TEXTS: Matthew 26:6-13; Ezekiel 37:1-10; Luke 21:5-19

“For you will always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me. By pouring the ointment on my body she has prepared me for burial.” (Matt. 26:11-12)

“Prophesy to these bones, and say to them: ‘O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD’ … ” (Ezekiel 37:4)

“When you hear of wars and insurrections, do not be terrified; for these things must take place first, but the end will not follow immediately.” (Luke 21:9)

 

• July 26, 2024: Speaking at the Turning Point Action Believers’ Summit in Florida, former president Donald Trump said, “Get out and vote just this time. You won’t have to do it anymore. Four more years it will be fixed. It’ll be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore, my beautiful Christians.”

• August 14, 2024: Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO) declared that the rise in mpox cases constitutes a public health emergency of international concern (PHEIC).

• August 15, 2024: The death toll in Gaza has surpassed 40,000, health officials in the territory say. As the Israel-Hamas war enters its 11th month, it is firmly entrenched as one of the most destructive conflicts in recent memory.

• August 22, 2024: The U.S. National Weather Service Hurricane Center has identified four tropical waves in the Atlantic Ocean that warrant monitoring as we approach the peak of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. Hurricane Ernesto struck Bermuda last week, causing dangerous surf and rip currents along the East Coast. In July, Hurricane Beryl became the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record, causing catastrophic damage and leading to 20 deaths as it ravaged several Caribbean islands.

“Signs of the Times”—that could be the theme for the summer of 2024. Not to mention the preceding decade. And, to be sure, our three Scripture readings all have something to do with “signs” of one kind or another.

In today’s passage from Matthew, Jesus sees a sign in his anointing by the woman with the alabaster jar—a sign pointing to his own imminent death.

In Ezekiel’s vision of the valley of dry bones, a sign is given to the defeated and exiled peoples of Judah and Samaria, who have been crushed under the heel of the Babylonian empire. It is a sign of hope—hope that, through the power of God, the bleached bones of their dead nations would one day live again.

And in the 21st chapter of Luke, Jesus responds to a question from his disciples, who have asked him what signs would precede the “end.” Probably, this is what most of us are thinking about when we refer to “signs of the times”—we really mean “signs of the end.”

But what do we mean when we speak of “the end?”

Well, we probably mean that time referred to in the Apostles’ Creed where it says that “Christ shall come again to judge the living and the dead.”

It is a day of both judgment and transformation, when God will bring an end to warring factions and divisions based upon race and ideology and national origin. On that day—the “Day of the Lord”—God will forever do away with warfare and every form of violence.

This idyllic vision points to a time when all lives will be lived with God at the centre, and all other things in balance. God will judge the unrighteous, destroy evil once and for all, put an end to death and suffering, and establish his rule and dominion over all the earth.

If you don’t read the Luke passage carefully, it can sound like this is what Jesus is talking about when—standing in the temple precincts—he tells his disciples that the day is coming “when not one stone [of the temple] will be left upon another.”

Now, such words may sound like a foretelling of the coming of the Day of the Lord—but they are not!

Jesus is not talking about the Day of the Lord, but about the time before the final day—the “time between time,” if you will. He makes that clear when he warns that those who say the end is near are wrong. And he warns us: “Do not go after them.”

Jesus, of course, always tended to brush off people’s questions about signs—especially signs about the Day of the Lord. He insisted that no such sign would be given, except for the “sign of Jonah,” the very sign he was living out as he preached to the people of Jerusalem in those final days before his own death and resurrection.

However, to prevent people from being misled, he identified a number of things which would take place before the temple’s destruction, quickly adding: “but the end will not follow immediately.”

So the first thing for us to recognize is that Jesus is not talking about the “Day,” but about the days between now and then—in other words, the time the people of God have been living in ever since his Ascension. Jesus’ words on the signs of the times are about our times, today.

Jesus warns of false prophets and charlatans—and they did appear on the scene, claiming to be him and exploiting people’s fears and anxieties. They still appear. In fact, in times of crisis, they seem to show up by the busload. I guess that’s not surprising. When people feel like they are dry bones—or fear that they soon will be—they become desperate for words from a prophet. And for many of us, any prophet will do.

Yet Jesus’ words are clear: “do not go after them.” Do not be distracted or misled by them. There is work here to do, and this kind of speculation only serves to take us away from our mission as the people of God. Ignore the false prophet who claims to be “the chosen one.”

Cataclysmic events, both natural and international, are not a sign the end is near. Wars, insurrections, earthquakes, famines, plagues, dreadful portents and other great signs from heaven will continue to occur.

But you know, these signs are so general that they could be applied to almost any day and any age—and they are anything but signs that the end is near.

No. To the contrary, they are signs that the end still lies in the distant future; Jesus says as much. For us, they are not only the stuff of our nightly newscasts, but also signs that we cannot bury our heads in religious sand. We must not retreat from the headlines. We must not let the world go to hell in a hand-basket.

Why? Because we are still God’s stewards of life. We are still bearers of good news. We are still the ones to whom God looks for the implementation of his justice and of his mercy.

We are still bearers of the power and presence of God. The headlines are not signs of the future day, but signs that it is time for you and for me to invest in God’s future and follow Jesus ever more closely—here and now.

That is what stewardship is all about: following Jesus Christ more seriously in every area of our lives—even our finances, even when times are hard—because hard times are always God’s times.

Hardship is an occasion for witness. For more than 2,000 years, people have been giving in costly ways for this gospel: not just of their time, talent and treasure, but their very lives.

Jesus’ words about the signs of the times are not about “the day,” but about today. Today, we are called to be faithful witnesses—no matter what.

When famine, plague, wars, insurrections, and earthquakes occur, these are not signs of Christ’s imminent coming.

Rather, they are signs that we need to become true disciples of Jesus—feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless, working to overcome sickness and death.

Famine, plague, war, insurrection, earthquakes—these are all signs that the church still has a gospel of salvation to proclaim. We are to be members of Christ’s body, entering into life’s storms and crying out, “Peace, be still.”

Signs of the times; they call us to silence the storm, to calm the waters, to pour out the oil of mercy in wounded places. In the midst of hardship, Jesus calls us to wait upon him—and he promises us that we will prevail.

Through such endurance, through such stewardship, through such faith and faithfulness, Jesus promises that we will not only save the lives of others, we will gain our own as well. And that, my friends, is what makes the good news … good news!

Thanks be to God. Amen.