How will we be and who will we be in the end?

 

Luke 21:5-19      Pentecost XXIII

 Jesus foretold the Temple destruction of 70CE.   (Luke’s Gospel may well have been written around 85CE.)  Then Jesus talked about the end times.

Political unrest, wars, famines, plagues, earthquakes will happen.  This is true of every age.

 The disciples will be persecuted, having been betrayed by family and friends, and will be hated because they follow Jesus.  Endurance will save them as an act of faith, so that not a hair of their heads would be harmed.

 Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I just heard a piece on 60 minutes about Doomsday Preppers who prepare for disasters and survival.  Jesus’ method of survival is keeping the faith, not worrying about what to say in defense and enduring the tough times ahead.

 That is what we humans do.  We endure and survive.  But does our faith in God survive?  Do we retain our faith in God when all turns bad, even being intentionally and systematically persecuted for our faith in God?  Where is God when all of this is happening?  How do we deal with that?

 Keeping the faith to me means STAYING THE COURSE and not giving in to our desperate, dog eat dog mentalities.  It means living the Agape Love of Jesus even though it may mean that we are marginalized or worse.  It means staying the non-violent course while others go mad.  It means caring for others when everyone believes that it is “every person for him/herself.” 

 Disasters come and they go.  Climate disasters, political violence, international conflicts and world shortages of necessities may happen in our future because of our misuse of the creation and others.

 How will we react when they happen?  Will it allow us to become what we do not ordinarily value?  Will it make us who we do not want to be?  Will we give up our faith in God because of real world crises?  Will we give up our faithful following of Jesus’ Way because it means we are singled out and persecuted? 

 Some “Christians” claim that they are being persecuted when they are not.  They feel disenfranchised from their ability to discriminate against non-Christians, hurting those whose lives they do not value and living hatefulness in the world.  This is not persecution because of their faith in Jesus.  It is correction in the face of their ungodly behaviors.  Jesus has no part in their behaviors.  They are not behaviors taught, commanded or modeled by Jesus.

 For those who DO follow Jesus, it is not a stretch to foresee the persecution of others against them by others.  Just as they faced persecution in the First Century CE, those who follow Jesus fly in the face of empire, and those who love empire are naturally at odds with them/us.  We can expect persecution for following Jesus under empire.

 So, how will we be and who will we be in the end?