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Sermon November 16,2025 - Luke 21:5-19- Al Carson

 “Fear not, I am with you always”

"Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events"

That reads a bit like something that could be on the front page of any newspaper anywhere in the world on any given day.  But that cheery little proclamation and even more doom and gloom is the theme of our gospel this morning.

Jesus is talking to his disciples and painting a picture of great uncertainty and then takes them to the point where he proclaims some will be put to death. He paints a picture of a future that seems to be full of great uncertainty.

Uncertainty, anxiety and fear seem to feed off of each other creating a wave of thoughts and emotions anticipating that all will not be well. That something bad is going to happen that will negatively impact your life.

Jesus lists what might cause that - wars and insurrections, earthquakes, famines and plagues. Pretty much anything on that list would be devastating for any of our lives. Earthquakes, famines and plagues we just kind of live with because we can't prevent them we can just try and be prepared for them. Wars and insurrections are human endeavours and there is a growing fear that their probability of breaking out is on the rise.

Anxiety at some level affects everyone.  We all worry, we all have fears.

The section of Luke’s gospel that we read today about the destruction of the temple and all the other disasters and persecutions and anxiety increasing realities comes right after a story about a widow and her offering. I think it should have been included in today’s reading.  Let me read it to you:

"Jesus looked up and saw rich people putting their gifts into the treasury; he also saw a poor widow put in two small copper coins. He said truly I tell you this poor widow has put in more then all of them, for all of them have contributed out of their abundance, but she out of her poverty has put in all she had to live on."

Then immediately after drawing attention to the widows action we get the destruction of the temple, earthquakes, famines, plagues, wars and everything falling apart and ultimate destruction.

In that culture a widow had no social net. If she had a son she would have been attached to her sons family but if she did not have a son she would be on her own. Widows were some of the most vulnerable in their entire social structure. The widow in this story gives everything she had to live on. She lets go of the fragile little bit of security that she had. We all hear the story and if we use our imagination to translate it into our lives and try to think about what it would be like to do what the widow did we might feel a wave of anxiety building.

It is with that story fresh in our minds that we are to hear this proclamation about the collapse of the world. As Jesus talks about this out of our control disaster that will come crashing down he says don't be terrified. He is asking us to put ourselves in a reality that does not just cause a little anxiety but to put ourselves in a terrifying reality.

There are some in the world today living in a terrifying reality.  Like the widow, they are in a place of ultimate vulnerability and to help them might be a risk for us. He tells the disciples that if they are his follower that things will not go well for them. They will be misunderstood, they will be persecuted, and some will even be put to death. Yet he adds not even a hair on your head will perish.

How can Jesus tell us not to be anxious in the same breath he tells us about war, famine, plagues, earthquakes, persecution, betrayal, hatred, death. How can he tell us not a hair on of our heads will perish even though some will be killed? 

Jesus seems to simply leave us in the tension of all of this. Which is why I think we need to hear all this in light of the story of the widow and her offering.

There is great uncertainty in the world today and the uncertainty creates anxiety. In the midst of uncertainty people look to put walls of protection around their lives. But perhaps what we are trying to protect, the things we think give our lives meaning and security were never meant to be our source of meaning and security. Things like, success, romance, being liked, having happy and successful children, realizing our ambitions, all great things, but all potentially unstable.

If we look to these unstable but wonderful aspects of life as the meaning of our life we will always live with anxiety at our door step. Fear will be just below the surface and affecting our decisions. Deep down we fear that we might end up like the widow, alone with nothing, abandoned and no place to belong.

Or is the solution to our anxiety - giving God everything, like the widow - the greater fear? Perhaps you have been betrayed, as Jesus says, even by "parents, by siblings, by relatives and friends, who have done things that feel like they are trying to destroy your life." What makes us think that God is any different? Why should we trust God?

We might answer that by saying God loves us. But how do we know that God loves us? How do we know anyone loves us? It is easy for people to say they love you. But do the actions in their lives support the words?

Jesus says here is an indication that you are loved - if someone is willing to lay down their life for you, to put aside their wants, desires, needs, their life, to fulfill yours. If the story that we gather to remember each week, the life, the death, the resurrection of Jesus is simply a story and not reality it might add some nurture to my life but it probably won't be the foundation of my life.

But if it is real, if God loves us, loves me, loves you, so much that God entered humanity, entered human history, to reveal to us how much God loves us and to open the door wide for us to belong and have a relationship with God. If God literally gave everything for us, then accepting God's love and responding with the very thing that we fear most, giving God everything, is the thing that can save us from our fear. It is the very thing that will set us free to love and to risk in ways that reveal the beauty and glory of God. Being on the receiving end of that kind of love changes everything.

The widow is poor. Do we realize our poverty? This extensive list of disasters and uncertainties that are part of life reveals our poverty. We do not have the resources to counter them. We are like the widow. We are poor. We are not generally willing to trust God with everything until we too discover we are poor. The "poor in spirit" will see God. Was it a risk for the widow to give everything. Of course it was. Jesus would not have drawn attention to it if it was not. We are all called to risk and as the world becomes more and more unstable, as people begin to construct more and more walls of fear there will be need for more and more risk. Risk that will be misunderstood. Risk that will expose and challenge fears. The risk of breaking down the walls that divide people. Risk in reaching out to the disenfranchised that the world does not value. Risk in challenging the powers that seek to exclude and demonize people. Jesus is calling us to be people who risk, like the widow. The early Christians turned the world upside down by breaking through the walls that divided people and oppressed people. It was not a risk free endeavour.

Jesus tells us not to worry about the uncertainties and terrors that are mounting and that can destroy the world or our lives. Why? Because he is the Prince of Peace, in him is life, he is the beginning and the end, we can fix our eyes, our hearts on him now, right at this moment.

When anxiety or fear begins to creep in we can ask Jesus to come to us to be with us. He promises to be with us to give us words and wisdom in our hour of greatest need.

He promises to never leave us or forsake us, and his death and resurrection proves he can deliver on his promise.

Anxiety is a call to give everything to Jesus, all our fears and all our struggles, all our life,  because Jesus has given everything to us. He gave his life for us to ensure that if we are killed, we will live again. Not a hair on your head will perish.  Who will you trust? Yourself or Jesus who after being resurrected from the dead says to us I am with you always to the end of the age.