The Thirty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

ISAIAH 65:17-25: Paradise restored! This is the theme of this poem from the voice of the Third Isaiah, a disciple of Isaiah of Babylon. God is about to turn the old world into a new Eden.

The old world needed it. Jerusalem had been restored after the exiles had returned from Babylon, but at best it was a pale shadow of its former self. The temple had been rebuilt, but a paltry building it was compared to the splendors that Solomon had lavished upon it. The wall was restored, but it was far from invulnerable. The life of the people was difficult, crops were poor and trade with other nations was nearly non-existent. Infants died in their first year of life, and young men and women expired long before they reached the promised age of threescore and ten. Where was Yahweh, the people wondered.

He is about to do a new thing, declared this prophet. There will be no more weeping and distress in God's new world. The infant shall grow into an old man, and the old man will live a century and more. Houses will be rebuilt, and the one who builds them will live in them. Vineyards will be planted, and the one who plants them shall enjoy the fruit of the vine. They shall be the offspring of the Lord himself, and their children will be blessed along with their parents. Their prayers will be answered before they are uttered. The promise spoken by the first Isaiah is renewed by the third:

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,

the lion shall eat straw like the ox;

and dust shall be the serpent's food.

They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain,

says the LORD.

It is not a new Jerusalem that God is about to create. It is a new heaven and a new earth. "Look around you, says the Lord. I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind. Be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create." Jerusalem will have a new name; it will be called "Joy" and "Gladness." "I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and be glad in my people," says the Lord.

ISAIAH 12:1-6: Once again our lectionary gives us a song from the Old Testament to take the place of a psalm. This song comes from Isaiah of Jerusalem (to distinguish him from Isaiah of Babylon, whose prophecies are found in chapter forty and those following). The song concludes the first twelve chapters of Isaiah's prophecy and in some measure recapitulates some of the themes found in those chapters.

This is a confessional song, as Isaiah sings of the God who has spoken to him and through him. "God is my salvation," he says. "The Lord God is my strength and my song. . . . He has done gloriously. Sing praises to the Lord, for great in our midst is the Holy One of Israel."

The prophet and the people have a task to do. They are to give thanks to the Lord. They are to call upon his name. They are to make his deeds known among the nations. They are to proclaim that his name will be exalted. They are to sing and shout for joy.

We need comment on these commands only in a brief manner.

- God is gracious, therefore we are to be grateful; grace and gratitude constitute one of the main themes in all scripture.

- God speaks to us, therefore we are to speak with him, to call upon his name.

-We are to make his deeds known among the nations. The great deeds of God are those of the exodus, when God led the people from slavery. These are the deeds of the exile, when God restored the people to his own presence. They are the deeds of the resurrection, when God brought the crucified Christ back from the dead and set him to finishing the work that he had performed in his ministry among us. They are the deeds of the Holy Spirit of Christ, let loose upon the church, to proclaim forgiveness of sins, strength for our God-given tasks, and hope for the life to come.

- We are to exalt his name forever; God in Christ is the center of our lives, and we will make that center known to others.

-We are to sing and shout for joy. The church at its best has always been a singing movement. It sang the glorious songs of salvation found in the birth stories of Luke's gospel: Elizabeth's song, Mary's song, Zechariah's song, the angel's song, Simeon's song. It sang in the early centuries of its life, and we have the marvelous "plain songs" that come from that time. In the Reformation it sang the songs of Martin Luther in Germany and Louis Bourgeois in Geneva and the Psalm Paraphrases of the Scotch Presbyterians. It sang with the Wesleys and the Watts as they brought an exciting gospel to England. It sang "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" through the Christians in Hitler's Germany and it sang "We Shall Overcome" with Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement. Let it always be singing. When we sing, God's name is exalted in all the earth.

We do all this, because, as Isaiah says, "God is in our midst."

LUKE 21:5-19: When we compare this passage with its companion piece in Mark's Gospel, we find that we are moving from the apocalyptic to the prophetic. Mark turns Jesus into an apocalypticist, who like Daniel subscribes to the main points of apocalypticism:

- God is all-wise and all-powerful

- the time of God's coming to bring in his final purpose in the world is near at hand

- when He comes, God will punish the wicked

- history is ordered by a divine plan that God determines and that he has revealed to his "seer."

Luke does not present an apocalyptic Jesus. His is the prophetic Jesus, in the tradition of the great prophet Jeremiah. Like Jeremiah, Jesus prophesies that dreadful things are about to happen to Jerusalem, which has been unfaithful to God's purposes.

The setting for these prophecies is the temple in Jerusalem. It was a building of incredible beauty. Josephus descried it in these words:

The sacred edifice itself, the holy temple, was approached by a flight of twelve steps. The façade was of equal height and breadth, each being a hundred cubits; but the building behind was narrower by forty cubits, for in front it had as it were shoulders extending twenty cubits on either side. The first gate was seventy cubits high and twenty-five broad and had no doors, displaying the expanse of heaven; the entire face was covered with gold, and through it the first edifice was visible to a spectator in all its grandeur, and the surroundings of the inner gate all gleaming with gold fell beneath his eye. . . .

The exterior of the building wanted nothing that could astound either mind or eye. For, being covered on all sides with massive plates of gold, the sun was no sooner up than it radiated so fiery a flash that persons straining to look at it were compelled to avert their eyes, as from the solar rays. Even the outer walls of the Temple were constructed with large stones, carefully squared off and finished with a border around each exposed edge. The votive offerings included lavish gifts of ornate adornments and sacred vessels.

The temple was so beautiful and its precincts so sacred to God that no Jew thought the temple would ever again be destroyed. God would protect it.

"Not so," said Jesus. "As for these things which you see, the days will come when there shall not be left here one stone upon another that will not be thrown down." Jesus was correct. Within forty years of the time that he spoke these words of prophecy, the Roman legions had invaded the Holy City, fought their way to the Holy Temple, and in the summer of 70 AD, they burned it and threw down its stones so that not one stood upon another. Those Jewish soldiers who were no killed in the fighting were rounded up, shipped to Rome, forced to march in Titus' triumphal procession, and then either killed or sold into slavery. Jeremiah had prophesied that the temple at Jerusalem would be destroyed, and it was. Jesus had also prophesied that the successor temple in Jerusalem would be destroyed, and it was.

Jesus then gave instructions to others. They said, "Teacher." This was not a title that his disciples used for him. Luke always put it in the mouth of outsiders who questioned Jesus. "What will be the signs of the end?" they wanted to know. Jesus does not answer the question directly. "Do not be led astray, he tells them. Do not follow every one who comes in my name." In the period between Jesus' death and the destruction of the temple would-be messiahs and posturing warlords were presenting themselves all over Galilee and Judea as world-leaders-in-waiting. They will deceive you, said Jesus. Do not listen to them.

Jesus returned to his prophetic role. "You will hear of wars and tumults, but do not be terrified; the end will not be at once. Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences; and there will be terrors and great signs from heaven." This is the way humankind lives out its days. Men fight against men, men and women are at the mercy of the natural forces of the world, signs appear in the heavens to frighten us. But do not fear. These are sent that you may repent, as the Seer of Revelation said. Repent, but do not be afraid.

Jesus' next words were directed to his followers. "They will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake." Did Jesus say this in 30 AD, or did Luke write this near the year 100 AD? Whichever it was, the words were true. As Saul, Paul persecuted the Christians in the synagogues, and before that Peter and John were arrested and brought before the Sanhedrin. Christians were brought before kings like Herod and Agrippa and governors such as Felix and Festus. "Use this opportunity to bear witness to me," said Jesus. "This is a time for you to bear testimony. You do not have to prepare your defense in advance," Jesus added. "I will give you the words and wisdom that you need, I myself, and not the Holy Spirit (as John's Gospel had promised), and none of your adversaries will be able to withstand or contradict your testimony." This was to become one of the ways in which Christianity was known to the world. When men and women presented their testimony before kings and governors, all the world had to take note of who they were.

It was not only public figures who were a threat to the emerging Christian church. Even one's own family figured in the persecutions that were to come. "You will be delivered up even by parents and brothers and kinsmen and friends, and some of you they will put to death; you will be hated by all for my name's sake." But do not fear, Jesus told them. God will take care of you. "Not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your lives." Trust and perseverance were to become the key words for the church.

SECOND THESSALONIANS 3:6-13: This passage continues to address the problem of those Christians who are so excited about the coming of the Lord that they have given up their normal relationships and responsibilities. Some members especially have given up working for their living. When they do not work, this places an additional burden upon their fellow Christians, who face the responsibility of providing food for them even though they will not provide for themselves.

Paul is incensed by this. "If anyone will not work, let him not eat," says Paul (3:10). This seems extreme, but Paul feels that the integrity of the church is at stake, and this integrity demands extreme measures. People outside the church are being turned away by these fanatic Christians, who tell others that because Christ is coming they do not have to work. People inside the church are becoming upset by this added burden. Paul brings all kinds of examples to support his statement. He points to himself: as an apostle, I could ask the community to support me so that I can get on with my teaching and preaching, but I do not ask this. I support myself, he says. He quotes the Old Testament to them; his words allude to Genesis 3:17-19, a passage understood in Jewish teaching as a command of God upon humankind to work hard in order to eat. He also invokes the name of Jesus Christ: "we command and exhort in the Lord Jesus Christ that you work in quietness and earn your own living." He calls on his personal example, the Old Testament command, and the words of Jesus Christ to bring order and stability back into the Thessalonian church.

I think that Paul's insistence on each person working for his meals reflects on the nature of the congregation in Thessaloniki. In Corinth Paul was dealing with "house churches," congregations of Christians built around a rich patron who supported all the members of the congregation, rich and poor alike. There is a suggestion throughout the Thessalonian correspondence that the church in Thessaloniki was different. It may have been what Jewett calls a "tenement church" ("Tenement Churches and Pauline Love Feasts," Quart Rev 14 (1, '94) 43-58). The tenement churches consisted entirely of members drawn from the urban underclass. These early Christian converts lived in inner cities in apartment buildings called insulae rather than in private villas that could have served as "house churches." These poor Christians depended on communal meals provided by the members themselves. If some members did not make their contributions to the common meals, all the members suffered. So Paul said, "If anyone who is able will not work, let him not eat."