Sermon for March 13

Mark 13: 1-8, 24-37

As Jesus came out of the temple, one of his disciples said to him, “Look, Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!”  Then Jesus asked him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone will be left here upon another; all will be thrown down”

When he was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John, and Andrew asked him privately,  “Tell us, when will this be, and what will be the sign that all these things are about to be accomplished?”  Then Jesus began to say to them, “Beware that no one leads you astray.  Many will come in my name and say, ‘I am he!’and they will lead many astray. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed; this must take place, but the end is still to come.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will be famines. This is but the beginning of the birth pangs

 “But in those days, after that suffering, the sun will be darkened,

    and the moon will not give its light,

and the stars will be falling from heaven,

    and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see ‘the Son of Man coming in clouds’ with great power and glory.  Then he will send out the angels, and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

“From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.  So also, when you see these things taking place, you know that he is near, at the very gates. Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.  Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on the watch.  Therefore, keep awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or at cockcrow, or at dawn,  or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.  And what I say to you I say to all: Keep awake.”

Sunday, March 13

Today’s reading is at the end of Mark’s Gospel.  Immediately after this text, we start the passion part of Mark’s Gospel, which tells the story of Jesus last hours, his faithful anointing for burial by Mary, the first communion meal, his betrayal, trial, conviction as political subversive and execution.  To help everyone get situated with the reading, this conversation takes place in the chaotic days after Palm Sunday. Jesus was already in Jerusalem and was already welcomed and honored as a king.  Immediately after Palm Sunday Jesus finds himself in the temple and engaged in a nasty confrontation with the religious authorities. The leaders questioned and tried to expose Jesus as a fraud.  Jesus will not tolerate anyone trying to use God’s word for their own profit or standing in the way of others experiencing the comfort and joy of God’s love.  Jesus humiliates them, calling them out on their wealth, abuse of the people and neglect of their promises. It starts with Jesus telling the parable of the wicked tenants, which blatantly tells the crowd two things: 1: the religious leaders entrusted with sharing the faith and caring for the people of God have failed to do so 2: the kingdom will be taken away from them.  After this the leaders try to trick and trap Jesus with different questions.  Jesus answers every one of their well-conceived questions with great wisdom and deep faith.  For instance, they ask “should we pay taxes to Rome”, Jesus responds by saying “give to the emperor the things that are the emperors and to God the things that are God’s (basically telling them to keep the promises they made with Rome and with God).  This is when the religious authorities realize that they definitely need to get rid of Jesus to protect their power and status.  

After this hostile encounter, Jesus and his disciples leave. After all, they have other work to do, Jesus needs to prepare them and all his followers for what’s next.  On the way out Jesus disciples observe “look teacher, what large stones and what large buildings”.  I get a sense that this simple observation is really much more.  They are asking Jesus, how can you confront the people who built all this, who are in power, who are in charge of this overwhelming and amazing city, which also happens to be the central place of our Jewish faith, how can you talk to them like that, aren’t you worried, arent’t you concerned about what they will do to you.  Jesus responds “these great buildings will all be thrown down”. 

Four of Jesus disciples, knowledgeable of the scriptures, have actually heard that one before.  In the prophets and other scriptures, especially Ezekiel and Daniel, there are visions of widespread destruction, the day of the Lord, the apocalypse, the end of the world as we know it.  Here, nothing is spared, not even the institutions of religious faith.  Jesus disciples make the connection and privately ask him “when will these things be”. 

Jesus responds with a vision of suffering and struggle. Jesus tells them that no one, not even Jesus himself, knows when this will be.  He also tells them to “stay awake”, to remain faithful, to trust God and know whatever happens, no matter how bad, God’s promises are still good, God’s love is still real and all things will be restored to how they should be (not how they were).         

Today, people all react a little differently to this.  Some people hear today’s reading, completely ignore Jesus statement “But about that day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.  Beware, keep alert; for you do not know when the time will come.” Instead of accepting that, keeping faithful and trusting God, they let us know when these things will be. The process of calculating the exact time when these things will be is pretty simple. All you need to do is take a few biblical texts, disconnect them from the story God’s love, manipulate or twist them around, pick a few current events, do some sort of strange math or other analysis to make it look scientific, find a date, make great claims about secret knowledge and then do whatever you can to spread the discover. These predictions have been done countless times and have always been wrong. Many of them were significant, stopping normal life, shaping people’s worldviews and causing them to make very bad decisions.  Even today, in our modern, questioning world, we had the end of the Mayan Calendar, the year 2000 and May 21 all gathering way more attention than they deserved. 

Some people hear today’s reading and really look forward to it. The language around the end times is harsh, violent, and brutal.  There are warning, judgment and what appears to be inescapable suffering.  There are earthquakes, terrible darkness, famines, the destruction of everything we have built, trust in and think is great or indestructible. The problem is with the end times, more than any other place, it is when we pretend to be God, are left to decide who is good and evil, who are the elect, who will be spared or destroyed.  There are people who think they will be sitting and relaxing on clouds with the angels, sipping cool, refreshing iced tea while they watch the unfaithful (who just happen to be the people they disagree with or dislike) get destroyed in terrible ways.

Some people hear today’s reading and see dollar signs. Many people have a real fascination, concern, obsession, fear or anxiety about the end of the world and that is an economic opportunity.  The end has become a multi-billion dollar industry producing tv shows, movies, books, doomsday supplies and ministries.

We are now a few days away from the most emotional, intense, terrifying and amazing part of our faith.  Before we get there, we need to deal with today’s reading and the 10 or 12 just like it in the Gospels.  If Jesus only talked about the end times once or twice, if there was only a sentence or two about a very violent completion of the world, we could ignore it or dismiss it as not important.  These stories about the end times are not limited to one book of the bible, they are not only mentioned once or twice.  These warnings about the end show up in the Old testament in books like the prophet Daniel and Ezekiel, in all 4 of the Gospels, in parts of Paul’s letters (in some cases it even seems like Paul believed Jesus return was eminent, expected within a few months or years) and perhaps best known, the book of Revelation.  

We need to keep in mind these stories are prophetic visions, filled with imagery and symbolism, not predictions of what exactly will happen.  Their role is to warn us of how far from God’s vision, hope and expectations for the world we are.  We are invited to trust God above all things. After all the end times are something that only God can save us from.  They are a reminder of what we all know, that the world often seems like a place of greed and evil but ultimately good will prevail, evil will not leave quietly but love will conquer all, Christ will be victorious,  welcome, forgiveness and care will triumph. Those are the lessons that Jesus wants his followers to understand about the end times.