So, I've mentioned this before, but if I were to let myself, I would be forced to admit that I'm pretty useless. Now, I know I'm do my job. I know how to preach; I know how to teach; I can make my way around a prayer book. I can even find my way through the labyrinth that is most hospitals.
But in the big scheme of things? Useless. I can't generate electricity, can't turn petroleum into gasoline, can't mine coal . . . I wouldn't even know what it looked like if I hit it with a shovel. Except that it's black.
I can't raise cattle, can't build a chicken coop, can't trap a rabbit. I can't thresh grain, can't grind corn; would kill myself foraging for the wrong kind of berries.
I can't spin thread, I can't weave cloth; I can't tan leather, can't work a sewing machine, can barely sew a button.
I can't build a sturdy shelter; can't build any kind of vehicle; can't even make a wheel.
I can't make an internet; I can't make a debit card; I can't make coins.
I could go on and on, but surely by now you realize that if things in the world change. . . even just a little bit. . . well, if you decide to depend on me for survival, you are doomed.
The fact is, most everyone here – and I respect and love each and every one of you – we're all in the same boat, we'd be doomed, too, if we had to depend solely on any one of us.
We are all pretty useless people. But, that's just life. If we found ourselves stranded with a nuclear physicist, we'd still be doomed, because I bet he couldn't spin thread or weave cloth either. I'll bet the sharpest sharpshooter, hitting birds and rabbits and deer every time, would still be doomed once he ran out of ammunition and realized that he had no clue how to make a bullet.
This doesn't bode well...it makes me anxious if I think about it. Sure I could buy all that survival food and get somebody to build me a shelter to live in, but what if my can opener breaks? What if my glasses break? Doomed all over again.
Now I know I'm up here exaggerating. I know how society works. We are communal animals, like bees. We each know a little bit of something, and when we come together, we put all those little bits together and make a life that works.
And the overwhelming majority of people on this planet know that and willingly work together to survive. Because it's in our DNA...at least for most of us... to help one another, to recognize that we can't do it alone, to see that spark in each other. Perhaps to see God in each other.
And when the time comes that something happens, we will still work together to survive. Survival may be different, but we will survive together.
Most of the time, whenever I've heard this Gospel Reading, known as The Little Apocalypse, I can let myself get a similar feeling of anxiety.
Jesus it talking to his followers about when the Son of Man will come in glory. And he says that before the Son of Man comes, there will be all those wars, and national strife, and neighborhood strife, and family strife.
He looks at the temple and talks about it falling apart, crumbling. Or rather thrown down by people bent on it's destruction. Things will look bad.
And I wonder if people look around, cock an eyebrow, and raise their hands, “Ummm, Jesus. All those things are happening already.”
And I wonder if Jesus would have smiled and said, “Bingo. Those things have always been happening. Those things WILL always be happening. And that means that the Son of Man is always coming among you...God is always among you, trying to show you a new way, a new way that is always there for you.
Stop and focus on that. Stop and focus on the fact you need each other. To follow me, you will ALWAYS need each other, need to LOVE each other. Now, go and do that.”
Because I really think that's what Jesus is driving at. Loving God and loving our neighbor, even in the face of all the destruction some in this world seem bent on reaping. Focusing on what matters, even when the world tells us power and wealth matter more. When the world tells us that hatred and violence, greed and revenge are the cheap, crumbly mortar that holds the world together.
We've just come off some pretty anxious days, well, months...Oh, who am I kidding... We've just come off some pretty anxious years. And we're going to have more anxious days what with markets and shutdowns, gassings and bombings, threats of wars with countries we didn't even know were threats, and all that yelling and fussing and blaming.
And Thanksgiving is coming up, and most of us know – WE KNOW – that there are just things we shouldn't talk about at the Thanksgiving table, but someone will talk about them, and we'll be off to the races. But for most of us, the day before Thanksgiving is pretty much the same as the day after Thanksgiving. The anxiety was there before, and it will be there after.
Some things will have changed between carving the turkey and slicing the pumpkin pie, and some things will have stayed the same. And some of us will be angry at that crazy uncle, and father will be against son and mother against daughter. . .
. . . and there will still be wars and rumors of wars, and all of that is going on, and just like in Jesus' day, we are so ready to let it distract us from what a wonderful life we could have if we focused on the kingdom of God instead of the gilded kingdoms of fickle, brutal men.
We have some real problems and real challenges, and we will need to work hard – very hard – to overcome them. And it won't always be easy.
And as Christians, living in Christ together – not alone – but together in community, we will meet those challenges because God is with us. We will do this because as Christians, we know that Christianity is about loving the other.
Coming together, working together, sharing goals together, loving together, and, if necessary, fighting together. Always with that common goal of loving God and loving our neighbor. Of being part of GOD's kingdom.
Maybe every day, we wake up and we make decisions to be part of that kingdom or not. Treating that cashier who's having a bad day with a little bit of kindness. Giving a little more to help who have little. Cultivating compassion in the face of apathy.
Struggling for justice in the face of heartless authoritarianism. Going out into the world, every day doing our duty as citizens and as Christians. Being ready to inhabit the kingdom of God.
For I am about to create new heavens
and a new earth [says the Lord];
for I am about to create Jerusalem as a joy, and its people as a delight.
no more shall the sound of weeping be heard in it,
or the cry of distress.
No more shall there be in it
an infant that lives but a few days,
or an old person who does not live out a lifetime;
They shall build houses and inhabit them;
they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit.
They shall not labor in vain,
or bear children for calamity;
for they shall be offspring blessed by the Lord--
and their descendants as well.
Before they call I will answer,
while they are yet speaking I will hear.
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together,
the lion shall eat straw like the ox;
but the serpent-- its food shall be dust!
They shall not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.
What a day that will be. Because on that day, well, I still won't be able to spin thread, but someone will make me a coat. I still won't be able to make a wheel, but someone will lift me into their wagon. And together we will move on to this new world, to God's kingdom of tomorrow.
Amen.