Great is Thy Faithfulness

 

Text: Luke 21:25-36

Focus: endurance

Function: to remind folks to have hope in God

²⁵“There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. ²⁶People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. ²⁷Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in a cloud’ with power and great glory. ²⁸Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

²⁹Then he told them a parable: “Look at the fig tree and all the trees; ³⁰as soon as they sprout leaves you can see for yourselves and know that summer is already near. ³¹So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that the kingdom of God is near. ³²Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all things have taken place. ³³Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

³⁴“Be on guard so that your hearts are not weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of this life and that day does not catch you unexpectedly, ³⁵like a trap. For it will come upon all who live on the face of the whole earth. ³⁶Be alert at all times, praying that you may have the strength to escape all these things that will take place and to stand before the Son of Man.”

Amen and Good Morning to the beloved of God!

This week we celebrated Earth day. In order to clarify something later in the sermon, let me explain how my spirituality is tied to my love of nature. In God’s beauty, I see the hand of the Creator. When I regard a sunrise, or a sunset, it leads me to worship. Like the Pope we just buried, I find deep meaning in the spiritual practices of the Franciscan monks. Since we are created by Christ, and the trees, the plants, the sun, the moon and everything else is created by Christ, we are all one and connected. Everything and everyone is divine because everything and everyone is created by Christ.

It has been life long for me. Long before Climate change became a hot political topic, that first earth day in 1970, I, as the president of my Junior high ecology club got to lead a convocation for the student body where we explained the consequences of our actions if we didn’t care for creation like God commanded Adam and Eve, and the rest of the human race to do.

In my conservative Bible college, again, before it was a political issue, I learned again how God has entrusted their creation to us to manage and care for instead of exploit and ruin.

Sadly, caring for the environment became political long after it became one of my life long passions. It is deeply spiritual for me.

Now, on to the text: Let me put our morning text in context for you.

The OT Jewish religion revolved around the temple. As long as the temple of God was there, the people felt secure because apparently, God’s presence was indeed inside the temple.

In their history, for generations they rebelled against the Lord by permitting certain injustices to take place in their land. Not everyone was treated equal and God had a special place in their heart for those who are poor and oppressed. So they were building up for themselves displeasure from God for their actions until God finally allowed them to be overrun by their enemies and the land sat relatively vacant for 70 years.

The prophets kept coming to them and warning them to do justice, love mercy and humbly walk with God again but they ignored the prophets all the while believing that they were kep secure by the presence of God in their magnificent temple.

And sadly, their faith in the temple was misplaced and the temple was destroyed along with the rest of the city.

But God is faithful and they did come back and they got the chance to rebuild the temple and their sense of security and their worship practices resumed.

And then the Romans came and conquered them. But the Romans were smart and instead of crushing their religion, they co-opted it by building the Jewish people a new temple much more extravagant than they could afford or had the ability to construct.

However, in one corner of the temple, they built a garrison to remind them of who was actually in control of their land.

And the aristocracy of the Jewish population went along with it because they got wealthy off of the rents and other fees they exploited from the population.

That is a short history of the temple. The real question they are asking is how secure they are as a people since they have a new temple.

And they ask this while the population was suffering under this heavy load brought about by the Romans and the Aristocracy.

Jesus is ministering in this environment to the people who are suffering. And he is giving them some hope in a new way of living.

He gives hope to people who are in bondage to a regime that has combined religion with its oppression while being told that this it is the will of God for them to suffer.

Jesus disagrees and disarms the system by resiting. Jesus resists to the point of death.

And all of that sets the stage for today’s conversation with the disciples. They see the magnificence of the new temple and they believe it to be more permanent than the old one and they can’t see a way out of this system that keeps them down.

And at that moment Jesus prophecies the future.

And everything he predicts comes true during that generation. Because of a rebellion in 70 CE, The temple is destroyed by the Romans who built it but not until they spoil it by sacrificing a pig on its altar. They destroyed Israel with a vengeance. It is reported that they ran out of trees to make crosses for all the crucifixions they did. It was really bad.

In the last few centuries, some have interpreted this to speak about our own future and the end times that we see illustrated in the book of Revelations to Saint John.

And that comes from the first few verses where he speaks of cataclysmic signs occurring together in nature. And supposedly they get worse and worse until like the fig tree, they come together into fruition.

As a deeply spiritual teenager who loved to study about end times prophecy, I wondered if this referred to climate change.

So, at an early age, I linked the signs in heaven that Jesus predicted with the climate change that we are experiencing now.

Now, to be clear, this prophecy was fulfilled in 70 CE.

But there is an idea behind this passage reflects maybe an end times prophecy. There are other OT prophecies that had two meanings or fulfillments. The best example of this is from Isaiah when he prophecies that a young woman will be found with Child. About 10 months later, Isaiah became a father for the first time, but we believe it was also a prophecy about the miraculous birth of Jesus the Christ.

So, without being political and saying “man made,” I have often wondered if the climate change we are experiencing right now is the fulfillment of prophecy, the signs in the heavens that Jesus said would occur.

Why do I mention all this? It is not to be political but to try to do what Jesus is doing here.

Jesus is preparing them for tribulation. We will always have tribulation. I get depressed when I read the news and I wonder how much worse things can get. I hope not, but if bad times are coming, we need to remember this passage and see that God doesn’t promise that we will not face trials and that everything will be perfect in our lives if we have faith. No, Jesus sees the future and tells them to not lose hope during trials. He tells them that God is aware of the future and that God has God’s own plans in mind. We can rest in that.

So let me focus on the power of God to take us through trials and tribulation. Jesus gives them this prophecy to remind them that God is sovereign and we can rest in their power if not in this life, then in the next. God is in control.