10/30 Sermon

Luke 21:5-24

The Destruction of the Temple Foretold

 When some were speaking about the temple, how it was adorned with beautiful stones and gifts dedicated to God, he said, ‘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.’

Signs and Persecutions

 They asked him, ‘Teacher, when will this be, and what will be the sign that this is about to take place?’ And he said, ‘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.

 ‘When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.’Then he said to them, ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues; and there will be dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.

 ‘But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name. This will give you an opportunity to testify. So make up your minds not to prepare your defence in advance; for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict. You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name. But not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls.

The Destruction of Jerusalem Foretold

 ‘When you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that its desolation has come near. Then those in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those inside the city must leave it, and those out in the country must not enter it; for these are days of vengeance, as a fulfilment of all that is written. Woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing infants in those days! For there will be great distress on the earth and wrath against this people; they will fall by the edge of the sword and be taken away as captives among all nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.

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I'm a triathlete. That word often brings to people's minds images of Ironmen out in Hawaii trudging across the desert. They imagine me swimming 2.4 miles, riding my bicycle for 112 miles, and then running a marathon to finish up a refreshing day.

That's not me. The best time ever recorded is 7 hours and 50 minutes. That's for the whole thing. I have every confidence that if the bike course was all downhill I could complete that portion in that time. Of course, I would then have no desire to go run a marathon, or to have warmed up for the bike ride by swimming 2.5 miles. I'd probably call it a day and go have a milkshake. I compete in sprint triathlons, which are about 10% of the whole enchilada. They take me about an hour and a half, and I still feel like I've earned a milkshake by the end of it.

The most important aspect to a triathlon is the training. You can't just dive into one without any preparation. Well, I suppose you could, but the results wouldn't be pretty. The triathlons in which I compete usually comprise of a 800 yard swim, a 15 mile bike course, and a 3 mile run. It's nothing compared to an Ironman or even a marathon, but it requires you to be competent in three different areas. For example, if you can't swim, a triathlon is a pretty poor choice of hobbies. If you hate riding a bicycle, I'd recommend you explore other options. But if you love to run, bike and swim, as I do, then it's a great sport to try.

But it requires a lot of training. I spend a good deal of time on the bicycle trainer I have in the basement, and I look for opportunities to swim every chance I get. I don't run a lot because I'm trying to save my knee, but I try to keep myself in good shape. Triathlons require endurance, so I work hard to prepare.

All this training comes in handy in the midst of a race. It's not that I worry I'm going to forget how to run or I won't remember how to pedal my bicycle. I don't worry that I'll be in the middle of a lake and suddenly have no idea how to swim, and I'm confidant that I can tie my shoes even when I'm stressed out. No, the training comes in handy when I'm in the middle of the bike course and my legs begin to feel heavy, when I grow frustrated and feel like the course will never end, when everyone is passing me and I forget why I do this—that's when the training comes in handy, because my body defaults to a certain setting. I've trained my body to compete in these events, and so when my mind wanders and I lose my focus, my body automatically responds and keeps driving me forward. It keeps my legs and arms churning and gets me through the low spots. This past summer I competed in a race in Kingston that wasn't fun at all. I had been moving for almost three hours, and running for over four miles, when I was ready to throw in the towel. No part of me wanted to keep moving, and I hurt. Cruelest of all, they had set the finish line on top of a hill, and you had to run completely around the bottom of the hill before ascending to the finish line. It was hot, and it was brutal, and I wasn't that interested in continuing.

But my training kicked in. I had prepared for this moment, so that when my mind despaired, my body kept moving. It knew what I was supposed to do, so that by the time my mind finally got around to deciding to continue, by body had already moved closer to the finish line. My default setting was moving forward—so when all else failed, I kept moving forward.

In this incredibly difficult passage from Luke's Gospel, we come to a challenge that seems as daunting as a hill at the end of a race. We've been traveling with Jesus from the stable in Bethlehem, and just as we draw near to the pivotal events in human history, we wind up having to spend a chapter listening to Jesus talk about a temple being thrown down and trials and tribulations that we will face. We want to move on to the familiar things, the Last Supper and the Trial, but Jesus is making us slow down and listen first.

Jesus is trying to prepare us. Jesus is trying to help us train our minds, our hearts, our lives, so that when the trials come we will be ready to live with integrity, with honor, staying true to the Word of God. Listen to his words again:

They will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over...

You will be betrayed even by parents and brothers, by relatives and friends; and they will put some of you to death. You will be hated by all because of my name.

Jesus knows what lies before us. He knows what lies before him. Just think about his mindset—he's standing on the edge of his own death, on the lip of the abyss into which he is about to plunge. In the coming days he will be arrested, beaten, and hung upon a cross, betrayed by a friend, and then he will descend into the depths of hell itself. This is what awaits him, and he does not go easily, lightly—rather he knows that he must prepare his disciples for the same journey, knowing that they will suffer similar persecutions, similar betrayals, similar deaths. He knows that the future of the church will, in large part, be determined by the actions of those that are listening to him speak. He wants to prepare them. Listen again:

Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.

Those words would be anathema to most lawyers in this country. Indeed, to anyone with an ounce of common sense, deciding not to prepare your own defense seems crazy. It seems like you're abandoning all hope—your very life may be on the line, and Jesus wants you not to prepare for your defense.

What he wants the disciples, what he wants from you, is a heart so fully focused on him that, in your time of trial, when all the world has deserted you, you will default to a position of complete and total dependence on him. What he wants from you is a life that is in training to follow him—think of yourself as training for the most important competition in your life. How is your training going? Even Jesus is using language athletes are familiar with—By your endurance you will gain your souls. Endurance—and to gain endurance we have to train. Throughout the New Testament, we hear cries for endurance—that we are to endure.

Now, endurance is not a very popular term in a modern culture fascinated with instant gratification. We like our results to happen now—when I had Directv we had the option for OnDemand movies—we wouldn't have to wait at all. Any cell phone advertisement will discuss the importance of instant gratification—they need to offer 4G service, because waiting just will not do. We want things and we want them now.

Jesus doesn't promise instant gratification. He instead calls us to discipleship, which has an entirely different connotation. Discipleship is a slow process—indeed, it takes a lifetime, and we often don't see the results immediately. We may not see the results for years, or even for decades. Discipleship requires great trust in the Holy Spirit, to trust that God is working in us and through us, even thought we may not always realize it. We want to be impatient, to see what God is doing now, when God works on a much longer time frame—he wants us to build throughout our lives, to grow as his children.

If I sit and stare at my son, I won't be able to see him grow—if I wanted, I could even become frustrated that he wasn't growing before my eyes. But I know that in a month, or six months, I'll be able to look back and notice the changes. Discipleship is the same way—we may not see the results immediately, but we'll be able to look back after a period of years and notice the ways that God has been working, the places where God was moving actively without our even realizing it.

Jesus calls us to a life of discipleship, and it's no different than the training I do for my triathlons. Discipleship is a life of training, of slow growth, and we can't rush it. I can't wake up tomorrow morning and decide that I'm going to be spiritually mature. What I can do is decide to sit down tonight and begin a process that will help me grow in faith. What we are worth doing is worth doing well, and to do it well requires long amounts of time, years and years, a lifetime's worth of effort—you may well grow frustrated that God doesn't seem to be working fast enough, but trust me, God is at work, through your prayers and study, through your conversations and time alone. God is at work in you, doing a mighty work of turning your heart toward him.

In this work, God is preparing you, and you are training, so that when challenges come, when you despair because of betrayal or hatred, your default mode will not fail, but you will default to trust in God's sovereign grace, in his mercy, in his love. In the darkest hours of your life, you will know that God is with you because you have been preparing for them your entire life. Indeed, in our own deaths, we will not fear because we have been practicing for them every moment of our lives, and that even in the moment of death we will have trust in God to prevail, and prevail he will, carrying us through death into life everlasting.

By our endurance we will gain our souls, Jesus tells us.

Will you be practicing to endure, or will you grow impatient with God's slow progress?

Will you commit to be patient, to let God do a mighty work, or will you rush out for what's new, for what promises instant results, and be led astray by the temptations of our instant gratification culture?

Let us pray.