Proper 28C – George Yandell
Here are some facts about a region known to many of you. Over a period of 200 years, at least 8 major events troubled this region. See if you can tell where it is.
- At the beginning of these 200 years, a series of major earthquakes rocked the region, killing untold numbers of peoples, devastating communities.
- There was intensive slavery, masters growing rich on the backs of their slaves.
- A massive conversion to commercialized agriculture focused on crops that big companies could sell in foreign markets, causing landowners to go into debt, because they couldn’t compete with the huge combined farms. Small landowners were driven off their farms and turned into sharecroppers.
- Grinding poverty grew among the population, as the rich grew richer.
- A civil war tore the region apart. Throngs of residents were conscripted into military service, sent to die in battles close to home and far away.
- The victors occupied the region after subduing rebellions large and small; racial minorities were oppressed.
- The infant mortality rate grew to epidemic proportions.
- Religious institutions failed to honor their mission to protect the poorest of the poor.
- Toward the end of these 200 years, a charismatic leader arose who protested against the treatment of the impoverished people. He preached non-violent cooperation. His disciples watched in horror as he was violently killed.
What region am I describing? Yes, Palestine in the period from 170 BCE to 30 CE. All these statements are true.
The homeland of Jesus is split by the northern end of the Great Rift Valley. Palestine experiences an average of two destructive earthquakes per century, 2-6 light shocks each year. After the Hebrews revolted under the Maccabees against the oppression of the Syrian rulers 162 years before Jesus was born, they actually achieved independence for a time. In the century Jesus’s birth, Roman legions occupied Syria and established their headquarters there. In 5 BCE, while Mary was carrying the baby Jesus in her womb, peasant Jews revolted in Sepphoris (5 miles from Nazareth) and in Jerusalem. Roman legions were sent south to quell the revolts. One legion passed right through Nazareth on the way down to Sepphoris. They practiced a scorched earth policy, raping women, taking slaves, leaving devastation in their wake.
Jesus delivers his last teaching before his crucifixion in today’s gospel. It is called ‘the little apocalypse’. Apocalyptic writings interpret a present or impending crisis as the last crisis of this age of human history, before a new age begins.
After Jesus spoke to the disciples and others in Jerusalem, they probably looked at one another, and replied, “So what’s new about this? This is our world you’re describing. Why should anything change?” Jesus tells of the world as it is, war after war, crisis after crisis. He longs for the world to be transformed into the world as it should be. Jesus knew God’s heart. Jesus knew God longed for God’s kingdom to cover the earth so that justice and peace would reign. The disciples who slept out with Jesus on the Mt. of Olives had entered kingdom life with him, and sampled the surpassing peace the kingdom promised. And they knew the world was shaking and in flames all around them. They were living on the fault line.
What fault lines are destabilizing our Holy Family community? What temblors do we feel in Jasper? // Listen again to Luke: Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that you (plural) are not led astray; for many will come in my name, saying, ‘I am he!’ and ‘the time is near! Do not go after them. When you (plural) hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately. 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.”
The important word here is ‘You’ plural. “Don’t be led astray- you all, my community, stay together.” “Cling to one another”, Jesus was saying- “The end of this age is near, God’s kingdom is pregnant now. You are the kingdom being born now.” Jesus meant for the disciples to hold onto each other through all sorts of calamities. That tiny community grew to 33 million followers by 350 CE. More than half the population of the entire Roman Empire. How did that happen? They lived the kingdom of God as real and present.
The 1st evidence of God’s kingdom present now = peace in the midst of chaos. The 2nd evidence = love growing in fellowship, sharing God’s gifts with all. The 3rd evidence= serving the world with joy. It’s like a double helix of the individual and the community- each strand growing into God, separate but connected. Knowing, loving, and serving God. The individual’s growth into God’s heart is carried in community, and the community grows as I am led deeper into knowing, loving and serving God. That’s what Jesus grafted into the hearts of his disciples- hold onto one another: know, love and give to God through the fellowship. That’s why followers of the Way of Jesus still flourish today in the midst of pain and devastation.
I want tell you a story about living through the worst, of disciples that won’t let go, and the present kingdom of God. There was a wild boy named Charlie in my home church in Knoxville. He was two years older than I. His mother, Beth, taught my 4th grade Sunday school class while my mother taught Charlie’s 6th grade class. My mother said it was the most challenging class she’d ever taught because Charlie instigated all sorts of mischief.
When I got to 9th grade and went to high school, Charlie was a junior. He was one of the boys who drove fast, drank beer and smoked cigarettes. He was always called to the principal’s office. After his junior year, Charlie was flunking out. He enlisted in the army. Keep in mind this was 1968. He trained to fly helicopters, and went to Viet Nam as a med-evac pilot. Home on leave the summer after my junior year, Charlie attended Church one Sunday in uniform. He was a changed person. He had found his calling in life. He stood proud. He said he’d seen things that brought out the very best and the very worst in people. He was a man on a mission. In my senior year, Charlie’s helicopter was shot down as he was airlifting the wounded from the battlefield. Charlie and all aboard were killed.
At Charlie’s funeral in our Church, I sat in the choir loft with other volunteer singers, and looked down at his flag-draped casket. I couldn’t accept that Charlie’s body was inside it. It was surreal, unbelievable. News cameras were taping the service. A distant war had become personal and horrifying. Charlie’s mother Beth was devastated. She withdrew from her friends. She and her husband divorced a year after Charlie’s death. She was lost in her grief.
There’s a postscript: Charlie’s mother didn’t stay submerged in her grieving. Her fellow church school teachers wouldn’t let her go. They kept calling, going by her house, urging her to come to planning lunches, and finally her resistance caved. She started teaching again, sharing in the planning for the special events of the parish. She spent large portions of each day volunteering, helping to build a remarkable Christian Ed program. By the time she died in the early 1990’s, Beth had experienced resurrection. She once remarked to some of her fellow teachers, “You know, I miss Charlie every day. But God has entrusted throngs of children to me. I love each and every one of them- I’ve seen them grow up and flourish. I’d never have my heart fill with love again had it not been for my fellow teachers- they wouldn’t let me go.” That was how the rector quoted Beth at her burial. Everyone knew it to be true. This is still our mission- cling to each other through good times and bad. Don’t let go. No matter what fault lines shift under us, we are God’s kingdom people. The new age of God’s peace begins here and now. When you pass the peace today, realize it’s a prayer for the one in front of you. A prayer for the peace that is God’s kingdom coming. Jesus intends we live it.