Scriptures for Sunday, November 17, 2019
Isaiah 12
Isaiah 65:17-25
2 Thessalonians 3: 6-13
Luke 21: 5–19

Not only is A.D. 2019 quickly slipping away from us, the church year in which we explore the Gospel according to Luke is passing away, too.  As I pointed out during my sermon this past Sunday, Jesus spoke the words that Janice read to us during the week leading up to his crucifixion, in the city of Jerusalem where he would die.  The previous week’s gospel lesson, the well-loved story of that “wee little man” Zacchaeus, took place in the city of Jericho, when Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem.  Now, so to say, Jesus is there. 
Since we read the stories of Jesus’ triumphal entry into the Holy City on the Sunday before Easter each year, we won’t go through that again now.  But during this month before the Advent and Christmas season (and the start of the new church year), we read things that Jesus said during his final week in Jerusalem.  Luke reports: Every day [Jesus] was teaching in the temple.  The chief priests, the scribes, and the leaders of the people kept looking for a way to kill him; but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were spellbound by what they heard.  (Luke 19:47-48)  There is something special about someone’s “last words” – and we have these records of Jesus’ last words before his sacrificial death on the cross.
From the time Jesus approached the city of Jerusalem, all of his stories and sayings began to focus on the end of the world as they knew it, and on God’s final judgment.  I think it’s important to note that when Jesus taught the people during his final week, he was not trying to bring them down:  he was still telling them “the good news” (Luke 20:1).  As we Christians read the Bible, we ought to notice that even ‘the end of the world’ is good news for us.
Thus says the LORD God: ...
I am about to create new heavens and a new earth;
      the former things shall not be remembered or come to mind.
                                          -Isaiah 65: 13, 17

[John the Revelator writes,  ]
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth;
   for the first heaven and the first earth
   had passed away,  
   and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem,
   coming down out of heaven from God,
  prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
                                        -Revelation 21: 1 – 2
In our Sunday evening Bible study of the Book of Revelation, we keep coming upon scenes where wild and apparently horrible things are occurring, but careful reading reveals that God’s people are kept safe throughout, to the very end and beyond— even though they may be killed, martyred for their faithfulness.  God always judges in favor of His beloved people and brings them at last into the New Jerusalem.
In this week’s reading from Luke, Jesus tells his disciples and the crowd, “they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.  This will give you an opportunity to testify.”  (Luke 21:12-13)  I know what you must think about that:  ‘Oh, goody!’ – right ?
Around our little country church and our quiet little town of Elkton (“how still we see thee lie...”), I have not yet managed to get arrested or dragged before the authorities on account of my faith.  Have you?
But we might have been across the mountain in Charlottesville in the summer of 2017 to stand with the Christians against the Nazis and other haters, risking being harmed by them. 
Or we might have stood with the family of Botham Jean in a Dallas courtroom last month, when Mr. Jean’s brother Brandt said to the policewoman who had killed his brother, “I think giving your life to Christ would be the best thing that Botham would want for you.”  “I love you as a person, and I don't wish anything bad on you.”  And to the judge: “Can I give her a hug, please?”
I am not saying that facing the haters in Charlottesville or making a Victim Impact Statement in a courtroom is, in itself, “good news.”  I don’t imagine that any of us would happily rush to stand in the shoes of the Christians in scenes like those.  But Jesus warned us that we might have to do and say similar things, if we remain faithful to him. 
More good news: Jesus also promised us that he would give us the words and wisdom we will need.

Scriptures for Sunday, November 10, 2019
Psalm 98
Psalm 145: 1-5, 17-21
Haggai 1:15 - 2:9
2 Thessalonians 2: 1-5, 13-17
Luke 20: 27–38

Now may our Lord Jesus Christ himself
  and God our Father, Who loved us
    and through grace gave us eternal comfort
      and good hope,
        comfort your hearts and strengthen them
          in every good work and word.
                                  -2 Thessalonians 2: 16 – 17
 
Last Tuesday evening, I was privileged to join with some other chaplains to offer blessings to workers around our local hospital.  We walked with a cart which held a pitcher of water and a basin, some oil in a dish, and some pretty pebbles marked with words such as “peace,” “strength,” “rest,” and “hope.”  It was a night shift, and there was no way of knowing who we might meet, or who would want to take the time to meet with us.  In the course of two hours, we poured water on the hands of nurses, custodians, lab workers, and physicians as a symbol of cleansing and refreshing.  We also anointed their wrists with oil, representing grace, and let them take one of the pebbles.  And we gave them some words of blessing, to cheer and encourage them in their vocation as people of healing.  The workers responded to these blessings with words of gratitude, expressions of pleasant surprise, and in some cases tears of joy and release.
When we find ourselves in medical settings, it isn’t unusual for us to find workers with kind and caring attitudes, not to mention skills and knowledge for healing bodies.  In fact, we expect that such workers will be not only professionally competent but also good-natured, positive people.  But then when we are in our role as “consumers” of “medical services,” we may be tempted to exercise our critical impulses on the workers when we find the proverbial ‘fly in the ointment.’ 
Some of you are old enough to remember times when one or two local physicians were people’s main medical resource, and a trip to the hospital in Harrisonburg or Charlottesville was a pilgrimage to a temple of mysteries beyond the comprehension of lay-folk.
Now, we are told that we must watch each dollar of our health-care spending, checking in advance what each service and item and worker-hour is going to cost— knowing that severe financial penalties will hit us if we go ‘out of network’ or accept a prescription for a drug not covered by our policy.  The health-care industry would reduce us to crass consumers in a money machine.
Still, we expect those workers to be angels of mercy bearing miracles of healing for our failing flesh.
When someone puts themself in front of the public knowing that expectations will be high even when things get bad, it’s a “vocation,” a “calling.”  The idea is that God gives people gifts to use in His service and in the service of humanity, and God then calls us to use our gifts rightly, whether we are paid or appreciated or not. 
We expect nurses and doctors to feel a sense of their higher calling, not just the businesslike drive to make a dollar any old way they can.  Likewise with some other lines of work: florists and decorators, artists of many types, counselors, and teachers: if they’re only in it for the money, we feel there’s something missing.
And then there’s religion.
The old song said,
Well, the preacher he’s a dodger,
   yes, a well known dodger,
   well, the preacher he’s a dodger, yes,
   and I’m a dodger, too.
He’ll preach you the gospel
   and tell you of your crimes,
   but Look out, boys! he’s a-dodgin’ for your dimes !
Well, we’re all dodgin,’  dodgin’ - dodgin’ - dodgin’
   on the way through the world.
Yes, you pay me.  And Yes, I believe God has called me to the work I do.  Both.  By the grace of God, it will come out right somehow.  At best, we will both know that it’s right.
I want to call you attention to your own holy vocation, your own sense of God’s call on your life.  Do you know what it is that God means for you to do in this world ? 
The classic answer of Christianity is found in last week’s lesson from
​2 Thessalonians 1:11-12:
Our God will make you worthy of His call and will fulfill by His power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Let’s make God glad He called us.