Sermon preached by Fr. Tom
at St. Thomas Episcopal – Plymouth
November 17, 2013
Twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost – Proper 28
Isaiah 65:17-25
Canticle 9
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
“May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be an acceptable offering in your sight, Oh Lord, my strength and my redeemer.”
Jesus is in Jerusalem, which is where he is going to die. The chief priests and scribes are plotting to kill him. Jesus is about to celebrate Passover and to institute the Lord’s Supper. Judas is poised to betray Jesus – and Peter to deny him – and the Roman soldiers to arrest him. In other words, in the story told by the scripture we read this morning, Jesus has only a day or so to live.
The temple mentioned in the reading today is the third one. The first was built by Solomon. The second replaced it and was torn down by Herod to built the one in this reading. The historian, Josephus, tells us that it was constructed of huge white stones covered with great sheets of gold. He says that, when the sun was shining, you couldn’t look at the temple, because the reflection was like looking at the sun itself.
But when someone commented about the beauty of the temple, Jesus responded by saying:
“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.”
It had happened before. Five centuries earlier, Jerusalem had rebelled against the Babylonians. The Babylonians had responded by sacking Jerusalem, killing most of its inhabitants, and taking the rest into exile. Now Jesus is telling his disciples that it will happen again.
The disciples were properly impressed. They asked: “Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?”
Jesus responded by telling his disciples to beware of false prophets who would claim to come in Jesus’ name. Jesus told them that these false prophets would say, “I am he!” and “The time is near!” Jesus warned, “Do not go after them.”
Then he told his disciples that they would see terrible things – wars and insurrections – earthquakes, famine, and plague – persecution – especially persecution. He warned: “You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death.”
He warned, “You will be hated by all because of my name.”
But then he promised, “By your endurance, you will gain your souls.”
Now this is a nice bit of history and all, but it happened a long time ago. As is often the case with history, it has lessons for us now. Jesus intended these words for us as well as the disciples.
“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.”
Jesus is warning us not to be led astray by false prophets. How vulnerable are we to false prophets today?
There is no doubt that people are vulnerable to false prophets today. Occasionally, the false prophets do things so terrible that we hear about it on the news. Jim Jones was an example. Jones was a spell-binder who attracted thousands to his cult. Then in the late 70s, he founded Jonestown in Guyana – a place Jones billed as a paradise on earth. He lured nearly a thousand people there – and led them to take cyanide poison to demonstrate “revolutionary suicide.” Over nine hundred people died there – most by their own hand.
And then there was David Koresh, who led the members of his Branch Davidian cult to their deaths at his ranch outside Waco, Texas.
Of course, the Jonestown cult and the Branch Davidian cult seem as remote to us today as Jesus and his disciples do – ancient history – last millenium. But there are other false prophets among us:
Some clergy, claiming to do so in the name of Jesus, promote what I call the “Prosperity Gospel” – the belief that God intends his followers to prosper in a materialistic way. They talk, not about mansions in heaven, but mansions here on earth. Their preaching is of Christianity without a cross. They certainly don’t tell their followers that Christ expects them to take up their cross and follow him. They model the religion that they proclaim – they live large, and the religion that they proclaim bears little resemblance to Jesus, who said, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head” (Luke 9:58). Jesus surely had people like that in mind when he warned, “Beware that you are not led astray…. Do not go after them.”
In our scripture today, Jesus gives the lie to the promises of the Prosperity Gospel. He doesn’t talk about driving fancy cars or living large. He tells his disciples that people will hate them – and arrest them – and persecute them. He doesn’t promise that they will escape pain, but promises that their time in prison will give them opportunity to witness to the Gospel. Then he promises, “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”
Of course, not all false prophets are religious. Some false prophets promote get-rich-quick schemes and preach a gospel of stocks, bonds, and real estate. One of those was Bernie Madoff, the architect of a giant Ponzi scheme that defrauded thousand of investors of billions of dollars. Madoff might seem rather distant to you too – you might not feel threatened by crooks like him – but there are all kinds of schemers out there. Be careful about promises that seem too good to be true. Jesus says, “Beware that you are not led astray.”
Some of our false prophets are political. It doesn’t matter which political party you favor, you have been disappointed by broken promises. I get a sinking feeling in my stomach every time I see a politician of any political party pretend to apologize for some sort of scandal. Jesus said, “Beware that you are not led astray.”
Earlier, I said that not all false prophets are religious – and that is true. However many false prophets are religious in this sense – they promote themselves as messiahs. They make people believe that they can save them. That’s a religious kind of appeal, whether they are promising heaven, money, or health. But it’s a false religion. Jesus says, “Beware that you are not led astray.”
The real question then is this: Who do you believe has the power to save you? For those who believed that Jim Jones could save them, the result was disaster. The same was true for those who thought that David Koresh would save them. The same was true for those who put their trust in Bernie Madoff. We have been disappointed in the past, and are likely to be disappointed in the future. The reason is simple – there are lots of potential saviors with clay feet out there.
The key to our salvation isn’t some charmer with clay feet. The key to our salvation is Jesus Christ. If we will invest our faith in him, we will be more likely to see the false prophets for what they are. That doesn’t mean that we will lead easy, painless lives. It does mean that Christ will save us.
You are probably familiar with the story of Apollo 13. An explosion damaged the spacecraft, and for awhile it seemed likely that the three astronauts aboard would never set foot on earth again. It was a race against time – they were running out of air.
Finally, mission control did give them a solution – something to try. They had to shut down the onboard computer to save battery power – so they would have to steer their space capsule manually during a thirty-nine second burn of the main engines. They hadn’t practiced that, so they weren’t sure how to do it.
But Astronaut Jim Lovell thought that they could keep their spacecraft pointed in the right direction if they would just look outside the window, find something to use as a reference point, and keep that reference point steady in their window as they completed the burn. That reference point turned out to be the planet Earth. If they could just steer the space capsule so that they could see the planet Earth through that little window, they would be OK.
As you probably know, that turned out to be the answer. They kept the planet Earth steady in their window while their rockets were burning. By doing that, they were able to stay on course. Eventually – against all odds – they made it back alive.
The author of the book of Hebrews reminds us that our salvation isn’t dependent on some cult leader – or Prosperity Gospel preacher – or financial wizard – or politician. Our salvation depends on “looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2) – keeping Jesus always in view.
My takeaways are these:
We belong to Jesus.
It is Jesus who will save us.
Think hard this week about where you place your trust. What keeps you pointed in the right direction? In needs to be Jesus.
I have said these words in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen