On Scary Stuff and Superpowers

Pastor Serena Rice
2 hours ago
5 min read

A sermon on Luke 21:5-19

[for an audio recording of this sermon, click here. Photo by Aron Visuals on Unsplash.]

I have a question for you all.

Most of you have probably been asked some version of this before, so hopefully you already know your answers. The question is: If you could have any superpower, what would it be?

(See what people say…)

So, my answer is usually, that I would want to be a polyglot (able to automatically speak and understand every language in existence). I think it would be amazing to be able to easily communicate anywhere in the world, and have access to the kind of deep cultural understanding that comes from fluency in all of those language.

However, after a bit of a rough travel day back from Durham last Sunday, I am kind of tempted to instead opt for teleportation.

I would just really love to not have to ever again drag a heavy suitcase across slippery cobblestones (with all the associated potential injuries) and never have to cram myself into tiny airplane seats for 8-9 hours, and – most of all –not be at minimum 13-14 hours away from where my son now lives.

Sure, on a metaphorical level I love the idea of the point of our life experiences being at least as much about the journey as about the destination…but on a practical level, I’m all for skipping the exhaustion, discomfort, and hassle and just jumping on a beam of light or snapping my fingers to arrive.

What’s more… I think the disciples would be with me on this.

I mean, just consider that when Jesus starts into his final sermon on the coming of the end times, the disciples immediately interrupt with the question, “Teacher, when will this be?”

I dare any adult who has ever taken children or teenagers on a road trip to tell me that does not have “are we there yet?” energy.

I’m just saying… I think the disciples have a sense that maybe the journey they are on with Jesus is going to have some rough spots, and they are very eager to skip the part where they get car sick in the middle of the backseat.

And who can blame them?

No one likes to suffer. I don’t care how much character we develop in the process.

I feel very confident that not one person in this room today, listened to today’s gospel reading and thought, “Cool! Sign me up! That kind of chaos, fear, and treachery is exactly what I am looking for from my faith.”

We don’t get excited about the prediction of wars, insurrections, and international conflicts.

We don’t want to be there for the earthquakes, famines, and plagues.

And we would definitely prefer to be spared persecution from our government and betrayal from our families.

Teleportation is sounding better and better, right?

Or, if we shift out of the journey-of-life metaphor, maybe time travel would really be the best option.

Skipping past any trauma to get to happily-ever-after sounds pretty great, actually.

Except, that gets messy.

Because, in (theoretical) time travel, life and history still happen; it’s just that the time traveler doesn’t experience them.

But someone does. In fact, most someones do.

So, I don’t think it actually resolves the anxiety we might feel from the apocalyptic imagery of today’s gospel to fantasize about getting to skip over all the scary stuff.

We would hardly be living out Jesus’s teaching to love our neighbors and even our enemies if we wished ourselves out of danger while leaving others to face it.

Well, another self-soothing option is just to reassure ourselves that Jesus was not being literal.

After all, apocalyptic literature is not prophecy in the sense of predicting future events.

It’s poetic imagery used to describe spiritual truths… like the expectation that God’s restoration of the world is coming, to disrupt the established patterns of power, just like Mary foretold in her song of praise at the beginning of Luke’s gospel.

Of course, in the immediate context of Jesus’s sermon, his disciples are facing his coming crucifixion, and their own future of proclaiming a disruptive message that will draw them into persecution, arrest, and even death.

Jesus’s sermon is preparing them rather directly for what is truly coming.

But what about us? We are hearing these words 2,000 years later.

The stones of the temple that Jesus and his disciples were talking about have already been dismantled for almost two millenia.

The arrests and imprisonments “because of his name” happened to Jesus’ first generations of followers, and we are the beneficiaries of the chance it gave them to testify.

Maybe we don’t need to be anxious about what this scripture means because it’s not for us?

Maybe… but the thing is, the world has not yet been restored to justice and wholeness.

The cross and the resurrection started the work. The finality of death has been shown to be a lie; we have access to a transformative hope.

But the world is still marred by nation rising against nation, and by earthquakes, famines, and plagues, and by structures of power still arresting and persecuting those who challenge oppression.

This week’s SALT commentary describes a reality that is as relevant for the 21^st Century as it is for the 1^st:

“Luke begins his Gospel with Mary singing that God’s mission is to ‘lift up the lowly,’ ‘scatter the proud in the thoughts of their hearts,’ and ‘bring down the powerful from their thrones’ (Luke 1:51-52). And now, in Jesus’ last sermon, we confront the difficult truth that this world-turning work will involve struggle and loss, trials and adversity”[1]

Our world still needs the rebalancing work that Mary described, and that rebalancing will still evoke the responses that Jesus’s apocalyptic sermon proclaims.

And if we stand for God’s kingdom upending work, the work that the world desperately needs, we will face consequences of one shape or another.

With no option of teleport or time-travel past them.

But we do have one “superpower” of a sort that might just make all the difference.

When Jesus is preparing his closest friends for the challenges they will face in remaining faithful to his mission, he gives them one piece of advice:

“Make up your minds not to prepare your defense in advance, for I will give you words and a wisdom that none of your opponents will be able to withstand or contradict.” (Luke 21: 14-15)

It’s not what we usually think of as a super-power, of course.

A super-power is supposed to be something exceptional and awesome about us.

But what Jesus is saying is that we don’t have to have any special aptitude or supernatural ability.

What we need is trust in the God who is the source of all power, as well as all wisdom.

We don’t need our own super-powers because we have God. And God will be with us and provide what we need in whatever challenges we face.

So, actually, I do see value in the journey, at least when it comes to the journey of faith.

The journey has its share of discomforts and anxieties, and the spiritual equivalent of slippery cobblestones.

But each of those challenges is a chance to learn how to trust God.

It’s a chance to let go of the instinct to prepare our own defense and lean into a wisdom deeper than our own.

It’s a chance to experience how God does show up to protect our souls in any and all circumstances.

It’s a chance to learn what a powerful and wonderful thing it is to be part of God’s work of turning the world around.

And that is ultimately better than super-powers.