Homily For Sunday 13 November 2005
The Cathedral Church Of St. Philip , Atlanta
4:00 Evensong
The Rev. Canon Todd D. Smelser, Preacher
My parents lived through the era of the American depression. Although both of my grandfathers had good jobs and no one went hungry, I believe that these experiences during the 1930’s left a lasting impression on the way my folks looked at the world. My mother still talks about some of her childhood friends who subsisted on very little, and always reminds me to turn the lights out when I leave a room. In addition, they seemed to have a keen sense that those have enough have an obligation to share with those who have less. Tom Brokaw’s book THE GREATEST GENERATION is a collection of personal vignettes of individuals who came of age during the Great Depression, who then went on to face the potential end of civilization as they knew it with the threat of facism with the rise of Hitler. In my parents’ day people realized that there would be personal risks involved in fighting war—whether that was an economic one, or the battlegrounds of Europe or Asia . It was an apocalyptic moment, in which people realized that threats were real, and the there truly was the possibility that the world would be ending, at least as they knew it.
Ordinary Time in the church year is coming to a close, and our scripture readings insert a disturbing dissonance in the harmony we expect from this time of year. “The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night,” Paul warms in his letter to the Thessalonians. These verses have been the source of much discomfort throughout the church’s history. The first generation of believers expected Christ’s second coming to occur in their lifetime. When this did not happen, confusion resulted. Today this passage still presents a challenge of how to live in this “in-between time.” How do we live with integrity and compassion in a world which seems to be knee-deep in materialism and self-gratification.
On one level this passage points us toward the future. The Day of the Lord is not yet among us but will come as a surprise even to those prepared for it. The Savior of the world will usher in a new era—when God’s peace will abide—and destroy the false security of the present world. As we anticipate this new realm, Christians should stand prepared for the Lord’s coming by keeping awake.
There is also a bigger picture of the future. That’s what Paul and his co-workers Silvanus and Timothy were trying to convey in their letters to the believers. “For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have died.” These too are words of hope to those who wondered what would happen to those who died before the Messiah’s return. Are they lost somewhere? No. Because when the day comes for the new to replace the old, those who have died with their eyes focused upon God’s future will be gathered in Christ together with the living.
We Episcopalians don’t talk much about the end times, what we religious types call the eschatological. We don’t read the LEFT BEHIND series. Yet much of our own society is ready to draw a line in the sand about who is included and who is not. We, who seek the middle way, the Anglican via media, are now left behind in vicious culture wars and simplistic notions of good and evil. When people like Pat Robertson presume to know that God would not help the people of Dover PA they experienced a disaster, because they voted out school board members who did not believe in evolution, I wonder if we are not all being left behind…by rational and logical thinking and a faith which is not afraid of scientific knowledge. In the wake of countless natural disasters, the war in Iraq , genocide in the Sudan , HIVAIDS destruction throughout the continent of Africa political indictments at home and now the threat of avian flu, one wonders if we are not closer to an apocalyptic time that we thought…and it’s all pretty scary.
But Paul, writing at the end of this week’s reading reminds us that we are destined not for wrath, but salvation. “Therefore encourage one another and build p each other, as indeed you are doing.” The One who will come is the One who has already come in the birth, teaching, healing, death and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. Our hope is not an unknown, mysterious future, but in the remembrance of the future in Jesus Christ.
Perhaps Eugene Peterson in his commentary on this passage sums it up best for me.
"The way we conceive the future sculpts the present, gives contour and tone to nearly every action and thought t through the day…The Christian faith has always been characterized by a strong and focused sense of the future, with belief in the Second coming of Jesus as the most distinctive detail…The practical effect of this belief is to charge each moment of the present with hope. For if the future is dominated by the coming again of Jesus, there is little room left on the screen for projecting our anxieties and fantasies. We are far freer to respond spontaneously to the freedom of God.”
In a couple of generations, when a historian writes our own current history, one wonders what they will write. Will we be known as the Isolationist Generation or the Hedonist Generation. Will our legacy be one of missed opportunities to forge new partnerships among first and third world countries, or one of seeking to root out evil always by brute force? Or will be finally rise to call that our ancestors have always responded to—one of selfless sacrifice, of seeking balance, of sharing our wealth and technology with those who have far less that we. Will be only keep running to bank with more and more talents, while the rest of the globe remains in poverty and illness, where there is utter darkness and the gnashing of teeth.
As Christian people our beginning and our end always ends in prayer, as we ask our loving and creative Father, to be our guide as we seek to follow God’s will And let us end with the those familiar words of the Lord’s prayer,
“They kingdom come…Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil.” This prayer we can pray in trust, and that trust fills us with a peace that no thief can steal.
Comments? Contact The Rev. Todd Smelser: tsmelser@stphilipscathedral.org