"By Your Endurance You Will Gain Your Lives"

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“Then he said to them, 'Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. There will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and pestilences. And there will be terrors and great signs from heaven.'” Horrors and terrors abound all around us. It seems that every day you open the paper or turn on the TV and the news is filled with accounts of disasters natural and man-made. The smoldering volcano in Indonesia. The stranded cruiseliner off Mexico. The storms battering the Caribbean. Deaths of soldiers and civilians in Iraq and Afghanistan. The gulf oil spill. The earthquake in Haiti. AIDS and malaria in Africa. Cancer in our midst. And the list goes on and on.

As long as this globe continues turning, there will be disasters of every imaginable variety, severity, and source. Try as we might, the best engineering will never remove the effects of sin upon this world. We will be faced with loss and destruction every moment of our lives. If you are not convinced, check the dust on the doorframes of your house.

All these things must come, but they are not the worst of things. Though the devil come at us all eager to devour us, he can harm us none. That is, unless we let him slip his sneaky foot in the door.

Did God really say that you must go to church every Sunday? Did God really say that you must give everything to the poor? Did God really say that you must love your neighbor as much as yourself?

Wouldn't it be nice if we could pick and choose with which parts of the Word of God we must comply? Indulge the flesh until you feel good, then deal with God according to what makes your soul feel all warm and fuzzy. Find God down by the creek, or on the inside of your eyelids, or in the midst of your grandkids. Do not dare to impose yourself and your spiritual inclinations on your neighbor. Do not say anything about the lifestyle choices of others, because, after all, their choices are just as valid as yours. Do not believe it, even for a moment!

Look around at the goings-on in the world. There are wars on every inhabited continent. There are natural and man-made disasters the world over. The economy is balanced precariously on the razor's edge of future speculation. Much of the western world is dying off due to negative birth rates in many developed countries. In many countries, regardless of economic status, toddlers are an endangered species. Carbon emissions are going to do in the polar ice caps and flood populated continents. Deforestation is allowing topsoil to wash into the ocean. And who cries out for justice? The kook screaming on the street-corner about the Armageddon? The eco-nut lounging comfortably in his hybrid, sipping his $5 latte?

Repent! Cry out for justice! Cry out to the Lord on behalf of His creation, which groans under the weight of our sin!

“But before all this they will lay their hands on you and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors for my name's sake.”

When you cry out, there will be those who raise up bloody hands to drag you down. When you lift your voice for peace, the wails of the warmongers will try to drown you out. When you take a stand for the truth, the forces of the deceiver will cut you down. You will be hated because of who and what you represent. You will be resented for stepping on the toes of the happy hedonists and heathens. You will be alienated, isolated, ostracized, outcast. You will be bereft of your goods, fame, child, and wife. You will be deprived of your life, liberty, and happiness. For so they persecuted the prophets before you. “This will be your opportunity to bear witness.”

You will bear witness to the truth. You will bear witness to the hope that is within you. You will bear witness because regardless of the great and terrible signs that appear in the heavens and on earth, you have seen the greatest sign of all, the sign that overshadows all others. You have seen the sign of the Lord Jesus Christ traced upon your forehead and your heart, marking you as one redeemed by Christ the Crucified. You have seen Him who knew no sin high and lifted up, burdened with the sins of all mankind. You have seen the glory of God shining in the darkness, blazing forth as an ensign, drawing all men to Himself. You have seen and touched and tasted the very Body and Blood of Jesus, given and shed and placed into your mouth for the forgiveness of your sins. You have seen the hand of God put upon you and heard the voice of your Father say to you: “I forgive you all your sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.”

And so, in the shadow of the cross, endure until the end. “Take they our life, goods, fame, child, and wife; though these all be gone, our vict'ry has been won. The Kingdom ours remaineth!” “By your endurance you will gain your lives.” In the midst of all the false signs and misdirections that crop up in this world, the cross continues to stand as our ensign and standard through the midst of strife and persecution.

Hold Thou Thy cross before my closing eyes;

Shine through the gloom, and point me to the skies.

Heav'n's morning breaks, and earth's vain shadows flee;

In life, in death, O Lord, abide with me.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.