Endurance (Twenty Third Sunday after Pentecost)

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Jesus was clearly not a politician.  Today’s Gospel reading, coming as it always does in mid-November around our election season, makes that abundantly clear. 

Jesus and his disciples, having recently arrived in Jerusalem, are walking around the Temple complex.  It was a big and impressive place, and a tourist destination even back in the first century.  The disciples remark to Jesus that they’re really impressed with this place – especially how beautiful and glorious it appears.

Now a good politician – somebody looking to create and sustain a following – would say something like, “As for these things that you see, they’re NOTHING like the glory that I’m about to bring about! Just wait – you ain’t seen nothing yet!”

But instead, Jesus starts talking about how all this stuff is about to come crashing down.  He speaks about wars, insurrections, famines, earthquakes and plagues.  “But wait!”, says Jesus.  We’re not done yet.  Before all that happens, they’re gonna arrest you, hate you and even kill some of you.

These are just not the words you use to win friends and influence people.  It’s not a recommended way to win a following.  And it’s certainly not going to make you popular enough to win an election.

In other places, Jesus at least has more hopeful words about the age to come.  And even if people are experiencing really bad things like this in their lives, what most of us would like to hear is more like what Paul wrote to the Romans, “I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us.” (Rom 8:18)

But at least in today’s Gospel reading, Jesus doesn’t say anything like that.  Instead, he ends his gloom and doom analysis with a call to “endurance.”  “By your endurance, you will gain your souls.”

And at first glance, this doesn’t sound very hopeful, either!  After all, most of us usually hear a call to “endurance” as equivalent to saying, “tough it out; suck it up; good luck, you’re on your own”!  But it’s clear from the context that this isn’t what Jesus means.  For sure, this is a call to action on the part of his disciples.  But it’s also clear that the “endurance” to which Jesus calls his disciples is different from what we might at first expect.

In fact, the kind of endurance to which Jesus called his first disciples is based on:

• Nurturing a relationship with God – that is, if the disciples are to endure any of these terrible things, they really need to expect and rely on God’s constant presence and help in their lives; in the midst of this really scary stuff about being arrested and dragged before kings and governors, Jesus says not to prepare a defense, because he himself will give them the words to speak.  And that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t prepare for difficult experiences, but it does mean that they should rely on the constant help of Jesus to endure; Jesus really will be with them and help them; they should NOT try to go it alone…

• Sticking together – it’s not entirely clear from the English translation, but throughout this whole discourse, Jesus says “you” in the plural.  That is, “you” together – “your endurance together” – is what makes the difference.  Often, people hear “endurance” as a call to individual effort.  But here, Jesus makes it clear that not only do the disciples need the help and presence of God to endure, but that endurance also necessitates sticking together and supporting each other…

• Looking for opportunities, even and especially in difficult times – Jesus says that when his disciples are dragged before people who may want to kill them, that this will give them an “opportunity.”  I’m sure many of those disciples at least thought, “Gee, thanks Jesus, but that’s not the kind of ‘opportunity’ I was looking for!”  And yet, very often the most important times to recognize opportunities are in situations of conflict and distress.  And Jesus makes it clear that “endurance” requires watching for the opportunities to be faithful and not simply opportunities to “duck and cover”…

I suspect that one of the reasons Jesus talked about “endurance” rather than giving hopeful visions of heaven was because Jesus had just led his disciples into Jerusalem on what we call “Holy Week.”  Jesus himself was about to be arrested and killed. And even after his Resurrection, life for his disciples was often going to be difficult and painful.  Moreover, the world into which he sent them was, like our world, going to be a place of wars, insurrections, famines, earthquakes, plagues and all of that kind of stuff that’s still part of life today.

And Luke wrote it down in his Gospel – in spite of it being a downer – because Jesus’ disciples in every age, including ours – need to know that Jesus didn’t just come to give us a happy vision of heaven sometime in the age to come.  Instead, Jesus calls us, also, to endure in a hard and difficult world.  But Jesus also promises us his presence and help, to give us strength to endure.

And so Jesus calls us also to the kind of endurance which is found through:

• Constantly nurturing our relationship with God – the kind of endurance Jesus calls us to isn’t about toughing it out by ourselves; it’s about relying on God’s presence and help to get through the difficult times.  And that’s why, at least for me, being together in worship, taking time for prayer and practicing listening for God’s guidance in my life are keys to helping me endure the messes that often surround me.  And that’s one of the reasons being together for worship is so important – it helps us connect and deepen our relationship with God each week so that we have the confidence and strength to endure all the messes that are going on around us …; I think that for many people in our society, “spirituality” is often understood to be an escape from the mess.  But Jesus calls us to nurture a kind of relationship with God which helps us experience God in the here and now of the mess, so that we actually have the strength to endure, instead of looking for a way to duck and cover…

• Sticking together – one of the things many of us realized when we had to stay apart during Covid was that even routine problems were harder when we had to deal with them by ourselves.  Jesus always called his disciples to stick together – and he told them one of the keys to endurance was to deal with messes together.  And that’s one of the reasons our congregation’s leadership has been looking for ways to help us develop and maintain community with one another… (I was recently reflecting on some of the ways in which I experienced online community during Covid – but even that was only helpful because I was in a “virtual” community with people I actually knew and had real life experiences with…) And living together in a real life community of faith isn’t simply a nice idea – it’s a calling through which Jesus gives us the strength to endure the messes and the hardships which often surround us…

• Looking for opportunities in the difficult moments – indeed, many opportunities that Jesus calls us to see are always in front of us.  But sometimes, we recognize them when things are tough… (just as when things are bad financially in the country, people often pay attention to advice to take advantage of opportunities to get out of credit card debt that they should have taken advantage of before…)  And that’s true in our lives of faith as well. In fact, we’ve had adopted families before at Prince of Peace during Thanksgiving or Christmas.  But in a time when so many people are having difficulty, Social Justice Ministry recognized this would be an ideal time to look for an opportunity to help.  And it’s often through seeking and finding opportunities to live our faith in times of difficulty and distress that, paradoxically, we ourselves also find strength to endure…

Jesus called his first disciples to lives of endurance.  And he calls us to lives of endurance as well.  It’s hard work.  But it’s not work we do alone.

Instead, the endurance to which Jesus calls us is always based on the promise of Jesus’ continual help and presence in our lives, which we’re called to nurture and live in each day.  Jesus’ call to endurance is always based on sticking together and nurturing the community which Jesus calls us into.  And Jesus’ call to endurance is always based on being open to the guidance of the Holy Spirit in our lives, which helps us to see opportunities – even and especially in times of distress – through which we can share hope with others and find strength to endure.

Amen.