Sermon on Luke 21:5-19

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

There are some events that are so significant that they change our understanding of time:

There is a before, and there is an after.

Some are historical, like 9/11 or March 2020. There was before 9/11 and there was after. There was before COVID and since COVID (we still haven’t reached an after, exactly).

You can still tell which movies were made before 9/11 by their airport scenes or if they show the New York skyline.

It was weird in 2020 to watch tv shows that showed people hugging and not wearing masks.

There was a before and an after.

The same is true in our personal lives. Just as there are historical events, there are also personal events that change our understanding of time.

A death, an accident, or a diagnosis can be just as earth-shifting.

And again, there is a before and an after.

And for Jewish people in the first century, there was before the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and there was after.

The Temple was the center of Jewish cultural and religious life. Its destruction in 70 CE must have felt like the end of the world.

In our story today, Jesus predicts the destruction of the Temple, and his followers are horrified that such a beautiful place would be destroyed.

And also, the writer of Luke wrote down this story after the destruction of the Temple.

It’s like someone in 2022 writing a story about an airport that takes place in 2000. There’s no way to write that story without thinking about 9/11, even though it hadn’t happened yet when the story took place.

Jesus was preparing his followers for the tragedy to come, and the writer of Luke was reassuring people who had lived through it that Jesus was still with them and God was on their side.

Jesus was talking to people in the before, and the writer of Luke was talking to people in the after—people who felt like the world was ending.

We know something of that, don’t we?

We are in our “after” for the outbreak of COVID.

We are in the “after” of the start of the war in Ukraine.

Election Day was earlier this week, and those tend to feel like “before” and “after” situations, too.

Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia, and Nigeria are experiencing drought and food shortages.

There are protests in Iran and violent countermeasures by the government.

Puerto Rico was hit hard by a hurricane in September.

And those are just some of the historical events. We haven’t listed them all, and we haven’t even mentioned the personal heartbreaks in this community. We’ve had deaths and diagnoses and lost jobs and so many other “afters.”

Our world is hurting. So many of us are living in the “afters,” where it feels like the world is ending.

And still, the world continues. Time isn’t stopping, even when it seems like the world can’t hold any more pain.

Sometimes people blame disasters on God’s judgment on people’s “immoral” behavior. They declare God’s judgment like it’s theirs to dish out.

And if you read our passage in Malachi out of context, it can sound very “fire and brimstone.” It can sound like it supports the idea that God rains destruction on “wicked” people.

But the book of Malachiis more about God calling to account people in power who are abusing their positions.

That’s really different from: “they had an earthquake over there because their cultural practices are different from mine, which are obviously the right ones.”

Both the passage from Malachi and from Luke are apocalyptic. That sounds like a scary word, because our culture tends to use “apocalypse” to mean a big disaster or a very scary way the world ends.

But in the Bible, “apocalypse” means “unveiling” or “revealing.” So whenever there’s something that talks about an upcoming disaster or what it will be like at the end of time, it’s not meant to scare you. It’s not meant to be fire and brimstone and judgment. These passages are meant to reveal something, not tell a scary story or shame people into behaving.

So what are these passages revealing?

The passage from Malachi is reminding people who have become complacent and people in power who are abusing their power that the Reign of God will be fulfilled one day and that God’s justice will be complete. Yes, what is evil will be no more—there will be no more suffering or taking advantage of each other—and God will bring healing to the world. It’s a message of hope to remind people that God will make things right.

And in our Gospel passage, Jesus is saying that disasters and wars and all kinds of terrible things are going to happen, and they’re going to feel like the end of the world, but they’re not.

They might feel like God’s judgment, but they’re not.

They’re things that are going to happen, and people are going to assign all kinds of meaning to them, but they’re just part of what it means to be alive on our planet.

Sure, we should work for peace to put a stop to wars, and we should take care of our planet to minimize the impact of natural disasters, and we should take care of our neighbors when they’re victims of any kind of tragedy.

But, these events that Jesus talks about don’t mean it’s the literal end of the world or that God is inflicting punishment on us. Far from it.

What is being revealed here is that God is present with us in suffering and pain.

God is with us when it feels like the end of the world.

God weeps with us in tragedy and cries out when we experience anguish.

Jesus was preparing his followers for the destruction of the Temple, and the writer of Luke was reminding his audience that God was with them when it felt like the world was ending.

None of this is to minimize the tragedies in our lives and in our world. Things feel like the end of the world because in a way they do end the way the world was in the “before” time. There is no going back once there is an “after.”

But both Malachi and Jesus remind us that God is on our side, not waiting to punish us.

There have been and will continue to be a lot of things that feel like the end of the world, and God is with us in that.

And one day, the Reign of God will be fulfilled, God’s justice on the behalf of the least, the last, and the lost will be complete, and the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings.

Until then, in all your befores and afters,

care for each other,

share your stories about how you see God moving in the world,

and remember that God is with you, no matter what.