November 16, 2025 (Year C, I, Proper 28)
Luke 21:5-19
2 Thess. 3:16-13
Canticle 9
Malachi 4:1-2a

May I ask you something?
Do you wake in the morning and think, “What new crisis is coming at us today,” or something like it, but can’t be repeated here?
Well, there’s a remedy for that.
The Good News!
Yes, there’s good news in this morning’s gospel text. You just have to carefully review the bad news to find it.
Luke’s story of Jesus in the Temple at Jerusalem is full of reasons to be terrified, but we have the promise of God in Christ to pause, take a breath, and know we are loved and not alone. To be equal to all challenges.
The instructions given to the disciples apply to us.
Jesus tells us to be on guard and not be led astray by impostors. In the first century, many failed prophets claimed to be the Messiah and were either executed by authorities or disappeared. Today, you may have come across them on television, the radio, social media posts, or street corners. Occasionally, you might run into someone who says they are a prophet bringing the Kingdom of Heaven to the world, but that’s all they say. Nothing to back up that argument.

Then we are told that wars and insurrections are necessary. “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places, famines and plagues . . . dreadful portents and great signs from heaven.” (Lk. 21: 7-11) In God’s time, Kairos, it could be tomorrow, next week, we don’t know. We know that we must keep our eyes open.
How prescient for the first century of the common era and the twenty-first.
In our time, we’ve managed to survive two world wars, two major wars in Asia, several in the Middle East, and many others around the globe. We had a pandemic at the turn of the 20th century, and we’re now making it through one that hasn’t truly gone away. It’s still lurking. People around the world are without food and clean water, life-saving medicines, and shelter; here in the United States, we have those without medical insurance, affordable housing, or food on their table, meal programs at schools, and food assistance being curtailed or subject to new policies to receive it.
I’ve been tempted to crawl under my bed and drag the comforter with me, stick my fingers in my ears and shut my eyes really tight, and stay there until it all goes away.
But that’s not what Jesus wants me, wants us, to do.
We’re not subjected to the persecution of the early Christians, but we have other dangers to our freedoms, and we’ve seen it. People in our cities and towns, people who have permission to live and work here taken away and locked up, people who are citizens but were grabbed because they had a surname or political view that offended some, or they looked a certain way. Members of the LGBTQ
and transgender communities still cannot feel safe on our streets, black citizens and others of color are threatened with the loss of their right to vote. Women’s reproductive rights are being taken away or challenged. Who’s next?

I’ll jump off the doom train now and tell you what I think are the comfortable words this morning.
In the most clear and concise words, we are assured that we are not left to fend for ourselves.
Jesus will give the opening and closing arguments in “words and a wisdom that none of [our] opponents will be able to withstand or contradict” (Lk.21:15) when the time comes to offer a defense for others and ourselves in open court or at a town hall meeting. We breathe, pray, and then speak.
We must hold fast to the teachings and gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, who is Christ. Personally, I’ve never felt more Christian and part of the Body of Christ than now. I’ve felt God’s love as I walked in marches, joined in round table discussions about what we, the people, can do to pull democracy back from false prophets, assist my friends in Christ with simple acts of love and kindness that Jesus asks us to undertake so that we live out the New Commandment, loving one another as he loves us.
I believe that we’ve got a long road before us; what will keep us going are Paul’s words to the Thessalonians.
“Do not be weary in doing what is right.” (2 Thess. 3:13)
My friends, shall we start on that road?

© 2025, Rev. Deacon Ellen L. Ekstrom