So, I gotta be honest, this is one of those gospel texts that makes me cringe simply because at first, it’s difficult to process anything positive out of Jesus words. False messiahs, wars, famine, earthquakes – these are not comforting images we like to live with. But the question Jesus leaves us hanging on as we flesh this out, is “what does the future look like?”
If the future were left for humanity to decide, Jesus predicts humanity fails. It fails as it fights against itself, as it deceives itself, as it claims to be the Messiah, as it starves itself, as its powers will prove to be disappointing. It fails because it wants to play God. I am reminded of the first commandment in which God said to His people, “I am the Lord Your God…you shall have no other gods.”
If humanity plays God and acts as if it determines the future as God would, it fails to put God first and and trust the future to God. Yet this is what the Temple
Is it any wonder that the temple does not stand today? Perhaps it doesn’t stand because it’s death opens up the way for another temple to be resurrected. Jesus himself is that very temple, that indwelling of God where God comes to earth to be with His people as a flesh and blood reminder of His very presence. This is the temple we bring our worship to. This is the very temple we find comfort, rest, love, hope, joy, and relief in. This is the very temple we find life in here and now. We experience the salvation in Christ that is available to us here and now. Christ is our life. Through the cross and resurrection, we are reconciled to God here and now. This is our temple here and now.
But what about the future? What does the future look like? There’s a concept in philosophy and theology known as eschatology. Eschatology is concerned with what are believed to be the final events in the ultimate destiny of humanity or the end of the world as we know it. So many movies and books are written from this lens. In fact, this past Friday, Columbia Pictures released the movie “2012,” depicting the end of civilization through global flooding, earthquakes, and volcanoes. And of course, the question the movie asks is, “what does the future look like? As people of faith, we live in this tension between now and the future. We live in this experience of salvation here and now, yet the fullness of salvation is incomplete. The world is not yet fully redeemed. Sin, evil, suffering, corrupt systems, oppressive powers are still in existence all around us. Yet this tension you and I live in is there for a reason.
Some people are very uncomfortable with this tension, and they want the future now. There are those people for whom the end of the world seems far too attractive and they buy into chronological ordering of events not only in the world, but of the world they make for themselves. They desperately believe that they have the future so cornered, that they relieve their responsibilities from the rest of the world, and concentrate on their own individual survival sometimes with tragic outcomes.
Groups like the Branch Davidians, the Heavens Gate Cult, or the People’sTemple
So what does the future look like? The future is decisively in the hands of God, and as people of faith, we participate in relieving the tension between life and death in the world always remembering what Jesus tells us, “Don’t be scared.” What we know about the past, present, and even the future is that God has come to dwell with us in His very Son, to take up residence among His very people here on earth. We are given the Holy Spirit to continue to extend the body of Christ into the world so that it be connected, so that love overcomes oppression, and hope overcomes despair.
It would be very easy to live in fear of the future, to be paralyzed by it, to protect ourselves from it simply because we see the present and we don’t like where it’s headed. We would essentially live in despair. Why bother to live if what we see around us is not comforting or painless? Yet to live this way is to avoid the needs of others and that’s not why Jesus lives among us. He lives among us, as His body is extended into the world, to bring sustainable hope into the world.
It is reminiscent of the ancient Greek myth of Pandora. She was tempted to open the jar she was told not to open. In doing so, she released all evil, sadness, and pain into the world, but she managed to close it right before hopelessness was released. And that is one thing, the Greeks believed that all humans could be sustained with. Humans were left with nothing but hope.
As I mentioned in this past month’s church newsletter, I recently went to an all day seminar at St. Mary’s Hospital, and it was called, “cultivating hope during difficult times.” That day was an amazing opportunity for me to listen to people who have overcome the most paralyzing odds against them through the sustaining power of hope. Over and over again, I kept hearing the same thing: hope is a decision, hope is a choice. The statement that really tugged at my heart was “hope is an act of defiance when the odds are against you.” When we defy something, we no longer believe it has power over us. We take a defiant stand against it. We believe that our stand against the odds is a manifestation of the hope inside of us, rather than to allow the power of the odds define us from the outside. If we set this understanding of hope against the backdrop of the gospel text for tonight/this morning, we are offered a much different picture than one grounded in fear and despair.
Our hope is sustained by the breaking of Jesus Christ into our world, where God holds its very future in His hands. In the present and in the future, we have nothing to fear, because hope is where our faith exists now. Our existing faith is sustained by the one who saves the world from itself, even when the world fails to acknowledge just how broken it continues to become. This is why the global temples of greed, oppression, war, self-interest, cannot stand tall. The body of Christ sustained by faith together, his church, is a force of change, dismantling those temples and leaving the rubble where it falls as a reminder that these global temples of self-importance are temporal and powerless while the true temple of our worship is eternal and empowering.
Without this hope we have together, that not only sustains us but sends us out into the global temples to speak and act on behalf of those the temples oppress, we might as well pack our bags, build the necessary walls of separation, and hunker down, and wait for the end of the world to come. Because it is so much easier to turn a blind eye out of hopelessness than look directly into the evils of the world and know their place among us is intolerable and unacceptable. This is why the temple of hope, Jesus Christ is among us. It is he who gives life and shines light into the very dark spaces of neglect.
Yes, the future is decisively in the hands of God, but we do not neglect the present, riding it out and sidestepping the opportunities to share Christ with the world he’s come into, even when we share Christ among the temples of the world whose time to come down will eventually come. There can be only one God worshipped, and that’s the God of life. And we bring our worship to His very Son; our sanctuary, our savior, ourTemple
We know the future does not belong to us, and so we worship the only God who holds it, who comes among us to deliver hope in the face of fear and uncertainty. He is the savior of the world, who reassures that this world is in good hands.
So, what does the future look like? It looks like a kingdom where God reigns and the fullness of salvation is complete. The future finally arrives.
My friends, peace always be with you. Amen.
If the future were left for humanity to decide, Jesus predicts humanity fails. It fails as it fights against itself, as it deceives itself, as it claims to be the Messiah, as it starves itself, as its powers will prove to be disappointing. It fails because it wants to play God. I am reminded of the first commandment in which God said to His people, “I am the Lord Your God…you shall have no other gods.”
If humanity plays God and acts as if it determines the future as God would, it fails to put God first and and trust the future to God. Yet this is what the Temple
Is it any wonder that the temple does not stand today? Perhaps it doesn’t stand because it’s death opens up the way for another temple to be resurrected. Jesus himself is that very temple, that indwelling of God where God comes to earth to be with His people as a flesh and blood reminder of His very presence. This is the temple we bring our worship to. This is the very temple we find comfort, rest, love, hope, joy, and relief in. This is the very temple we find life in here and now. We experience the salvation in Christ that is available to us here and now. Christ is our life. Through the cross and resurrection, we are reconciled to God here and now. This is our temple here and now.
But what about the future? What does the future look like? There’s a concept in philosophy and theology known as eschatology. Eschatology is concerned with what are believed to be the final events in the ultimate destiny of humanity or the end of the world as we know it. So many movies and books are written from this lens. In fact, this past Friday, Columbia Pictures released the movie “2012,” depicting the end of civilization through global flooding, earthquakes, and volcanoes. And of course, the question the movie asks is, “what does the future look like? As people of faith, we live in this tension between now and the future. We live in this experience of salvation here and now, yet the fullness of salvation is incomplete. The world is not yet fully redeemed. Sin, evil, suffering, corrupt systems, oppressive powers are still in existence all around us. Yet this tension you and I live in is there for a reason.
Some people are very uncomfortable with this tension, and they want the future now. There are those people for whom the end of the world seems far too attractive and they buy into chronological ordering of events not only in the world, but of the world they make for themselves. They desperately believe that they have the future so cornered, that they relieve their responsibilities from the rest of the world, and concentrate on their own individual survival sometimes with tragic outcomes.
Groups like the Branch Davidians, the Heavens Gate Cult, or the People’s
So what does the future look like? The future is decisively in the hands of God, and as people of faith, we participate in relieving the tension between life and death in the world always remembering what Jesus tells us, “Don’t be scared.” What we know about the past, present, and even the future is that God has come to dwell with us in His very Son, to take up residence among His very people here on earth. We are given the Holy Spirit to continue to extend the body of Christ into the world so that it be connected, so that love overcomes oppression, and hope overcomes despair.
It would be very easy to live in fear of the future, to be paralyzed by it, to protect ourselves from it simply because we see the present and we don’t like where it’s headed. We would essentially live in despair. Why bother to live if what we see around us is not comforting or painless? Yet to live this way is to avoid the needs of others and that’s not why Jesus lives among us. He lives among us, as His body is extended into the world, to bring sustainable hope into the world.
It is reminiscent of the ancient Greek myth of Pandora. She was tempted to open the jar she was told not to open. In doing so, she released all evil, sadness, and pain into the world, but she managed to close it right before hopelessness was released. And that is one thing, the Greeks believed that all humans could be sustained with. Humans were left with nothing but hope.
As I mentioned in this past month’s church newsletter, I recently went to an all day seminar at St. Mary’s Hospital, and it was called, “cultivating hope during difficult times.” That day was an amazing opportunity for me to listen to people who have overcome the most paralyzing odds against them through the sustaining power of hope. Over and over again, I kept hearing the same thing: hope is a decision, hope is a choice. The statement that really tugged at my heart was “hope is an act of defiance when the odds are against you.” When we defy something, we no longer believe it has power over us. We take a defiant stand against it. We believe that our stand against the odds is a manifestation of the hope inside of us, rather than to allow the power of the odds define us from the outside. If we set this understanding of hope against the backdrop of the gospel text for tonight/this morning, we are offered a much different picture than one grounded in fear and despair.
Our hope is sustained by the breaking of Jesus Christ into our world, where God holds its very future in His hands. In the present and in the future, we have nothing to fear, because hope is where our faith exists now. Our existing faith is sustained by the one who saves the world from itself, even when the world fails to acknowledge just how broken it continues to become. This is why the global temples of greed, oppression, war, self-interest, cannot stand tall. The body of Christ sustained by faith together, his church, is a force of change, dismantling those temples and leaving the rubble where it falls as a reminder that these global temples of self-importance are temporal and powerless while the true temple of our worship is eternal and empowering.
Without this hope we have together, that not only sustains us but sends us out into the global temples to speak and act on behalf of those the temples oppress, we might as well pack our bags, build the necessary walls of separation, and hunker down, and wait for the end of the world to come. Because it is so much easier to turn a blind eye out of hopelessness than look directly into the evils of the world and know their place among us is intolerable and unacceptable. This is why the temple of hope, Jesus Christ is among us. It is he who gives life and shines light into the very dark spaces of neglect.
Yes, the future is decisively in the hands of God, but we do not neglect the present, riding it out and sidestepping the opportunities to share Christ with the world he’s come into, even when we share Christ among the temples of the world whose time to come down will eventually come. There can be only one God worshipped, and that’s the God of life. And we bring our worship to His very Son; our sanctuary, our savior, our
We know the future does not belong to us, and so we worship the only God who holds it, who comes among us to deliver hope in the face of fear and uncertainty. He is the savior of the world, who reassures that this world is in good hands.
So, what does the future look like? It looks like a kingdom where God reigns and the fullness of salvation is complete. The future finally arrives.
My friends, peace always be with you. Amen.
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