Eschatology and Ethics

Read: Genesis 15:1-6

 

Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost - August 11, 2013

The Rev. Kenneth R. Elkin

 

Our lessons today suggest two words as summaries: eschatology and ethics.

Yes, they sound dreadfully complicated and boring, but don't tune out just yet; they point to two significant parts of the faith.

Eschatology is the discussion about last things, the outcome and final future of creation.

Ethics is the pattern of how we treat one another along the way.

 

The lively thing here is that Luke keeps the two ideas together; he talks about them both at the same time.

That is not an easy thing to do in the church.

 

Some have used the church as a place to try to escape from the world.

They might be thinking of the pie in the sky in the sweet bye and bye.

The consequence of that thinking is that heaven is so very grand that we can ignore everyone and everything around us now.

That may be convenient and simplistic, but it does not seem to fit with the witness of what Jesus was doing and saying among us.

 

On the other side, some have adopted a particular cause as their entire reason for life in the church.

Take your pick of the variety of such causes: environmental concerns, investment practices, abortion, euthanasia, nuclear power or weapons, etc. etc.

They are all matters that we must discuss, but once someone becomes a single-issue person, he or she tends to forget that this is but one part of our struggle of living in the first stages of the Kingdom of God, a kingdom which is not yet complete.

 

Eschatology and ethics, the goal of creation, and how we treat each other along the way, belong together, and Luke treats them that way.

For the foundation of how to grasp God's future, we turn first to the First Lesson and see how Abraham discusses things with God.

 

Abraham and his family realized that they were not in a static situation.

They were travelers, trusting in a guide who sent them into a strange and foreign land, where life and decisions were difficult.

The promise was held before them -- descendents as numerous as the stars of heaven – and Abraham decided to trust the promise, even though he saw fulfillment only as far as the birth of one son Isaac.

He lived as trusting the promise to be true, and that makes his journey through life not aimless wandering.

A promise is held before us also, the promise made at Holy Baptism.

Its fulfillment may be long-delayed, but nonetheless true.

This makes our life-journey not to be aimless wandering; our lives have a point and a goal that are tied up in that promise.

 

There is a scene in the musical West Side Story where the young lovers sing wistfully “There's a place for us, somewhere a time for us.”

But they sing it without any real conviction that it can be so – they are only wishing.

 

That is not what the author of the book of Hebrews is thinking, a sort of general wish that Abraham might have had that things would turn out OK.

They “greeted from afar”, as the author says, the true outcome of creation.

God did not allow them to see the whole plan, but just as much as they needed at that moments in time as they traveled onward.

We, too, do not see the whole picture, but we have a glimpse of God's future in Jesus living, dying, and rising.

That is enough for us so that we can continue our pilgrimage.

We trust God's promise given by Jesus, and journey gladly by faith alone as our guide.

That is our eschatology; that is our foundation for living, and it is strong and secure.

 

The question is about what we are going to do along the way as we journey together.

What is our ethics?

The Gospel lesson today has a very uncomfortable answer.

It is uncomfortable because we really don't want to hear it or act on this basis: give yourself as Jesus gave himself.

 

Some years back I read of a woman near Pittsburgh who was giving money anonymously to those in desperate circumstances.

Reporters kept trying to find out the identity of this person so that they could ask her why she was doing this.

It seemed to them to be slightly crazy.

There is of course a very simple answer:  the people needed the help.

The Gospel of Luke carries this kind of craziness a step further.

Sell possessions and give alms, he says. Why?

Because the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.

Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

 

Bah! Back to business!

In our profit-minded world, giving does seem to be slightly insane.

Money for us represents the pot at the end of the rainbow, security, and power.

It is a very large part in the current health-care debate.

 

If it stopped there, it would already be enough of a problem.

Money is a symbol of part of our lives, but it is not the whole thing.

Jesus' example involves far more than money – the whole self!

 

Giving these days is regarded as a pleasant pastime which can be indulged by the well-to-do, but for others it is slightly loony.

No wonder Jesus is such an embarrassment to us; he gave himself away.

Especially contrasted with our acquisitiveness that so easily slips into greed, Jesus is a problem for us.

One writer stated it forcefully:

“The church must be poor and church-folk poor, not because poverty is a virtue per se, but because radical generosity will always be poor.”

We're not really keen to hear that stated.

But I have heard of some congregations especially in the Brethren tradition that try to live that way.

At the end of each year, they give away whatever is left in their treasury to worthy causes so that each new year starts with a zero balance.

 

Even if we say that our faith is not that strong, there are still many things which we can do.

1. I remember a prior parish that was considering a renovation project, but the Council made sure that they were considering a major mission project at the same time, and they asked the congregation to adopt both projects, and they did.

2. In investments made personally or by the congregation, we can be asking not just what makes the most money, but also what will do the most good.

3. When we are individually asked to invest ourselves in tasks, responsibilities, learning experiences, or service opportunities, dare we lay aside our usual “I can't or I won't, or what's in it for me?” and jump in.?

Remember that we are backed up by a promise, a covenant from God, and that makes the impossible easy.

The old daily rat-race of trying to make a name for ourselves turns out to be pathetic in the end.

After a couple of generations, we are just a name on someone's genealogy list; even the location of gravestones may be forgotten.

The great preacher Elizabeth Achtemeier once said that she went to the chemical plant where her father had worked and which used a chemical process which he had invented.

No one even knew his name; he had been completely forgotten in only a few years.

 

But Jesus remembers us, and that makes all the difference.

Blessed are those who hold onto that knowledge, who trust that promise, who depend on that fortress, and who thus know their hope and keep awake, and who use their time in these days for the care and healing of the whole world.

To say it with our fancy words once more: blessed are those whose ethics are shaped and guided by a healthy eschatology. Amen.