Year C

Luke 21:5-19

The Very Rev. Denise Vaughn

Heaven On My Mind

At the opening of Andrew Lloyd Weber and Tim Rice’s Jesus Christ Superstar, Judas laments, “All your followers are blind/too much heaven on their minds.” Judas’ lament raises a fair question. How much should heaven be on our minds? How much is too much? And, alternatively, how little is too little? We, North American followers today are probably not guilty of the rock opera Judas’ charge. Heaven may be too little on our minds for we are easily preoccupied with the things of this earth. Striking the balance between this world and the world to come is an ongoing challenge for God’s people, and one that this week’s passages give us the opportunity to explore. As we explore the lessons, heaven may be on our minds because in each reading is the hope of a perfect and ultimate destination.

God promises the troubled people of Isaiah’s day that he had an ideal time and place in store for them in the future. To those troubled people God promised that the future would be different. A new heaven and a new earth will be created. The bad stuff will no longer be a part of their experience, for example, no more weeping, cries of distress, fruitless labor, early death, or bearing children for calamity. The curse is reversed in God’s perfect plan and we are given new lenses of hope for the world and a vision that makes belief in God a living faith. The prophet is convinced that God is in control and that all things will achieve the ultimate destiny for which God intends them.

The Christians in Thessalonica were very conscious of God’s climatic future. The New Testament is filled with a sense of expectation about God’s coming kingdom. John the Baptist and Jesus both come to proclaim it and that sense of expectation is what fueled the mission of the early church. Even in the midst of suffering and persecution, the church took comfort in looking forward to Christ’s victorious return and the establishment of God’s unchallenged reign. Until that coming climax, Paul counsels “Do not be weary in doing what is right.” In the midst of persecution, do not grow weary while waiting for the day of the Lord. 

Jesus’ teaching, in Luke chapter 21 details some of the birth pains that will precede and accompany the coming day of the Lord. Jesus is in Jerusalem during those final days of his life. He starts this long address to the disciples by predicting the destruction of the temple which did in fact take place in AD 70 on Roman orders. The disciples immediately assume that Jesus is talking about the end of the world, the time of judgement. For them, the temple is still so pivotal in their understanding of what God requires that they assume that the only thing that can succeed the temple is God’s return. Although Jesus does speak of the vision of the Son of Man coming in glory to bring redemption, in Jesus’ understanding, a great deal will happen between the end of the temple and the coming of God and most of it sounds horrible.

As so often happens, the disciples ask for clarification, they want to know the timetable. And, as so often happens with Jesus, they don’t exactly get a straight answer. Jesus turns the question around and they get a method for avoiding distractions. All around them he says, the world will be full of people with huge emotions like anger, terror, hatred, fear, anticipation, it doesn’t seem much has changed, but they are not to get carried away by all this. They are simply to take it all as an opportunity for mission. Even when things get personal, and they themselves are under attack, they are to keep their hearts fixed on their one main purpose, which is to testify faithfully and to trust in Jesus both for the words they will use and for their salvation.

It seems what Jesus is asking them to do is almost impossible. He is asking them to remain level-headed with a willingness to set their hands to the task in front of them and forget about needing a timetable. And of course, Jesus himself is our example. What we see in the Gospels where tension is visibly mounting and where the terrible climax in Jerusalem is in sight—is Jesus carrying on exactly as before. We find him preaching, teaching, healing, and urging people toward God and God’s kingdom. When all around him everyone is trying to work out what will happen, what they should do about it, and how they can force events into their own way of thinking. Only Jesus carries on, unchanging in his willingness to push forward God’s agenda, to do what is right and to never lose hope.

We live in an age in which hope is dearly needed. Jesus’ words ring just as true today as they did all those years ago. Hope, when it is grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ, is the persistent, enduring and trusting expectation that God’s will shall be done. God’s promises and their fulfillment are seen throughout scripture. The promise contained in the rainbow finds consummation in God’s voice through Isaiah, announcing “a new heaven and a new earth.” God’s profound care will endure: “Before they call, I will answer,” God says, and “while they are still speaking I will hear.” Thus Isaiah can say, “God is indeed my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid.”

Amid natural disaster, apocalyptic upheavals, and persecution, Jesus announces this incredible promise: “not a hair on your heads will be lost.” Fear can be set aside as well as anxiety about the future. The creator of all that is, in whose hands are time and eternity, is trustworthy and sure. We have good reason to hope for the fulfillment of God’s promises, for eternal life, for redemption, for the renewal of the whole creation, and for the final overcoming of all powers and forces that seek destruction and opposition to life. And the best reason for our hope is God’s life and work in and through Jesus Christ. The healing and liberating work of Jesus announces the in-breaking of God’s realm, where all harms will one day be healed. The resurrection is the first fruits of that realm, the sign of eternal life promised to all people.

For those who are concerned about the end of the world as we know it, we have the assurance that the risen Christ is with us no matter what the future may hold. This is, after all, what Jesus did for his disciples in the answer he gave. Jesus does not really offer the consolation that the disciples were probably hoping for. He warns them that they will face arrest and persecution, even from family members, the very people they hope they can count on. And they will be put to trial. But they should look at all this as an opportunity to testify to the love of God and the hope of God’s promises rooted in the life of Jesus Christ. Disciples will be tested, but “by their endurance they will gain their souls” a place in the reign of God. It’s ok and good to have heaven on our minds.