Sermon by The Very Rev Chris Yaw, 11/16/2025
Pentecost 23 | Proper 28 | 11-16-25 | Luke 21: 5-19
Good morning Saints!
Let me begin with a story about my friend Phil in Ohio - he often listens via the podcast - so, Phil, if you're wondering if I'm talking about you, Phil in Ohio - yes, it's you!
And I bring up Phil in Ohio because he loves college football -
In fact, he loves it so much that he tapes the games on Saturdays and then watches them later on during the week.
On one particular day, he was watching a championship game days after it had been played and celebrations by the winning team had filled the media.
And I noticed Phil waxing and waning at every play - getting excited, getting angry, getting sad - and I said to him: "Phil, why are you getting so worked up - when you know who wins the game!"
And then I had to think about it -
Because that's a question I often ask myself:
"Why do I get so worked up - when I know who wins the game?"
Getting all worked up about life's every episode - its ups, its downs, its stops and starts - when I already know who wins - I suspect that this is not foreign to any of us!
And that reassurance - that temples, countries, and civilizations - will come and go - which is what the history books tell us - and what Jesus predicts in today's Gospel -
This reassurance that no matter what the catastrophe or calamity we have faced, are facing, or will face - "not a hair of your head will perish. By your endurance you will gain your souls."
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Endurance seems to be what Jesus is asking of us -
Have faith -
Know that the game has already been decided -
And that you've already won because you're in God's hands -
And that will never change!
But stick to it! Answer the call! Keep at it! Don't give up!!
Even though you're headed toward the fire! You're facing the End!
Which is what they were facing in our Gospel -
Here at the end of Luke -
At the end of the Christian year –
The disciples faced the end of the world as they knew it - perhaps as REM sang it...
And you and I meet Jesus as he was with the disciples 2,000 years ago, outside the great Jewish Temple - Some of us have been there - or what's left of it –
But in its day - that Temple was huge!
It was 36 acres - as a reference - Ford Field, its loading docks and parking lots - that whole site - is 25 acres.
And the Jewish Temple had taken decades to build!
It had foundation stones that were bigger than those used in the Pyramids-
Archaeologists are still trying to figure out how they moved them!
And when the Gospel says the Temple was adorned with beautiful stones - many of these were priceless - King Herod boasted about the solid gold vine and grapes that wrapped around the top of the temple - That they were so big and expensive that just one of those solid gold bunches of grapes - was as big as a grown man.
So when Jesus said that, "the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another" - this was as catastrophic as it gets.
This was as life changing as it goes -
And this comment was meant to span the centuries, the ages, the miles, the languages, and the ethnicities - to speak to your heart and my heart about our catastrophes:
Be it a miscarriage, a parent who abandoned us, a messy divorce, an estranged child, a gambling addiction, bankruptcy, early onset Parkinson's, or whatever that dream of yours and mine that has never, ever materialized.
When that Temple goes down - that calamity hits - and leaves only God - God is all we have.
As we discover God is all we need.
And endurance is what helps us get there.
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There may be a Lutheran or two here for whom the name Johan Christoph Blumhardt, a 19th century priest from a town called Wurttemberg - might ring a bell.
He was a well-known clergyman at the time -
And the "help" thought him a bit strange - as you may also...
Because Pastor Blumhardt insisted on keeping in the garage, a brand new carriage.
No one was permitted to drive it.
This carriage was to be waxed and lubricated and always standing at the ready to be used on one, upcoming and anticipated, ceremonious occasion:
Blumhardt would use that carriage for the first time when Jesus returned to earth.
He would ride alongside the Lord Jesus Christ, said Blumhardt, "Then, I will drive him in it!"
How certain Blumhardt was about this day!
How expectant and anticipatory his actions - that he planned his daily life to be ready for that moment - that eventuality.
Imagine him - imagine you and me - ordering our priorities, our plans, our daily schedule - much differently than the rest of the world!
Unorthodox - yes
Batty - perhaps
Instructive to you and me? Probably.
After all, to live as if we know who's already won the game, is to order our lives very differently than the rest of the world - a very worried world that caters to shortcuts and easy answers - it's no wonder the weighty cross of endurance, too often, sits idle - yet sits inviting us to our best lives.
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Shortly after I was ordained, and working in a small parish in Western Michigan, I had occasion to visit an old saint of the parish - who was lying in bed - the sum of his age having reached a very ripe number.
And I would go sit by him and talk about what he'd seen transpire in his life - the radio - TV - the Internet - and the farm he grew up on turned into subdivisions - And the work that he did - modernized - so that his job as a railroad engineer had all but been eliminated.
Then he would talk about his family -
How he met his wife - About his children - of whom he was so proud -
And the lessons he taught them and they taught him -
And now grandchildren, even great-grandchildren.
And one day, after reminiscing about that long life of his, he turned his head to me and said, "You know, it all goes so fast."
And I'll never forget those words, 'It all goes so fast.'
And I don't doubt that many of you who have the same color hair I have - or no hair at all - can relate to those words, 'It all goes so fast.'
Yes, the time is short -
Clock and calendar pause for no one -
And yet, maybe you can relate...
For any of us who've ever watched a marathon - and seen so many of those runners struggle through 26 miles uphill and downhill, through sun and rain, fighting back fatigue, soreness, and shortness of breath -
You may have noted what happens when those same runners make that final turn - raise their heads up - and grab their very first glimpse of that finish line.
What happens?
Their backs straighten, their strides smooth out, their pace quickens -
They see the end in sight!
And they don't want to simply drag themselves across the finish line - straggling and stumbling through those last yards in front of the flashing cameras and stifled cheers-
They don't want to hang a photo of themselves on the wall of a worn out and weary bag of bones literally crawling across the finish line.
No - they don't want to finish that way!
They want to inspire that crowd - they want to rise to that occasion - thrusting their fists into the energy charged air in a magic moment of epic triumph, crossing that finish line with all the joy and confidence of knowing they have finished the race with all they've got - heading off to their reward with grace and poise and the satisfaction that they had nothing left, they gave everything!
Friends, 'It all goes so fast.'
We don't have forever on this earth.
This beautiful, magical, precious time - it's difficult, of course!
But it's also short!
We only have a little bit further to go!
Because, yes, we see the finish line! We know where this race is going, we know how it ends!
So may our minds be captured by the spirit of triumph and otherworldly confidence, to grant us the gift of endurance, to help us make our way through these last, few, difficult, but very important yards, yes may we endure to the end!
Amen.