A Little Fire and Brimstone, If You Please: Malachi 4: 1-2a; Luke 21: 5-19
Each summer, in my rural home, a few of the more charismatic (and I mean very charismatic) churches would gather in the little valley by the river and hold a tent revival. Even from a couple of miles away up on the hill where we lived, we could hear the shouting, the powerful rhythms of the music, the call and response of the sermons going on for hours into the dark of night. Now, I will admit I grew up more Hammond organ and hymns than tongues and tambourines, but there was something capturing and engaging about the passion and fervor of these services.
They sang, they spoke, they shouted with joy, and they praised God with every fiber of their being until I’m sure they were plain exhausted. I never joined in because I was afraid of snakes, and not just cause it was near the river, if you get my drift, but I couldn’t help being in awe of how much passion they had for the worship and faith they believed. It inspired my own faith.
In many ways I believe we have lost our passion for faith in this modern day. Much of the trouble is that we’ve let our faith drift too far out of the immediate work of proclaiming a Gospel of love and hope that takes a person trapped in what is wrong and tempting and turns that person’s heart towards the perfection of Christ. In our Gospel lesson for today, we read a rather terrifying apocalyptic account of Jesus’s teaching. The background sounds more like Mad Max or some kind of low budget, end of the world movie. Jesus predicts destruction, even as the disciples look upon the Temple, which was a truly beautiful building to see. The problem is the beauty on the outside hid the corruption on the inside.
The religious leaders of Jesus’s day had built a system of full political and religious control over the people. They performed the rituals, followed the rules, and towed a very careful public line. But it was a passionless and faithless religion designed only to bring unjust people power. Jesus took every opportunity to preach against the religious leaders. Jesus called them hypocrites and false prophets. John the Baptist called them a brood of vipers. They thrived on power and control in all aspects of civil and social life but lacked any true passion for the real work of God. Jesus tells the disciples that this Temple would be destroyed.
The physical building was in fact utterly and completely destroyed by Roman armies some 40 years later. But the Temple of corruption that reigned inside was destroyed by Christ who paved the way for a relationship of redemption and hope instead of a religion of control over the people. Now, there is nothing wrong with following rituals. They bring comfort, and Communion is one of our most holy rituals. But in Gospel work there is transformation: of lives, of communities, of suffering, and of all here on earth. We are meant to do God’s work with a passion and an urgency because who will stand against suffering and pain of people if not Christ’s church? Who will stand against the suffering of the soul and spirit if not Christ’s church?
The Gospel isn’t a tool of power. The Gospel isn’t a guide to predicting end times. The Gospel we believe and live is our spiritual resource to cope with adversity and hardship here and now in the life we live. Are you anxious? So was Jesus when agonized in the garden before his crucifixion. Are you sad or hurting? Jesus endured pain and even wept in the gospels. Are you suffering from the loss of a loved one? Jesus was broken by his friend Lazarus’s death, for death stings and hurts us all. Yet Jesus’s tears came with the boldness of hope to proclaim, “I am the resurrection and the life!” Jesus isn’t some Savior far removed. He lived here. He knows what we go through and suffer with. That is why he tells us over and over the importance of having the passion to work here and now in this world.
We must live and work with passion in the present, here and now. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day were lost in the past. They were reliving rituals and rules they had no passion for nor believed in beyond the power it gave them over the people. Too many of the faithful get stuck in the past. I have to make a confession on that note. The other day in a meeting for the Region, we were debating how to move forward with something. I was the youngest one in the meeting, and as all the others were talking about change and new ways, I caught myself saying, “But this is how we’ve always done it.” I was the one prepared to hold us back, and I needed the reminder that creativity is not sinful, but losing our passion for God’s miraculous and ever-adapting grace is.
But we must also remember that getting lost in the future prevent us from living Jesus’s call to transform hearts and minds in the present. After Jesus tells of all these horrible things to come right up to the “day of judgement” as Malachi calls it, he tells them the good news—stand firm, and not a hair of your head will perish, and you will win your soul. Jesus didn’t make a very big ask—just stand firm. Live in a way now, so that you don’t get stuck in the past or stuck worrying about the future. Stand firm, and trust the God who saved and will save you.
Faith is lived by our standing firm and working with passion for Christ’s kingdom here on earth. Growing up, my grandfather would occasionally lead the singing at church if they needed a fill-in. One that he always liked to sing and would ask me to play on Sunday afternoons was an old, old hymn, “Let My Life Be a Light.” It says, “Let my life be a light shining out through the night. May I help struggling ones to the fold. Spreading cheer everywhere to the sad and the lone, let my life be a light to some soul.”
The faith we live must be a light that shines in the dark to bring cheer and hope. Jesus had a passion for those who needed him. They came to him, found grace, and were forever changed. As we continue to live in the here and now, as Christ’s representatives, we too must have a passion for saving people: from pain, from suffering, and from places of corruption and wrongdoing. Jesus’s life and death destroyed the corruption of the Temple, taught of redemption and new life, and set a people free from oppression.
That’s why we sing, and pray, and proclaim with a passion for God’s work. Just as those old tent revivals intrigued, challenged, and inspired the faith of many in that community, may we find the depth of faith and passion for God’s work that lets us rest assured that our faith says, “Let my life be a light to some soul.”
Apologies for the technical difficulties today. The service is in two parts, and it skips a little.
Part 1: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/504237495089470
Part 2: https://www.facebook.com/fccmacon/videos/495329582538347