November 15 Proper 28
The wind blew hard. Treetops swirled and limbs bent nearly to the ground. Just before the sirens began their shrill insistence, there was dead calm. Dead calm is the ominous sign. TV weathermen tracked the storm as it moved from Benton in the direction of Little Rock. They scanned the radar screen for that telltale hook that warns of an impending tornado and found it forming clearer and clearer as the storm threatened to touch down.
Quapaw Quarter residents took cover as its path headed directly over the Quarter, a bit north of its usual path. Harvest Foods on Main Street was flattened with the pharmacist caught inside. He was later found dead. Roofs were blown off and shingles littered the ground everywhere. The moonless night hid much of the damage.
The morning after that storm revealed the devastated landscape. People with shock-filled faces wandered about as everyone who still had a home ventured outside to see what the storm had wrought. Roofless houses and downed trees covered blocks and blocks from Roosevelt Rd. to McArthur Park. The change in landscape was disorienting. Streets once lined with beautiful tall trees were bare.
Barbara Brown Taylor in her book The Preaching Life says, “I must be willing to look between things and not always at them, since a direct gaze often misses what may be glimpsed at the corner of the eye. The space between two branches may become more promising than the branches themselves.”
Looking directly at 100 yr old trees lying on top of houses and stacked like pick up sticks made it feel like the end of the world was at hand, but between those trunks and limbs, you could see neighbor reaching out to neighbor with thermoses of hot coffee and soup, or armed with chain saws and prayers.
Turn on the television, pick up the paper, go online any day. Floods, landslides, mudslides, wildfires, wars. Is the end time at hand? There are plenty of false prophets whipping up fear, predicting dates for the end time and turning nation against nation and faith against faith, even dividing our own people with fear of scarcity instead of the abundance that God promises. Our national budget looks rather like 5 loaves and 2 fish, …but with faith, a way can be found to satisfy the needs of every one of us — not necessarily the wants, but the needs.
We do not need to fear destruction and devastation. Jesus said even the beautiful things, even the sacred material things like the Temple will come down — not as a punishment – not as a punishment as some of our brothers and sisters like to say, but because that is simply the way it is with earthly things. The material is not eternal — not these bodies we are meant to cherish, not this holy space that draws us nearer to the presence of God, not our homes of love and security and comfort, or any other material thing. No matter how hard we try, we cannot avoid their eventual destruction or disintegration. They are meant to be cared for, appreciated, enjoyed, but never worshiped.
We do not need to fear their death because resurrection is not possible without death. Nothing matters but our faith. There will come a time when all material things will be finished, the time, we cannot know – it is God’s secret. In God’s own time and God’s own grace, the time we now know will be finished. I expect time itself will be finished, but I do not know. We need no knowledge of it. What we need is faith in God. All will be all in God when this time ends. This is not a prophecy to be feared. It is a vision to be celebrated. Hold this vision of God, as Barbara Taylor suggested, by looking between and beyond what seems obvious, like the colors of a sunset glimpsed between buildings and hills—like strong and able people helping grateful neighbors amidst the havoc wrought by a tornado.
We may live fully without fear, in this “in between” time — in between prophecy and fulfillment. Side by side with death and destruction, there is so very much to make us glad, to comfort and reassure us. My husband Barry and I saw the young artist production at the Repertory Theatre last night. If you wonder what this world’s coming to, witness their energy and talent and the results of their years of lessons, practice and dedicated rehearsal.
There was a time when Christians lived only for the future – when we get to heaven the streets will be paved with gold, they said, and some still do. We must never minimize suffering and sometimes we do have to look ahead to endure it. Ignoring the present, even the worst of it, denies the good that can come of suffering. When the disciples tried to change the subject from Jesus’ impending suffering, Jesus brought them right back to their fears and he told them that everything on this earth is limited, even the beautiful and seemingly indestructible Temple.
We have choices:
I read once of a young man who thought wars and rumors of war, earthquakes and flood meant the end of the world was imminent so he decided to be a missionary. He did good work, but he left a trail of unpaid bills and abandoned relationships behind. The end of the world did not come.
Or we can wring our hands, lament and wail, spread fear while hoarding everything we have and everything we can get our hands on.
Or we can live trusting the promise of God’s goodness. We can see the strong and beautiful things in our lives, admit they won’t last forever, and look for the opportunities for celebration, self giving, endurance, and all that life offers.
In God’s own time, this time we now know will be finished. In the meantime, God’s grace is already with us. God’s kingdom is now. God is with us in natural disasters, in young artists, in our families, our neighbors, in hospitals, and commerce. God is with us in times of peace and times of war, in Christ Church, and everywhere we are. All things are growing, changing, dying, and being born, bringing us new life right here and right now. Amen.