Isaiah 65:17-25; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-13; Luke 21:5-19
Rev. Kenneth M. Locke, Interim Pastor
Orchard Park Presbyterian Church, Twenty-Third Sunday After Pentecost
Do you ever have a feeling of ennui? Listlessness? Boredom with life in general? Not that you’re not busy. You can be frantically busy and fantastically successful and still wonder, what’s the point? Why am I doing this? Does it matter?
It’s hard to get out of that. Once we’re in it, it’s not easy to change that mindset: listless, dour, bored with life. If you know that feeling, or you know someone who knows that feeling, maybe our Scriptures this morning have something to say to you.
Our Old Testament lesson is a powerful vision of the future. God’s dream for a new reality. A new heaven and a new earth. It’s poetry, yes. But it’s poetry with hope, a dream of what the future can be. Something to strive for.
Never again will there be in (the new Jerusalem) an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years.
They will build houses and dwell in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build houses and others live in them, or plant and others eat.
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, and dust will be the serpent’s food. They will neither harm nor destroy on all my holy mountain.
This is a vision of the Kingdom of God, God’s Shalom. Peace, but more than peace. It’s a vision of a land where everyone has enough and no one has to be afraid. Everyone has enough food, water, shelter, love, meaning in their lives. No one has to be afraid of violence, loss, disease, unemployment, political turmoil or lives without purpose.
How did we get from this vision of shalom, this wonderful vision of the new heaven and new earth, how did we get from there to our New Testament readings? Why is this beautiful vision paired with such angry, bleak readings? Where’s the hope, the vision for the future?
In our 2 Thessalonians passage, some people are sponging off everyone else. They believe the world is going to end any day now. Why work? Or at least, that was their excuse for not working.
In any case, the writer gives a resounding “No!” “We gave you this rule: The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.”
He also said, We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies.
Hmm. What do you think? Does it remind you of anyone? Do these verses remind you of a neighbor? Maybe remind you of someone in our church?
Understand I am not speaking to anyone and I have no one in mind. But we all know churches are not rest homes for saints. Churches are hospitals for sinners. Every church has busybodies. Every church has consumers who take what the church offers but never take part. They don’t pray for the church during the week. They don’t volunteer. They don’t take part in a food drive. They receive shalom, but they never help make it real for others.
Now please don’t look around. Please don’t judge. None of us does as much as we could. None of us has any right to throw stones. The point is, none of us should be idle. All of us should be participating in the reality of the new heaven and new earth. All of us should be helping to build up the Kingdom of Heaven, God’s shalom.
Working towards shalom, making that vision a reality, you know it don’t come easy. Sometimes everything we’ve built is torn down. Not one stone is left on top another. If you’ve tried it you know, shalom don’t come easy.
But striving for shalom, helping to make the peaceable kingdom a reality, that is our great joy. That’s a meaningful, purposeful life. It’s not pulling away. It’s not being an incessant busy body. True meaning and joy in life come from joining with God to create the new heaven and new earth. It comes from joining with God to create the peaceable kingdom, joining with God to create shalom: that time and place where everyone has enough and no one needs to be afraid. Everyone has enough food, water, shelter, love, meaning in their lives. No has to be afraid of violence, loss, disease, unemployment, political turmoil or lives without purpose.
Friends, we have the honor and privilege of taking part in creating this new heaven and new earth. We know it don’t come easy, but at the same time it’s not that hard. We don’t have to go to Jerusalem or build a temple. Jesus is our temple. We pray to God and worship God through Jesus himself. We can do that anywhere.
And we can create shalom anywhere. We can create shalom right here. There are opportunities for creating shalom on the table right outside our sanctuary.
Beloved, the answer to ennui, the answer to listless frustration, endlessly running the rat race, is not standing idle; retreating from the world, refusing to work. It’s not being a busybody. The answer is joining with God to create shalom. It don’t come easy, but it’s worth it. Believe me, I know.
Amen.
