Don’t Worry, Be Happy…ish

Sermon for Second Sunday before Advent – 15 November 2025 – St Mary’s, Playford

Text:  ‘Stand firm, and you will win life.’    (Luke 21.19)

God give you peace my sisters and brothers.

I suppose it is something to do with the convergence of the gathering gloom of winter, the sadness of remembering personal grief at All Souls and communal grief on Armistice Day, that the Lectionary of the church always points towards the end times as we approach Advent and the light that dawns with the Star over Bethlehem.

Today’s Gospel Reading is no different.  Jesus and his ‘country bumpkin’ disciples have finally made it to the big city and the bright lights of Jerusalem and are appropriately over-awed by the spectacle but Jesus brings them crashing back to Terra Firma (or, judging by His words, Terra not very Firma?).  And what we are reading today is only the beginning of the trouble to come.  If you are feeling very brave read the rest of Luke Chapter 21 when you get home.

In the middle of all this predicted doom and gloom what advice does Jesus give them?  Not much really.  No plan for hiding in safety, in fact that opposite.  No strategy for fighting to defend, literally, the pillars of society.  No refuge at all other than ‘Don’t worry, say nothing’.

It’s almost as if Jesus is reaching far into the future and, to calm the fears of his followers, brings the words of Bobby McFerrin into the First Century.

In every life we have some trouble
But when you worry you make it double
Don’t worry
Be happy, don’t worry, be happy now

‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy…ish’ seems to be His advice to people who will literally have the world tumble around their ears.  It seems as if Jesus has turned into one of Job’s Comforters!

Luke, however, is not being fair on his listeners.  Well the listeners of his era knew what he was speaking about.  It is us, reading Luke’s words two thousand years later who are apt to not know some of the things that were staring the early Christians in the face and so may need things unpacked a little..

All too easily we read the Gospels as if they are a newspaper with daily accounts of what happened next and forget , especially with Luke who warns us that his words are a carefully compiled account (Luke 1v1-4), that they are reported and edited speech.

All of them were written decades after the events they report.  

Mark, with his vibrant miracle working Jesus first, then Matthew and Luke and much later, John with his signs (semeia) instead of miracles and the ‘I AM sayings’ that no one else mentions.

The very earliest suggestions as to when Luke wrote the books Luke and Acts, is between 80CE and 90CE and much has happened in Palestine since the Crucifixion, Resurrection and Ascension of Jesus 40 to 50 years earlier.

So when Luke (as does Matthew in his later Chapters) records Jesus standing over Jerusalem predicting its destruction we need to know what Luke’s original readers knew.

Luke warns knowing that the Christians in Jerusalem, being warned in a prophecy about coming destruction, fled to Pella from 68CE.

Luke warns about the destruction of the temple after the temple in Jerusalem had already been torn down by the forces of the Roman Empire in 70CE during the First Jewish Revolt.  

Luke warns about the suffering of Christians after they had already been seized and handed over to the synagogues.  Luke himself recording the Stoning of Stephen (Acts 6-7) which happened in 34CE.

Luke also warns Christians after their leaders had already been handed over to authorities.  It is he again who records the death of the James the Great at the hands of Herod Agrippa and the, unsuccessful, imprisonment of Peter (Acts 12v1-4) in 44CE.

Knowing that his readers knew all this.  

Knowing that his readers knew that Luke wasn’t proclaiming prophecy but writing history.  We need to ask why did Luke write what he did?

Luke reminds us, using the examples of his and his listeners recent history, that the world is a dark place full of disaster and death. 

He reminds us that just because we have been through one Great War and suffered intense personal grief, we are not immune from them occurring again.

He reminds us that the world is full of snake oil salesman who enrich themselves through the suffering of others.

He reminds us that religion can get a bit too much; devotion can turn into fanaticism and gospel into heresy.

He reminds us that those in authority over us will not always serve us.  I sometimes wonder if he read an advance copy of Nineteen Eighty-Four…

Luke does give us some hints and tips for coping with the dystopia that seems to be our common lot.  

We should be prepared for betrayal, to be hated, to have faux friends worming their way into our lives for their own ends.

His first listeners knew that this was how life unfolded because it was the life that surrounded them already.

All this has already happened and it will happen again.

So, where is the weal for our woe?  Where is the supposed ‘Good News’ in amongst this message of doom and gloom?

Now listen to what I said, in your life expect some trouble
But when you worry, you make it double
But don’t worry
Be happy, be happy now

Or as Jesus would advise;

‘…make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. 

Hatred and darkness comes and will return again and again.  We may feel, as did the Pevensie children in Narnia, that it is ‘always winter but never Christmas.’

But there is always a time of darkness before the dawn of Christmas.  Christmas is coming, the reign of the Wicked Witch will end and we will find ourselves living with all those who have got home ahead of us who live now in the sunlit uplands of Aslan’s own land.

So…

Don’t worry, be happy.

[This blog ‘Don’t Worry, Be Happy…ish’ is copyright © Andrew Dotchin 2025 and may be reproduced without charge on condition that the source is acknowledged] 

The Destruction of the Temple and signs of the end times

Some of his disciples were remarking about how the temple was adorned with beautiful stones and with gifts dedicated to God.  But Jesus said, ⁶ ‘As for what you see here, the time will come when not one stone will be left on another; every one of them will be thrown down.’

⁷ ‘Teacher,’ they asked, ‘when will these things happen?  And what will be the sign that they are about to take place?’

⁸ He replied:  ‘Watch out that you are not deceived.  For many will come in my name, claiming, “I am he,” and “The time is near.”  Do not follow them. ⁹ When you hear of wars and uprisings, do not be frightened.  These things must happen first, but the end will not come right away.’

¹⁰ Then he said to them: ‘Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. ¹¹ There will be great earthquakes, famines and pestilences in various places, and fearful events and great signs from heaven.

¹² ‘But before all this, they will seize you and persecute you.  They will hand you over to synagogues and put you in prison, and you will be brought before kings and governors, and all on account of my name. ¹³ And so you will bear testimony to me. ¹⁴ But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. ¹⁵ For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict. ¹⁶ You will be betrayed even by parents, brothers and sisters, relatives and friends, and they will put some of you to death. ¹⁷ Everyone will hate you because of me. ¹⁸ But not a hair of your head will perish. ¹⁹ Stand firm, and you will win life.

(Luke 21v5-19 – NIV)