Preaching Three E's in LeMont

If you have not been edified today by someone's preaching, here is your last chance. https://www.facebook.com/stmatthewlemont/

Eschatology, Excerpt, Expectation: Luke 21:5-38

Serious Christians remember a sermon if you simplify it. Hence, the title of my book, Simple Sermons for Serious Christians. Most often, I simplify sermons by hanging three points on one letter. Today, three Es – eschatology, excerpt and expectation.

Three points are easier to remember if they all begin with the same letter. Case in point: We summarize workspace safety with education, evaluation and enforcement. Customer service consists of ease, effectiveness and emotion. Leadership involves equipping, empowering and exposure. The National Audit Office assesses the value for money of government spending with economy, efficiency and effectiveness. While I do not expect you to remember all those Es, they illustrate that points are easier to remember if all the words begin with the same letter. That said, we move to eschatology, excerpt and expectation.

First, eschatology. Eschatology is the study of the last things, that is, death, judgment, heaven and hell. It is from the Greek word eskhatos, meaning last, furthest or most remote in time, space or degree.

We speak of eschatology today because as the church year closes, we hear Malachi, the last prophet in the Old Testament, speak of the Day of the Lord. Paul offers encouragement as his readers await the return of Christ. Luke recounts Jesus’ last days. Hence, eschatology is suited for the end of our liturgical year. Yet, we cannot merely mention eschatology. We need to understand it.

Although we speak of the aforementioned last things, eschatology refers to a theology of history, with a specific reference to for the ultimate fulfillment of God’s covenant promise.[1] In other words, eschatology is about hope based upon God’s promise, God’s word, and what our Trinitarian God has done for us as Father, Son and Spirit.

Eschatology involves the future based upon past promises, but it is also about the present. Eschatology is both individual and universal. It is about my personal choices and our universal fulfillment. In a sense, eschatology is bi-polar and all-encompassing.

Envision Abraham, an individual who trusted God’s promises, and envision his posterity, a great nation.[2] We know God fulfilled that promise under David’s rule, and although the monarchy collapsed, this gave rise to hope for a restored monarchy by a Savior figure from the royal line of David. Based upon God’s promise, the prophets envisioned life in a world under God’s reign marked by peace, justice and reconciliation, as well as the possibility of resurrection of the dead.

This, of course, set the stage for Jesus and the early Christian community. He took up the hopes of his people, and through their experience of his resurrection, his disciples understood his preaching in a new light, rooted in God’s promise and the prophets. In short, the destiny of Jesus with God anticipates the destiny of humanity and creation.[3]

Paul’s letters describe his eschatology in detail, and yet, his is not a fixed thought. Paul expected an imminent end. In Thessalonians, we read, “For you are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night” (1 Thes. 5:2). His second letter reveals an indeterminate expectation. Ephesians and Colossians present a cosmic vision of all powers, including demonic ones, subject to Christ.

Eschatology – death, judgment, heaven and hell – may unnerve us; but through the prism of the cross, God’s promises calm our nerves. That leads me from eschatology to excerpt.

Most people today read excerpts of the Bible. The way to read the Bible is one book per sitting. Read Exodus or Jeremiah in one afternoon and you appreciate and understand it better than if you read a chapter a day. Pore over Luke, Acts or Revelation, and its message takes on new meaning. While I encourage you to read each book in one sitting, most read excerpts of the Bible.

The word excerpt means to select a passage from a book. We derive excerpt from the Latin word excerpere, which means to pluck out, pick out or extract. The Romans merged it from two smaller words, ex, meaning out and carpere, meaning pluck or gather. Our liturgical tradition is to read excerpts from the Gospels and New Testament along with Old Testament passages related to the Gospel. Reading the Bible this way allows us to observe certain seasons and feasts, such as Advent, Lent, Christmas and Easter. On Ash Wednesday, we hear readings about prayer, fasting and almsgiving. On Pentecost, we proclaim the work of the Holy Spirit. On Thanksgiving, Luke’s story of Jesus healing the ten lepers. Excerpts allow pastors to preach an expository sermon and explain why we observe Lent with solemnity or celebrate Easter with joy.

In our eschatological excerpt today, Jesus is teaching in the temple as he warns his disciples that the kingdom of God is near by teaching about the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem and the world. Jesus’ teaching begins and ends with the temple. This is no accident, as Jesus’ entire teaching, the infancy narrative and the entire gospel begin and end in the temple.[4]

When we hear temple and Jerusalem, we need to keep in mind not only a physical building of stones and a geographical locale of redemption, but more importantly, the location of the presence of the Lord. That requires us to think eschatologically for these beautiful stones will be pulled down.

Jesus spoke of stones in other sayings about Jerusalem. Stones would shout acclamations if people were kept silent during his entry into the city. Jerusalem’s enemies would not leave one stone upon another because it did not know its time of visitation. The rejected stone became the cornerstone.[5] The stones that matter in the temple are not the ones that form the building, but the Stone whose presence has resided among the physical stones and who now prophesies the end of those stones.[6] And if the temple, the place where God dwelt, is destroyed, where would people look for God? In Jesus, who came to dwell not in a stones building, but in the Church through Word and Sacrament.

Continuing on our excerpt, Jesus teaches his disciples not how to predict the future, but how to see that “end times” begin with his death and resurrection. Preparing his disciples for the end so that they are not misled, Jesus points not to a stone temple and signs, but how to recognize false prophets coming in his name with a different catechesis, a different teaching. This false teaching comes from panic that people feel when calamity strikes. Wars will come. Disaster will strike. When they occur, some will present false teaching. Jesus’ advises his disciples: Do not panic.

Along with the destruction of the temple, Jerusalem and the world, Jesus spoke of persecution, and for the first time, he explicitly suggested that his trials are bound to their trials.

When Jesus said, “They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name’s sake,” he referred to his disciples and the entire Church. Jesus meant this statement for men and women in his company and those who would follow later. This persecution continued in Acts. When Saul fell to the ground, “he heard a voice say to him, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ And he said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.’”[7]

One author described the persecution this way. “Christians will experience persecution for no other reason than their connection with Jesus. The name of Jesus defines their identity, for Christians bear in their bodies Jesus, the new temple. For that reason, Christians are living stones and their bodies are temples. The opponents will hate them because the presence of God has shifted from the temple of Jerusalem to where Christ promised to be present: in those baptized in his name, in the Gospel, in his Supper. How ironic that the temple of Jerusalem is destroyed by God because the people refused to believe that a shift in divine presence had taken place and that Christians will be killed because they proclaim that this presence now dwells among them.”[8] Folks, that persecution persists today.

That persecution continues today, and Christians willingly bear it because they believe his promise. They believe Jesus’ words at the end of this excerpt. “When these things begin to take place, straighten up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. … When you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near.”[9]

Destruction and persecution fill our excerpt, but for all Christians who believe, hope overshadows them. That is why we gather here today. We believe that Jesus is among us in Sacrament, Word and prayer. We gather here knowing that persecution awaits us as it did Jesus, but we trust in his word. Yes, we trust in his word, but … now what? Now, I turn to my third point, expectation.

What do we mean by expectation? Expectation means belief that something will happen or is likely to happen. When our daughter and daughter-in-law became pregnant, we expected babies. When our team goes to training camp, we expect a championship. When high school graduates leave for college, we expect they will earn a bachelor’s degree … in four years. When the doctor diagnoses a loved one with a terminal disease, we expect we should get our affairs in order. When the pastor appears at the hospital or funeral home, we expect comfort. When we pray, we expect God to answer.

So, what should we expect as we await the end of days? What should we expect on the Day of the Lord? What are we expected to do as we endure destruction and persecution?

We are expected to hope and pray as individuals and community, but what else? To help answer that question, we turn to Paul. He not only prayed for believers, but also exhorted them to imitate him. You “know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you.”[10]

When it comes to imitation, fathers and mothers set the standard for their children. Each section in Luther’s Small Catechism begins with “The head of the family …” Section Two on Daily Prayers states, “How the head of the family should teach his household to pray morning and evening. … In the morning when you get up, make the sign of the holy cross and say: In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”[11] The Catechism then instructs us to kneel or stand and repeat the Creed and Lord’s Prayer before saying his little prayer.

My point is this. We imitate Paul by following Luther’s instruction on prayer because it recalls our baptism as sinners redeemed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. If you pray two or three times daily as a couple or a family, you increase your odds of holding on to hope while being persecuted. Remember, Satan is defeated, but not dead. He can tempt others to hate and harm you as he led men to hate and harm Jesus and his followers. So, pray daily.

Pray daily for the end is near. I do not know when it will come for you or me, but soon. Moreover, the end of this sermon is near too. However, one last thing.

I named this sermon Three Es of Christianity, and when I began researching it, I came across an article written by an Orthodox priest entitled “Ease of Life and Christianity Do Not Go Together.” There are three Es of Christianity, but there is no ease of Christianity.

Friends, following Jesus to the Cross and Tomb on Friday or any day of the week is difficult. Standing under the shadow of the Cross can be dark and daunting. Witnessing destruction and enduring persecution may seem pointless. But having experienced the Risen Christ and the Joy of the Holy Spirit in my heart makes all the difference in my life. I pray it does in yours.

Friends, as we await for the Son of Man to come in a cloud with great power and glory, remain faithful in prayer, and as you do, may the peace of God that surpasses all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.

---

[1] Zachary Hayes, “Eschatology,” The New Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality. Collegeville, MN: The Liturgical Press (1993), 354.

[2] Gen 12:1ff.

[3] Hayes, 355.

[4] The temple teaching is framed by 19:47; 21:37-48. The infancy narrative by 1:5-25; 24:53, and the gospel by 1:5-25; 24:53.

[5] 19:40; 19:44; 20:17.

[6] Arthur A. Just, Jr., Luke 9:51-24:53. St. Louis: Concordia Publishing House (1997), 789.

[7] Acts 9:4-5.

[8] Just, 794.

[9] Luke 21:28, 31.

[10] 2 Thes 3:7.

[11] Page 32.

Deerbrook Construction