26th Sunday After Pentecost
Daniel 12:1-3
Psalm 16
Hebrews 10:11-25
Mark 13:1-8
Dear fellow ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ,
grace and peace to you from the one who is faithful. Amen
The disciples are playing tourist today in our gospel
Admiring the large stones of the temple
And admittedly they were very large
Some as large as 35 ft x 18 ft x 12ft
And it is inconceivable to them that anything would happen
To such large stones
And yet that is just what Jesus tells them will happen
That the stones will be thrown down
It is such an outlandish thought that the disciples can’t even imagine it
Let alone the catastrophic events that would lead up to and follow such an occurrence.
But Jesus knows that they will have to find a way to make sense of it.
That we will all face things in life
that before we thought impossible
and so we have never imagined a future after them
and now that future is the present
we don’t know what to think.
How do we make sense of the catastrophic?
Events that turn the world upside down,
that shake our understanding of life
and our confidence in the future,
How do we even begin to move forward?
We tell stories.
In the midst of the catastrophic
we tell the stories of times past
when what seemed like the end occurred
and there was a future,
we tell stories
where we imagine our way through the struggles
to get a glimpse of what good might be.
This is an age-old response,
as one commentator I read this week observed:
“When death-dealing forces seemed to have the upper hand, one ancient literary response was to envision an imminent future in which God directly comes to the rescue in spectacular, vividly poetic fashion: righting wrongs, routing wrongdoers, and thereby inaugurating a new era of justice and compassion. This literature is often called “Apocalyptic” (from the Greek word apokalupsis, “uncovering” or “revealing”). God pulls aside the veil, revealing to God’s people the hidden, dramatic rescue to come. Apocalyptic narratives and images can be found throughout the Bible (Daniel and Revelation are prime examples), typically including cryptic, poetic language; ominous signs in the heavens; falling stars; natural disasters; anguish followed by victory; and so on. In essence, these are extravagant, evocative visions of hope when all hope seems lost.” (https://www.saltproject.org/progressive-christian-blog/lectionary-commentary-for-twenty-sixth-week-after-pentecost)
Visions of hope when all hope seems lost.
This is the context for our scripture this morning
from within and without.
Within the gospel narrative
Jesus is attempting to prepare his disciples for what is to come,
this is right before Jesus’ final journey to the cross
and he knows that it will be catastrophic for his disciples
and as unimaginable as the huge stones they’ve just admired
toppling to the ground-
his disciples can’t think that far ahead,
so Jesus teaches them
so that they might remember his words
when the time comes-
they might think
‘remember when Jesus was teaching us about the stones being thrown down,
what did he say?
Oh yes, that false prophets will come
and there will be war and famine and strife, and what else?
That God would be working through all these painful things
to bring new life,
just like labor pains precede the birth of a baby
so these pains precede the birth of God’s new life,
there is still hope.
Outside of the text,
just outside,
are Mark’s first audience
and for them,
what Jesus is describing
is their present reality,
written during or just after the Jewish revolt
against the Roman Empire in Palestine,
they have experienced the Roman response
that did indeed tear the large stones down
while destroying the temple,
there are wars and rumors of wars,
and surely some false prophets
who have promised a direct line to the information
about when Jesus will return
a good sign they're false
since Jesus didn't even know the hour.
The first readers are in the midst of catastrophe
and here Jesus knew that it was coming
and not only that
but promised to make something new and good out of it
even if it gets worse before it gets better,
there is still hope.
That’s what these apocalyptic stories are doing
Acknowledging reality and imagining the future
And yes they describe terrifying things
but also in them are reasons for hope,
descriptions of God at work
promises to hold on to
In our gospel we have the allusion to the beginning of the birth pangs
and as the chapter goes on
so do the promises,
that the Holy Spirit will give the right words to testify to God
when the believers are arrested for their faith,
that the one who endures will be saved,
that heaven and earth will pass away
but Jesus’ words will not pass away.
It is in these small and often very subtle ways
that God continues to be present,
not immediately obvious
but they are there if you look for them.
That's how God works,
in the small and subtle,
so subtle as to be overlooked
(like a baby born in a barn)
so much so that if we're not paying attention
we will miss it
which is why the conclusion to this chapter
is the admonition to stay awake,
to watch for God,
we'll explore this theme more in a couple weeks when advent begins.
In the midst of catastrophe
we are to be alert and look for God.
This is like Mr. Roger's mom's advice to him
when he was frightened as a boy,
look for the helpers, she told him
in the midst of hard scary things
there will always be helpers,
easy to go unnoticed until you start to look for them
but once you start you can't stop.
God is like that,
once you start looking for God,
you will find God all over the place
even in the midst of catastrophes.
So we watch for God,
we look for the helpers
and if it is at all possible,
we become the helpers,
living out God’s love in a world that desperately needs it,
will these small acts save the world?
No, but that’s God’s job,
what they will do is offer hope in situations
where hopelessness is a danger.
This is the author of Hebrews’ advice
for how to while away the waiting for the promises of God
to come to their fullness,
to hold fast to the confession of hope
trusting in God’s baptismal promises,
to meet together
to encourage one another
and to provoke one another to love and good deeds.
An interesting word choice, provoke,
I usually associate provoke with negative things,
like being provoked to fight,
but perhaps that’s the point
in tough times we need more than just a nudge
to get us moving even for good,
we need to be provoked,
provoked to offer the love and good deeds
the world desperately needs
even as we are reminded
that God who is faithful has promised a good future.
So what do we do when the large stones in life are thrown down?
We tell stories,
the stories of God’s faithfulness,
we watch for God in the small and subtle,
we look for the helpers,
and we gather in community
that reminds us, provokes us even,
to love and good deeds and yes hope.
And that is what we will do
until the kingdom of God that has come near
has come to its fullness
and our hope is fulfilled. Amen
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