A Whole New World

Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost - November 11, 2007

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

After a major disaster, someone is sure to say, ”The world will never be the same.”

I remember it being said after 9/11.

Those folks who had homes in the path of the Santa Anna winds in southern California probably have said it, too.

It is the right message, but connected to the wrong events.

The 9/11 attack and our response,

and building houses in areas known to be prone to devastating fires,

and not heeding warnings to leave low-lying areas at the approach of hurricanes,

and politicians' penchants for false or misleading words

and dozens of other situations we could think and name ...are not parts of a new day, they are dreary hours in the same old day.

These things are parts of the old day that consists of hate and anger and greed and willfulness, and trying to control things to our own advantage.

...with not much success.

This life is a mess.

There have been and there will continue to be those who spend much time with the books of Daniel, Thessalonians, and Revelation trying to discern clues about what will happen next in world or local politics:

--that the final struggle is upon us

--the great battle looms in human affairs and in nature

--the end comes.

Though it is often repeated, the search in scripture for those kind of clues is futile, and that particular alarm of crisis is misplaced.

The Day of the Lord comes at the time of the Lord God's choosing, not at the time of our calculating.

And what good does such calculating do, anyway?

--Can it change anything? No.

--Can it force God to do something that he is or is not planning to accomplish? No.

--All it does it cause needless anxiety, or a false confidence that one knows something that others do not know.

Give it up! We don't need it.

We know already what we need to know.

We know already about a whole new world.

It seems that some become incapacitated by the news of disaster.

And disaster becomes entertainment.

One sits night after night in staring at the TV screen as the reporters try to find a new way to shock, startle, or amuse us.

Ho hum, another hurricane has struck.

Tsk, tsk, a cruise ship ran aground.

Look at that! they're fighting again in Sri

Lanka.

And we become voyeurs of the world's tragedies.

...and not much gets done because we're spending time just watching and lamenting.

Christians are uniquely equipped to get on with things, and able to avoid two problems.

On the one hand, we won't be passive onlookers doing nothing.

On the other hand we won't be bragging that somehow by our actions weare bringing about the kingdom of God.

Instead we have a particular way of looking at life,

which enables us to gaze steadily at the evil around us and yet to know that the evil is not the whole picture.

We have as our guide a remarkably realistic book, the Bible.

On Thursday mornings at 6:31 several of us have been looking at the Psalms one at a time, and we're up to Ps. 51 now.

We discover that the Psalmist can bring anything to the Lord: anger, terror, disappointment, sorrow, and more, in the heartfelt complaint called “lament”.

Voicing the lament is the first step in God's work with us,

to change us within a difficult situation.

By the end of the prayer, the one in distress is assured of God's care, and has been moved to voice confidence in God's promises.

The pattern continues to be exactly appropriate for us.

--look squarely at the problems,

--name them clearly in prayer and psalm.

--voice confidence in the Lord God, even when our strength and imagination fades.

--listen for and decide on the best course of action, trusting that even if our decision is less than perfect, God will yet discern how to turn it to his good purpose.

The word of encouragement Paul spoke to the church in Thessalonika is a good word to us also.

Don't be alarmed; there will be messy days ahead, he said.

Give thanks because God has chosen you as one of his servants, and you have lots to do.

You know the goal and point of all of this living and struggling we do.

So hold onto what you have been taught in word and example from Paul and others,

and God will strengthen your every good and faithful deed.

That's his message, and it still rings true.

And as we are wrestling with all of this, how do we know that this word is not just old stuff, that it pertains to me, now?

Our friend Martin Luther could be remarkably calm in the face of tremendous turmoil going on around him.

In a dark corner of despair, Luther would remind himself, “But I am Baptized!” and that makes all the difference.

It means that God's word and promise has been given to me and not just to those who lived long ago.

Let' add to it a word from Paul to the Romans, a passage we often hear at Baptism:

All of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.

We have be buried with him by baptism into death, so that, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4)

The death and resurrection of Jesus means everything to us.

Paul is reminding us that we have already faced death, and because Jesus has won and lives resurrection life, so shall we, permanently.

No one can hijack that from us.

Jesus has already been through the worst that evil can throw at us, and has beaten it all.

For you, he says in font and table.

For you, for your benefit,

on your behalf, in your place,

the first installment of a whole new world.

So as Christians we have a very realistic and hope-filled attitude about a troubled and weary world around us.

If one is fighting a fire in southern California,

or preparing for military action,

or comforting a friend who is grieving,

or urging a reluctant person to take the medicine the doctor prescribes,

or listening as a companion lays out his lament before God and you...

...we can do all of these things and 100 more with the serenity of faith in the Lord Jesus who was raised from the bondage to every kind of evil and death.

None of those powers could overwhelm Christ Jesus; nor will they defeat us.

Stand firm, Paul tells the Thassalonians.

Hold fast to the traditions you were taught by us.

Ours is a very realistic faith;

--realistic about the true dangers of evil,

--realistic about the alertness and vigilance needed these days,

--realistic in knowing that power is a gift of God which is to be exercised responsibly in interpersonal relationships as well as on the international scene.

But most of all we are realistic about the One who has already defeated death and enables us to live in anticipation of a whole new world.

We are truly realistic when we confess Jesus is Lord! Alleluia! Amen.

Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him.