all the
blessings we have and to have a pie social and fellowship following the
service.
o
Because things
are going to change, there is a natural tendency to hold back, to step back.
§ Because things are going to change, people get
hesitant. People want to “wait and see.”
· We don’t have the time or the resources to let people
wait and see.
o
We need people to
go and do.
o
We need people to
speak up and stand up.
o
We need people to
get involved and stay involved.
o
We need people to
stop with the excuses, and go on with proclaiming the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
· We need to stop worrying about what is going to happen
to us.
o
We need to worry
about who is going to help our neighbor in need.
o
We need to focus
on the dreams of the two Martins.
§ It is said that Martin Luther said, “God does not need
your good works, but your neighbor does.”[9]
§ That action of doing good works for the sake and
benefit of your neighbor in need is the agape form of love that Martin
Luther King, Jr. said is the mark of the Beloved Community that he called for
this nation to become.
§ Repeatedly in his instructional writings in the Small
and Large Catechism, Martin Luther explains the work we are to do here on Earth
is to be for the benefit of our neighbor in need.
§ Repeatedly, Martin Luther King invoked agape love
as a unifying force and the hope of the world. “But the end is
reconciliation; the end is redemption; the end is the creation of the beloved
community. It is this type of spirit and this type of love that can transform
opposers into friends. The type of love that I stress here is … agape which is
understanding goodwill for all men. It is an overflowing love which seeks nothing
in return. It is the love of God working in the lives of men. This is the love
that may well be the salvation of our civilization”[10]
o
There is a day
that is surely coming when Christ shall come again.
§ Until that day, we should be doing what Christ called
us to do:
· Proclaiming the goodness of God by helping our
neighbor in need.
· We need to get to, and be at, work.
AMEN.
[1] 2
Thessalonians 3:10.
[10]
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. The Role
of the Church in Facing the Nation's Chief Moral Dilemma,” 1957.
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