Twenty-Third Sunday after Pentecost [Proper 33], rcl yr c. 2025
ISAIAH 65:17-25; ISAIAH 12; 2 THESSALONIANS 3:6-13; LUKE 21:5-19
I am about to create new heavens and a new earth
Jesus seems particularly morose today. Not just sombre, but a bit gloomy. Sullen, even. He’s in a prophetic mood today, joining in with voices like Isaiah’s: the prophets who speak the truth about how things will be in the near future, and how things will be on the last days.
As for what is about to take place: Jesus describes wars and insurrections, the wars and insurrections that led to the destruction of the temple; Jesus speaks of the persecution that some of his disciples would face, even unto death; Jesus tells also of the radical reappraisals his disciples would make about who it is that counts as family. These were all things, as Luke tells it, that were about to take place, and things that we know did take place.
The prophet, though, doesn’t just speak of what is about to take place; Jesus, this prophetic mood, speaks also of last things. Jesus sees, at the furthest edge of the cosmic horizon, a cosmic battle taking place: he sees nations against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms; he sees earthquakes, famines and plagues; he sees dreadful portents and signs from heaven.
In this way, Jesus takes on a prophetic mantle: Jesus tells the truth about what is about to take place, and about what is to come on the last days.
In Scripture, the idea of prophecy is very rich, richer than we often imagine. The prophet does far more than predict the future, the prophet does far more than decry injustice, the prophet does far more than speak the truth, though they often do some combination of these things. What’s particularly compelling about the words of the prophets is not future-telling or judgment or truth-telling. What’s particularly compelling about prophets is that their eyes have been opened to the ways of God in the world,
and the world that God is making, even now, for us all. What the prophets see is reality: the reality of God.
It’s as though all the things that keep us from seeing God at work—our own egos, our own self-involvement, our own over-concern about work and getting ahead, our own media consumption (name your own distraction!)—the prophet has all these things stripped away. The prophet is able to see to the heart of things, and to see the heart of things is to see in part our own failings, but more importantly to see to the heart of things, to see the heart of reality, is to see God at work in the world, even in the midst of our failing.
The prophet sees what we can have such a hard time seeing: that according to the character of God, God’s world is shot through with his grace and mercy.
So Jesus today doesn’t speak just about the hardship that the disciples will face. He’s no News Channel pundit predicting the consequences of the politics of the time and where those politics are heading. Yes, Jesus tells of wars and insurrections, of persecution, and changes to family life. Jesus also speaks though to God’s character, God’s grace and mercy, and the sorts of things you won’t find on CNN or CBC NewsWorld or Fox News: despite all things appearing to fall apart around you, despite not knowing what you might say to those who accuse you, despite betrayal and even death, Jesus speaks to where God is in all of that upheaval: Jesus promises his disciples that he will give them words and wisdom, and that not a hair on their heads will perish. And, by this divinely-inspired patience, the souls of the disciples will be saved. Because God is not absent to the world, God is present, and God is present according to his character: that is, God is present to the world according to his grace and mercy.
This is true even on the last days. It’s a little less clear in this passage from Luke, as Jesus speaks of cosmic battles taking place between nations and kingdoms, and a time of earthquake, famine, and plague, and dreadful portents and signs from heaven. We do know from the whole of the Gospel, though, that God’s ultimate promises about ultimate things are seen in the resurrection of Jesus; according to God’s grace and mercy, we too will have a part, on the last day, not just in cosmic upheaval, but in a cosmic healing that will include new life given to us, and to a new life given to the whole of creation.
Isaiah calls this the “new heavens and a new earth,” and this is where Isaiah’s prophecy of God’s vision of the world, according to God’s grace and mercy, becomes a vision that can give us new life even in the present. Isaiah’s vision of God, and God’s world, is a vision of joy and delight, a vision of something akin to a great banquet of rich food and good wine. Isaiah sees that even God will rejoice and delight in his world made right, a world remade according to his vision of health and wholeness.
It’s a vision of peace so overwhelming and pervasive that predators will not prey upon the weak. Not only the human predators that take from human labourers the wealth they produce through their work, but even animal predators will no longer prey upon weaker animals: workers “shall not build and another inhabit; they shall not plant and another eat”, and the “wolf and the lamb shall feed together.” “They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord.”
And so, Jesus is hardly simply in a morose, sombre, or gloomy mood today, though he does see great difficulty coming for his disciples. Jesus is speaking in a prophetic voice according to the prophetic vision that sees far more than the future, our failings, and our suffering; Jesus is speaking first and foremost of God’s character, and God’s care: a God who works in the world, and in us, according to his grace and mercy, a world that we often cannot see, entranced as we are by ourselves and distracted as we are by ungodly things. Jesus promises us that he will give us the words and the wisdom; Jesus promises us and that not a hair on our heads will perish; Jesus promises us that according to the patience he gives us, our souls will be saved.
And we are reminded, too, of where God is bringing us, according to his grace and mercy. We are offered what we cannot see alone without the prophetic vision. By the prophetic vision that sees into the reality of God in the world, we are drawn into God’s world made right, according to a vision of a world shot through with God: a world of God’s own justice, where human beings no longer take advantage of other human beings; a world so shot through with God’s own peace, that there will no longer be such a thing as even predator and prey in all of creation.
We are given a vision of the world that God is making, and a world that we are invited into, a world of God’s own joy and gladness: a new heaven and a new earth, all made well and good and holy, according to God’s own grace and mercy.
The Revd Canon Preston DS Parsons, PhD
Rector, St John’s, Kitchener
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.
As our parish musician, he provides both support and leadership so that a variety of parish programs can find musical expression and attract participation. When our handbell choir is in season, he is one of our ringers. At parish dinners, he provides popular piano music for the guests to dine by. For both worship services and concerts, he will rehearse and accompany vocal and instrumental soloists from our congregation on piano, organ, or even accordion.
Angus Sinclair was appointed Director of Music of St. John the Evangelist on February 1, 2023. Having graduated in 1981 (Honours B.Mus.) in organ performance from Wilfrid Laurier University, he went on to distinguish himself as a church musician, recitalist and accompanist touring in both Canada and the UK. For over 40 years Angus has served parishes and congregations throughout Southwestern Ontario as director of music. He experiences his present appointment to St. John’s as a welcome homecoming, both spiritually and musically.