23rd Sunday after Pentecost

Grace be to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Our readings today are full of gloom and doom, but let’s start with the happy part. This is what the Prophet Malachi proclaims: “The sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings.” Beautiful promise, isn’t it? In a little over a month, we will be singing Christmas hymns. When we sing “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing!”, listen for these words in verse 3:

Hail the heav’n born Prince of Peace! Hail the Sun of Righteousness!

Light and life to all he brings, ris’n with healing in his wings.

The hymn is quoting the prophecy of Malachi as good news. And it is. Promises of sunshine and light, righteousness and justice, healing and rising – those are wonderful and hope-inspiring, indeed!

The other happy part of Malachi’s promise announces that we will be like calves leaping from the stall. The house I grew up in had a backyard bordering on a cow pasture. A couple of times I had the opportunity to watch as, after a long winter indoors, the cows were let out of the stable into pasture for the first time. They would run and jump and leap; they were a hoot to watch as they expressed their joy at being freed.

This is the image Malachi is holding out for us today: A day is coming when we will be leaping and jumping for sheer joy. Good news, indeed.

But what about the rest of our scriptures today? Malachi describes fire that will burn all arrogant and evildoers to stubble. In the gospel, Jesus speaks of the destruction of the temple, of wars and insurrections, of famines and plagues, of earthquakes and great signs from heaven. Scary stuff. What are they saying?

In order to understand their message, let me back up a moment and talk about the kind of literature we have before us. Knowing the type or genre of speech is important for knowing how to interpret said speech. For example, if someone begins with the words, “Once upon a time…”, we know a fairy tale is coming, a story in which not everything is to be taken as factual truth (like dragons and speaking donkeys and flying carpets), and yet a story that relates a moral or timeless truth. If, on the other hand, someone in a newscast says, “This just in…”, we expect that what follows did actually happen as reported.

The type of speech before us today is called apocalyptic. It is a style of writing that often arises when people are downtrodden and oppressed and struggle for hope. It speaks of natural disasters, political violence, and war, religious persecution and family disruptions, all images used to describe the feeling of powerlessness, of being tossed about by larger powers beyond their control.

Several books in the Bible contain apocalyptic writing, such a Daniel, Ezra, and Revelation, as do the gospels according to Matthew, Mark, and Luke. During the time these books were written, the people of Israel were under the rule of military superpowers, first Persia and then Rome. Being oppressed, chafing under high taxes, resenting the power those empires had over every aspect of their lives, God’s people felt like the end was coming.

In our own times, such writing has again gained popularity. So often when terrible things happen in the world, we hear it referred to as “apocalyptic”. The term is always used in the sense of “the sky is falling”.

And time and again, preachers have tried to point to such events and proclaim that the day of the Lord has arrived, that judgment is coming, that Christ’s return is imminent. Often, these preachers claim to know exactly who brought this calamity upon the earth or which group of awful people God aims to punish with such disasters.

Let’s take a closer look at what Luke and Malachi actually proclaim.

I read their words carefully, and as far as I can tell, neither Malachi nor Jesus state that God is the one causing the fire or earthquake, pestilence or war. They just describe what will happen. And really, has there ever been a time when these events did not happen? Have we ever made it through a year when we have not seen news of these kinds of events? They seem par for the course for life on earth; sad, but true. Jesus and Malachi do not ascribe them divine meaning, and neither should we.

What Jesus and Malachi do focus on is how the faithful can survive in the midst of such calamities. That is what apocalyptic writing is really about: helping the faithful persevere through truly terrifying times.

“Do not be terrified,” says Jesus. Don’t think this is the end of the world. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom will rise against kingdom, we read. A more literal translation is “nation upon nation and kingdom upon kingdom”, meaning nations will come and go, kingdoms will rise and fall, and still God will be God and will watch over the faithful and will help them endure and gain salvation.

Jesus warns his disciples not to be too impressed with the temple, not to place their assurance for the future on a building, no matter how imposing it is (and the temple in Jerusalem truly was). Buildings, systems, human accomplishments are all temporary. The only enduring entity is God. God will last. God’s word will last. And the people who love God and trust their covenant with God will be able to endure.

One commentator shared a cute story. Her son is in elementary school. His class got the award for best attendance. The class was allowed to pick one of two reward options: a day without homework or being allowed to bring a stuffed animal to school. The class chose the stuffed animals.

The pastor asked her son why they chose this option. He said that a day without homework is nice, but eventually they would have to learn all the stuff anyway. But having his lovey at school helped him deal with all the uncertainty and scary things in school, like tests, where to sit in the cafeteria, and bullies.

That’s what I hear in our scriptures today: life is stressful and full of uncertainties. There is no way around it. Knowing God’s love and grace and support with us as we live through those challenges makes all the difference in the world. We can hold on to our baptismal faith: We are God’s beloved child forever, no matter what happens in this life.

Holding on to faith in God even in the midst of calamities, God’s people are called to testify. When the sky seems to be falling, we speak of our faith in God’s goodness. When it feels like the foundations of our lives are shaking, we witness to the solid rock that is our God. When our lives seem out of control, we witness to the creator who controls the chaos.

In my sermon research, I read an essay by a spiritual director named Dani Scoville. She states that one of the most frustrating and cliché quotes she hears on a regular basis is the criticism that “religion is a crutch”.

She detects in that comment the expectation that we should go through life by our own strength; you know, the admired American image of the lone ranger who pulls himself up by his bootstraps. Needing help emotionally, spiritually, or physically supposedly means we are weak.

This attitude is rather damaging. Trying to go it on our own leads to unhealthy coping mechanisms. People either become egocentric and isolated and an island to themselves, or they medicate themselves with alcohol or drugs or the like, or they escape into their work and become workaholics. None of this is good for us. As human beings, we are created to be in community, with other people and with God.         

“Faith is a crutch.” Yes, it is! And thank God for this crutch that helps us endure, that helps us live through calamities, that helps us walk when we carry heavy burdens.

Jesus and Malachi use apocalyptic to address the feeling of being out of control and powerless. That’s where I currently reside. I have limited my exposure to news because I just couldn’t take all the reports about wars and famines, hurricanes and climate crisis, injustice and dysfunctional government, lost paychecks for federal employees and no SNAP benefits for our poor neighbors. Many days it feels like the sky is indeed falling.

Thank God for the crutch that is my faith! Thank God for the assurance of scripture that all these terrible things are not God’s doing and are not a sign that the end of the world is coming soon. Thank God for the covenant God made with me in baptism that promises me God’s everlasting love and a home with God in this life and in the life to come.

Thank God for the hope of faith God grants me, a hope that allows me to get out of bed in the morning and go through my day as best I can. Thank God for moments of grace that assure me that I am not alone, but that God is my good shepherd who walks besides me.

Thank God for my siblings in the faith who walk this journey with me. Together we hold on to faith, trusting that God is with us and that by God’s grace, we will see the day when the sun of righteousness rises with healing in its wings, when we get to skip like calves, when we will find that in enduring, we have received salvation. Amen.