The Adventurous Lectionary – November 16, 2025 – Pentecost 23
Isaiah 65:17-25 and Isaiah 12
2 Thessalonians 3:6-13
Luke 21:5-19
Is there hope in our troubled times? Can we depend on God saving the day without our efforts? How shall we respond to the apostasy and immorality of the public policy of many “Christian” political and pastoral leaders and their congregants? (Now I realize that apostasy is a strong word but it applies to forsaking the prophets and social ethic embodied in Jesus’ ethics apparently abandoned by those who claim to be the orthodox defenders of faith.)
In his own troubled time of chaos, Isaiah boldly proclaims that God is creating new heavens and a new earth and providing a future for a broken nation. God is not just a “fixer upper” but is injecting something new into the cultural, political, and economic life the nation. There have been hard times – political upheaval and collapse, economic uncertainty and starvation. Many have given up hope for a positive future for their nation or personal lives. Indeed, the nation may already have collapsed and the upper classes exiled to Babylon.
Still, Isaiah proclaims, there is hope; hope, not from our efforts, but from God’s vision of the future. God is creating new possibilities and the energy among God’s people to achieve them even in dire situations. And so, we can dream in the midst of the struggle of a better and more just world. Perhaps, Jerusalem can be compared to contemporary USA today, democracy decimated, abandonment of the poor by the nation’s leaders, state sponsored cruelty toward Christians being deported, and an intentional privileging of the wealthy over the poor.
Yes, the words of Isaiah speak to us in the era of the Trump. We are tempted to give up hope for the USA and much of the Christian tradition that has chosen to jettison Jesus for Trump in the arena of politics and public policy. Yet, God is at work in the world, and God needs our creative companionship. It is not about us and a triumphalist progressive Christianity. We need to be on God’s side, not be seduced by the limited visions of nationalism, ethnocentrism, or economic security. We need to dream and then act toward the world God imagines, a world almost impossible to visualize but our only hope for the future: long life, security, happy homes, fruitful vineyards and gardens, laughing children, and peace among opponents. But, more importantly, peoples’ hearts will return to God, enabling God to speak within them. They will experience the divine vision for humankind and Jerusalem and will respond affirmatively, fulfilling their role as God’s companions in healing the earth.
Isaiah 12 continues the theme. In response to God’s gracious activity in history, we will be joyful, drawing water and chopping wood, in delight and gratitude and doing ordinary things in sacramental ways.
The reading from 2 Thessalonians can be captured by the words, “don’t be weary in doing what is right.” The author commends the community to work diligently, challenging idleness inspired by what I believe was the first-century hope for the Second Coming of Jesus. In the 21st century, we still deal with this idleness, but of a more far-ranging and destructive sort. Much of the opposition to the evidence and subsequent response to the threat of global climate change comes from conservative and apocalyptic Christians and their greedy industrialist counterparts. Cynical interpretations would suggest that their opposition is the result of the marriage of Christianity to capitalism and our faith’s capitulation to greed rather God. Theological interpretations of the Second Coming suggest people are passive because of their images of God’s role in creating the future: if God is going to settle everything, and that if world history is entirely in God’s control, there is no reason for us to take initiative in healing the world. Our fate is already decided.
For Second Coming believers, destruction will come from God’s hands and not our own. To them, our efforts to save the planet reflect our hubris at claiming that we can make a difference in the already-settled future. Despite the hints of divine intervention in Thessalonians, the author challenges us to work diligently, seeking wholeness in every aspect of our lives. Today, this includes both the economic and ecological. Do not weary in doing what is right and this means working to save our planet. God will not do everything for us. The fate of the earth may be in our hands, rather than God’s, and God may need us to incarnate God’s vision of a new earth.
What do we do about Paul’s admonition where “to keep away from every brother or sister living irresponsibly and not according to the tradition that they received from us. “to keep away from every brother or sister living irresponsibly and not according to the tradition that they received from us.” Dare we shun the Trump Christians in our midst. We certainly should challenge the bad theology that leads to divisiveness and authoritarianism. Yet, they too are children of God, and together all of us are “standin’ in the need of prayer.”
Jesus’ words seem contrary to those of Isaiah. Jesus talks about persecution and chaos, not rejoicing and fruitfulness. Jesus suggests that all things must pass and that all things are finite and mortal, including our nation’s future. All nations are finite, fallible, and will eventually pass, as will the earth. Still, we must persevere though the path be difficult. We must work for justice, following God’s way even if there is a cost.
Earth is the balance, to quote Al Gore, and Jesus’ words describe a godless future scenario, the world that will emerge if we don’t care for the earth and one another. He also describes what we may face if we choose to follow the paths of righteousness and earth care in a consumerist time. Short-sighted leaders will condemn those who suggest that we must live more simply or denounce diversity and inclusion, challenge us to take another path, a countercultural path of taking the lead as nation in downward mobility, and changing our economic and business structures to be more sustainable, and welcoming diversity in all its wondrous form. God will, nevertheless, give us wisdom amid the fray. Without polarization, the faithful church must be countercultural in economics, immigration, foreign policy, and environmental affairs. In the maelstrom of controversy, God will guide us so that we will be faithful and true to God’s way, recognizing our limitations as we seek God’s new creation, despite the challenges that confront us.
God has given us a vision of a new creation – a new heavens and a new earth. While such a dream seems a phantasm, we must ask: “will we choose the path that leads to healing the earth or will we continue on our destructive ways – politically, economically, and ecologically? Will we claim our vocation, despite the uncertainty of the future and the institutions that stand in our way, as God’s companions in healing the earth?”
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Bruce Epperly is Theologian in Residence at Westmoreland Congregational United Church of Christ, Bethesda, MD (https://www.westmorelanducc.org/) and a professor in theology and spirituality at Wesley Theological Seminary. He is the author of over 80 books including: “Homegrown Mystics: Restoring the Soul of Our Nation through the Healing Wisdom of America’s Mystics” (Amazon.com: Homegrown Mystics: Restoring Our Nation with the Healing Wisdom of America’s Visionaries: 9781625249142: Epperly, Bruce: Books) “Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet “(Jesus: Mystic, Healer, and Prophet: Epperly, Bruce: 9781625248732: Amazon.com: Books), Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet”( Saving Progressive Christianity to Save the Planet: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999215: Amazon.com: Books), and his most recent book, “God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality and Social Change.” (The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books The God of the Growing Edge: Whitehead and Thurman on Theology, Spirituality, and Social Change: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999291: Amazon.com: Books) His latest books are “A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians.” (A New Pentecost for Progressive Christians: Epperly, Bruce G: 9781631999413: Amazon.com: Books) and “Creation Sings: 40 Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-human World” (Amazon.com: Creation Sings: Forty Days of Spiritual Wisdom from the Non-Human World: 9781625249296: Epperly, Bruce G: Books)
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