Sunday, November 17, 2013

Surely, It is God Who Saves Me

St. Paul’s Church in Bergen, Jersey City NJ
November 17, 2013

Year C, Proper 28: The Twenty-Sixth Sunday after Pentecost
Isaiah 65:17-25
Canticle 9
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
Surely, It is God Who Saves Me
            Today, in place of the psalm, we heard the beautiful words of Canticle 9, what’s called “The First Song of Isaiah.”
            “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.”
            “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.”
            Beautiful words. But, let’s be honest, they are words that are not so easy to live out. Lots of times it’s not easy for me – and, I bet, it’s not easy for most of
us - to trust in God and not be afraid.
            It’s hard to trust in God and not be afraid during the trials and tribulations of everyday life. Will I be able to pay my bills this month? Will I be able to get a job? Will I be able to hold on to my job? Will the doctors be able to find the right medication, the right approach, to heal what needs to be healed in me, or someone I love? Will our kids and grandkids make good choices and live happy, loving and productive lives?
            It’s not easy for most of us, during the trials and tribulations of everyday life, to trust in God and not be afraid.
            And it’s so much harder in times of personal crisis when it feels like our lives are falling apart.
            It’s hard to trust in God when we’re really not able to pay our bills, when we lose our job, when the doctor gives us a devastating prognosis, when our kids and grandkids make terrible, self-destructive choices.
            It’s hard to trust in God when the people closest to us disappoint us, betray us, or abandon us.
            It’s hard to trust in God when we lose the people and the things that are so important to us.
            No, it’s not easy for most of us, when it feels like our lives are falling apart, to trust in God and not be afraid.
            And, it’s even harder to trust in God when it feels like the whole world is crashing down around us in times of destruction caused by war or natural disaster.
            This time last year most of us were dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. We were struggling with no electricity, no heat, dwindling food supplies. Many of us who live in low-lying areas suffered enormous damage to our property – possessions that took a lifetime to amass were ruined in minutes from the terrifyingly powerful winds and the foul water gushing from bays and rivers.
            This time last year Sue and I were living out in Madison, a beautiful suburban town, where after Sandy the big issue was not flooding but the damage done by huge trees downed by the fierce winds.
            And, in fact, in our neighborhood, there wasn’t even much of that. The big hardship was the lack of power for a few days.
            But in other parts of Madison – the higher elevations – hundreds and hundreds of great old trees were brought down – brought down onto yards, into streets and sometimes right into homes.
            Early in the morning, a day or two after the storm, we got a call that an elderly parishioner had died peacefully overnight. He and his wife lived up on “The Hill.” Before sunrise I carefully drove up there, avoiding massive old trees that littered the neighborhood like matchsticks and the downed power lines snaking across streets and sidewalks.
            I had never before really been at the scene of such a recent natural disaster.
            When I got to the house, there were a couple of police officers with the dead man’s wife. The house was dark and cold and sad.
            A good man was dead upstairs in the bedroom.
            And outside the house there was widespread destruction.
            It’s hard to trust in God – it’s hard to not be afraid - when it feels like the whole world is crashing down around us.
            I’m sure many of us have been reminded of last year’s super storm in recent days when we’ve seen the horrific destruction caused by the typhoon in the Philippines.
            “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.”
            There’s nothing new, of course, about human beings facing personal trials and tribulations. And there’s nothing new about people enduring wars and natural disasters. And, there’s nothing new about men and women struggling to trust in God and not be afraid.
            In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus is in Jerusalem. In fact, Jesus is in the Temple, what was the heart of Jewish religious and political life.
            It’s probably hard for us to really understand just how important the Temple was for Jewish people in the First Century. Yes, there were some people – including Jesus himself – who criticized the priests and the others who led the Temple. But, for Jews, the Temple was the center of the universe. It was the place where, in a sense, God actually lived. And the Jewish people helped to keep their covenant with God through the sacrifices that were made there.
            So, Jesus is in Jerusalem, in the Temple.
            And it’s here that Jesus says something shocking.
            “As for these things that you see, the days will come when not stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down.”
            In the gospels, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple – the destruction of the center of the universe, the destruction of the place where, in a sense, God actually lived.
            Needless to say, Jesus’ audience is shocked and full of questions.
            When will this be? How will we know?
            And then, Jesus gets even scarier, warning the crowd that there will be imposters coming in Jesus’ name. There will be wars and insurrections. There will be earthquakes and plagues.
            But, wait, there’s more.
            Before all of those terrible things happen, Jesus’ own followers will be arrested and persecuted and betrayed by parents, brothers, relatives and friends. Everybody will hate Jesus’ followers.
            Then, Jesus concludes with a much-needed word of hope and confidence.
            “But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
            Now, the first readers and hearers of the gospel would have known that Jesus’ predictions had come true. The Temple – the center of the universe, God’s home – was, in fact, destroyed by the Romans in the year 70, forty or so years after Jesus’ earthly lifetime. And, at least some of Jesus’ earliest followers were, in fact, arrested, persecuted and hated.
            It must have been so very hard for the Jewish people and for those early followers of Jesus to sing Isaiah’s song:
            “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.”
            And yet.
            And yet, in the midst of these terrible times, God really is at work.
            God is at work in the midst of the trials and tribulations of everyday life.
            God is at work in times of personal crisis when it feels like our lives are falling apart.
            God is at work in times when it feels like the world is crashing down around us – when great waves wash away our homes, when an insatiable empire destroys God’s home, when we are rejected or persecuted.
            God is at work in the midst of all that pain, all that mess and loss, creating a new heavens and a new earth, bending hatred into love, transforming shameful death on the Cross into the joy of Easter.
            Judaism didn’t die with the Temple. Instead, it evolved into the faith strong enough to survive the worst persecutions imaginable.
            And, despite the attempts of political and religious leaders to crush it, the Good News of Jesus gradually made it’s way around the world, making it even to Jersey City.
            And, I know many of us saw God at work right here in those hard days after Sandy swept through our area.
            And, I saw God at work that cold, sad, frightening morning in Madison a year ago.
            As dawn broke, the word began to get out that this wonderful, gentle man had died.
            In the midst of their own struggles – in the midst of the devastation up and down their block, neighbors began to stream to the door to share their condolences, to ask his wife if she needed anything, to cry and to hug.
            They brought her care packages made up of food and bottled water, whatever they had around the house.
            And then, one neighbor ran an extension cord from his house next-door, powered by a generator, so that a space heater could keep at least part of her house warm during the cold time of loss and grief.
            “Surely, it is God who saves me; I will trust in him and not be afraid.
            For the Lord is my stronghold and my sure defense, and he will be my Savior.”
            Amen.