The end of the world

Year C - Pentecost, Proper 28
Readings: Malachi 3:13-4:2a,5-62 Thessalonians 3:6-13 Luke 21:5-19 Psalm 98 or 98:5-10


Lord, thank you that your steadfast love never ends, and your mercy is new every morning. Amen.A main theme of today's lectionary readings is 'the end.'Often, people interpret these and similar passages as giving predictions for ‘The End of the World…’ But is it necessary to destroy the entire world for it to 'count' as the end of something significant?
From a historical perspective, this particular passage is talking about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, and later, the fall of Jerusalem itself, which took place in 70 AD. This did not constitute global annihilation, but it was enough to be 'the end' for them, and it's that aspect we can apply to today.
This passage isn't a prophecy of hidden clues to predict OUR future; it's a specific story of past devastation and destruction, through which we can learn to recognize the same kinds of endings in the present.
Around the world, there is plenty of upheaval bringing destruction to other communities and peoples. In some parts of Africa, the AIDS epidemic has brought about an end to the family structure of an entire generation by killing off the parents and infecting their children. I think for these kids, it's enough to count as the end of the world.
Genocide and civil war in Chechnya, Darfur, Rwanda and other places has brought an end to social order, destroyed entire communities and devastated people groups. I think it's enough to count as the end of the world to them.
The story after this gospel reading, after the destruction of the temple and the sacking of Jerusalem - the rest of the story after 'the end' - isn't recorded here, but we know that it has included restoration. After exile and dispersion, some of the story has included coming back and rebuilding; even after 'the end', the story continued and continues still. The end was also a beginning because of the people's hope and endurance.
To interpret this story for today, we need to look at lots of endings - not get caught up in the idea of one big final ending and spend energy worrying about it and trying to avoid it. This attitude leads to the situation Paul was addressing in 2 Thessalonians, where, instead of working and contributing to the community's life, some people were just waiting around for 'the day of the Lord.' They got so caught up in worrying about 'the end' that they were completely missing 'now'.
Instead, if we stay engaged in the story, we can recognize endings and work them toward new beginnings. One of the deacons in our diocese, for example, Linda Shelton, is involved in refugee resettlement. Some of these refugees, whose former lives have ended, are in the same situation as the 1st century Jews who were sent into exile.
People trying to begin again are all around us. A recent article in the Texas Episcopalian featured a parishioner from the church in Pflugerville, who fled Sudan to seek asylum here when his life was threatened because of reporting on the tragedies there. My mentor in the Iona school, Fr. Johannes George, fled Sierra Leone and devastation in that country and now serves the church in Alief.
What if this Gospel is not about predicting the end of the world so we can try and save ourselves, but instead is about recognizing and responding to the devastations of people around us - devastations which are smaller than global annihilation but are large enough to be the end of the world to those experiencing them?
This could mean a lot of work - but it makes our Epistle reading fit in very well - "do not be weary in doing what is right."
Who do you know whose world is ending - through divorce or a devastating illness, or the loss of a child? What has ended your world?
Let me tell you my experience of the end of the world. When I was 13, my mom suffered a ruptured brain aneurysm. I remember standing in a hallway during one of her surgeries, looking out an upper floor window of Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas. Traffic was going by on all the streets below, just as if this was any other day - as though the entire world was not falling apart. I was so angry at all of those people! Didn't they have any idea what was happening?!
Of course not, and I see it very differently now. But for several years, I stayed stuck in that ending. I couldn't imagine the world beginning again.
Interestingly, one of the things that enabled me to begin again was facing the same condition myself. In the process of getting it treated, I had to face some fears - including fears of 'the end' - and I discovered that God was with me there, and that true peace exists, and it is extremely solid.
I also realized that, because of a lot of people doing their work faithfully for years and years, my world was not going to end the way I feared. Some of these people may even have been the same ones driving to and from work the day I looked out that hospital window, mad at everyone whose world wasn't ending.
The collective efforts of biomechanical engineers, metallurgists, business people, ethicists, administrators, interventional radiologists, surgeons, nurses, and countless others I will never meet - all their work created a treatment option that hadn't existed before. So, while 50 years ago, my 2 aunts died of this condition, today, I'm fine.
Because of all those people, what could have been my end became a new beginning, and it has influenced my understanding of all kinds of work as service and vocation. It has also influenced my understanding of work as prayer - my prayers for healing, and those of my family and friends - were answered by God through the faithful use of talents given to numerous people, all doing different jobs well and working together.
I hope this encourages you in your work to view all of it as ministry and service to God - who through your faithfulness and obedience will answer the prayers of people you may never meet.
The point of discussing 'the end' is not to try and predict or avoid it, but rather to not become distracted or paralyzed by worrying about it. Our response when 'the end is near' - in any context - is to keep doing what's right - to be faithful and obedient - and to trust God to take care of the world and us.
After all, ‘He's got the whole world in his hands...’Julian of Norwich, writing in the middle ages, said this about a vision she saw concerning God's care for creation:

"And in this he showed me a little thing, the quantity of a hazel nut , lying in the palm of my hand, as it seemed. And it was as round as any ball. I looked upon it with the eye of my understanding, and thought, 'What may this be?' And it was answered generally thus, 'It is all that is made.' I marveled how it might last, for I thought it might suddenly have fallen to nought for littleness. And I was answered in my understanding: It lasts and ever shall, for God loves it. And so have all things their beginning by the love of God.
In this little thing I saw three properties. The first is that God made it. The second, that he loves it. And the third, that God keeps it. "

As the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins wrote:

And though the last lights off the black West went Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -- Because the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

and e.e. cummings continues...

i thank You God for most this amazing

day:for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes
(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)
how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any--lifted from the no
of all nothing--human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?
(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

To this I would add - I thank you, God

for the end of the world,

because you make it into a new beginning.

Amen.

Lord God, almighty and everlasting Father, you have brought us in safety to this new day: Preserve us with your mighty power, that we may not fall into temptation, nor be overcome by adversity; and in all we do, direct us to the fulfilling of your purpose; through Jesus Christ our Lord. (BCP)

About fighting

Year C - Pentecost, Proper 24
Readings: Genesis 32:3-8,22-302 Timothy 3:14-4:5 Luke 18:1-8a Psalm 121


A common theme in today's texts is that of persistence in struggle and difficulty - hanging in there. Fighting and prevailing.
In struggling with the man he believes to be God, Jacob literally hangs on until he receives a blessing. In the epistle, Timothy is urged to "continue in what you have learned and firmly believed" and to "be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable..." And in the gospel, Jesus tells a parable "about the need to pray always and not lose heart." The widow in his story "kept coming" and asking for justice, and eventually the unjust judge decided to grant it "so that she will not wear me out by continually coming."
Another aspect of this theme of struggle and persistence seems to be the presence of opposition. In the Gospel, the widow seeks justice against an unnamed opponent - we don't know the problem there - but then she has a further struggle with the judge, who doesn't really care about justice and so in that sense forms some more opposition.
In the OT reading, the opponent seems to be God. The text just says 'a man,' but Jacob clearly believes afterward that he has seen God and even fought with him, and he's amazed God didn't kill him. Jacob wrestles with the man, and the man dislocates his hip, but Jacob still won't let him go without a blessing, so the man gives Jacob a new name. "You shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel, for you have striven with God and with humans, and have prevailed." The word translated as 'prevail' doesn't necessarily mean that he conquered his opponent - that he beat God; it can also mean that he showed endurance, strength and courage in the fight. I think that's very important to notice - you don't have to beat your opponent to prevail.
I think struggle and fighting are things most of us can relate to. We fight with people, with circumstances, with God, with ourselves. What does it mean to prevail in these?
When we fight with people, it's just as often, if not more often, that we fight with people we love. In this situation, beating your opponent is not really a good way to 'win.' In a fight with family or friends, this kind of winning isn't very satisfactory.
When we fight circumstances, whether it's a health issue, a job situation, a policy or a law, people usually get drawn into it, too - even if you know what's to blame, it's hard to fight something you can't see or touch.
Sometimes, we fight God, and a similar thing can happen there - think Cain and Abel. But really, if anybody can handle our fight, it's God. Writers of the Psalms often got really angry with God; so did Job, and so did Jonah, and so did countless other people in the Scriptures. God's big enough to take it, and if God's the one you're mad at, God's the one to take it up with. I think it's also true that when you fight with God, you know God better.
Then there's fighting within ourselves: fighting our fears, our demons, and all the gunk we internalize from the problems and dysfunction in our lives. In the book The Imitation of Christ, I ran across this: "Who has a greater struggle than those who labor to overcome themselves?" Anyone who's faced addiction or even observed someone in that struggle can agree this is true.
In all of these struggles, what does it look like to prevail? I think part of the answer relates to peace. Sometimes, just to endure is to prevail - if you've made it this far, regardless of how much damage you've sustained - the fact that you're here is prevailing. Your scars show what you've been through - like Jacob limping as he walked away from wrestling with God. But you've lived to tell about it - you struggled with God and the world and yourself, and you've prevailed.
What if you lose? It depends on what you think losing is. I think to make peace with an opponent is to prevail, even if they win. For example, to face death and make peace with that opponent, whether you then live or die - is to prevail in that struggle - to show courage and endurance. I heard a saying once: 'Courage is fear that has said its prayers.' I like that, and I think it's true.
When I was facing a medical procedure to repair a brain aneurysm a couple of years ago, I also had to face the fear of dying. There came a point, after six months of delays, when all my distractions were gone, and there was no avoiding it anymore.
I wouldn't say I won that battle; I didn't beat the fear. I tried every argument I could think of to reason myself into peace, and I couldn't. Fear is more primal than reason. So finally, I prayed and asked God to give me peace about death, and it came.
It was so simple, I didn't believe it could be true at first and tried to make myself afraid again, but I couldn't. So I prevailed, but it wasn't because I defeated the fear; it was because God fought for me when I couldn't fight anymore.
Another thing about fighting is that it reveals a lot about the character of the contenders. When you fight someone, you know them. This idea was expressed in the sequel to the Matrix, when Neo is summoned to a meeting, and as soon as he walks in the door, the doorkeeper immediately engages him in a ferocious battle. Afterwards, the guy says he had to fight Neo in order to know for sure who he was.
I've started arguments with people before for no apparent reason, I suppose to see how they would respond, to flush them out into the open, I guess, to figure them out. And I've had people do that to me, too - to see how far they could push me before I pushed back.
There's something about competition that brings out things you don't see in casual interaction. People are more raw when they're fighting or competing. If you play any sport, or ever have, you know this. I played soccer from the time I was four until just a few years ago, and now I fence. In either place, I've found I learn a lot about people by facing them in competition. I learn their strength, their speed, their stamina, their habits and their style, how rough or skillful they are, whether they play clean or dirty.
The other side to this is, I learn a lot about myself, too. Some of it's good - some not.
When I played soccer, I learned that I'm persistent and I'm tough, but I'm not always realistic about the laws of physics. I frequently got knocked down trying to challenge people much bigger than me, but I'd get up and keep going. When I played goalkeeper, I wasn't afraid to dive or charge a forward one-on-one.
I also learned, though, that when I played forward, I had a tendency under pressure to sabotage my own plays and then make excuses about why I lost the ball, even though I had enough skill, technically, to keep it. If I had a fullback bearing down on me, for example, sometimes I'd cross the ball early from the wing just to get rid of it. But the center forwards weren't in place yet, so all that work to get the ball up was wasted.
The thing is, probably nobody would blame me. Except that I knew I was doing it. And actually, you can't have that many 'unlucky' breaks without someone seeing a pattern. When I played on my cousin's team, he commented 'Good Lord, I've never seen a more skittish forward!'
He had me sorted. I didn't have myself sorted, though. I didn't know WHY I was doing it. But at that point, I decided I better figure it out and try to fix it.
I think the same concept is true in many types of competition: the quest for grades, the desire to climb a ladder or achieve some status, even political debates.
The reason this is useful - what we see in the microcosm of a game or a debate or an argument, we can work on in that context and in other areas. And more broadly, what we see when fighting under any circumstances, can be an indicator of strengths or weaknesses.
In spite of our desire for peace, we do a fair amount of fighting. I think it's somewhat a part of the way we are as people. Maybe this is why God fights with Jacob and doesn't kill him - because God knows Jacob and knows that's the way he is.
Some people just come out swinging, and Jacob's whole life was like that - Jacob wasn't the ideal man like Abraham - calmly accepting all kinds of difficulties and waiting patiently for their seemingly impossible fulfillment. No, Jacob was going to grab what he could - he was grabbing his brother's heel when he was born - and since that moment was always fighting or scheming with somebody.
One of the most notable examples was when he tricked his brother Esau out of a blessing, and it was after this that he fled his home, afraid of the revenge his brother would taken when he discovered this.
Sometimes, people just kind of have to fight, I think. We wish for peace and harmony and unity with no divisions, but the reality is far from these ideals. In our culture, we don't have a lot of acceptable circumstances for fighting, but I think in some sense, people need to contend with something. Sports are one example, but also things like Survivor and a lot of those reality TV shows, where all kinds of normal activities, like dating, doing a job interview, and designing clothes are turned into competition events. Yesterday, I was watching Iron Chef America - they were having 'Battle Eggplant'...Now you tell me we don't have a need for competition!
The movie Fight Club is a very clear example - these young guys started a club just to fight each other - hand to hand, no gloves, no weapons, and very few rules. The story is somewhat more complicated than this, but essentially, the appeal seemed to be that by fighting, and sustaining injury, they were doing something that felt real - more real than pushing papers in an office. This movie was really popular, which means people respond to it for some reason. I think there's something to notice there.
If you're fighting, especially one-on-one, your goal is clearly defined by beating your opponent. But if you're a small part of a big goal, and especially if you don't know what that goal is, your part can feel pointless. This is somewhat our situation as members of the Church - we're each small parts of a larger body, involved in doing a work that we don't see the end of because it's so much bigger than any of us.
I think part of the implication of the letter to Timothy is - Hang in there. Don't lose sight of the goal you're part of. Know what that goal is. Learn what your part is and do it. And don't let other people's impatience or lack of interest make you forget what you're about.
AND - Fight the good fight.

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Given to St. John's, Silsbee
Oct. 21, 2007