19 December 2015

Sermon 29 November 2015 Luke 21:25-36 Year C

(I had intended in this sermon to walk through the congregation asking people to tell stories of where they saw hope, courage, compassion, and confidence. We had a damaging ice storm the night before. Many people had no electricity. We cancelled the early church service because both driveways of the church were blocked with fallen tree limbs and roads were still icy. Attendance at the later service as so low it would have been difficult to pull this off well.)
        “Stand up and raise your heads!” Wait. What? Stand up and raise our heads when there are signs in the sun, moon, and stars? Stand up and raise our heads when there is distress among nations? Stand up and raise our heads when others faint from fear of what is coming upon the world? Stand up and raise our heads when the heavens are shaken? What kind of crazy person is Jesus to tell us stand up and raise our heads because our redemption is drawing near?
        Could it be Jesus is telling us quit worrying and obsessing about when this may happen? Could it be he is telling us to stop worrying about what may happen and start thinking about what we do in the meantime? And perhaps this is the Jesus Way: to reject both hopelessness and worrying, and equally so reject our pursuit of empty pleasures and things. If you think about Jesus and how he led his life, even knowing he was on his way to crucifixion, he lived in the meantime. He lived in the meantime between the presence of huge evil and the coming of eternal good.
        He lived this way because violence is never the greatest threat. The greatest threat is fear. Fear causes us to do all kinds of things when we are in its iron grip. So what’s the solution?
        Well, how about this? Do you read mysteries? Watch them on television? Live stream them on your laptop? If you do, you know that every mystery has in it the hope of something. It can be the solving of the crime. It can be the perpetrator brought to justice. It can mean old wounds being healed. It can mean the innocent being set free. Does this sound familiar? Does this sound like what Jesus is saying to us?
         I’ve a challenge for you this morning to enter the mystery of the Gospel. Want to follow Jesus? Become a Hope Detective![1] (Here is where I pulled on a deerstalker-style cap and got out magnifying glass.)
        Where do you see hope? Where do you see courage, compassion, and confidence? Where do you see these things despite despair and violence? Where do you see these things despite everything that is happening in the world around us?
        Where did you see hope? Where did you see courage? Where did you see compassion? When did you see compassion? Where did you see confidence?
        When we become Hope Detectives we see God at work in the world. When we stand up or when we raise our heads, our range of vision increases and we can see our redemption drawing near. We can see it because we can increase our vision by seeing what God sees in us. God sees the hope that is in us. God sees our courage to go forth in the name of Christ. God sees the compassion we have for others. God sees the confidence that is in us.
        When we reject hopelessness and worrying, and our pursuit of empty pleasures and things we become Hope Detectives. We remember who we are: God’s people doing God’s work. And we remember what we believe: That we are God’s hands and feet and hearts in the world.
        Be a Hope Detective! Live in hope. Live in courage. Live in compassion. Live in confidence. That is what we shall do in the meantime. Stand up! Raise your head! AMEN!


The Rev Nicolette Papanek
©2015




[1] From a comment online that Dr Jacqueline Bussie, religion professor at Concordia Seminary, challenged people to become “hope detectives.” She is the author of The Laughter of the Oppressed, Bloomsbury T&T Clark. 2007.

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