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By your endurance you will gain your lives. Luke 21:29

            Today’s gospel reading is taken from the Synoptic Apocalypse, that section in the first three gospels where Jesus speaks to his disciples about what is to come.  This discourse is occasioned by an observation about the beauty and splendor of the temple (21:5), which prompts Jesus to predict the temple’s utter destruction (v. 6).  The disciples ask Jesus when this will happen (v. 7), but they receive, instead of an answer, a warning not to be led astray (v. 8). 
            The temple was the centre of Jewish worship, and Jesus and his disciples were Jews.  The end of the temple and of the holy city was the end of their world, and so it is not surprising that they did not at first distinguish between the destruction of Jerusalem and the end of all creation. 
            But in Luke’s version of this discourse, which is the one which we have heard read today, the evangelist looks beyond the fate of Judaism to the future of the Christian church.  In the Book of Acts Luke writes that the story of Jesus and the beginnings of the church have not taken place “in a corner” (26:26).  Christianity is a phenomenon with world-wide significance, and not even persecution can stamp out the Christian movement. 
            So Luke makes a significant alteration in his Marcan source.  In Mark’s gospel Christ promises that “he who endures to the end shall be saved” (Mark 13:13), but in Luke’s version Christ gives the assurance: “Not a hair of your head will perish.  In your perseverance you will gain your lives” or “save your souls” (21:18-19).  The Greek word psychas is ambiguous:  it can mean either “lives” or “souls.”
             Luke exploits this ambiguity between salvation in the kingdom of heaven and salvation on earth.  As the historian of the Christian mission he could not be indifferent to the temporal survival of the church.  For him the Christian’s access to salvation comes through the mediation of the church and not simply through a direct relationship between the individual and God.  For Luke it is only by remaining in the church that the believer advances towards eternal salvation.
            Today most people believe in God and in an after-life, but they regard the church as dispensable.  If they practice a spiritual discipline, it need not have any connection with a faith community.  That is the reality; our problem is what to do about it. 
            Unlike Roman Catholics, who used to be taught that to deliberately miss Mass on a Sunday or holy day of obligation was a mortal sin, Anglicans are quite casual about church attendance, and nothing is easier than to give up going to church altogether.  So Jesus’ promise that salvation depends on perseverance, perseverance in the church which is his body, has special importance for us. 
            There is a saying in Judaism, “Keep the sabbath, and the sabbath will keep you.”  Perseverance in the life of the Christian community does not promise thrills or excitement; at times it can seem quite boring.  But it is the Christian way to God.            

November 18, 2007

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