Keep Calm and Trust In Jesus

Scriptures:       Isaiah 65:17-25,  Psalm 98

                        2 Corinthians 3:6-13, 16-18, Luke 21:5-19

When I was in high school and college, I loved books by Dutch Christian writer Corrie Ten Boom.  Perhaps her most famous book is The Hiding Place, which tells of her family’s life in the Netherlands when Hitler came to power.  Her family, who before Hitler’s invasion of their country made watches for a living – in their town they ran the local jewelry shop - became members of the Dutch Resistance against Hitler, hiding Jews in their basement who otherwise would have been sent to concentration camps.  Eventually the family was arrested.  Corrie and her sister Betsie eventually ended up in the Ravensbruck concentration camp, and Betsie died there.   As I read this book, I kept asking myself, “What would I have done in those circumstances?  Would I have tried to hide Jews and others from Hitler?  Would I have risked my life?  Or would I have turned my neighbors in to save my own skin?  Or would I have just tried to keep my head down and not get involved?  What would I have done?

As I read and pondered today’s reading from Luke’s gospel, I was reminded of this book, The Hiding Place, that I had read so long ago.  Jesus and his disciples are in Jerusalem, and the disciples are admiring the sights, pointing at the temple and oohing and aahing over the large stones and beautiful decorations.  And Jesus’ reply not only pours cold water all over the disciples’ enthusiasm, but takes the conversation in a very dark direction:  “You see these stones, these buildings? The day will come when not one of these stones will be left on another, all will be thrown down.”  By the time Luke’s gospel had been written, Jesus’ prediction had already come to pass when Jerusalem was overrun by Rome in AD 70 and the Temple destroyed, never again to be rebuilt.

Jesus disciples asked, “Teacher, when will these things happen, and how will we know when it’s about to start?”  And Jesus tells them to be careful not to be led astray – there would be false teachers, alarmists,  saying “I am he!” and “The time is near”.    And some of us here remember our friend Harold Camping, who predicted the end of the world in 2011.  In fact, it felt so nice, he did it twice, first predicting the world would end in May 2011 and then in October 2011.  Of course, the world didn’t end, and we’re still here, but Camping suffered a stroke in 2011 and passed away in 2013, aged 92.  Of these false teachers, Jesus says simply, “Do not follow them.”

And then Jesus talks about wars – nation rising up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom – and about earthquakes and plagues and natural disasters.  Jesus tells them not to be terrified by all this.  And then he says that, before all these things happen, the disciples would be persecuted, betrayed – Jesus said their own family and friends would turn on them - arrested, brought forward to testify.  Jesus tells them not to prepare a defense in advance, but to trust in God to provide the right words when they’d be needed.  Jesus concludes by telling them, “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”  By your endurance you will gain your souls.

You may have heard that we had an election last week.  The ugliest presidential campaign in recent memory, featuring two of the most unpopular major party presidential candidates in the history of the Republic, is finally over.  Many if not most people voted primarily in opposition to the other candidate than because of any great confidence in their own.   Some couldn’t stomach either candidate and voted third party, while tens of millions stayed home.  Neither campaign inspired confidence, but despite their best efforts, one of the candidates didn’t lose, and we have a president-elect.  For some, it’s morning in America, the hopeful start of a new day.  For others, it’s a different kind of mourning in America, a time of sorrow and despair. 

There were certainly a number of contradictions and ironies in the campaign.  The winner, who promised to be a voice for the working man or woman, more than once stiffed the contractors and construction workers who worked for him.  The winning major party candidate, supported by a strong majority of self-identified white evangelical Christians, is anything but Christ-like.  I honestly can’t imagine him troubling himself for one second with the question, “What would Jesus do?”   The losing major party candidate, who counted on the support of unions and people of color, was openly bought and paid for by Wall Street, with a long record of supporting trade deals that killed American jobs.  She was so entitled, so completely out of touch with the needs of working class voters that she bore an alarming resemblance to Marie Antoinette; her campaign slogan may as well have been “let them eat deplorable cake”.  The campaign is finally over, and in my heart I find myself echoing the sad words of Jeremiah 8:20:  “The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.” 

Where do we go from here?  While we can only feel sad when we consider what might have been had both major parties nominated different candidates at their respective primaries, there is cause for concern moving forward.  Trump’s campaign was openly supported by white supremacists.  He received the coveted endorsement of David Duke, former Imperial Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan, who ran for his former US Senate seat in Louisiana – and Trump was very slow to disavow that endorsement, and did so only half-heartedly.  The Klan newspaper, the Crusader, ran an endorsement of Trump, and in December they’re holding a victory parade for Trump in North Carolina.  One can’t be sure what Trump feels in his heart of hearts – he may well just have been telling his supporters what they wanted to hear – but his campaign rhetoric against immigrants and Muslims has seemingly given a green light for white supremacists to “make America hate again”.   Many African Americans, immigrants, religious minorities – Jews, Muslims – and LGBT persons are terrified – abjectly terrified - as are persons with pre-existing health conditions who fear losing insurance coverage.  Some with family members who voted for Trump feel thrown under the bus.  For them, Jesus’ words about being betrayed by parents and brothers, relatives and friends, and some being put to death, are very real.  Just in the few days since the election, there have already been attacks on minorities, threats against minorities, hate-filled graffiti.  I fear this is only the beginning, that it may now be open season on minorities and the vulnerable – as in, newly-liberated white supremacists may feel they’ve been given a green light to attack and kill those they consider inferior to them.   Some question whether America has a place for them any longer, and are looking into immigration guidelines in Canada, in various European countries, and even in Latin America or Asia.  And likely, others would be perfectly happy to say, “Good riddance.”

In these uncertain times, we need to talk to each other.  As the election results came in, the divides between conservative and progressive voters, between urban and rural voters, between white and minority voters, were striking.  I think part of the problem is that many Americans live in bubbles.  Conservatives listen to Fox News and talk radio and log onto RedState.com, while progressives listen to MSNBC and NPR and log onto Daily Kos.  We listen to commentators who tell us things we already believe, and shut out other views.  In Center City Philly many people could say, honestly, “I don’t know anyone who voted for Trump.”  And in Lancaster and Clearfield and Frackville, many could say, honestly, “I don’t know anyone who voted for Clinton.”

I would ask us – please check in on one another, and on our neighbors.  As I said, this election has left a lot of people feeling terrified.  People who may already suffer from depression may be very close to the edge.  So please, check in on one another.  Talk to one another.  Listen to people whose views and life experience differ from yours.  Here at Emanuel Church we have members who voted for Trump, members who voted for Clinton, members who voted for Jill Stein or other third parties, and members who didn’t vote at all.  So our members can have the difficult but important conversations that can’t be had at Center City Philadelphia churches or in rural churches, where nearly everybody voted for one or the other candidate.  It’s a unique challenge, but also a unique opportunity.  These are the conversations that will help to hold our country together…..and, if attacks on minorities escalate, may literally make the difference between life and death for some.  I mentioned earlier that in reading Corrie Ten Boom’s books about her experiences during the time of Hitler, I wondered what I would do in similar circumstances.  While I hope I don’t have to find out – I’ve never seen myself as being particularly brave - I do strongly believe we as the church are called to protect the persecuted and the vulnerable, to stand alongside those under attack.  It’s what Christians do, and Jesus tells us we’ll be judged on what we’ve done or not done for the least of his sisters and brothers.   Might we here at Emanuel be called to shelter immigrants or Jews or Muslims or others under attack, as Corrie Ten Boom and her family sheltered Jews?  Who knows.  I fervently hope it doesn’t come to that.  But please, please, please let us go to God in prayer, and ask God to prepare us, so that we are ready to do the right thing if the need arises.

Beyond caring for one another, we need to care for the planet.  Unfortunately, we now have a president-elect who at one point said that talk of climate change is a conspiracy cooked up by the Chinese.  Stopping climate change will not be a priority for our new government – and in fairness, likely would not have been a priority had Clinton won, as she’s big into fracking – but it needs to be a priority for us if your children and grandchildren are to inherit a habitable planet.  So please, be prepared to do what it takes to reduce our own use of energy, and to move our country to renewable energy and to slow down and eventually stop the use of fossil fuels.  We need to be in touch with our legislators. There are many groups battling climate change, and of course the American Indian struggle against the Dakota Access Pipeline has mobilized many who otherwise would have sat on the sidelines.  The violence they’re experiencing is the violence we may all be facing; corporations play rough when threatened.  We may need to put our own bodies on the line, as the Sioux nation and other are doing.  But unless we want to hand our children and grandchildren a dead planet, those who care about the planet are going to have to step up our game.  Psalm 24 says, “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fullness thereof”.                                                              The earth belongs to the Lord, not the corporations.  As we sung in our opening hymn, “Many and great are your works, O Lord.”  Let’s not destroy them.

In our Gospel reading, Jesus warns his disciples that everything around them was going to shake, rattle and roll – but he tells them “do not be terrified”.  And he tells them “By your endurance you will gain your souls.”  We need to endure.  We need a faith that endures.  We need a faith that will go the distance, that won’t conk out when crisis comes. 

Let’s keep our eyes on the prize.  Yes, we likely face difficult days ahead.  But God promises us that on the other side of these difficult days is the new heaven and new earth promised in our reading from Isaiah, when these former things will be remembered no more, where the sound of weeping will no longer be heard, when none shall hurt or destroy on all God’s holy mountain.  That’s God’s promise.   Weeping is for a night, but joy comes in the morning.  So may our faith endure, and may we care for one another.  We will need to be there for one another in days ahead.