November 16, 2025
Pentecost 23, Year C
Luke 21:5-19
Epiphany, Winnipeg
You know, I was in a good mood the day that I started working on this sermon. I’d read the text and studied it carefully, we’d talked about it at Bible Study on Monday, and I’d read some really wise things that some other people had to say about it. I’d had my morning cup or two of coffee so I was feeling reasonably awake and ready to go. Then I had one more look at what I just read and my mood came down a notch, or two, or eleven.
It’s just that Jesus brings up all these things we hear about all the time, again and again. Wars, rumours of wars, nations rising against nations and kingdoms against kingdoms. Earthquakes, famine, plagues – remember COVID? – people arrested and dragged before the authorities because of what they believe, or because of what they do or don’t believe about the authorities….Does any of that sound familiar? It’s probably sounded familiar since the first time it was spoken, and it would have sounded familiar before that too. He says it will happen. To us? And who really wants to hear that?
Maybe we’ve heard it so many times that we don’t even really hear it any more.
I was all ready to go when I sat down to write, and then I heard the story again, and then my get up and go got up and went.
Then I remembered a movie. Have any of you seen the movie “Don’t Look Up”?
The movie is about a graduate student and her advisor who discover a massive asteroid, ten kilometres across, that’s on a collision course with earth. It will strike in six months, and will likely wipe out most of what lives. Their discovery is verified by other scientists. NASA examines their case and says that it’s true. So people will want to know about it, right? So the student and her advisor finally gain access to the president of the US – twenty minutes of her time – to tell her about their findings. But she and her advisors are just not interested.
Soon after their meeting begins, she loses patience and goes on this rant: “Do you know how many “the world is ending” meetings we’ve had over the years? Economic collapse, loose nukes, car exhaust killing the atmosphere, rogue AI, drought, famine, plagues, alien invasion, population growth, a hole in the ozone…” She covers most of the things that Jesus covers, and at the same time it sounds like she could be talking to Jesus right across the table after listening to him in today’s gospel. Do you know how many times we’ve heard all this? Why should we listen again?
As the movie goes on, there are those who say, “Look up, and see what’s coming,” and there are those who just keep on saying, “Don’t look up.”
Jesus rhymes of a list of all those things that might make us afraid. He doesn’t say all this make us to be miserable, or gloomy, or afraid. He’s not calling us to stand on street corners with a microphone and a sandwich board – “The end is near!”
So what is he up to?
Maybe Jesus is just saying, “Look up and see what’s going on.” He reminds his followers then and reminds his followers then that these things can happen to us too. The way Jesus tells it it’s as though they probably will. Having faith does not mean that we have protection, and being Christian doesn’t save us from all harm. It might even get us in harm’s way, like people we’ve seen being arrested as they pray for compassion, and people of faith being pepper sprayed for trying to stand in the way of ICE agents, for trying to protect those to whom the world offers no protection.
As he speaks it could well be that anyone who is experiencing the tragedy or struggle or persection and fear that Jesus talks about will say, “Finally someone has looked up and seen what’s going on and now they’re saying it right out loud.”
As he speaks it could well be that anyone who is not living with earthquakes or wars or persecution, anyone who feels comfortable right now, will look up and see and remember all of those who are living with those things.
A few things to keep in mind as we hear Jesus speak and as we worship and live out our lives. When Jesus talks about all this, it’s not in a one-on-one counselling session to encourage someone who is going through a hard time in life. He’s talking to a whole crowd of people. He’s speaking to his disciples and a crowd beyond them then, and now. He talks to a crowd, and because he talks to a crowd everyone there, and everyone here, hears that they do not need to face these things and to face their fears alone.
This really matters, because watching the news at 9:00 all alone can make you feel like you’re the only one who is worried. Doom scrolling through all the latest weird scary things, even if you’re sitting on a crowded bus, can be such a lonely experience…even if everyone else on the bus is doing the same thing. Jesus is speaking right out loud to the whole crowd, and speaking to us here, in the building and online. We look up and see that we’re all together. We hear Jesus speak, together. So when it’s too much to bear there’s someone to bear it with you, or when it all seems so scary we can, well, be a little afraid together. And usually being afraid together means being a little less afraid. So we sit here together today, a gift to each other so we don’t have to see the signs alone or fend for ourselves when we face what’s going on all around.
It’s that together thing that matters so much. So we sing…together. When we know that the political strategy of the day is to divide everyone, and in a world where we’re supposed to hate our enemies or name this person or that group as the ones that are ruining it all, we sing songs like “All are welcome in this place.” And when we do that, we’re practicing endurance together. We’re sticking with it for the long haul. We’re singing a vision together…
Together we sing “Be thou my vision”, and we’re asking for this vision that Jesus has, that sees a world where fear and hatred and death just will not last.
We sing “Will you let me be your servant,” and we remember together that life is not found not in saving ourselves, but in caring for one another.
And as we sing, “Grant us wisdom, grant us courage, for the facing of this hour,” we sing together to the one who goes with us and gives us all we need as we live and serve in the world all around us.
Let’s go back to the movie again. “Don’t look up.” And I promise I won’t give away the ending.
From the minute the news breaks and the world hears all about that asteroid that’s on its way, some people just keep acting like nothing’s wrong. This won’t happen. Some begin to panic right away. And some start coming up with plans to save the world with technology.
It soon becomes clear that nobody really knows what’s going happen. And as everything begins to unravel all around them, the student, the advisor, and a small group of people who have faced this together sit at a table with a feast. There’s good food and drink, there’s laughter and gratitude and the simple enjoyment of each other’s company. There is fear and there are tears. And they are together. It’s not an escape from the world. It’s just a gathering of people who are finding their life together.
And at the table, one of them prays:
“Dearest God and Almighty Creator, we ask for your grace tonight, despite our pride; your forgiveness, despite our doubt. Most of all, Lord, we ask for your love, to soothe us through these dark times. May we face whatever is to come, in your divine will, with courage, and open hearts of acceptance. Amen.”
And in that moment, they find their life together. They gain their soul.
We’ll come to the table together in a few minutes. We will have prayed, and will pray again, for grace and forgiveness and love and courage. We’ll come to the table with one another, and with the one who gave his life along with all those who will lose their lives (That’s us, by the way). We gather together with one who says “This is my body, this is my blood, given for you.” And there we find our life, we gain our soul, as the one who calls us together is with us, and goes with us into whatever the days might bring.