November 14, 2004 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 25th Sunday after Pentecost

See also: [2007] [2001]

Commentary by Paul S. Nancarrow

Isaiah 65:17-25
Isaiah 12
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19

On this second-to-last Sunday of the lectionary cycle, the readings swing into full apocalyptic mode for the end of the Church Year. In this passage from Isaiah, we get the “positive” side of the apocalypse: the promise of a new heaven and a new earth, in which God’s holy mountain will be a peaceable kingdom and the city of Jerusalem will be re-created as a joy and its people as a delight. Most Bible historians agree that this prophecy was originally delivered during the period of reconstruction after the Return from Exile, when the future joy and delight of Jerusalem were far from assured. The prophecy promises that the rebuilding of Jerusalem is ultimately God’s work, not merely human work, and it is therefore assured beyond all earthly difficulty or doubt. But this does not mean that the rebuilders in Jerusalem are to remain idle or passive. The core promise of restoration, the central image of what life in the new City of Peace will be like, is that “They shall build houses and inhabit them; they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. They shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat”; or, in other words, the people will work, and that work will lead to fulfillment without frustration. The vision is that the people’s work and God’s work will work together for joy, delight, harmony, and peace. The life of the new reality will be a complete synergy of divine and human will: “Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear,” God promises. That complete union of divine and human work is not yet achieved; but the present people of Jerusalem can continue to work toward that union with courage and hope, strengthened by faith in the promise of the prophecy. We can take that same courage and hope today. Although present-day Jerusalem is far from being a City of Peace, and indeed no human community approaches the peaceable vision in which predator and prey, strong and weak, feed together with satisfaction for all—yet the promise calls us forward to work as we can for the justice and peace God wants for us. And the promise continues to be that the fulfillment of justice and peace is ultimately God’s work, not merely our own, as God takes our work and weaves it into the perfection of God’s responsiveness to the world and from that weaving offers back into the world new possibilities for new works. The apocalyptic promise of a new heaven and a new earth is thus a call to us to keep on building here and now for the good that is yet to come.

Isaiah 12

This poem of praise, sometimes called “The First Song of Isaiah,” continues in hymnic language the same vein of promise we saw in the passage above. Because God is our salvation, because God is our strength and might, and we do not rely merely on our own powers or plans, therefore we will “draw water from the wells of salvation” with joy. This song also stresses the element of joy in God’s glorious deeds and God’s new creative work. Many modern and postmodern interpreters might have difficulty linking the words apocalyptic and joy; but it is spiritually healthy for us to remember that our highest, deepest, and best reason for working for justice and peace is the sheer joy of right relationships in mutual well-being that is God’s vision for the universe.

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

The theme of work and apocalypse recurs again in this passage from Paul’s second letter to the Christians in Thessalonika—although the apocalyptic dimension is part of the background of the passage, and not in the text itself. We know from the rest of the Thessalonian correspondence that the Christian community there was awaiting the imminent return of Christ and the day of Judgment; as we saw in last week’s reading, some of the Thessalonians were concerned that the Day of the Lord had already come; others feared for members of the community who had died before Christ returned to gather them to glory (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). They were very conscious of living in an interim time, which they expected would soon come to an end in final consummation. It seems that some members of the community took the expected end of the world as reason to withdraw from the world, as reason to discontinue their usual work and their contribution to the material well-being of the community. Thus in this passage Paul mentions “believers who are living in idleness... mere busybodies, not doing any work.” But this kind of behavior is “not according to the tradition they received” from Paul: Paul understood and modeled in his own ministry that the grace of God and the work of people must synergize to make a whole life. The expectation of an imminent end is no reason to stop working. So Paul “commands” the idlers to work and “earn their own living,” adding that they should not “be weary in doing what is right.” Although we today do not have the same expectations of an imminent End, it is still true for us that the tradition we have received calls us to work with God’s grace for the building of justice and peace in the material arrangements of our world. Work for mutual well-being is a way of living toward our ultimate hope as well.

Luke 21:5-19

This passage is just the beginning section of Luke’s version of the “Little Apocalypse,” and it contrasts to the Isaiah passage for today in its unrelenting picture of destructiveness. In the first act of the drama of the End, the structures of society and civility break down. There are wars and insurrections, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes and famines and plagues, arrests and persecutions and imprisonments for believers. Luke’s picture of Jesus’ picture of the beginning of the End is enough to make us understand why some, like the Thessalonians, might prefer to withdraw from the world and avoid the destructive conflict. But Jesus calls his followers to a different quality of response: “this will give you an opportunity to testify... for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” Even in the midst of betrayal and hatred, the faithful are called to keep on working, in synergy with Christ’s word and wisdom, to witness to the promise of justice and peace. The promise of vindication for the righteous comes some verses later than the passage assigned for today; yet even in this passage there is a measure of assurance: those who work with Christ’s work are assured that “by your endurance you will gain your souls.” We today do not need the threat of an imminent End to account for wars and insurrections and famines and plagues and persecutions; they are sad facts of the news every day. But we are still called to take these things as opportunities to testify to God’s will for justice and peace, and to work with God’s grace to build up right relationships of mutual well-being even when, especially when, the world around us presents a picture of unrelenting destructiveness. The core message of apocalypse is not a timetable for the end of the world; the core message of apocalypse is a summons to hopeful work for the fulfillment of peace. That message speaks clearly to us today.

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