Sunday, November 17, 2019

“Not Today” (Luke 21:5-19)


Our reading this morning is apocalyptic.  Apocalyptic literature is a genre of religious writings that deal primarily with the “end times”.  It is prophetic writing and was quite common within the post-Exilic Jewish culture—meaning after the Babylonian Exile, and among the early Christians.  It is a substantial period, from 200BCE to 350AD.  The word “apocalypse” is a Greek word meaning “revelation”, thus these writings were assumed to make revelations of the ultimate divine purpose.  Typically, it would be a prophetic revelation, especially concerning a cataclysm in which the forces of good permanently triumph over the forces of evil.  Often these writings are filled with universal or extensive destruction and disaster.

Sounds like our reading this morning.

The knee-jerk response to this reading is to panic because “the end is coming!”  We can take these words as a “warning” and as such, we better get prepared and get out acts together before the end.  It is a knee-jerk reaction because we listen to the words that are being read and our minds are sounding the sirens . . . they are speaking to us directly . . . those things are happening, and they are happening now!  Nations fighting nations. Natural disasters—earthquakes and famines.  Persecution.  Rampant hatred and injustices.  The writer sounds as if he is quoting the evening news.  He’s talking about us . . . and, our first reaction is to embrace it and run with the end times.

Now, remember, I said this was the knee-jerk reaction.  Before we all panic and jump the boat for safety, let us consider a few things.  First, this was not written for us or our place in history.  This was written for a group of people at a certain point in history.  It was written for the early Christians in the time period between 80 and 110 AD . . . well after Jesus’ earthly ministry and way before our time.  In that situation the writer is addressing a certain time and situation . . . a time of persecution of the early Church by both the synagogue and the Roman government.  These words are to address that predicament and to provide words of encouragement using the words of Jesus in their hour of doubt and need.

We all know that when it comes to the “end times”, Jesus himself spoke out against his followers taking his words as a timetable.  He is even quoted as saying, “no one knows the day or the hour.”  Thus, it is in our reading he alerts his disciples that there are going to be a lot of people running around peddling warnings about the end.  He tells them, “Watch out that you are not deceived.  For many will come in my name, claiming ‘I am he,’ and ‘The time is near.’  Do not follow them.”

Jesus counsels his believers to not be alarmed and not to waste time planning for those days.  As Jesus alludes to and Alcoholic Anonymous is famous for saying, “Poop happens!”  Instead Jesus invites his followers to a living and active trust so that they may believe that the various trials that come are opportunities to witness, and that he himself will equip them to speak and respond when such occasions arise.  Jesus tells them: “This will result in your being witnesses to them.  But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves.  For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.”

In realizing that this is the writer of the Gospel of Luke responding to the crises of early Christian communities, we learn that this is not a timetable—it is a letter of comfort and courage and invitation.  It is an invitation to live now by faith and hope . . . of looking towards the future . . . and, helping us to appreciate for the present what God has created and given to us as a gift.  This is an invitation in which we respond by seizing the present moment to share our faith and confidence in the Holy.  It is not a time to panic in get wrapped up in doomsday thinking.  Instead we are called upon to live as the children of God as the receivers of divine love and grace striving to establish God’s Kingdom in our time and place.

Now you are probably thinking . . . yeah, but . . . didn’t you hear what you were reading, Preacher?  Are you trying to tell us that this is not what we think it is . . . that the end is near?  Aren’t you listening?

I want to tell you a story.  It is the story of Gabriele Grunewald . . . lovingly referred to by all as “Gabe”.  I doubt if any of you know about Gabe, unless you keep up with the world of track and field.  Gabe was a middle-distance runner and a pretty darn good one—one of the best in the nation and a rising competitor on the international scene.  Shortly before she was about to graduate from the University of Minnesota and start her professional running career, she noticed a bump below her left ear several days before a big track meet.  She went to the doctor, had it drained to be tested, and continue her preparations for the big meet. 

The day before the meet the doctor called with the results of the tests . . . adenoid cystic carcinoma (ACC).  She had cancer and they wanted to remove it as soon as possible.  Shocked, but feeling okay, she decided to run the race . . . it would be six days before she had the surgery.  During that time, she learned about the cancer . . . that it was incurable.  She would be lucky to live five years.  The cancer was going to kill her . . . all her dreams and plans came crashing down—this was the end . . . but, she hung onto that five-year survival rate.  She stated: “I kind of took that as something to go off of, something to hang onto, at least early on, like a life preserver.  I knew I had to make the most of it.”

After the surgery Gabe endured radiation therapy and kept on training.  The NCAA granted her a waiver to run another track season in hope of qualifying to run professionally.  She ran with it . . . she beat the school record and placed second in the NCAA championships.  Things were looking up, then a few months later a check-up revealed papillary thyroid cancer.  Again, she had surgery . . . again, she went through radiation therapy . . . and, again, she went back to running.  Over the next five years, between regular check-ups, she continued to run personal bests and beat records, and ended up one spot short of making the team for the London Olympics in 2012. 

Gabe viewed those five years as some of the best of her life—she continued to run and compete . . . she married her college sweetheart; but they were not without fear.  Fear that the cancer would return and take away the prospect of ever having a normal life.  Then one day in August of 2016, her husband—a doctor—gave Gabe a hug and noticed something firm in her abdomen.  A CT scan showed a massive tumor on her liver, a metastatic recurrence of the ACC she thought she had conquered seven years earlier.  ACC as a cancer is an unforgivable beast and it only worsens the chance of remission with each cancer-free year that goes by.



Again, she had surgery to remove the tumor and half of her liver . . . leaving her a 13-inch scar across her abdomen.  When she walked out of the hospital, she believed she was cancer-free.  By March of the next year she would learn that her check-up would reveal twelve small cancerous tumors all over her remaining liver.  ACC was back.

Despite four bouts of cancer, Gabe continued to show up to do what she loved best—running.  Running was an extension of who Gabe was, and now it had become her lifeline.  She was not going to give up without a fight.  She said, “I think sometimes we’re too quick to give up on the things that we love and the things that make us feel alive when something is going wrong in our lives.  But I just really feel strongly that we have to hold onto them.”

And, she did.

One year after major surgery, with chemotherapy running through her veins, she qualified to run in the USA Track and Field Championships.  In that race she came in last in her heat, but she crossed the finish line to receive a standing ovation.  She said, “I never got a standing ovation for getting last before.”

That was in 2017 . . . earlier this year, her health declined.  She was weakening . . . running became difficult . . . and, there were lots of trips to the emergency room and by June 1st her liver was failing.  She was dying.
Starting on June 1st, Justin—her husband, began posting updates on Gabe on Instagram . . . the first was to tell everyone that the doctors did not think that she would make it through the night.  But, she did.  The next day, he made the decision to place her in hospice and told her that she was dying.

Justin writes: “Shortly after I told her she was dying, she took a deep breath and yelled, ‘NOT TODAY.’”

Over the next few days, Gabe began to stabilize.  She got to go home, and there on her comfortable couch, she was surrounded by family and friends.  For nine days, thousands watched and waited—each second marked by her determination to approach life like she always had—to its fullest.  At 7:72PM on June 11, 2019, Gabe passed away.

Gabriele Grunewald never panicked . . . instead she resolved to live life to its fullest as a gift from God.  She had the resolve to never give up on that gift.  With grace and grit, Gabe demonstrated and bestowed a parting gift—she showed that amid even the heaviest of life’s tasks and the most uncertain circumstances, there is never a situation so dark that light cannot shine through, never a scenario so bleak that hope has no place.

Not today.

Not today, says Jesus to his followers.  Instead he tells them to live by faith and hope . . . to live in the moment of the gift of God’s presence . . . and, to make the best of it.  Don’t worry about what the future will bring, receive the gift of the present moment as an opportunity to be faithful.  Not today, says Jesus . . . there is still much work to be done.  Amen.

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