From the Second Birth to the First Birth...and the End Times...

The passage for this past Sunday is found in Luke 21: 5-19.  It is a difficult passage to read.  It starts off with people admiring the beauty of the worship space that is the Temple in Jerusalem.  Then Jesus prophecies how it will all be knocked down, how there will be false Messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, how they will be given over to the death sentence by relatives, all in all, not such a happy future.  “But not a hair on your head will perish…”  They may die, but not perish, for their souls are secure in the Lord.

We took that into the politics of today and that of the history of the church.  Made an interesting connection between verses 8 and 9.  Jesus says, “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 rumors of wars, do not be terrified, for these things must take place…”  The connection is between the false messiahs and the wars and rumors of wars.  The people wanted Jesus to be the “War Messiah”, in the mantle of King David, to make war on the Romans.

What if Jesus is warning against that here, not two distinct threats, false Messiahs and wars, but false Messiahs leading to wars?  What if the call to war in the name of God is what Jesus is warning against?  Because that call is repeated throughout history.  From Constantine marching to conquer the empire in the 300’s to America going into wars today, invoking the Almighty is pretty standard.

And if we are to measure the blood shed in the name of Jesus by those in political power who dare to speak in His name, where do we start?

In the life of Jesus, we are two chapters away from his death on the cross, so His spiritual state of being is focused on this event.  There is a frankness in his prediction of the future that is, frankly, depressing.  But that has been the mark of our history.

Our preaching calendar is based on the Common Lectionary.  This is a three-year cycle that draws out Scriptures for each Sunday.  The new lectionary year starts with Advent, which…gulp…starts next week.  Each year walks through one of the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke.  The difficulty is that by the end of the year, approaching Christmas, we are at the ends of the gospels.  The very ends were preached on back around Easter, but now we are at the lead-up to Jesus’ death and resurrection.  Which is why we get this passage the week before Thanksgiving.

So at the beginning of the most…innocent season of the year, we are left with the promise that we may die, but in Christ, we will not perish.  Thus we consider the tension once more of a world with false Messiahs, wars and rumors of wars, disasters and devastating changes, all stacked up against the coming story of the Baby lying in a manger.

And the Baby wins the day.

Pastor peter