November 13, 2022 – The Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost (Proper 28)

Today’s words of warning in the Gospel of Luke follow the account of the widow who displayed true devotion to God’s temple by giving two small coins. This devotion, if it had been replicated by those in the leadership of the temple, would have protected it from the disaster that was to come. In fact, this view appears to be common among all of our gospel writers.

Today’s Gospel begins with the prediction of destruction. The temple, which was renowned for its beauty, would be destroyed. And Luke’s words carry a sense of sadness. Later in the Gospel of Luke, we’ll walk beside women whom Jesus redirects to bewail the fate of the temple (23:27-31), just as Jesus wept over a city (19:31). Luke’s audience would have seen the destruction of the temple as an event which reverberated around the world with foreboding. Luke links the past and prospective sufferings together. And together, the cry comes out: how long? When will deliverance come? We need to connect with those in Luke’s time to ask in our time – how long? We put up with violence in America – HOW LONG?

You would be right in thinking that today’s Gospel echoes a description of future woes from the writings of the prophets. In fact, the apocalyptic imagery translates well into how we might imagine a modern-day doomsday. It might remind us of scenes from the Revelation to John. And it easily feeds into our cries of “The end is at hand!”

But I think the point that Jesus is making is that we shouldn’t be panicked by such events. The same danger exists today except that the reports come from the media. The panic whipped up is highly volatile and has the potential to explode into irrationalities and conspiracies, religious and otherwise. And from this panic, the casualty becomes truth – as generalized claims are made or people drive themselves into doomsday fantasies.

The passage continues with reports of harassment and victimization of the minority Christian movement in both Jewish and Gentile contexts. (Note the use of both “synagogues” and “governors” in verses 12-15.) Luke tells us that we should trust that we will be able to say what we need to say when we need to say it. We will be given “a wisdom that none of our opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (14-15). Notice that we won’t escape without hurt, but that this wisdom will be an irresistible force.

At one level, Luke seems to be appealing that we should live out of the wisdom which God gives (the Spirit) and not out of fear. It’s a way of saying to let our responses to the hype and horror of accumulating disasters not be determined by the one-liners of the media or religion, but by the Spirit who is now the center of our lives. We are to stay in touch with the Spirit who tells us what Jesus was about.

Luke is realistic here – he knows that families have conflict. He knows that friends betray one another. And that both can breed hate. And when events whip up panic, there is a lot of hate to go around. And so anyone who advocates for the way in which Jesus lived should expect to experience some of that hate.

Friends, our future is in God’s hands. Ultimately, we believe that we will be taken into the heart of Jesus, the God who loves and can set our faith straight. That trust in our God has profound implications for us personally – and politically, socially, and religiously.  Luke’s weeping for Jerusalem grounds us in a communal understanding of faith. Communally, we are to tackle the madness of fear and hate.

Standing confident in the Spirit, in the Advocate who is with us throughout all of creation, we can be in the stillness and filled with wisdom to offset fear and hate. To tackle abuse and oppression. To dedicate ourselves to others, as the woman who donated her two small coins, means that we are beginning – in our own way – to tackle the injustices of the world. It’s a start… now what else can we do?