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November
14, 2004
(Jimmie
Johnson)
Old Testament Lesson Isaiah 65:17-25
For I am about to create new heavens and a new earth; the former
things shall not be remembered or come to mind. But be glad and
rejoice forever in what I am creating; for I am about to create
Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight. I will rejoice
in Jerusalem, and delight in my people; no more shall the sound
of weeping be heard in it, or the cry of distress. No more shall
there be in it an infant that lives but a few days, or an old person
who does not live out a lifetime; for one who dies at a hundred
years will be considered a youth, and one who falls short of a hundred
will be considered accursed. They shall build houses and inhabit
them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall
not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another
eat; for like the days of a tree shall the days of my people be,
and my chosen shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall
not labor in vain, or bear children for calamity; for they shall
be offspring blessed by the LORD--and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will
hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall
eat straw like the ox; but the serpent--its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the
L
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Gospel Lesson Luke 21:5-19
When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with
beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he 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
not 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 and a
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 soul
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I WANT to begin this sermon with a reference to of all things the
Second Law of Thermodynamics in physics.Now I do so with great humility
because the truth is the only reason I passed the required Physics
course in college was I had access to the test files of Delta Chi
fraternity. My first year of college was the year of experimentation
with freedom, shall we say. And this was before I had the proper
woman Sweet Sherry in my life.
So it’s with trepidation that I mention this Second Law of
Thermodynamics.
This Law of physics states that there is a level of disorder in
the universe.
And this level of “entropy” as it is called is always
increasing. Chaos is always on the rise is another way of saying
it. If you really listen to the words of Jesus
in the gospel lesson you hear him saying through the use of mythological
images that yes, believers, too, see the increase of disorder in
the universe, in all realms of life, even in their own personal
lives.
I have noticed a slight tremor in my hands as I have gotten passed
the midway point of the decade of my fifties. You could say I have
detected an increased level of disorder in the universe I call my
physical body. I know it will increase.
And ultimately the increased disorder will end with my ending.
Jesus talks about the destruction of the Temple, about wars and
revolutions,
earthquakes, famines, plagues, increased disorder in the sky, chaotic
social upheaval. The words of Jesus express in religious terms the
Second Law of Thermodynamics. Jesus had no idea about physics but
he saw the reality of life and death.
There is an increasing level of disorder in the universe. No institutions
are preserved from it. The religious, the law enforcement, the military,
the educational, the scientific, the arts, the industrial. All are
threatened with chaos and disorder.
Christian faith has always taken evil seriously. Christian faith
has always acknowledged life is a dangerous place. Christian faith
has never tried to hide the fact that even with our claim of Easter
there is still great unredeemed disorder in the universe. St. Paul
using beautiful religious language writes how the creation groans
and cries for redemption. (Rom 8:21-23) It is as if St. Paul says
the creation itself proclaims the inherent rise of disorder.Yet,
knows to appeal for transformation.
Now back to the gospel text, did you also hear the hope shaped words
of Jesus in the midst of this acknowledgment of entropy. With honest
disclosure about the increasing level of disorder in all the realms
of life: the personal, the national, the international the physical
and the social, the religious and the civil,
Jesus speaks what Christian faith always pronounces as our ultimate
word.
The word of hope. Jesus says even when it seems to you that everyone
is hate filled, even when the world seems to be possessed by madness
and violence
and destruction, “Not a single hair from you heads shall be
lost. Stand firm and you will save yourselves.” In other words,
Jesus encourages us to believe in hope, in order, not in despair
and disorder. Keep the faith and his promise is the Faith will keep
you.
Look, I don’t go around as a Christian who wishes to think
in my believing
and believe in my thinking that one day I will look up and see Jesus
riding on the clouds like a Christianized Valkyrie. (John Polkinghorne,
Living With Hope”)
Thinking Christians can see these symbolic end-time images not as
baggage from the past to be jettisoned as fast as we can but for
the imaginative subversive hope symbols they are. Don’t engage
the texts about the end
with plodding literalism. The early interpreters didn’t. This
“Left Behind” book series is based on a Bible interpretation
that got started in the 19th and 20th centuries when I believe preachers
realized sensational sales potential.
The images of the end, and boy we are really going to engage them
in Advent,
are presenting us with two important Christian truths: this seemingly
substantial world is not going to last forever, and yet, since God’s
other name is Hope
the faithfulness of God and God’s Christ will never end.
The disorder in creation will not be changed by an action of authoritarian
human order, but by the victory of God’s love to transform.
Eventual cosmic futility is not the end. The everlasting reliability
of God is the end of the end.
Death and decay are swallowed up by life and it’s joy. That’s
what the faith of Jesus is saying in this text.
In a creative, literary way the faith of the church looking back
on the birth, the life, the baptism, the words and works of Jesus,
his cross, and the Easter of God’s Christ—all produce
this beautiful, imaginative literature called “gospel”---good
news of who Jesus is and therefore who God is. All intending to
subvert despair, violence, greed, any dimension of life that dehumanizes
and replace it with “Jesus behavior” which is centered
in loving God by serving your neighbor. It is not rocket science,
it is more profound than that.
Basically the whole of Christian faith is addressing the question
“Does the universe make sense?” The Lord’s Day
Assembly, the sacraments, the Church’s Book, even the silly
sermons all are hearing the question being asked: “Does life
make sense?” and answering in the affirmative. “Yes,
the Christian good news is true. Life makes sense.” All human
beings are going to die, and eventually the world itself is going
to die. The Second Law of Thermodynamics is true. There is an increasing
level of disorder. Either the universe will collapse or decay. Burn
up or freeze.
So such widespread mortality raises the question of whether life
that eventually ends in apparent futility actually makes any sense.
Is the universe and life a creation, or is it a chaos without any
final meaning?
A Nobel winning physicist, Steven Weinberg writing from an atheist
perspective, once said that the more he understood the universe
the more it seemed pointless to him. Whether we articulate it or
not, when we come to church, we want to know if it is true or not:
“Is there a God? Does life end in hope? Does the universe
make sense?” In one form or another that is the question that
we ask in the Assembly every Lord’s Day.
And the great invisible cloud of witnesses around us, the sacraments
of Baptism and Communion, the very sacred texts, the preaching event,
itself,
all say “Yes”. And do so by focusing us on Jesus and
the faith that is raised at Easter.
If Jesus is our way, truth and life, then the answer to disorder
is not authoritarian order, but the authority of love. I believe
Christianity is the story of God choosing to become weak in power
in order to become strong in love.
When God raises up Jesus as the Christ, God validates Jesus’
way, Jesus’ truth, Jesus’ life as the answer to entropy,
the answer to increasing disorder.
Love always outlasts. God’s love always turns endings into
beginnings. God’s love endures. Keep faith with this Love
and this Faithful Love in the end
will keep you and all.
What in the end overcomes entropy will be the love of the neighbor,
the friendship extended to the sinner, the mercy given to the suffering,
the cup of cold water handed to the thirsty. Scientists and believers
look at the same world, Christians simply look at the world through
the story of faith’s hope
and choose action on the side of building up the earth. Jesus says
in the text “Stand firm”. What I believe he means is
the fundamental fact that makes sense of the universe lies beyond
us and the universe itself in the steadfast, firm love of God who
will never allow anything of good to be lost and who works unceasingly
for the finishing of love’s victory.
Look, religion takes all the gloomy predictions of science with
absolute seriousness. And even at the most personal level, I know
as I age I will become weaker and shakier. I know this to be true
and shall not pretend.
But science can not tell the whole story, for as science is understood
now
it can not investigate the claims about the everlasting faithfulness
of God.
We shall die, and the cosmos shall die, but the final word does
not lie with death but with God. Jesus is right on in this text.
Death and disorder are real.
But they are not the ultimate expressions of reality. Only God is
ultimate and God is ultimately faithful proclaims our faith.
“Stand firm...” says Jesus. “Lord, I believe.
Help thou my unbelief.” prays all honest and thinking Christians.
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