This Generation

Mary Oliver titled her poem “The Summer Day”— Who made the world? Who made the swan, and the black bear? Who made the grasshopper? This grasshopper, I mean— the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down— who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes. Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face. Now she snaps her wings open, and floats away. I don’t know exactly what a prayer is. I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I have been doing all day. Tell me, what else should I have done? Doesn’t everything die at last, and too soon? Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?   “Your one wild and precious life.”   It addresses the preferred audience of modern America, the me in all of us. “What is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”  It also speaks a deep truth, pushing each of us to contemplate our own purpose on planet earth and assume responsibility for making a difference, a small difference. Yes, this is the cultural and spiritual atmosphere in which we live and breath and have our being (to quote another poet). But it is not the only way or perhaps even the best way to think about things. Jesus has a word to say about the “we”, something bigger, broader, and longer than “I have decided to follow Jesus.” He spoke to and about “this generation.” This generation. “This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.” He was referring, of course, (as we have learned over the last few weeks) to the normal troubles of life during “these days,” the extraordinary danger soon to befall Jerusalem in “those days,” and finally the coming of the Son of Man “in clouds of glory” on “that Day.” “This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened,” Jesus said, and I raise the question and focus my message today on this two-word phrase, “this generation.” Not just you or me, or one or two but “this generation.” I. Jesus spoke to his generation. He spoke three words of prophetic truth. First, as I have said over the last four weeks, Jesus said to his generation, “Life is tough. Be strong. Stand in the strength of the Lord. God will be with you.” Then he said to his generation, “Jerusalem is doomed. War is coming. I see it, and when you see it, get out of town. Take care of yourself and your family.” He was speaking about 30 AD and what he predicted happened when the Jewish people, driven by Jewish Nationalism, rebelled against Rome. Nero was Emperor. He sent in the Roman Legions. They smashed Jerusalem. Third, Jesus said to his generation, as recorded in the text from last Sunday and text for this Sunday: “God is coming in power and glory. Trust in God. Be patient. Wait. Pray. Follow me. God will act in a powerful way.” And I am sure on more than one occasion Jesus added, “Sing for Joy and Live with Hope.” What the people heard was this: “I am coming back. Soon.” Jesus never said, “I am coming back to take you away into paradise.”  No, what he said, on this occasion and throughout his ministry, “I am coming back to finish my work with the people on earth. Let us all look forward to the kingdom of God coming on earth as in heaven. In fact, let us pray for it.” Jesus used an image common to royalty. We can translate it to our modern situation. Every week, presidential candidates Harris and Trump are flying into cities across the country. Thousands of fans go to these airports to welcome them and greet them. Together, then, there is a motorcade into the city. This is the image Jesus used to describe his return. “I am coming back on clouds of glory to mobilize my people and finish the work of kingdom building. Meet me in the air as I return and go with me in power and glory to serve the city and rule the world.” It is this kind of vision that made those early Christians think Jesus was returning in their lifetime, in their generation. They thought it was to be soon. That is what caused the panic when some of their people died. What now, they thought? Paul the Apostle wrote to the church in Thessalonica in response: “Don’t worry. When I come, the dead will rise, first, to greet me and travel with me into the city. Then, all my people will go out to meet me. Together we will serve the city and rule the world.” Then he added: “Some of you will still be living when this happens! Oh my! That little sentence that has caused such confusion and such imagination over the years!   II. Jesus spoke not only to his generation but also to other generations across the years. Jesus has the power to speak to people today, and yesterday, and a millennium ago. Many times, I have read the Bible and felt Jesus the Lord or our Heavenly Father was speaking directly to me. Haven’t you had that experience? In a time of grief, you read the words, “The Lord is my shepherd” and you feel surrounded by the care of God. In a time of confusion, you read the words, “Commit your way to the Lord” and you feel a sense of relief and trust. In a time of failure, you read the word, “Neither do I condemn you” and you cry tears of thanksgiving. Sometimes, this experience is shared by many people, even an entire generation. I heard this week the late, great Whittney Houston sing that patriotic anthem, “Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord. Glory, Glory Hallelujah. His Truth is Marching on.” These lyrics were written by a Boston woman after watching a union regiment from Boston leave Washington DC for their Civil War assignment in Murray, Kentucky (my hometown). That was 1861. Her new lyrics caught on with a wave of people who wanted to free the enslaved people of the South. An entire generation, as it were, caught the spirit of freedom and sang their way to victory. God spoke to their generation, and they responded. Two decades later, in the United States, it happened again. Students gathered for a retreat at Mt. Hermon, Massachusetts, at the home of evangelist Dwight L. Moody. Their focus was global mission work, and 100 of them made commitments to the call to go. They were hearing the voice of God to their generation. In 1900, John R. Mott published a book with the title The Evangelization of the World in This Generation. The book and the man and the mood of the times galvanized the Volunteer Student Mission Movement. Thousands of young adults caught the spirit of gospel witness and presented themselves for mission work. Until his death 55 years later, Mott witnessed the formation of one mission platform after another dedicated to this cause: the gospel to the world in our generation. Student Volunteer Movement, InterVarsity, Navigators, and Campus Crusade for Christ. This illustrates what a generation can become when it hears the voice of Christ and responds, “Here am I, send me.” Or better, “Here we are. Send us.” Can I give you a third example? In 1948, Israel was established as a nation. This historic event triggered another wave of “this generation” thinking. But this time, the focus was not about freeing the oppressed or baptizing the heathen but preparing for the End. That is, the End of the Age. The return of Jews to the Land was understood as a fulfillment of biblical prophecy. God was gathering his elect people to the Promise Land, people thought. It was the first event, they were convinced, in the End Time plan. One writer put it on paper like this: “The Terminal Generation.” That was 1976, almost fifty years ago. He galvanized hundreds of Bible prophesy conferences and pilgrimages to the Holy Land. The Arab-Israeli wars, in 1967 and 1973, fueled this obsession with the end time. They were looking for that last and final battle, sometimes known as Armageddon. Are you ready, was the watchword. Get Ready, was the appeal. Everybody was hyped. Once again, a generation responded to what they thought God was saying to their generation. They quoted this verse: “This generation will not pass away until all these things have happened.” Only thing was this: there was another voice and another movement. There was another part of “this generation” of the 1950s and 1960s that was not paying attention to Jerusalem but was focus on Little Rock, Arkansas, Montgomery, Alabama, and New Orleans, Louisiana. They were not holding Bible conferences to study the end times but organizing street marches to transform our times. They were listening to a sermon with the phrase, “I Have a Dream” and walking to the music of “We Shall Overcome.” That generation, the Boomers, we call them, were of a double mind. Shall we focus our attention on the End of the World and go to the Prophesy Conference in Chicago this weekend? Or shall we give our energy to voter registration drives and get on the bus and join the march to Selma? What was God saying to that generation? III. Jesus is speaking to us today, to our generation, to this generation gathered in stadiums and sanctuaries, in coffee shops and on maintain trails, in political gatherings in Chicago and Milwaukee? What is God saying to “this generation”? I know we like to divide “this generation” into Generation X, and Millennials, Generation Z, and now Generation Alpha (those born since 2010). This might fit the needs of some sociologists. But Jesus is speaking to “this generation”—all the people alive today; all the people working and resting, dreaming and planning, growing up and growing old—we are all part of “this generation.” Jesus is speaking to all of us: warning us of the troubles of life; predicting episodes of uncommon danger; and alerting us to the coming of God on clouds of glory. It is the same message Jesus gave to his generation: be strong in the face of hardship, flee the disasters that are sure to come, and hope in the living God who is always coming to redeem the fallen, to establish justice, to inspire sacrifice and generosity, and to call his elect to lives of service and significance. What is God saying to our generation? Not just to me personally, in the privacy of my devotional time, but to us, to all of us, to those on the right and those on the left? to those in the cathedral and those in the storefront? to those wearing yarmulkes and those wearing kufiyahs? To those giving birth and to those digging graves? To those from the east and to those from the west? Does God have a word to say to all of us, to this generation? Is there a way we need to do to be obedient to God and attentive to our neighbors? What must we all be and do to heed the voice of God and the call of Christ, to turn from our collective sins and embrace the righteousness of God, to let justice roll down like a river and righteousness like a mighty stream? To believe the good news of the kingdom and live in the beloved community. What is God saying to us? To this generation? God almighty, maker of heaven and earth, help us all to hear your voice and, together, be “this generation” for you!