A WORD FOR TODAY, November 12, 2025
Peggy Hoppes
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Blessings. Peg
A WORD FOR TODAY, November 12, 2025
Lectionary Scriptures for November 16, 2025, Twenty-third Sunday after Pentecost: Malachi 4:1-6; Psalm 98; 2 Thessalonians 3:(1-5) 6-13; Luke 21:5-28 (29-36)
“By your endurance you will win your lives.” Luke 21:19, WEB
The Church calendar has a very specific purpose and pattern. It is meant to take it through the story of God and our place in God’s kingdom each year. We begin in Advent with the promise and the coming of Christ at Christmas, experience the revelation of His light and purpose during Epiphany, then journey to the cross during Lent. Holy Week tells the story of His triumph over the world on Palm Sunday, to the seeming triumph of Satan and the world on Good Friday, to the ultimate triumph of God over sin, death and the devil when He raised Jesus on Easter Sunday. The Easter season ends with the birth of the Church, Pentecost, and the reminder of the Trinitarian God we worship. The very long (nearly half the year) season of Pentecost teaches us how to be disciples of Christ. At the end of the year, we experience a foretaste of the feast to come with the promise of an eternity with God on All Saints. The focus of the end of time during the weeks between All Saints and Christ the King remind us that even with faith, our life is not life in this world always safe and secure and that persecution, sickness, and death is still a reality for Christians.
The church year shows us over and over again our need for Jesus, particularly in these weeks leading up to Advent. God’s promises are real, and they are ours today, but eternity is a future hope. We still live in a world of darkness that cries out for a Savior. That’s why we begin the year with Advent, the light growing in the darkness as we journey with John the Baptist and the other prophets toward the birth of the Jesus. The last Sunday before Advent is Christ the King and though we struggle with the reality of evil and suffering in this world, we celebrate that Jesus is King now and forever. We can’t see Jesus, or touch Him, or feel Him in tangible ways, but we trust by faith that He Is and that He will come to make all things right. For this moment all we have is hope.
It is hard to hope when the world seems to be falling apart around us. We aren’t the first generation to deal with the struggles of life, however. As a matter of fact, our struggles aren’t nearly as bad as we think they are. We forget that we do not deserve God’s grace. We are proud and we are wicked. There are aspects of our lives that would best be destroyed. We sin, we doubt, we hate in one way or another. We deserve to be destroyed by the fire. But that’s where God differs from the human analogies that we use to describe Him. We listen to the prophets of the age and become afraid and angry, forgetting that God can use our struggle to build in us strength, courage, and wisdom. Sometimes it takes getting to the bottom of the barrel to realize our need for His grace.
I love to visit unique architecture when I am traveling. This was especially true during our years in Europe. I was constantly amazed by the grand cathedrals, the massive fortresses, the magnificent country estates, and the quaint cottages. One thing I found interesting is how all those places were often under renovation. I suppose it makes sense since so many of those buildings were hundreds, if not thousands, of years old. Some changes were necessary to keep up with modern technology, but the places we visited often had a museum attached to show us what the building looked like over the years. One of my favorite places to visit was Warwick Castle, which gave the visitor a look into every era of the castle. One area was from the 11th century, when William the Conqueror invaded the British Isles. Another area had a wax display of guests at a turn of the 20th century garden party. There was a dungeon with an oubliette, walls and towers built throughout the centuries, a stronghold keep and a country house. You could see much of the history of England and it’s architecture in a matter of hours. Sometimes they even held Renaissance festivals! It became a tourist destination in the early twentieth century because it was said that the “walls have seen something of the splendor of every generation of our English story.”
I sometimes wish I could have seen the Temple in Jerusalem in Jesus’ day. The scriptures give us a hint of the incredible beauty of the place, as the walls shone brightly for the pilgrims as they journeyed to Jerusalem for worship. I have never visited the site, but I have heard that they have a scaled model of the Temple to visit while you are in Jerusalem. There are also virtual tours available on the Internet. These recreations give us an idea of its beauty and size, but they can’t even come close to the reality of what it would have been in that day. It is like the Redwood trees in the Northwest. You can see a million pictures of them, but you can’t really understand how big and beautiful they are unless you stand at the foot of one.
People were more than willing to put their money into the building and decoration of the Temple. It was a massive structure, built with the best stone and other materials. It was not meant to be a fortress, but it was probably very secure. The Temple was a sanctuary from the fears and dangers of the world. Visitors and residents must have felt safe within its walls. Jesus’ words to the disciples in this week’s Gospel lesson must have been shocking and unfathomable. How could that great place be destroyed?
There were a series of movies starring Harrison Ford as an archeologist named Indiana Jones who searched for the greatest treasures of the world. He was a good guy whose quest was to protect those treasures from bad guys who always wanted to use them for selfish and self-centered reasons. Indiana Jones learned early in his life that there were many greedy, evil people and he made it his life’s purpose to protect the things that defined our lives. I doubt archeologists really have the kind of experiences we see in the movies. Indiana Jones is always getting into some sort of trouble. In “Raiders of the Lost Ark” he sought to recover the Ark of the Covenant because the German Nazis wanted to use its power to take over the world. His quests always included so many difficulties. Someone was always trying to kill him. He crashed planes, jumped off waterfalls, faced cannibals. He found himself in pits with venomous snakes (“Snakes, why is it always snakes?”) He was constantly being chased, and yet somehow always managed to save the artifact and fall in love with the girl.
In one scene from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusades,” Indiana Jones was attempting to get through an ancient obstacle course to the hiding place of the Holy Grail. The obstacles did not just make the path difficult. They were dangerous. He had to solve riddles as he pushed forward step by step. A wrong answer meant being impaled by spears or falling through a hole into a bottomless cavern. Meanwhile, he was surrounded by bad guys who were trying to kill his father. The pressure to succeed was intense.
The Holy Grail was believed to hold the power of eternal life. Indiana’s father had been injured by one of the bad guys and the only hope of saving his life was to find the cup and give him a drink of water from it. The bad guys wanted the cup to abuse its power and control the world. They followed him as he made his way through every obstacle. The chamber at the end of riddles was filled with a hundred different goblets. Which one is the right one? Choosing wrongly meant immediate death. One of the bad guys chose a precious goblet of gold with magnificent stones, thinking the Christ most surely would have the best of the best. She drank some water and immediately died. Indiana knew better. He knew that Jesus Christ was a carpenter. The Holy Grail was not some fancy gold goblet, but a simple pottery cup. He took the cup, filled it with water and took it to his father.
During his quests, Indiana Jones was always pushed forward by a sense of purpose. The purpose was not power, fame, or wealth, but rather a search for the truth and the protection of the world’s precious treasures. He went in faith, not that he would accomplish the task but that the thing for which he searched existed. In other words, his drive was not about the benefits he would receive from finding the treasures but the treasures themselves. The risks didn’t matter as long as he was able to reach his destination. Guns, rolling stones, ancient obstacle courses, and bad guys never kept him from reaching the end of his quest.
For many of the people living in Jesus’ day, the Temple was the destination of their greatest quests. The Jews took pilgrimages to Jerusalem to offer sacrifices and to worship their God. They believed that the courts of the Temple were as close to God as they could get. It was a magnificent place, constantly upgraded with new, more beautiful aspects. It was dedicated to God and it honored Him well. However, when Jesus prophesied the destruction of the Temple, He was not just threatening a pretty building. He was threatening the very foundation of their faith. It was a terrifying possibility. What would they do? Where would they go? How would they do sacrifice to their God? Where would they find salvation?
There is a story that makes the rounds on the Internet, particularly during fire season, about a mother bird that was found in a national park after a fire. She was charred beyond recognition, but the forest ranger found several chicks under her wings. Supposedly they had survived because of the sacrificial love of the mother bird. The moral of the story is that God covers us with His wings to save us from the dangers of this world. It is a beautiful story. Unfortunately, it never happened. Scientists have confirmed that the mother bird could never have saved her chicks in that way. W love to find real life examples that help us understand the loving and caring nature of God, but human analogies often fall short. There are images of God in the scriptures that truly touch our hearts, but there are also some that are unreasonable. It is better to remember a mother bird protecting her chicks than to think about those birds dying in the forest. We prefer the idea of a loving, caring God and would rather ignore the God who would all the fire to burn anyone until they no longer exist.
Well, we don’t mind the fire when the person being destroyed is our enemy. Unfortunately, we also know that we are not holier than those we want God to defeat. We are proud and we are wicked. We know there are aspects of our lives that should be destroyed. Our sin, doubt, and hatred: we all suffer from these things in one way or another. We deserve to enter into the furnace that Malachi talks about in today’s Old Testament passage. We like to make up analogies, but God doesn’t fit our human ways of describing Him. He is like the mother bird in the legend, but He can save those who trust Him. He covers us with His wings when the fires come.
We are reminded, however, that He is also like the fire. He burns away the pride and wickedness in our lives, leaving behind a cleaner, purer person. He brings healing and righteousness.
There are times when it feels like we are burning, but God is working good things in our lives, bringing us to the place that He intends us to be. The perfection for which we strive will never fully be realized in our flesh because we continue to be sinners even while we are saints. We continue to go through the fire of cleansing that burns away the stubble of our lives. Those who persevere through the fire, resting on the promise of Jesus Christ, will see the other side.
When Jesus told the disciples that the Temple would be destroyed, they asked the most natural question, “When.” Though the Temple has been destroyed, we continue to ask the question because we know that there is more to the story. We are waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. We have been waiting for His return for nearly two thousand years. When? Jesus lists the signs, but every generation of Christian has seen these signs. We might be the generation that sees the return of Christ (Come, Lord Jesus) but He might not come again for another thousand years. Our quest in this life is not to wait for His second advent, but to live our lives in a way that glorifies Him at each moment.
The Gospel lesson is about the end of the age, and many people want to believe that we have reached that day. They point to wars and rumors of wars. There are plenty of false prophets touting their goods in the public squares these days. I’ve even seen some people claiming that the aurora borealis that has been so visible across the world is a sign that we have reached the end of days.
There are plenty of reasons to be afraid. Like every generation, we can read Jesus’ warning as one for our own time and place. Will our walls come tumbling down? Jesus reminds us that we have a purpose in this life, and worrying about the end times will not make anything happen or make anything better. Our purpose is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, to be His witnesses in this world.
Jesus began the lesson with a warning about the destruction of the Temple and then ended it with a promise that the hair on their heads would be unscathed. The Temple was “God’s home on earth.” It was the place where He dwelt among men. It was so beautiful, covered in the offerings of the many believers who had passed through its gates. In the story just before this message, Jesus pointed out to the disciples a widow who gave a measly mite to the Temple offerings. His point was that she gave more than the others who had put so much more into the offering plate because she gave everything. She gave her only coin, her well-being, and her future to God. The others were giving just a portion, and even if that portion was a large amount of money, they still kept something for themselves.
Jesus said that not a hair on our head would be harmed, but we must not read this as a promise for earthly protection. Saints throughout the ages discovered what it meant to be a witness for Christ in the world. Many of them died the martyr’s death. Martyr means witness. They were beheaded, impaled, hanged, and slaughtered for their faith. In this passage Jesus told us what we might face: “But before all these things, they shall lay their hands on you, and shall persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, bringing you before kings and governors for my name’s sake.” Persecution leads to the opportunity to be witnesses. The earthly promise of faith is persecution and death.
We are reminded that through it all, God is concerned about even the most insignificant parts of our flesh. He has counted to the number of strands of hair on our heads; He knows our every thought, prayer, concern, and doubt. He also knows that every bit of His creation is perishable. All that we have built up over our lifetime will pass away. But that doesn’t matter, because when we stand firm in God’s promises, we will gain life. We might want to sit and wait in expectation, but there is work to be done.
Paul wrote to the Thessalonians that each member of the community has a part to play in the Kingdom during this life. The fellowship of believers is a family; we are brothers and sisters in Christ. When everyone does their part, everything works well. Paul’s instruction goes beyond the work of the church. He encourages all Christians to be active participants in the world around them, working to provide for their own needs and for the needs of the community.
The church to which Paul was writing was living in a time of uncertainty. They knew that Jesus would return and that the time was short. However, they could not define the time. Many assumed that the end would come during their lifetime. There were some who believed that the flesh no longer mattered, the Gnostic heresy that caused them to believe that they did not need to work, to use their hands, or to care for their physical needs because soon they would have no flesh for which to labor. They did, however, ensure their bellies were full, eating the food shared by the other members of the Christian community. They did nothing to provide, but took advantage of the grace of others, leaving few resources for the people who were really in need.
There are always people who need help, and it is up to us to ensure their wellbeing, but too many take advantage of the system. As Paul reminds them, “If anyone is not willing to work, don’t let him eat.” The thing we need to remember is that even those who need financial and physical aid are able to play a role in the work of the community. Many of the widows were unable to provide financial support to the community, they could teach and guide the young women by offering their time, wisdom, and experience to help them grow into the women God was calling them to be. Sadly, some of the widows spent too much of their time being busybodies and gossiping rather than helping. It is said that “Idle hands are the devil’s playground,” and these women felt they had no worthwhile purpose in the community, so spent their time doing things that would never benefit the other believers.
As part of the community of believers, we are all called to be faithful witnesses of the Gospel in words and deeds. Our work will never gain us salvation, but as Christians it is up to us to live as God has gifted us to live. As part of the family of Christ, we are meant to do our part for the smooth and successful operation of the Church, God’s kingdom visible on earth. We are not seeking some state of perfection. We are unlikely to finish our quest unscathed. We are called to be witnesses for Christ while we journey in this world. Like Indiana Jones, our goal is not to get something out of it, but to keep moving forward toward the prize which is eternal life for the sake of others. Our faith should not be in our ability to gain the treasure, but in the treasure itself, which is God. We might face many difficulties along the way, but step by step we are called to shine the light of Christ and to live according to His promises.
God is faithful, and because He is faithful, we have all we need to live and work in His promises. The psalmist calls us to make a joyful noise and sing praises to God. Paul encourages us to be active, working to make our own living so that we’ll have enough for ourselves and for those who cannot provide for themselves. Though it seems like the world is about to end, we should not be idle.
More than two thousand years after the apocalyptic warning from Jesus, we are still seeing the signs of the end. Jesus’ words warn us today as much as it did His first disciples. We still have temples that will fall. Our temples are not just places of worship. Other temples might include our jobs, our homes, and our relationships. Sometimes God shakes the foundation of our perishable world so that we will look to Him and toward that which is imperishable.
Jesus has come and will come again. Until that day, we will struggle. We might experience persecution, and we will all die. We might think we can predict the day, but even Jesus tells us He doesn’t know what the end will come. We need not worry or be afraid. “When” is not the right question to ask. We should be asking, “What should we do?” We are called to endure in faith, to wait patiently through the fire, and to do whatever needs to be done in the meantime. God is always working, and though we may not understand what He is doing, we can trust that it is good, right, and true.
Jesus warned them, “Do not be fooled.” The scriptures at the end of the Church year are not pleasant. Malachi talked about the day of the Lord, when the arrogant and evildoers would be burned. Paul warned those who were idly waiting for Jesus because they believed the Gnostics that they would starve. Jesus talked about the destruction of the Temple and the danger to the believers. Even the psalmist talked about vindication and judgment.
When the world around us is confused and without hope, it is easy to be fooled. We listen to the wrong voices. Jesus knew that some would claim to be from God, offering promises they could never fulfill. He warned us not to believe every charismatic speaker who promised prosperity and wealth or every leader who said that they would take care of us. He knew that desperate people could fall easily for lies.
The walls of our Temples might come tumbling down, but God doesn’t dwell in our buildings, He dwells in the hearts of believers. So even if the walls are gone, God is still here. There isn’t much left of the Temple in Jerusalem, but God is still among His people because they believe, not because He has a beautiful house. Knowing this, we can enjoy what we have and do the work we are called to do. When our world falls apart, we must hold fast to the promise that God is faithful. He is always with us.
We look forward to the day when Jesus Christ will come again, but we should not reject the things of this world. God has given us life to live and His Word to share. The hair on our head may not last, but it doesn’t matter. The temples we build might fall down, but it doesn’t matter. What matters is that God is with us through it all and He has promised us something greater. Those who persevere resting on the promise of Jesus Christ will receive a place His eternal kingdom and dwell with God forever and ever.
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