Living in the In-Between Times
Lectionary Readings for the Last Sunday After Trinity
Nehemiah 8: 1-12
All the people gathered together into the square before the Water Gate. They told the scribe Ezra to bring the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had given to Israel. Accordingly, the priest Ezra brought the law before the assembly, both men and women and all who could hear with understanding. This was on the first day of the seventh month. He read from it facing the square before the Water Gate from early morning until midday, in the presence of the men and the women and those who could understand; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the book of the law. The scribe Ezra stood on a wooden platform that had been made for the purpose; and beside him stood Mattithiah, Shema, Anaiah, Uriah, Hilkiah, and Maaseiah on his right hand; and Pedaiah, Mishael, Malchijah, Hashum, Hash-baddanah, Zechariah, and Meshullam on his left hand. And Ezra opened the book in the sight of all the people, for he was standing above all the people; and when he opened it, all the people stood up. Then Ezra blessed the Lord, the great God, and all the people answered, “Amen, Amen,” lifting up their hands. Then they bowed their heads and worshiped the Lord with their faces to the ground. Also Jeshua, Bani, Sherebiah, Jamin, Akkub, Shabbethai, Hodiah, Maaseiah, Kelita, Azariah, Jozabad, Hanan, Pelaiah, the Levites, helped the people to understand the law, while the people remained in their places. So they read from the book, from the law of God, with interpretation. They gave the sense, so that the people understood the reading. And Nehemiah, who was the governor, and Ezra the priest and scribe, and the Levites who taught the people said to all the people, “This day is holy to the Lord your God; do not mourn or weep.” For all the people wept when they heard the words of the law. Then he said to them, “Go your way, eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions of them to those for whom nothing is prepared, for this day is holy to our Lord; and do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.” So the Levites stilled all the people, saying, “Be quiet, for this day is holy; do not be grieved.” And all the people went their way to eat and drink and to send portions and to make great rejoicing, because they had understood the words that were declared to them.
Psalm 119: 9-16
How can young people keep their way pure? By guarding it according to your word. With my whole heart I seek you; do not let me stray from your commandments. I treasure your word in my heart, so that I may not sin against you. Blessed are you, O Lord; teach me your statutes. With my lips I declare all the ordinances of your mouth. I delight in the way of your decrees as much as in all riches. I will meditate on your precepts, and fix my eyes on your ways. I will delight in your statutes; I will not forget your word.
Colossians 3: 12-17
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Matthew 24: 30-35
Then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in heaven, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see ‘the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven’ with power and great glory. And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see all these things, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.
The Collect for the Day
Blessed Lord, who caused all holy Scriptures to be written for our learning: help us so to hear them, to read, mark, learn and inwardly digest them that, through patience, and the comfort of your holy word, we may embrace and for ever hold fast the hope of everlasting life, which you have given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is alive and reigns with you, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen.
Sermon for the Last Sunday after Trinity
When I was in third grade, so, about 7 years old, walking to school, I somehow lost the little red purse that had the two dollar bills inside it, folded neatly by my Mother. It was my lunch money for the week. You would exchange it for a light green card with numbers around the rim that were punched out by the lunchroom ladies as you went through the cafeteria line each day, Monday through Friday. On that day I reached the school yard, felt for the little purse, and realised that it had dropped out of my pocket. I was aghast. I didn’t have time to run back all the way, over all those sidewalks, crossing all those streets, to search for it and find it before the school bell rang for the first class. So I spent a miserable morning and afternoon, lunch-less, waiting to have to confess to my Mother that this catastrophic event had happened. When I did, the soft notes of her response were, “Ah, well, don’t worry, Dana—it isn’t the end of the world….”
My sense of proportion was restored.
The end of the world. Are the events we have been reluctant witness to in this past year of real catastophe and ongoing turmoil, in all the parts of the world—-are these events what Matthew is talking about? Are these verses trying to tell us that the end of the world is drawing near?
Is this what the Bible is for, to help us to read the signs of the times?
Today is designated as Bible Sunday. Always a good theme for a Sunday’s preaching, but today is close in date to October 31st—Reformation Day—anniversary of the day Martin Luther is said to have posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany in 1517, a date thought of as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation.
And if I can urge you, in the course of this short sermon, toward any goal in your life of faith, it would be to read more widely and deeply in the sacred texts of the Bible. Because to get a sense of the whole Bible, you have to read it for yourself, preferably in the company of your fellow Christians, but you have to read more than what you are going to get by coming here to have read aloud a few verses on a Sunday, even every Sunday of the year. This larger sense of what the Bible is will inspire you, strengthen you, and give you a sense of perspective about life and the world that will transform you—I assure you!
So back to my question: is this what the Bible is for, to help us to read the signs of the times?
So this is my answer: no, in a specific sense, and yes, in a larger sense.
This chapter of Matthew contains many different miscellaneous sayings of Jesus. They were delivered at different times and under different circumstances, and are apocalyptic, not necessarily addressed to specific events in the future. Jesus’s followers understood his sayings of this kind in their own way, longing for release from the oppression of Roman rule, looking back to the Golden Age of King David and King Solomon, before Israel split apart and dwindled in political importance as a nation. They were looking for a certain kind of saviour, or, in absence of that, for a certain kind of consummation of all the suffering of the world, heralding the coming of the new and glorious age of God’s Messiah.
Apocalyptic:-that strange word. I had to smile when I looked up the Cambridge dictionary definition: showing or describing the total destruction and end of the world, “or extremely bad future events.” Well, extremely bad future events seem to be upon us now. This year has been the worst of all years, for many people. Environmental disasters, authoritarian governments brutally suppressing dissent, long-held rage against racial injustice erupting with few substantive changes in the ways things work, the coronavirus pandemic causing untold suffering and death. Are these events apocalyptic? Does the Bible tell us that because of them, we are to look for the end of the world?
No. The simple answer is, “no.”
Natural phenomena—natural disasters—have since ancient times been associated with the end-times. It is a natural human association. And I might add that the disasters of our own day are largely caused by us human beings. Nevertheless, these verses of Matthew are being read by some today as evidence that the end of civilization as we know it is around the corner.
But it is important to remember that the early Christians also interpreted the natural portents named in the apocalyptic literature as signs of God’s power and overruling providence, a terror only to the faithless. I
f they expected a period of world disorder to be followed at once by a return of Jesus in triumph, they were instead being asked to see the coming to the Father of the Son in the glorious exaltation of Jesus’s Passion and Resurrection. The test of faith was, and is, to see the accomplishing of God’s purpose for humankind in the event and symbol of the Cross.
The verse in Matthew that follows our apocalyptic passage continues: But about that day and hour no one knows, neither the angels of heaven, or the Son, but only the Father.
So. When God chooses, in God’s own time, to gather all the created order to Himself, in love and completion, it will be. We do not know that time. We are simply asked, as Christians, to live in the in-between times.
And how do we do that? Does the Bible give us any help?
Let me read the beautiful words of the passage from Colossians that we are given for today:
As God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. Bear with one another and, if anyone has a complaint against another, forgive each other; just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
May love, love only, bind us. Because whenever Christians live together in unity, a completeness exists, fulfilling God’s intention for us. The work of the Messiah is to create peace: we are to actively take part in this peace. Let the word of Christ dwell among you in its richness: the indwelling of this word is to be life-determining for us in all areas of human existence, especially in our actions toward our neighbour. And every morning as we greet the day, may we offer to God a thanksgiving from our heart.
This Word of the Bible—-the sacred text of our tradition—these words will show us how to live in the in-between times, our time now, with a sure and certain hope, not fearing the end of the world, but living out the way of the Cross, embracing its imprint upon us, bringing to bear the only solution to the endless ills of our selfcreated catastrophes, which is the self-emptying love of Christ.
May we take these words to heart and live them out in our lives.
Amen.
The Revd Dana English The United Benefice of Holland Park October 25, 2020