Bringing Order Out of Chaos

Lectionary reflections for the Twenty-fourth Sunday after Pentecost (C)

by Michael Hopkins

CHANGE FONT AND INDENT

Readings for Pentecost 24, Proper 28, Year C, Nov. 14, 2004

Isaiah 65:17-25

Psalm 98

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Luke 21:5-19

“Keep your eyes on the prize.”

These words of the old spiritual are saving grace for the liberal/progressive church community in these post-U.S. election days. We may be feeling like we're hanging on by our fingernails, but the readings this week show that we have good company: Jesus, “By your endurance you will save your souls,” and Paul, “Brothers and sisters, do not be weary in doing what is right.” Of course, the rest of the reading from Thessalonians is a bit of a self-indulgent whine, but I have to give Paul some slack since I myself have engaged in more than a bit of that over the past ten days! Thank God for Paul's flawed humanity.

Of course, we progressive folk will want to latch onto the dream of new heavens and a new earth offered by Isaiah, and this dream is, of course, the prize on which we must keep our eyes. Yet Jesus, who shared this dream, clearly had no illusions about the tough road to get there. We shouldn't either. Nor should we be under the illusion that if the U.S. election had gone the other way, new heavens and a new earth would have fallen out of the sky.

The challenge before us is two-fold: hope and courage. Do we still believe that God's reign will come on earth as in heaven? Are we willing to put our life on the line to make it so? We just may have to. There will be no comfortable way to bring in new heavens and a new earth.

We liberals have tended to leave the apocalyptic genre of biblical literature to the evangelicals and fundamentalists since it seems more suited to their way of interpreting scripture and the world. It's time we learned to use it for ourselves. It was, in a sense, written for us. The bottom line of all apocalyptic writing was and is the proclamation of hope in the midst of chaos.

Or at least no way that is not chaotic. We liberals have tended to leave the apocalyptic genre of biblical literature to the evangelicals and fundamentalists since it seems more suited to their way of interpreting scripture and the world. It's time we learned to use it for ourselves. It was, in a sense, written for us. The bottom line of all apocalyptic writing was and is the proclamation of hope in the midst of chaos. Chaos is where we find ourselves today.

Interestingly enough, modern science is increasingly convinced that chaos is actually at the heart of the universe. Life itself is an ongoing process that depends on chaos. Bringing order out of chaos is how new life constantly happens. The current chaos in our culture and our church are actually hopeful signs. Author Margaret J. Wheatley writes, “The things we fear most in organizations – disruption, confusion, chaos – need not be interpreted as signs that we are about to be destroyed. Instead these conditions are necessary to awaken creativity” ( Leadership and the New Science: Discovering Order in a Chaotic World , p. 21).

This may be something the “new science” is teaching us, but Jesus and others of his day understood that this is how the world looks. So, later on in this apocalyptic section in Luke after even more rehearsing of the signs of the end, he will say, “Now when you see these things begin to take place, look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

None of this makes living in our day easy or even easier. But it does call us to “keep our eyes on the prize.” New heavens and a new earth are coming, although not by popular election, and not without many of us putting our lives on the line. Are we ready to do so yet?

The Rev. Michael W. Hopkins is rector of the Episcopal Church of St. Luke & St. Simon Cyrene in Rochester, N.Y., and is past president of Integrity . He is a Witness contributing editor, and may be reached by email at rector@twosaints.org .