If you are to email NASA with a scientific question, it is likely to be answered by Dr. David Morrison, who holds a Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard, and that’s only important because I don’t think that Harvard gets enough attention for being a good school. But, according to Dr. Morrison, he spends a minimum of one hour every day answering people’s questions about the end of times, or at least the end of the world as we know it. We seem to be obsessed with this idea, but it’s not really anything new. We find similar things in the Hebrew scriptures, and the New Testament is full of discussion, as well as speculation within writings about when such things were going to happen. Clement, an early bishop of Rome, said the end would happen in the year 90. Hilary of Potiers said it would be in 365. His more famous student Martin of Tours said the year 400. The German emperor Otis III thought that an eclipse in 968 would be the harbinger, and Pope Innocent III said 1284. The Shakers said 1792, and Charles Wesley, the co-founder of Methodism preferred 1794, although he was already dead 6 years by that time. For Jehovah’s witnesses it was 1914, also1918, 1941 and 1975, to name just a few and for Hal Lindsey and Pat Robertson the end was coming in 1980, or 1982, 1985, 1988 and then 2007, and of course there have been many more failed predictions since then. And what do they all have in common? First, they were wrong, and second, according to Jesus, they never should have been making predictions at all, and in doing so were only serving as false prophet’s intent on leading people astray, and so we need to stop listening to such end of time mongers telling us they have insider knowledge, because Jesus says they are all wrong, and we’ll get back to that.
The selection of passages we heard from Mark today come from the 13th chapter which is known as Mark’s Little Apocalypse. Now typically, when we hear the word apocalypse, we think it means talk about the end of the world, and so we talk about apocalyptic or post-apocalyptic movies, like Mad Max as an example. But the word itself has nothing to do with the end of times. instead it simply means an unveiling or revealing, so that some divine knowledge is being revealed. The apocalypse with which most of us are familiar, is of course the apocalypse of John, which is also known as Revelation, and is the only full-blown apocalypse we have in scripture. But we have other types of apocalyptic pieces found in the book of Daniel, which is the other best scriptural example, but also to be found in Joel and Isaiah and Amos and Zephaniah, who all talk about the end of time.
Now technically, the word for that is eschatology, that is the study of the end of time, and if we are talking about specifically the second coming of Christ, that is known as the Parousia. I tell you that not only to justify my seminar education, but also because it’s important to know what it is that we are talking about. Because one of the most popular apocalypses in the early church was the Apocalypse of Peter, which was included in the earlies known list of accepted books for the church, known as the Muratorian Canon, but it has nothing to do with eschatology, but instead Peter, although it was composed decades after Peter’s death, is given a guided tour of heaven and hell, think Dante’s inferno. But it was an apocalypse because it sought to “explain, earthly realities through visions of heavenly truths.” Now one of the problems we have with apocalyptic literature is that it is not something with which we are familiar, and so we miss the pieces that people originally would have originally understood.
The best example I came up with this week was that I rewatched the movie Clueless last week, and in it Alicia Silverstone, who plays the main character, says about something that it’s like searching for meaning in a Pauly Shore movie. Now for more daughters they have no idea who Pauly Shore is, as I’m also guessing is true for many of you, and so that has lost all context for us. The same is true for lots of apocalyptic literature. That doesn’t mean we cannot figure it out, after all you could look up Pauly Shore, and even watch his movies, although I wouldn’t recommend it, and thereby come to some understanding. But, we are not going to spend time today trying to interpret Jesus’ meaning here, but instead we are going to focus on why Jesus is talking this way at all and what it means for our call to discipleship.
And that starts with where this discourse takes place, and that is that Jesus and the disciples have left the Temple, which at the time was regarded as one of the great buildings of the Roman Empire, which was Herod’s intention when he remodeled it, and so the disciples are rightfully marveling at it’s size, and the size of the stones with which it was constructed. You can see from this picture that the stones used in the Temple were huge, but the disciples are focused on the wrong things.
In Last week’s passage, Jesus rebukes Peter because, he says, Peter is focused on the things of man, rather than the things of God. Here too, even though the Temple is said to be the home of God, they are focused on the outward appearances of the kingdom of man, not appropriately on the kingdom of God, and so Jesus tells them not to put their trust in the things of the world because they will all come to an end. Don’t put your treasure in things here on earth where moth and rust will consume them, instead store up treasures in heaven Jesus says. Now there is a more specific prophetic claim about the destruction of the Temple also being made here, which clearly has a history in Israelite history, as well as at the time that Mark is writing his gospel the Temple is either under siege by the Romans, or has just recently been destroyed by the Romans, and so they initial hearers and readers of Mark are experiencing the very thing that Jesus is talking about. But the disciples ask Jesus when this will happen, what will be the sign? Now this is a common request of Jesus, to show them a sign, and what is Jesus’ answer when people demand a sign? He tells them no sign will be given.
And yet, he does then say to them, “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.” Now, since the time that Jesus said this, and Mark wrote it down, has there ever been a time when these things haven’t been taking place? No, and Jesus does not say that this marks the end, but instead he says that this is but the beginning of the birth pangs.
Now this week, is Samantha’s birthday, but when Linda’s labor began did it mean that Sam was gone to be born immediately? No. it was going to take a while. I read this week, and it came from a Reuters report not from the National Enquirer, that the longest labor on record was 75 days. A woman in Poland went into labor in the fifth month, and delivered one of triplets prematurely, and then doctors were able to stop the delivery of the other two, and she spent the next 75 days laying in bed with her feet higher than her head. But, the beginning of the labor is just the start, and it also means that things will get worse before they get better. And so, Jesus tells them that they are going to undergo suffering, that families will be broken apart, that betrayal will happen, and what is the message? Endure. Remain faithful, and “the one who endures to the end will be saved.” If you endure, good things will happen, because what Jesus is telling us, what apocalyptic literature tells us, is that we know how it all ends. Suffering, pain and evil will not be the last word – the one who stands at the end of history is the same who stood at the beginning of history, and, Jesus says, “the elect will be gathered” in and welcomed home.
Now the typical apocalyptic eschatology looks like this: It’s the already and the not quite yet. God has already intervened in the world through Christ to bring restoration and the kingdom, but it’s also not quite here yet. The Kingdom of God has come near, but it is not fully realized. We live in this in-between time, and so we see the signs of the times, but they only tell us that the labor pains have begun, not when the new age will be realized. So, what are we to do? First, we are to remain faithful, and to continue to proclaim the good news, despite everything that is happening, and that good news is not to try and work to bring about the end, especially through the acts of violence, or to listen to the promise that armed struggle will put an end to the old order. WWI was said to be the war to end all wars. Did it? Second, we are not to worry about when things might be completed, because even the son and the angels don’t know when that will happen, so don’t worry about it, and don’t listen to what anyone else says when they claim they do know, because they are wrong. Third, do the job that you were called to do, remain faithful and stay vigilant and stay awake. This has precursor to the passion story, because what do the disciples do when they go to the Garden of Gethsemane, even when Jesus tells them to stay awake? They fall asleep. Again, in Mark’s gospel the disciples don’t get it, and so the message is, and this comes to a conclusion next week, don’t be like the disciples. Don’t follow or listen to others, listen and follow Jesus. And the fourth point is to have hope because even in the midst of pain and suffering, turmoil and tragedy, we know how it all will end.
A story is told of a meeting of state legislators in colonial New England, that descended into darkness because of an unpredicted solar eclipse. Some people panicked and called for an adjournment of the meeting. Then one of them said, “Mr. Speaker, if it is not the end of the world and we adjourn, we shall appear to be fools. If it is the end of the world, I should choose to be found doing my duty. I move you sir, that candles be brought in.” I think that means, and I think what Jesus is telling us, is to be focused on things that we can control. We cannot control how people will respond to us, how we will be treated, but we are warned that when we work for the Kingdom and seek to live into the Kingdom that there will be costs. And notice in this passage that it is both the religious, in bring brought into synagogues, and also the government, in being brought before councils, who are persecuting followers of Jesus, because power is power, regardless of who is wielding it, and the call to the new age, where the last shall be first and the first shall be last, is a threat. But stand firm, Jesus urges us, and hold tight to the faith and cling to hope, because this is but the beginning of the birth pains, and they could last a while. And yet, what happens when the birth pains end? A new baby is there, a new hope is born. I’ve read that in France, when a woman becomes pregnant, people will great her with the saying “I congratulate you on your hope.” It’s not yet hope fulfilled, but it’s hope promised. That is true for us as well, it is hope that we hang on to, and it is what we celebrate in the sacrament of baptism, of dying and being reborn as children of God, and in the sacrament of communion.
We celebrate and remember both the acts of the past, of Jesus’ suffering, death and resurrection, of the present in gathering together as one body in Christ to celebrate, and to gather with all the saints who have gone before, and we celebrate the world to come in which we shall feast at God’s heavenly banquet, and about that time, no one knows but the father. It could be in ten minutes or ten days or ten thousand days, but here is what I do know, and that is that someday we will all meet God face to face, and we hope to hear God say “well done my good and faithful servant,” but to do that we have to keep watch by being faithful and we have to stay awake by doing the job that we are called to do, which is to proclaim the good news, not just with what we say, but more importantly by what we do, or to answer the old question, “If you were to be put on trial for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” I pray that it will be so my brothers and sisters. Amen.
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