To what end?

Sermon by Pr. Craig Mueller on the First Sunday in Advent + Sunday, November 9, 2025

Maybe Happy Ending. That’s the provocative title of a Broadway musical that one six Tony awards this past June, including Best Musical. When I first heard that the plot involved two robots that fall in love, I was initially skeptical about seeing it. But two Holy Trinity members told me, “you have to see it. It’s moving and beautiful.” By the way, a Broadway in Chicago touring production will be here fall of 2026. 

In Maybe Happy Ending two obsolete helper bots (for humans) are living in what could be called a retirement apartment building for robots. Claire’s battery is running down fast so she bops across the hall to Oliver’s place to borrow a charger. It’s not the kind of hook-up we usually imagine! Claire hooks up to Oliver’s charger and a spark is ignited—in both sense of the word.

The story takes place in Seoul, Korea and these helper bots become “soul mates!” Pun intended. Throughout the show, the eventual ending is always present. When Oliver realizes that Claire’s “shelf life” will end before his, he painfully asks, “how can people do this?” In other words, how can human beings survive the eventual loss of those they love? Claire and Oliver wonder if it would be better to erase their memories. The helper bots can actually delete memories because they have passwords and an operating system.

It's normal to wonder or worry about the future. Think: artificial intelligence. 

If the future—the ending—will bring heartbreak, why love at all? In fact, the opening song is called “Why Love” and is in the style of Frank Sinatra, with poignant words:

Why love?
Why did we bother to try love?
So tell me, why love?
When all things end in goodbye, love?

To what end, we may ask? As the well-known quote by Tennyson goes, “Tis better to have loved and lost / than never to have loved at all.”

To what end is the question for Advent. Especially in a time in which there are so many concerns about the future of our planet, the future of our nation, the future of the church.

An extended Advent season gives us more Sundays to dwell on themes of endings in light of God’s promised future. Our scriptures in November put before us themes of eschatology, that is the so-called last things: judgment, consummation, life after death, the second coming of Christ.

People who study the future are called futurists. You could say that early Christians were futurists in a way. Many believed that Christ would return in their lifetime. But as time went on, and the second coming delayed, new questions and concerns about the future began to surface. In today’s reading from Second Thessalonians, it is clear the community is shaken by something. Some of them have been told that they day of the Lord has already come. Paul tells them there must first be a time of rebellion and lawlessness. He urges them to faithful and prays that God would comfort their hearts and strengthen them for every good work and word. 

In today’s gospel, The Sadducees—who don’t believe in life after death—pose a question for Jesus. It doesn’t seem to be directly about love and loss, but it does have to do with relationships. Except for a few passing references to the afterlife in other places, this passage is the extent of Jesus’ teachings on the resurrection. It’s not exactly “seven brides for seven brothers,” as in the title of a movie from the 1950’s—but one bride for seven brothers who in turn die and leave the woman widowed. In the resurrection—the happy ending in the happily ever after place—whose husband will she be?

 Did you notice how Jesus doesn’t answer really answer the question directly. Bottom line: Dead or alive, we belong to God who is a God of resurrection and life.

We simply cannot give a description or definition of what follows the end, what follows death. As one writer (Monika Hellwig) puts it, “It is the nature of death that it demands a complete surrender into the hands of God—a complete letting-go of control over our own destiny… Hope in the resurrection is a way of expressing ultimate trust in God.”

To what end is our bodily death? It’s always a bit shocking for some folks to hear that Christians don’t believe in the immortality of the soul—but the resurrection of the body. Even if it is beyond our imagination, a well-known verse from Job makes it plain: “For I know that my vindicator, my redeemer, lives and that in the end will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been destroyed, then in my flesh I shall see God.”

Where does all this lead? To what end? If the span of our life is short, how are we to live? How are we to love? How are we to lean into the infinity of divine love even amid all the losses that come our way? How are we to share the risen life of Christ that transcends time and space?

To quote again, Jane Goodall from last week’s sermon: your life matters We are in the midst of our annual generosity appeal. Use your gifts, your passions, your time, your financial resources to bring healing and hope to our broken world.

With you, I believe in the mission of this congregation: God’s never-ending love for the sake of the world. These are perilous times. The message we proclaim here could not be more counter-cultural—a message of mercy, grace, justice, love, mercy, forgiveness. I hope you will join me in making a financial commitment for 2026 between now and next Sunday.

To what end? It can be taken two ways. To what ending, whether happy or not. But it also means for what purpose or for what goal. To what end? Ponder that question this week 

There is no way to know the future. What will endure is love. Even amid heartbreaking loss, love is eternal. The love of God for the sake of the world.